The Consumer Rights Act came into force this month and makes a number of key changes to offer consumers greater protection in matters concerning satisfaction with goods and services, criteria governing when refunds must be made and tightened requirements on retailers with regard to the repairing of faulty goods.
The new legislation outlines the consumer’s rights to reject goods that prove to be faulty within a period of 30 days from purchase date and demand a full refund. For faults communicated after 30 days from purchase, the consumer may request a replacement or a repair. Importantly in these cases, the retailer has just once opportunity to rectify the problem, with failure to do so empowering the customer to cancel the transaction and receive a refund or demand a reduction in the price.
Digital content purchases are also covered in detail with the biggest potential problem for retailers being that content which damages a consumer’s device creates a liability for the retailer to repair or replace the device as well as refund the cost of the original download which caused the problem.
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