I used to work in compliance for consumer law. And it flabbergasts me how few people (and businesses) don't realise they have far more rights for faulty goods than they think.
The crux of this is your automatic rights and garuntees under Australian consumer law (which are way more beneficial to you than warranties).
The TL;DR example is if you buy a $2000 new fridge with a 12 month warranty and it breaks after 18 months, you are still entitled to a replacement or refund from the merchant you bought it from (they can't fob you off to the manufacturer).
The reason is that as the consumer you can make the reasonable assumption that a $2k fridge would last you longer then 18 months before breaking due to manufacturing defect. And if you had known otherwise at time of purchase would have decided to not purchase that item.
I have recently done this with a $350 gaming keyboard that came with a 12 month warranty, and completely stopped working after 2 years of light use. Took it into JB hifi, explained that under automatic rights and garuntees I'm entitled to a repair, replacement or refund. As I would assume a premium keyboard would last at least 5+ years, and if I had known otherwise I wouldn't have bought it, and they refunded me on the spot. (Yeah this is why all those businesses got finned for selling extended warranties, because they would have had to replace those goods in that timeframe anyway).
The example the ACCC give for where this doesn't apply is if your smartphone battery turns to shit after two years, because everyone kind of knows they're not good after that long.
It also astounds me how many businesses (including bigish businesses) don't know about these obligations. I got fobbed off by a big online retailer recently, explained this too them and they replaced my router that broke after a year and a half.
You can learn more here:
https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-services/consumer-rights-and-guarantees
PSA: You probably get this wrong about your consumer rights
byu/Ur_Companys_IT_Guy inaustralia
9 Comments
Thank you for sharing this.
I’ve had to send letters of demand to company directors simply to get their business to comply with their legal obligations when even the store manager either didn’t know they were breaking the law, or wanted to make it seem like they weren’t. It’s sad how many people don’t know this stuff and just accept what the store says.
You are absolutely right except that for a minor fault, the product can be repaired rather than refunded or replaced. You probably wouldn’t repair a keyboard but you likely would a fridge.
Is there a current tldr guideline list for items/categories that show their reasonably expected manufacturer defect-free time period?
Once upon a time it was reasonably expected that you would get at least ten years out of a crt tv/monitor before you would experience component level or crt failure.
What is it for consumer television panels these days for example?
The slightly weird thing about these laws is that sellers aren’t actually required to tell customers their rights.
It is up to the customer to do the demanding. I’ve had Garmin tell me the thing a watch that failed was outside their warranty period then completely flip their response when I replied, telling them their obligations under Australian consumer Law.
Interesting. I would have just assumed warranty = expected life. If a fridge has a 12 month warranty, then the business is saying it works for a minimum of 12 months, good luck beyond that, even though we all know fridges last much longer.
I had to do this with a PS4 back in the day. Got one of the models with the sudden ejecting disc issue but it only presented after 12 months.Â
EB Games flat out refused to do anything until I dropped my consumer rights knowledge on them. Suddenly they were more than willing to replace my $800 PS4 that I would expect to last more than a year.Â
Great tip, and my first consideration was phone battery. Kind of ridiculous that loophole exists, these aren’t cheap purchases and I feel like an $1800+- phone should have more than 2 years life in it due to battery deterioration
My issue with this is how subjective it is. How am I supposed to know how long each item/type of item “should” last. Different people would expect vastly different timelines.
Bring back “The Checkout”!