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Hello All,
I work for the largest consumer related organisation in the UK, and we seem to of late had a large increase in the number of people seeking advice on faulty goods.
Many people are not aware of the added protections available when using different buying methods.
For starters, when buying goods worth over £100 (and not more than £30,000) it is undoubtedly wise to pay at least a portion of the cost using a credit card. If using a regulated card (regulated meaning by the Consumer Credit Act 1974) then Section 75 of that Act affords the consumer valuable protection.
If a single item is worth more than £100 and not more than £30,000 then the credit company will share ‘joint and several liability with the retailer for any breach of contract or misrepresentation’. In other words, if the purchase turns out to be faulty, or the salesman lied about it before you bought it, then if you have a legal claim against that seller, you would have the same claim against the credit card company.
Section 75 doesn’t however, make any mention whatsoever about how much you have to pay using your credit card, only that the price of the goods or service at the time of sale is over £100. This means technically you could spend just £1 on your credit card, and £29,999 in cash, and your credit card company would still be liable for the full £30,000! (I must note, it is wise, and common practice, to spend at least £100 to save any idiotic credit card company employees giving you the run around!).
In recent years, the UK economy has been fragile at best, and companies have been going out of business across the UK, this would leave a consumer with nobody to claim against in the event that an item became faulty unless they had someone else to point the finger at… like a credit card company!
When buying goods of multiple use, like say a printer, then be sure to ask as many questions to the seller as possible to make double sure that what you are buying is up to the job, then if it isn’t, you may go back to the seller and claim that he did not exercise reasonable care and skill when advising you of the fitness of such items for the purpose you make known. If you buy a printer without consulting someone, and it turns out incompatible with your computer, but otherwise perfectly fine, then you have not right to a refund so beware!
Please feel free to get in touch, or reply with any questions and I will be happy to help. My advice is free, but I will not take any action against anyone on your behalf.
Best Regards, and safe shopping!
ConsumerChamp.
Re: How to best protect yourself legally when buying goods.
And people wonder why credit card charges and interest rates are so high. :rolls:
K.
Re: How to best protect yourself legally when buying goods.
ConsumerChamp is a top blogger all over the Web, Twitter etc.
Re: How to best protect yourself legally when buying goods.
Martin wrote:ConsumerChamp is a top blogger all over the Web, Twitter etc.
Perhaps, I’m not familiar with the persona.
And I have no issue with people being offered consumer advice whatsoever, so long as it is fair and balanced, if not also practical. I have issues when this is not the case as it leads people into a false sense of empowerment and creates more problems than it solves in my opinion.
By that I mean that people are, in my opinion, often led to believe that they are absolved of all responsibility and, that simply is not the case.
It also appears that it is made out that it’s “okay” to essentially manipulate or defraud businesses. I don’t think that to be fair at all. It isn’t fair on businesses and it isn’t fair on people, who are customers after all, that are fair and reasonable. Thankfully, there’s still more good customers than there are bad ones.
It also is alluded to that virtually all businesses are somehow out to “do over” customers, again, also completely untrue.
When the fact is that, statistically, there are far, far more dodgy people out there trying to get one over on businesses than there are the other way around. Likewise, statistically, there’s a lot more decent people than there are bad ones.
It just irritates me when people think it’s okay to do stuff like this when it isn’t justifiable. It just puts up costs to the majority of decent people as well as to businesses.
K.
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