Q: I had an old fridge which was faulty. I called the company from where I originally bought it and requested a technician to come to my house to check the fridge and possibly repair it. Upon inspecting it, the technician informed me that to repair the fridge I would incur a lot of expenses and hence advised it was not worth fixing. He then charged me €40 for his visit and on the back of the fiscal receipt wrote ‘deposit’ and signed it.

He verbally told me that I could use the €40 as a deposit on a new fridge if I decide to purchase the appliance from the same company. However, when I visited the company’s retail outlet I did not find a fridge I liked so I decided to buy the fridge from somewhere else.

I would like to know if I could use the €40 deposit on another appliance. I have e-mailed the company about this and am still waiting for a reply. What are my rights?

A: If on the receipt there is some kind of reference that the deposit has been paid on the repair of a fridge, then since you decided to buy the fridge from another seller, you cannot request to use the deposit on another type of appliance. This is the case unless the trader voluntarily agrees to let you use the deposit on any type of appliance you want.

On the other hand, if the receipt does not make any reference to the type of product inspected, then you should be allowed to use it on any appliance you choose.