Here’s the first in a new series of blogs to help guide you through the jungle that is consumer law and to make sure that you don’t have to put up with shoddy goods, poor service and unhelpful companies. I’ll also be giving you money tips and showing you the best ways to borrow as well as how to get the best out of your savings

I’ll be looking at how you can take goods back without a receipt and how to formally ‘reject’ faulty goods, as well as the best way to complain and what to do if your complaints fall on deaf ears.

But to kick off let’s start with the old one about who you need to take faulty goods back to. How often have you gone back to a shop only to be told “Sorry, can’t help you. You need to take that back to the manufacturer. ”

Then when you do, you’re told. “Sorry, can’t help you, you need to take it back to wherever you bought it!”

For the record your contract is with the shop you bought the goods from in the first place and if they tell you any different you don’t have to put up with it. Tell them that under the Sale of Goods Act the goods you bought need to be ‘of satisfactory quality’ and ‘fit for purpose’. If they are not then you are entitled to a replacement or your money back. And you are entitled to expect the retailer to sort it out for you since they sold the goods to you in the first place. Be polite, be firm but stand your ground and tell them that they need to sort it for you.

We’ll look in more detail at some of these terms in a later blog but basically if you buy a watch you expect it to tell you the time, and if you are told that a shirt is ‘pure cotton’ you don’t expect to see a label on it that says ‘cotton and polyester mix’! 

And if you’re told that “we can’t help you because you bought the TV more than 12 months ago and so the warranty has expired and it’s not our responsibility any more,” then remember that that’s simply not true and we’ll look at that one in more detail next time

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