Consumer confidence: Knowing your rights

0:00Coming up, with Black Friday approaching and Christmas round the corner, Our money expert tells you all you need to know about your consumer rights.

0:34Search Stuff Matters on your podcast app to listen and follow.

1:03couldn't be more timely. Take, for example, the Competition and Markets Authority. They've just launched an investigation into eight firms, some of them pretty big names, actually, as well as those another hundred companies have been put on notice. All of that to do with hidden fees. So let's discuss that story and, of course, Consumer Rights Week with Money Live reporter Jess Sharp. Jess, great to have you back on the podcast. And on an entirely appropriate day, I mean, let's start with that news from the Competition and Markets Authority, the CMA. they're going after some pretty big names aren't they?

1:34They're looking at eight businesses to start with and we've got some really big names in there StubHub, Viagogo, AA Driving School, Gold's Gym, Wayfair Appliances Direct and Marks Electrical are the eight that they're starting with and what they're looking at is the way that they are doing their online pricing and their sales practices because what they are worried about is that the way that they're doing it is breaking consumer protection law They're concerned that the way that they're presenting mandatory fees isn't necessarily transparent. So they're looking at whether or not they're included in the total price that's given at the start of the purchase.

2:10The companies are looking at whether or not their time-limited sales have ended when they said that they would, and whether customers were being automatically opted in to purchasing additional services. And this is all part of new powers that the CMA was given in April. And if they find that these companies have been acting outside of consumer protection law, then they'll have the ability to fine them or order them to pay compensation to their customers. And with another 100 companies on watch, we await to see what the CMA comes up with. But I suppose what it shows is, in this day and age, we all need to be just a little bit more savvy about the purchasing rate and our rights around being a consumer.

2:50Yeah, definitely. I think there's so much that people don't know that they're entitled to. And that's something that we're exploring a lot in the Money Blog this week. We've launched here at Sky the Consumer Rights Week. Just explain exactly what you and the rest of the money team are trying to do. Every week in the money blog we tackle a reader's consumer or financial dispute and we thought that in the lead up to Black Friday, sales season, Christmas is coming up. Budget as well. Budget as well. That we would spend a whole week tackling as many reader problems as we can and showing people what their consumer rights are so that they can go into this season and shop confidently and not get fobbed off or ripped off by retailers.

3:27Let's start with one, which I suppose will affect plenty of people who are listening to the podcast, and that's the purchase of a second-hand phone. Yeah, so Robin got in touch with us after she bought a second-hand refurbished phone from back market. When she bought the phone, it was described as being in excellent condition, so you think nothing's going to be wrong with it. But the phone broke, back market fixed it for her, but then the phone broke again due to the same issue. But this time when she went back to back market, they said because a year had passed, she was out of warranty, she wasn't entitled to another repair, and she wasn't entitled to any of her money back.

3:59But that is just not the case. That's because the Consumer Rights Act does cover secondhand goods when you've bought them from a retailer. It doesn't cover them if you buy them from a private seller, you've got less protection then, so that's something to be aware of. So what that Consumer Rights Act gives you is a six-year warranty if you're in England and Wales and a five-year warranty in Scotland. The caveat to those protections is that you are only protected within those timeframes for as long as a reasonable person would expect the product to last. So in this case, with like an excellent refurbished secondhand phone, a reasonable person might, I guess, expect it to last a couple of years.

4:34And so when we put this to back market, they pointed out that, yes, customers are entitled to a repair if they're within 12 months of buying the product. But they said that the customer had to prove that the fault was there at the time of purchase. But the Consumer Rights Act is really, really clear on this, that the consumer doesn't have to prove that for at least the first six months. And the protections last way beyond a year. We went to back market and they got the phone fixed, which was fantastic. Robin was very happy. But what this really highlighted to us is that a lot of the time, retailers don't quite know their obligations to customers.

5:12and because retailers don't know their obligations to customers, it can make it really difficult for customers to then enforce their rights. Holidays from hell. Now, it's a phrase that strikes fear into you if you're just about to head off on one, but one's come across the Money Vlogs radar. We had a reader get in touch with us. Danika, she spent£1 ,500 on an all-inclusive holiday to Tunisia with her eight-year-old son, 10-day break over the summer holidays. When she got there, the hotel that she was staying at was just a really big disappointment. You know, we're talking cockroaches near the food, flies in the pool, broken safety rails, mould in her mini fridge.

5:50So many issues with the hotel. And so she got in touch with us to tell us about the issues and also to say, you know, she wanted her money back from Love Holidays and she booked it as part of a package deal. We went to Love Holidays for her. Love Holidays apologised, which was great after carrying out an investigation into all the claims that she made because she had already been in touch with them. And they did eventually issue her a refund for£419, which was the hotel portion of the amount that she paid. Was that something that they were compelled to do? Or was that something that they did out of the goodness of their heart?

6:24I mean, what are our rights when it comes to, I've gone on holiday, I've not enjoyed myself, I want my money back. If Love Holidays hadn't given her the refund, if that hadn't been the case, there were some steps that she could have taken. And that's because you have certain protections in place under the Package Holiday and Linked Travel Arrangements Act. In this case, Danika could have claimed under three categories. So you've got loss of value, which allows you to claim the difference between the price you've paid for the holiday and the holiday that you've received. So if you pay for a four-star stay and naturally you've got the quality of a one-star stay, then you should be able to claim some of that money back.

7:00You can also claim for out-of-pocket expenses. That gives you the ability to claim for reasonable costs for expenses that have been incurred as a result of the company not giving you the goods and services that you've paid for. In Danika's case, you know, she'd paid for an all-inclusive trip, but she was having to go out and buy her own food. And you can also claim under this Act for loss of enjoyment. That means that you can claim compensation for the disappointment and distress caused by things going wrong on your holiday. So there are lots of protections in place. You just need to know about them.

7:32I mentioned the phrase holidays from hell. I kind of always had the impression that the industry was quite proactive in this regard. Yeah, definitely. One of the other money problems that we've resolved this week is about lost baggage. Tell us about the lost luggage because having been there, it is absolutely atrocious. Yeah, it's your worst nightmare, isn't it? Waiting on that carousel when your bag just doesn't arrive. With this case, our reader Howard got in touch with us after British Airways lost all of his luggage as he was going on a four week trip to San Francisco with his wife. So as you can imagine, that's a lot of luggage.

8:01He put in a claim with British Airways for just over£1 ,000 but hadn't heard anything back by the time he got in touch with us. We spoke to British Airways and we understand that British Airways has apologised to him for the mishap. And they offered him around£680 for the essential items that he lost and an e-voucher for British Airways to the sum of£450. So, you know, not too bad going. But because Howard was obviously running such a tight schedule because it was a road trip, I think he was planning to do 21 motels and 5 ,000 miles. So he put in a claim with British Airways for the time and the mileage that he had to spend going shopping for the items that needed to be replaced because the baggage had got lost.

8:42But British Airways refused to pay that claim, which was for around£333. When this sort of thing happened, there are lots of rights in place to ensure travellers whose luggage goes missing do get some of their money back. But frustratingly, they only cover material items and not compensation for the stress and the ruined holidays. That is something to bear in mind. Luckily, Howard got some of his money back. But if this was to happen to you, the first thing that you need to do is fill out a property irregularity report. Is this something you can do next to the counter sale? Yeah. So you can do that by going to the lost baggage section of the airport.

9:19You can also do it through the airline's website. So you've got some options there. But it's really important that you get that done as soon as you possibly can, because there are often lots of deadlines that need to be met before getting your money back. So, for example, for damaged luggage, you need to claim within seven days of getting your bag back. And lost luggage is only officially declared lost after 21 days. If you've done all of that and the airline hasn't managed to track down your bag, then you will want to claim compensation. And it's best to do that as soon after that 21-day period for your baggage to be declared officially lost.

9:55You guys do great work on the money blog, but you are by no means alone in doing this sort of consumer protection work. And it does strike me that in each of the examples that we've had a look at, people have had to, if not fight, then dig their heels in a bit with these companies. Is that fair? Yeah, and I think sometimes that is the case, unfortunately. Sometimes you get a company who immediately recognises that they've done something wrong as soon as our consumer reaches out to them. But sometimes, yeah, you do have to fight a little bit. And there are some websites out there that really give you good advice.

10:26In the lost baggage case, for example, Citizens Advice, they even have a template for how you should start your letter to an airline when you're going to claim compensation. The laws that you should quote and how you should write that so that you are making it really clear to the company that you do know your rights. And that sort of puts you on a firm footing for getting back whatever your road. It just strikes me that we're in a situation where people do not know enough about the transactions that they are placing themselves in. Unfortunately, the onus is on ourselves to make sure that we're educated on what we are entitled to.

11:01And I think it's one of those things, but just by reading a bit about it, although it does take up time in your day, there are steps that you can take to make sure that you're covered. And I think most importantly in that is if you do have a suspicion, oh, I don't think this is quite right, or I really do think I deserve to have some of my money back here, do some research. Reach out to consumer rights experts or come to people like us so we can help you figure it out. There is a big event, Fast Approach and Black Friday. I mean, how can we be prepared for that? Look, for a lot of people, it's a good way to get your Christmas shopping done and try and find a bargain.

11:36I think going into Black Friday what's a really good way to look at it is not to buy any items that you haven't been thinking about buying already I feel seen in this conversation Look, I'm just saying if we need to save some cash maybe the impulse buying isn't the best way to go but what is a really good thing to do is if say in the build up to Christmas I've got family Christmas lists of what people want I've been keeping an eye on what the price of that is and coming into Black Friday I'll keep on checking back to see whether it's gone down in price and there are some apps that can help you do that camel camel camel um that's an easy one that's a really easy one I'm written that one helps you track prices on Amazon so you can set it up and it will track the product and then you can sort of buy it when you see that the price has dipped so I think do your research try and compare prices when you can I do think that there are some good deals out there but the longer that you can research it for, the better.

12:34What about those purchases made perhaps in haste, as you've just alluded to, where you get the item and it's not what you want? I mean, what do you do when you've ordered something on Black Friday and you want to give it back? There are a lot of things that you can do here. One of them is knowing your rights when you want to return an item. For example, if you've got a 40 product and you try and take it back to a retailer, remember that you don't need a receipt. Some of them might ask you for proof of purchase, But that doesn't necessarily have to be a receipt. It could be a bank statement or it could be packaging.

13:03So that's quite a key one to remember. And then you've also got protections in place like chargeback or Section 75. So chargeback allows you to make a request to your bank to go to the retailer's bank to get your money back if you feel that you have been ripped off and there's been a breach of contract. So, you know, think that an item is faulty or an item hasn't arrived on time or, you know, something like that for there to be a breach of contract. And what that is really good for is it means that a retailer can't fob you off in store and say, no, not giving you the refund here and you can't return that item.

13:41But then go straight to their bank. And that's also really good if worst happens and the company goes bust. That also allows you to get your money back in that situation. So that's quite a good thing to be aware of, too. There was the old mantra for many, many years. I'm just wondering if it's still true that if you are purchasing, purchase with a credit card rather than a debit card, does that still hold up? Obviously, take into account that you're borrowing money to do that. But when you buy with a credit card, you unlock Section 75 protection, which basically means that if the purchase is more than£100 and less than£30 ,000 and there's been a breach of contract, you know, the retailer hasn't provided the goods and services that you've paid for, then you are entitled to your money back.

14:23This even covers you, say, if you spend a portion of that amount on your credit card. It doesn't have to be the full amount. So that's something that's really helpful to know as well. It must feel nice being a consumer champion. Yeah, it's fantastic. And, you know, since The Money Blog has launched over the last two years, we've helped readers save thousands of pounds. And that's a really nice feeling. And it is good work because I suppose with the budget fast approaching, I suppose there is this tendency for us all to think that the way in which we get most affected is by a penny here, a penny there on income tax, on VAT, on national insurance.

14:55When actually, we're making these transactions every day. We are purchasing things every day. And if we are not aware of our rights, you know, you're not going to be quids in at the end of the year, you're going to be quids out. There are lots of things that we can't control, like the budget or when the Bank of England sets interest rates, for example, or inflation. those can be really hard things for us to take charge of and take control of but there are things that we can take control of that do help you make the most of your money and not get ripped off and and stretch it as far as you can it's always worth knowing as much as you can about the actions that you can take to best protect yourself and to make your cash stretch because it can be and i'm speaking from personal experience you're quite embarrassing to admit that you might have got something wrong and so in in that spirit given that you are our consumer expert you ever got it wrong oh my gosh so many times go on so many times i think one of the biggest errors that i made was when i bought my first home i thought that i knew more than a mortgage broker and thought oh i'm just going to do a little mortgage comparison for myself it can't be that difficult how hard can that be and i was pretty shocked by the rates that were available not going to a mortgage broker which you can do for free which at the time you know I should have taken full advantage of that was quite a big mistake I've probably bought some items that I shouldn't have and not returned there's a lot of parcels sitting in my house I think oh if only I'd returned that in time there are many parcels that have sat in my house because I've missed the return deadline and then you think oh let me put that on vintage and try and get some of the money back that doesn't usually work out either well all I can say you're in very good company Jess thanks very much indeed.

16:38Great advice. Thank you. And you can get much more consumer advice over on The Money Blog. Just head to skynews.com. The Daily's back tomorrow.

16:49How does a banana trigger a CIA-backed coup? Do AirPods herald the arrival of a new global order? What do LED lights say about the future of humanity? I'm Ed Conway, and in each episode of my new podcast, Stuff Matters, I take an object, crack it open and reveal the world-shaping forces hidden inside. This is economics told through the things we think we understand. Search Stuff Matters on your podcast app to listen and follow.