Summer 2012 - Trading Standards Institute

Martin gives advice on consumer law
Consumer Direct helpline now
run by Citizens Advice
The Citizens Advice consumer
service took over responsibility for
providing consumer advice and
information from Consumer Direct
on 1 April 2012.
As part of the government‟s
spending review the Consumer
Direct helpline has been taken over
by the Citizens Advice Bureau, a
charity, and the Office of Fair
Trading (OFT) is being stripped of
its consumer protection role and is
to be merged with the Competition
Commission.
Trading standards services are
being asked to deal with the OFT's
previous high-profile work in taking
on major consumer issues.
Consumers seeking advice should
contact the Citizens Advice
consumer helpline in the first
instance which will forward serious
cases on to trading standards - we
will no longer be able to offer a
walk-in service to consumers.
The helpline can be contacted on
08454 04 05 06, or online.
Your right to cancel
Case 1: A consumer took out a 2 year
extended warranty on a new boiler. When the
policy was due for renewal he initially agreed
to extend it further but on reflection wrote
several times to the company to cancel. The
company ignored his requests. John took up
the case and the company then sent out a
refund cheque.
Case 2: An elderly consumer paid a
substantial deposit to a building firm to install
garage doors. The contract had been signed
at home during a salesperson‟s visit. The
company did not start work on the agreed
day and ignored the consumer‟s messages.
Helen investigated and found the company
was still trading and that the consumer had
not been given cancellation rights. The
company agreed to refund the consumer.
The shop offered to take some of the
furniture away but this would leave the
consumer with an incomplete suite.
After discussing the complaint with Liz
the retailer agreed to supply a suitable
suite and refund the customer the
difference in price.
Suite success
Usually when you buy at
home or online you will have
a right in law to cancel the
contract. Consumers have
up to 14 days to cancel
agreements to purchase
financial products, which
include extended warranties.
The refund should be made
within 30 days of the notice
of cancellation.
When you agree to work
during a trader‟s visit to your
home you should in most
cases be given a written
notice of a right to cancel. If
the work is to start within the
7 day cooling off period the
trader must also get you to
agree in writing for the work
to go ahead.
Liz dealt with a complaint about furniture that
did not fit into a consumer‟s living room. The
consumer had given accurate measurements
of the room to the sales assistant and was
assured that the suite would fit – it didn‟t.
Normally it is the consumer‟s
responsibility to ensure that furniture
ordered will fit, but in this case the
consumer relied on the care and skill
of the staff in making her decision
and was specifically assured by the
salesperson that it would fit. The fact
that it did not meant the shop was in
breach of contract.
Mag ads
A trader was surprised to receive a
demand for payment for an advertisement
in a magazine. He queried it and was given
the name of an employee who had agreed
to the advertisement. However the
employee had not been in work on the day
the agreement was said to have been
made. The demands for payment continued
with threats of legal action. Paul was able to
reassure the trader that it would be up to
the publisher to produce evidence that a
contract had been agreed.
We hear from a lot of businesses
who are contacted in this way. If a
business has agreed to an
advertisement it will be liable for
payment, there is no right to cancel,
but we are aware of many bogus
publishing companies who will phone
to offer their services and then use
any information they gather to assert
that a contract has been formed with
escalating threats of action to attempt
to persuade the trader to pay up.