statoury rights

[sgt.pepper]

what are they, and why are they not affected when buying something

[Ethel]

When you buy goods and services you have legal rights that you can enforce in court - the most usual being the Sale of Goods Act, but there are others.

However, some shops give you rights over and above your statutory rights.

A good example is returns. Your statutory rights entitle you to a full refund if the goods are not as described, fit for the purpose you bought them or faulty. In these circumstances the shop must give you a full refund

A lot of shops offer a full refund for any reason - provided they are returned within so many days, in the condition they were sold.

But they are not allowed to use this to wriggle out of your statutory rights.

Let's say you bought a watch. The shop offers a full refund within 7 days. You keep it, but 2 months later it develops a fault.
You are entitled to your refund under statutory law - and the shop cannot say you have kept it too long according to their policies.

[bigmango]

Just to expand on what Ethel told you, if the watch goes wrong after a couple of months the store can actually have the watch repaired at no expense to you, without giving a full refund. If you have purchased goods with a credit card and the goods are faulty, you can also claim against the Credit Card Company who will then recover from the store

[dzug]

Another example would be 'no refunds on sale goods'. Your statutory rights would allow you a refund on the sale goods if they were faulty (and the fault not pointed out to you at the time of purchase)

[sgt.pepper]

thanks to everyone who responded ,

[neuron]

Sometimes bigmango, the credit card company cannot recover the money from the store. If a company's gone bankrupt, they stand about as much chance of recovery as a member of the public.

Our daughter had studio photographs of our grandaughter taken at a branch of Olan Mills on 13th December. The company went into liquidation the following day.

Fortunately, the �300 odd bill was paid by credit card and if the photos (including a large framed one) don't appear by the second week of January, the credit card company have agreed to refund the money paid.

Fortunately, the photos were taken on a digital camera and we were given a CD of them them before leaving the studio, so we could have them printed off elsewhere.

To my mind, it goes to prove that it's well worth paying by credit card in circumstances like this - the Olan Mills website states that people who paid cash have effectively lost their money and photos.

[Oneeyedvic]

The credit card recovery from the store is a red herring

Under the Consumer Credit Act (section 75) the credit card company has equal liability with the seller - it is irrelevant as to whether they claim money back or not