EU Consumer rights
You are protected by consumer rights with everything you buy.
Your rights
You have the right to expect certain standards in the goods you buy. The law says that goods must be:
- <LI class=bullet>Of satisfactory quality - This covers, for example, the appearance and finish of goods, their safety and durability. Goods must be free from defects, usually even minor ones, except when they have been brought to your attention by the seller. For example, if the goods are said to be shop soiled or you examined the goods and should have noticed the defects;
<LI class=bullet>Fit for their purposes, including any particular purpose mentioned by you to the seller - If you tell the seller that you want boots fit for mountain climbing, that is what you should get;
- As described - On the package or display sign, or by the seller. If you are told that a jumper is 100% it should not turn out to have acrylic in it.
These are your statutory rights. All goods bought or hired from a trader - from a shop, street market, catalogue or doorstep seller - are covered by these rights. This includes goods bought in sales.
If things go wrong
If there is something wrong with goods you have bought, tell the seller as soon as you can. If you cannot get back to the shop quickly, telephone to explain the problem.
If you tell the seller promptly that the goods are faulty and you do not want them, you should be able to get your money back. You may be offered a replacement, free repair or credit note but you do not have to accept. If you do accept a credit note and cannot find anything else you want, you are unlikely to be able to exchange it for cash later on. If you take goods back straight away and the seller tries to repair them and fails, you still have the same right to reject that you had when you agreed to the repair. Do not delay in examining what you have bought or in telling the seller about a fault. You are entitled to a reasonable time to examine goods before you are considered in law to have accepted them.
What is reasonable depends on all the circumstances, but normally you can at least take your purchase home and try it out. If you sign an
acceptance note when you receive goods, you still have a reasonable time to examine them afterwards.
If you do not complain promptly, you may not be able to reject (that is, refuse to accept) the goods, and you may lose your right to a full refund. The trader may offer to have, or to pay for, the goods to be repaired. If the goods cannot be repaired you are entitled to damages, which may be the cost of a replacement.
If you receive goods as a present and they turn out to be faulty, it is up to the person who bought them to return the goods to the seller. The buyer has the contract with the seller. Many shops, however, will deal with your complaint providing you have some proof of purchase.
You are not legally obliged to return faulty goods to the seller at your own expense. If an item would be difficult or expensive to return because, for example, it is bulky, ask the seller to collect it. This does not apply if you have had the goods for some time, or you got them as a present.
You may be able to claim compensation if you suffer loss because of faulty goods. For example, if clothes are damaged by a faulty iron.
You do not need a receipt to complain about faulty goods, although it is useful evidence of when and where the purchase was made.
You are not entitled to anything if you:
- <LI class=bullet>examined the goods when you bought them and should have seen the fault; <LI class=bullet>were told about the fault; <LI class=bullet>simply change your mind; <LI class=bullet>made a mistake when you bought the goods;
- did the damage yourself.
But even in these circumstances, many shops will help out of goodwill.
Let me again re-iterate, what they are doing is ILLEGAL! None of us should be giving our hard earned money to a site with absolutely no respect for European rights. No item is immune from this, even on sale.
Try to buy something, and say put quantity as 8 - it will tell you there are either enough, or if not it will say not enough quantity, and then take you to your cart where it will have loaded as many as they DO have in stock in that colour.
