All year round, the most common type of query and complaint handled by the Consumer and Competition Division is about goods, especially household electrical goods that turn out to be faulty.
Most consumers feel unsure about what exactly their rights are when a product they have recently purchased stops functioning as it should. Many wrongly assume that the law differs from one kind or type of product to another. In actual fact, the same protection rules apply to any kind of product consumers purchase.
The Consumer Affairs Act stipulates that any type or kind of product purchased must be of satisfactory quality, fit for its purpose and as described. In other words, goods purchased must be free from defects.
Moreover, goods purchased should not only perform the functions normally expected of them, but also any particular purpose mentioned by the consumer or the seller at the time of sale. These are your legal rights.
All goods bought or hired from a shop, street market, catalogue, website or door-to-door salesman are covered by these rights. This includes items bought during sales.
If these criteria are not met, by law you have the right to request a remedy. In the first instance, and if appropriate, the seller must at least offer you to repair the goods. Any kind of repair should be carried out within a reasonable time, at no additional costs, and without causing significant inconvenience.
If the repair will cause an inconvenience, because, for instance, it is a product that you need to use on a daily basis, you should be given a replacement item until yours is repaired.
By law, the repair should be carried out within a reasonable time. However, the law does not quantify what a 'reasonable' time is. It very much depends on the item itself and the nature of the problem.
Should the repair not be sufficient or satisfactory then you can ask for the goods to be replaced. When not even a replacement is possible, you may ask for a refund of part of the price or revocation of the contract, which is a full refund. If you had the product for a period of time before it became defective, the amount given will have to take into account any use you might have made of the goods.
These remedies can be claimed within the time limit of two years from delivery of the product. It is up to you as a consumer to prove that this time limit has not been exceeded and this can only be done through the proof of purchase.
The best proof is undoubtedly the fiscal receipt, but when this is not available, even a bank or credit card statement should be enough. Proof of purchase is particularly important when the damaged item was bought recently and you want to show that the damage was not caused by continued use or normal wear and tear.
Even though the law gives you two years to claim any form of redress, it also stipulates that you must inform the trader about the lack of conformity in writing within two months from discovery of the defect. Moreover, the law sets out the condition that if goods become faulty within six months of buying them, the trader must accept that they were faulty at the time of sale or prove otherwise.
If on the other hand you had the goods for more than six months when they go wrong, you can still ask for redress, but at this point it is up to you to prove that the goods were faulty at the time of purchase.
The only situations where the law does not protect you is when there is nothing wrong with the goods but you have simply changed your mind; or when you were aware of the defect before you bought the product or it was a fault that could have been noticed at the time of purchase; or when the trader pointed out the defect, like in the case of shop-soiled items; or the problem was the result of normal wear and tear or goods have lasted for as long as could reasonably be expected.
When these rights are breached, it is in your best interest to act immediately by contacting the seller and requesting a form of redress. If the trader does not accept liability for the defective product, or offers a remedy which is not to your satisfaction, you should contact the Consumer and Competition Division on Freephone 8007 4400 and lodge a complaint.
Ms Vella is senior information officer, Consumer and Competition Division.
odette.vella@gov.mt, customer@timesofmalta.com