Do shops have to give me my money back?

When you buy something you enter into a legally binding contract of sale with the shop or supplier. Therefore shops are under no legal obligation to give you a refund, or take anything back simply because you have changed your mind. For this reason shops can impose their own policies on time limits for returns. These days most shops will offer you a refund and nearly all will allow you to make an exchange, but whatever their policy, they must have it clearly displayed at the point of sale. Of course this is not the case where goods are faulty, which is why you’ll always see ‘this does not affect your statutory rights’ on any policy notice.

Did you keep the receipt?

Whatever the reason for the return, you must prove that a contract of sale existed between you and the shop, which includes when you bought it and the price paid. This However, it doesn’t have to be a till receipt, and a bank or credit card statement will do just as well. If you have nothing, shops are quite within their rights to only give you back the price the item is currently selling at, which may be a good deal lower than the price you paid initially.

Cooling off periods.

These only apply to certain products and goods bought under a distance selling contract (online and mail order) or from a doorstep seller. Under the regs you can send the goods back and get a full refund no questions asked – even if you’ve taken the item out of the box or thrown the packaging away. You’ll need to get your skate on though, because you’ve only got 7 days. For more on this, see our guide to Cooling Off and Cancellations.

What are my statutory rights?

That the item is as described, that it is of satisfactory quality, safe and durable, and that it is fit for the purposes specified. If any of these are not the case, this is a breach of your statutory rights and it is the retailer’s responsibility to take action

What action must the retailer take?

Firstly, don’t be fobbed off by shops who tell you it’s the manufacturer’s responsibility, your contract of sale is with whoever sold it to you. Secondly, don’t be misled into thinking you only have the duration of the warranty period to return faulty items. You have consumer rights under the Sale of Goods Act which implies that goods should work satisfactorily for a reasonable length of time. If they do not, you cannot simply march into a shop and demand your money back. You must allow the seller the opportunity to repair or replace the goods, although it should be without any additional expense or significant inconvenience to you, and within reasonable time. If a repair or a replacement cannot be effected, you can then request a refund or a discount. For more on problems getting problems rectified, see our section on Returning Damaged or Faulty Goods.

Is the guarantee worth the paper it’s written on?

For certain products, manufacturers and retailers will often issue their own guarantees or warranties (basically the same thing!). They are not compulsory and exist to enhance consumer confidence, as well as giving the manufacturer the opportunity to collect valuable marketing information about you! Warranties are a commitment to repair or replace defective parts within a specified time frame (usually 12 months) and, thanks to recent European regs, they are now legally binding contractual obligations between you and the manufacturer, or retailer for the time frame indicated. The important point about warranties is that they should never seek to replace your rights under the Sale of Goods Act, and even after they have run out, you will still be protected by these statutory rights. Beware also small print requiring the consumer to bear the cost of any shipping, labour etc as this runs contrary to Sale of Goods. For information, see our guide to extended warranties

Rights when buying sale items

If an item is reduced in price due to a sale, your rights are the same as if it were a full priced item. If you are buying seconds, you are still entitled to a product which is undamaged and fully useable. If you knowingly buy a damaged product, the specific defect must be pointed out to you before you buy, and although you cannot then return the item on the basis of that defect, it does not mean you cannot return the item if you discover something else wrong with it – even if they have reduced the price. Don’t let the sales assistant tell you otherwise!

Items bought from online auction sites

When buying from sites such as e-bay and Amazon’s ‘Sell Your Stuff’ the important point to remember is that you are not buying from the sites themselves, but from individuals who have put their possessions or products up for sale on those sites, and this has important implications for your consumer rights. Firstly, if you are buying from a private seller (as opposed to a commercial entity), you will not benefit from a cooling off period under the distance selling regs. Neither does the statutory right to quality apply, and you will have no legal redress if the item is unsatisfactory. For more on this, see our guide to buying from online auction sites

Which? asked a thousand and one drivers who had used an NHS hospital car park within the previous two years how they felt about their treatment at the hands of the Hospital Trusts and management. The results describe a system more often than not, ‘not fit for purpose’. In fact hospital car parks are enough to make you sick.

The symptoms: Over priced, over crowded and in need of overhaul because it is too often difficult to pay for your stay. Seven out of ten people asked, felt they had been charged too much for the parking place near to the hospital they were visiting. More than half of the people asked reported having some difficulty in finding a space while one in three said they had to queue. One in three drivers also said they had difficulties when it came to paying with problems such as having the right change or locating a machine that worked.

The silver lining: Not for the customers unfortunately but the hospitals actually made considerable profit from their car park facilities. Which? discovered under the freedom of information act that some Trusts made more than a million pounds each year.

The diagnosis: Hospital trusts are greedy and inefficient when it comes to dealing with visitors to their premises. They are, by and large, providing a poor service for too high a price. They are neglecting this important aspect of their responsibilities.

The prescription: It is the Governments’ responsibility to remedy the ills of the hospital parking scandal. A simple target to aim at, such as enough parking places at every hospital to meet peak demand could be one way forward. Other simple guidelines on fair parking rates would be another useful prescription. There is probably no need to include it in the ‘Patients Charter’. Certainly it is not beyond the wit of hospital management to use some of the revenue from parking to install more and better payment facilities.

The prognosis: Watch this space and join the Which? campaign for better hospital parking. Visit the Which? website and share your experiences and ideas in this area.

83% of Scots strongly agreed with the idea that legal services ought to be simpler to understand for the common man. 79% agreed with the statement that legal proceedings ought to be more informal, more approachable and more of an everyday nature too.

The pomp and circumstance of high justice is all very well for high crime but 83% of Scots feel minor claims and interpersonal or individual disputes call for much more informal legal services. Problems such as shoddy products or inadequate services do not call for gavels, gowns of silk and wigs. There must be better ways to bring speedy justice to prosaic matters that don’t require the hiring of a lawyer to translate historic Latin texts.

79% of Scots would like to see and have access to more ordinary issue-resolving courts of law where daily matters could be sorted quickly and redress achieved without having to call upon the services of highly paid lawyer.

The Which? research is feeding into the Legal Services Agency conference on civil justice reform held this week, March 15th in Scotland. The Scottish push for accessible law is also in Lord Gill’s proposals of last year.

Which? believes that too many people are put off from seeking help of the law because the law as it stands means going to a formal court process of several hearings. This is unnecessary for more straightforward matters such as consumer and trading disputes. Scottish consumers need a one-stop supermarket style of justice to deal with their consumer affairs.

The Legal Services Bill in Scotland is in the earliest stages of becoming law but these are the later stages of Which’s campaign to make the legal system work for the consumer. The campaign began in May 2007 with a ‘super complaint’ from Which to the Office of Fair Trading over the law in Scotland badly serving the consumer. The OFT upheld this complaint and is also pushing for legal reform to benefit the Scottish consumer.

• Have great night out and see the ‘celebs’ at recordings of popular TV offerings such as Top Gear with Jeremy Whats’isname and the ‘X’ Factor. These can be found on offer at  www.applausestore.com
• A good night out for the kids (aged 15 to 25 years) at the theatre can be theirs for nothing at www.anightlessordinary.org
• Or if you are more into cinema then giving away movie tickets is www.momentumscreenings.co.uk.
• How about a good read? You can download free books at the website www.gutenberg.org.
• All that glitters isn’t gold but it can be of value to someone, www.swapcycle.co.uk enables two people to swap any item imaginable for any other more desirable object.
• Sample beauty products can be had with an email registration at www.free-samples.co.uk
• Cash money isn’t exactly gold but it is a lot more liquid and surfers can get it by shopping at some popular online retailers with cash-back sites such aswww.quidco.co.uk
• Classical music gold is given away on a specific free album each week with www.classical.com
• www.freecycle.org is a golden idea where the haves can get together with the ‘have nots’ and have their unwanted items taken away and put to good use.
• All the clothes you no longer wear in your wardrobe can be turned over at an online ‘swishing party’. Swap your boring old garb for the ‘new to you’ stuff of your friends - www.swishing.org

Once you start to change your mindset about the Internet it can become a goldmine of freebies and promotions. You just have to know where to look. Make your starting point the consumers’ champion site whatconsumer.co.uk

Of course the real gold nuggets to be found at Which? are the invaluable tips for economic living and the unbiased well-informed advice. You will find useful knowledge on everything from bank account charges to weddings.

A recent survey by Which? found huge differences in quoted prices for basic building work. Which? also found regional differences among the 245 builders across the UK, that they called upon to quote for a simple three-sided brick dustbin enclosure. The lowest quote was £346 lower than the highest and this was even with the most extreme quotes taken out of the survey completely. The majority of builders, 66%, further muddied the waters by not including VAT in their quotes.

The Which? study also found buyers of building services often tended to take the first quote they get and not to shop around for better deals. Very few buyers ever bothered to play one quote off against another and drive for a better deal. This financial reticence when it comes to dealing with tradesmen is probably costing many people a lot of money.

The lessons from this survey are clear, if you want to get the best deal when buying building service follow the following recommendations from Which?

• Never assume the first price quoted is the lowest you can get and always get at least three different tradesmen to quote. Never assume that a builders first offer is the final offer.
• Be prepared to haggle with your chosen builder even telling them what others have quoted to bring the price down.
• Always talk with some previous clients of builders to be reassured about the quality of work and service reliability.
• Itemize all of the details of the work to be done in writing. Be sure to specify the standards expected, the costs in terms of materials and labour and the timeframe for the work.
• Always insist on VAT being written into the agreement.
• Never do cash before delivery. Hand over the money at the beginning of each stage and as the builder needs it for YOUR job.
• Always insist on a receipt for every payment especially cash ones. There will be no redress without one.

Building services are expensive enough without paying for your own reticence.

In a secret investigation, the Which? researchers found that only 4 out of a terrible 37 banks and building societies that were visited were able to offer out good advice to investigators when it came to investing a cash lump sum, and to be frank the figure is a joke.

The biggest scandal revealed in the research was that banks that the government had helped out FAILED! Halifax, and Lloyds TSB didn’t prove to be better than anyone else. In fact they offered up dodgy advice on investments, and simply had not learned from the recession at all.

The other thirty three banks that were investigated by Which? and failed, were found to recommend products without talking through the risks, or simply because they themselves didn’t have a clue about the info they were dishing out.

Out of 37 advisors inside the banks, only 21 suggested the reporters put some of their cash into capital guaranteed products, and eight out of them said that the products didn’t contain any risks, which couldn’t have been more wrong if they had tried! Six of the ‘advisors’ even went as far as to recommend opening up an investment bond, although they didn’t talk through the risks of the extremely complex product. The very banks and building societies that we put our trust into, when it comes to all things financial simply didn’t have a clue about what they were doing.

A further 14 advisors, simply forgot to mention about the Financial Compensation Scheme, and only one of them advised a which? researcher to divide savings with 2 investments, to prevent going over the UK’s 50, 000 pound limit. The advice handed out was totally shoddy, and unprofessional.

So next time you are looking at getting an investment, perhaps you should do your own research! The banks and building societies are but novice it would seem.

Which? are campaigning for more transparency and competition in energy price setting. The six energy suppliers on the UK, E.on UK is just one of them. All of these companies profit hugely when wholesale prices drop. Indeed British Gas has transferred £349 million to its holding company, Centrica. Gas and electricity rates are 50% lower now than they were a year ago but prices charged to the consumer are not. There always seems to be mitigating circumstances that prevent the energy companies from passing on wholesale price reductions. However the increases are passed on immediately and in full.

The key question for Which? on behalf of all consumers is, are the energy companies treating their consumers fairly? The answer to this question is that there is no way of knowing. The energy market is simply not transparent.

OFGEM is the independent official watchdog of the energy industry. This organization focuses on the National Grid, Elexon and Energywatch. This last is supposedly the independent watchdog for the energy supplying companies. The aim is to consumer friend and advocate with best advice and second level complaint handling. All clear then? Well unfortunately no, because Which? is receiving a continuous stream of complaints and correspondence around energy supply issues.

In the meantime, every household in the UK is striving to keep up with very high energy prices and stay warm in the cold months of the British climate (June, July and August). If every household in the UK immediately switched to E.on as the latest company to cut prices and then did the same again when the next energy supplier offers a lower price deal and so on, then perhaps the energy companies would begin to act as though in a truly competitive market. Every household should use the price comparison websites to find the best deal for themselves and enforce competition on the likes of E.on.

The significant finding of the Which? Gardening survey revealed the worst of the independents had a customer satisfaction score of 79% as the best of the big chain stores (The Garden Centre Group Trading Limited, the garden centre formerly known as Wyvale) had a score of just 49%.

When buying plants at M&S or the local supermarket it is forgivable that the staff may not be up to ‘Gardeners’ Question Time’ standard but in truth these outlets outranked the garden centers too. Morrisons stood out for their high quality range of seasonal promotions such as bedding plants. The problems are that staff is difficult to get hold of and then they don’t answer gardening related questions well enough when they are pinned down.

Blooming marvelous at the top of the independent garden centre customer service league table is Coolings of Kent. This was definitely the favourite in all categories with a huge range of quality items and plants, approachable people who knew what they were talking about when it came to customer queries. Which? Gardening made this a significant piece of customer consultation questioning 6222 garden centre visitors about their experiences within the last year. That all the independents at the top of the league were in the ‘home counties’ probably says something about the geographic focus of the study. However being such a large survey it is reasonable to suppose that the findings apply over the whole of the country. There were in fact 53 garden centres covered by the customer opinions.

Be in no doubt that the chain stores are rightly popular because of the value for money aspect of customer service. However if you are in the market for plant stock, garden equipment and some good guidance and advice following your purchase then you are advised to find a local independent supplier. There really is a step difference in the expert responsiveness.

In fact there was only one company in the whole testing time that shone though and had no bad errors in their trading procedure. Their hiring equipments quality standard was tip top, and above all the rest ‘HSS’ were a credit to the UK DIY industry. See below for more alarming results;

Companies That Failed

• Jewson – only 2 out of 4 of their tools complied with standards, they had errors such as unstable earth screws on tile cutters transformers, and there was a high risk of getting an electric shock as a result of using their hire equipment.
• Speedy – All 3 of the tools hired from them were faulty, there was a hose completely split open in a wallpaper stripper that could easy burn someone.
• Brandon Hire – All 3 of their tools were faulty as well. In fact one of their dangerous tools had a cut in the extension lead – leaving only a simple insulation making users at risk of getting electric shocks.
• Travis Perkins – two out of 4 of their tools were faulty , one of the worst tools found being offered for hire was a petrol ran hedge cutter that had a damaged blade extension. This is the part that’s used to stop users obtaining injury!
• The Independents – 2 out of 4 of their tools were damaged; some of the problems included a round saw with no riving knife, the blade was dangerous as without the missing part, it could turn on the user.
• Hire Station – another awful 2 out of 4 problems including fuses that were gone and repaired with foil, posing a very high fire risk.

Other shops had their products under concern. Mr. Peter Vicary Smith the chief executive of the which? Foundation was quoted as saying ‘that the general publics trust the stores and to have equipment on offer so badly damaged was irresponsible. They should have checked the tools on a regular basis, and this could have been avoided.’

As the wheels of the legal regulation grind very slowly onwards other law firms are following the same track as Davenport Lyons in pursuing litigation against large numbers of consumers for allegedly illegal file sharing. Most notably among such law firms are ACS Law and Tilly Bailey Irvine Solicitors (TBI).

Hopefully the SRA will strike a blow for consumer rights and make law firms think twice before engaging in too robust tactics under the copyright laws. File sharing is all about the breaking of copyright and too many firms see it as a way to make money by intimidating unknowing and law-abiding consumers. ACS and TBI should know better but Which? is responding everyday to individuals finding accusatory letters in their post. These letters point out the illegality of file sharing and demand money because of their ‘law breaking activities’.

There is a great deal of good sound advice on the Which? website for those who receive one of these letters. Which? also forwards the worst examples to the SRA. The latest example of this was from TBI.

Davenport Lyons and the other law firms are acting on behalf of the large music and film distributor companies. They point the finger at Internet browsers and indict them for using and sharing computer games, films and copyright music for nothing. They often demand in a threatening way compensation, up to £500, on behalf of their clients.

Which? have put to the SRA that the law firms are behaving badly in some or all of the following ways,

• Making incorrect statements about copyright law.
• Not responding to the counter arguments made.
• Raising the demands for compensation while the correspondence is in progress.
• Threatening legal action on false grounds such as not having a secure Internet connection.

Consumers who get one these disturbing ‘pro-forma’ letters from a solicitor should contact Which? They should also look at the guidelines on the Which? website in order to know their rights and protect themselves.