Statutory Rights and how to check them

Under the UK Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 we must, for United Kingdom consumers:

• give you clear information including details of the goods or services offered, delivery arrangements and payment, our details and your cancellation rights before you buy.
• provide this information in writing, or by electronic means, after you make your purchase.
• allow you a cooling-off period of seven working days starting the day after your delivery, during which your order can be cancelled without any reason.
• give you a full refund if the goods or services are not provided by the date you agreed. If you didn't agree a date, then you are entitled to a refund if the goods or services are not provided within 30 days.

Under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 we must sell goods that are as described, and of satisfactory quality.

Under The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 we must not mislead you about our goods or ourselves by action or omission, or use aggressive commercial practices to try to make you buy our goods.

Purchases made by companies are not covered by normal UK consumer legislation (we may agree different terms for company purchases).

As a UK consumer, you have clear legal Rights when dealing with a UK registered company, and they are quite easy to enforce. Some Rights may apply to customers outside the UK (United Kingdom) except for instance, Distance Selling Regulations (DSR). Please note if goods are tailored or personalised for you, some Rights may not apply, (e.g. DSR right of cancellation - cooling off period).

The Office of Fair Trading have a page for Consumer Advice, this links to the Consumer Direct website: https://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk (Caution: absolutely violent colour scheme). Consumer Direct was set up by DTI or BIS or whatever 3-letter acronym is fashionable in Whitehall these days. Consumer Direct have a clear English guide to Shopping from Home - Before you buy and a guide to Cancellation Rights - After you buy. The DTI used to have have pages on "Confident Consumers", but unfortunately many .gov.uk websites seem to have disappeared, been renamed or otherwise disappeared completely, wasting our taxes, never to be found again. Click the link anyway.

Under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 traders must sell goods that are as described and of satisfactory quality, there is also The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982. These are as amended by the Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations 2002 which transpose a European Directive. Although the impact of the later Regulations is relatively modest there are some useful benefits for consumers (according to the DTI). Currently (as it's pre-1987) we're unable to find an online version of the original 1979 Act in https://www.legislation.gov.uk. We did find that wrong goods supplied are effectively treated the same as faulty goods.

Traders and all businesses should fairly and accurately describe the availability, benefits, quantity, composition, delivery, after-sales and other main characteristics of goods and services under The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, the substance of that regulation is in section 5, section 6 and section 7, they are quite short and easy to read. Descriptive material of goods and services must be understandable.

The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 limits the use of exclusion clauses in contracts, the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (Statutory Instrument 1999 No 2083) provide that a term which has not been individually negotiated in a consumer contract is unfair (and hence non-binding on the consumer) if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the rights and obligations of the parties to the detriment of the consumer.

Distance selling means selling and buying by phone, mail order, via the Internet or digital TV. Such transactions are covered generally by normal buying and selling legislation, but they are also covered by special Distance Selling Regulations (briefly: * The right to receive clear information about goods and services before deciding to buy; * Confirmation of this information in writing; * A cooling off period of seven working days in which the consumer can withdraw from the contract; * Protection from credit card fraud). A clear explanation is given by the Office of Fair trading: Distance selling regulations - cancellation periods. There are some exceptions for services, where cancellation rights may not always apply. If you want to read The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 you can find the original here: Statutory Instrument 2000 No. 2334, there have been minor amendments since.

If you didn't order any goods at all, but somehow receive goods, you can regard these as Unsolicited Goods under the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971 as amended and keep them as an unconditional gift, you can not be asked for payment (nor ask for a refund!).

On your travels through our links you may see advice such as "Never buy from a website that uses a PO Box ...". We believe this is very bad advice, it is against the principles of Fair Trading and open market competition, and works against consumers. Look through your pantry, your fridge, your bathroom and check the labels, even your bank statements, and very large online retailer websites. Many, perhaps most of these use PO Boxes, especially products from huge household name plc's. They're useful, and to get a PO Box in the UK you have to have a "geographical address", and the Royal Mail, will on request, give you that geographical address (ours is our own registered address). All Limited companies have a registered address, this can be the address of a company building, the director(s) home address, the address of the company accountants or even an "accomodation address". None of these addresses mean you can just turn up and buy a can of baked beans, or return a faulty item to that address. There should, however, be some address for correspondence and returns given clearly on the website / product label. This will very often be a PO Box address. One convenience of this is that companies can physically move the appropriate departments without having to change labels, advertising media, or try to contact everyone who ever bought - a can of baked beans. This is reality and practicality versus the myth. Your choice. We have a webpage for you to check our identity. The resources used to check us out can also be used to check others.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *