How to get a refund, repair or replacement for faulty goods

Consumer champion Sam Dunn explains your rights when it comes to getting a refund, repair or replacement for faulty goods.

By Sam Dunn

To get on in school, it paid to master the key three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic.

As a consumer pitched against canny companies, you’ll need to concentrate on a rather different trio instead: refund, repair or replacement.

When you buy faulty items you’ll often run up against corporate flimflam, a fog of confusion or – worse – downright ignorance from customer service staff desperate to avoid paying out. So it pays to know what you’re entitled to.

Your right to refund

First, and most clearly, you’re entitled to a refund if you immediately discover your goods are faulty without even using them. For example, you get home and then spot a missing or cracked part, say, or can see damaged casing.

As long as you can show proof of purchase - the original receipt is easiest but a print-out of a credit card or bank statement will pass muster – then this is usually a watertight case for a refund.

In many cases, you’re also eligible for a refund if you only use the goods a couple of times before realising they’re damaged or faulty – for example you realise after a day or two that your new fridge doesn’t keep your food cool or your DVD player won’t play discs without randomly ejecting them.

Don’t leave it too late

The key emphasis here is on time – and making sure you don’t take too long to decide whether to “reject” (as it’s known in the trade jargon) your faulty goods.

Unfortunately, there is no legal definition of just how much time you can take to complain and reject faulty goods.

It’s something that companies sneakily use to wriggle out of paying up - and whether or not you can get a refund can depend hugely on the type of goods and circumstances surrounding a delay in your complaint.

For example, one national high-street retailer recently refused to refund a brand new kitchen appliance that had only been used once because the buyer hadn’t installed it for six weeks. The reason? He was busily looking after his unwell daughter instead.

To preserve your right to a refund, install, test or check anything you buy ASAP.

The minute you think they’re faulty, stop using the goods immediately and contact the seller as soon as possible by phone (and put it in writing to boot as a sign of your intent).

Repairs and replacements

Once you’ve run out of time for a refund, you’re left with a repair or replacement option – but when are you entitled to which and why?

First, let’s dip briefly back into the legalese.

If you’ve bought and used goods for a considerable time – say you’ve had a new lawnmower for a couple of months but its recently sputtering engine suggests a developing fault – by law you have now “accepted” the goods.

This means you’re no longer entitled to a refund but the store or garden centre you bought it from should offer to repair or replace it.

Your choice of a repair or replacement isn’t clear cut and you probably won’t be able to make an outright preference because the law goes someway towards keeping costs down for all parties.

So if a lawnmower repair is likely to be significantly cheaper than a replacement for you, then the store can first offer this. However, it should carry out your repair within a reasonable time and without causing you any significant inconvenience (and if it does, you can ask for a partial refund).

Dealing with further problems

If the repair’s unsuccessful, you can ask for a replacement but if even this doesn’t stop the problem – and the motor still starts to conk out with your second new mower - what next?

At this point, you should then be able to claim a part-refund.

The store will be entitled to knock off a fair bit from the original price you paid to take into account the “successful usage” you managed to get from it.

It’s also worth stressing that some stores won’t even get as far as suggesting a repair or replacement and will simply offer you a partial refund immediately (or allow you to keep the goods but give you some money back for the fault).

However, it can only do this if the cost of repair is more than the value of your goods or could take months to sort out.

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Getting Your Refund,it is very well knowing that you are entitled to a refund. In an ideal world you would secure a refund immediately after complaining to the retailer.

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