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Consumer Protection Act
Published: 04/04/2011 by Lisa Telo
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For a copy of the new Consumer Protection Act click here.
The Consumer Protection Act became effective on April 1, giving consumers the right to demand quality service and to full disclosure of the price of goods and services, and protection against false, misleading or deceptive representations.
Predictably, the section of the act which is shaking up the marketplace most is Section 56: “Implied warranty of quality”.
For decades, many retailers have adopted an unaccommodating attitude when their customers return problem goods. Stores often rejected requests for returns, or offered a credit note that was valid only for a short time. In summary, shopkeepers assumed total power to decide how to treat the incidences of goods being returned.
Incidentally, common law has for many years protected consumers against defective goods – though many are uneducated– but never gave consumers the right to decide how they’d like to be compensated, leaving suppliers to decide whether to refund, repair or give a credit note.
And manufacturer or store warranties limit your options to repairs, because it’s obviously much cheaper for a company to repair an item than replace it or refund a customer’s money in full.
The new act has completely flipped the coin, it’s now the consumer’s right to choose which option to take. The Consumer Commission and Consumer Tribunal will wield their power and inflict penalties on manufacturers failing to comply.
Consumers get to decide which they want if goods bought by consumers fall short in some way - refund, replacement or repair.
If the consumer opts for a repair, and that repair fails within three months, or “a further failure, defect or unsafe feature is discovered”, the supplier must replace the goods or refund the customer.
The only exception to this is when consumers know and accept that they are buying low-quality or defective goods.
If a consumer opts to have goods repaired, the statutory warranty on the goods as a whole is extended for a further three months. If that repair fails during that three-month period, the consumer doesn’t have the right to demand a refund at that point. It’s then the supplier’s prerogative to replace rather than refund. If the repair fails, the remedy is not ‘at the direction of the consumer’ as with the original failure.
It may be, however, that the replacement results in the original six-month warranty period starting anew, so that the consumer will have another opportunity to demand a refund if the product proves faulty.
So if we buy something and decide we don’t want it, can we simply return it and ask for our money back? Only when goods are bought via direct marketing – when the “high pressure” sale was initiated by the seller – but the act certainly doesn’t enforce suppliers taking all goods back if they are not defective. You’d be required to produce proof of purchase.
The act marks the end of three-month or six-month expiration on pre-paid vouchers or gift cards. They will need to be valid for at least three years.
Get into the habit of storing your receipts in a dedicated drawer!
