Be careful what you buy; it may be unreturnable

AT THE moment, it seems there is a never-ending stream of sales and promotions available on our high street, as enterprising retailers attempt to separate recession- embattled consumers from their cash.

While the practical dilemma of "to spend or not to spend" is now a regular experience for many of us, far fewer consider our legal rights when shopping.

But with consumer rights potentially on the cusp of change, we may be entering a period of know your rights … or risk throwing away hard-earned money.

Many of us assume that if you buy goods from a store, provided they are unused and you have a receipt, they can be returned for a refund. Not so.

While many shops do allow you to do this within certain time limits, this is not a legal right. In fact, if you simply change your mind or an item does not fit, shops are not even obliged to provide credit notes or exchanges.

The only circumstances in which shoppers are entitled to refunds are on the return of faulty or misdescribed goods. This is called the right to reject.

This right came into being through the Sales of Goods Act 1979.

Rather confusingly, to implement European law, some additional remedies, which sit parallel to the right to reject and include the seller being compelled to repair or replace the item in the first instance, were introduced in 2002.

How the two regimes sit together has never been clear.

Clarification is now looming, with the very existence of the right to reject currently under threat from further European proposals.

If the European Consumer Sales Directive is adopted as published, the UK will be compelled to abolish the right completely.

The Scottish and English Law Commissions have joined together in their condemnation of the loss of the right to reject, which they feel is a simple and easy-to-use remedy that inspires consumer confidence and encourages customers to try unknown brands and products.

They have made some proposals to simplify the law on consumer remedies and have recommended the UK government takes steps to ensure consumers better understand their legal rights.

For the moment, the right to reject faulty goods remains, but consumers must exercise it quickly or they will be deemed to have accepted the goods and will lose the right after the lapse of a "reasonable time", as emphasised in a case decided last month, David Douglas v Glenvarigill Company Limited.

The court decided that the purchaser of a car, which suffered from a serious defect that could not have been uncovered on a reasonable inspection before it was bought, was not entitled to reject it 15 months after purchase.

The judge found that the reasonable time starts to run on delivery of goods and that 15 months was too long a time lapse to exercise the right to reject and awarded damages instead.

Another mistaken consumer assumption is that legal rights relating to sale goods are different to those for full price items.

This stems from retailers' returns policies sometimes differing from sale goods. From a legal standpoint, however, consumer rights are exactly the same.

The only difference is where a defect has specifically been pointed out to the consumer before purchase and the price reduced for that reason.

Another trend that is becoming increasingly popular relates to embellished clothing.

Often, such items now feature labels warning you that the embellishment may come off during wear.

But, if you wear a beaded dress, for example, and half the beads fall off within an hour, can you exercise the right to reject regardless?

In that instance, arguably, yes, as while you would expect some shedding of certain beads, this example could be classed as excessive and retailers cannot contract out of their legal obligation to provide items of satisfactory quality.

However, they may offer to repair the item rather than give you a refund, and this falls into the bracket of the unclear overlap of rights.

Think carefully before you buy, and not just in the recession-aware "can I afford it?" manner.

Make sure (1) you have checked out a shop's returns policy, otherwise, unless it is faulty, you may well be stuck with it, and in the future, if Europe has its way, even then too; and (2) if an item is faulty, you act quickly.

Always remember too that you have a seven-day cooling off period when buying online.

• Pamela Abbott is a solicitor with CCW Business Lawyers.