This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/australia by /u/Ur_Companys_IT_Guy on 2024-10-04 04:44:07+00:00.

I used to work in compliance for consumer law. And it flabbergasts me how few people (and businesses) don’t realise they have far more rights for faulty goods than they think.

The crux of this is your automatic rights and garuntees under Australian consumer law (which are way more beneficial to you than warranties).

The TL;DR example is if you buy a $2000 new fridge with a 12 month warranty and it breaks after 18 months, you are still entitled to a replacement or refund from the merchant you bought it from (they can’t fob you off to the manufacturer).

The reason is that as the consumer you can make the reasonable assumption that a $2k fridge would last you longer then 18 months before breaking due to manufacturing defect. And if you had known otherwise at time of purchase would have decided to not purchase that item.

I have recently done this with a $350 gaming keyboard that came with a 12 month warranty, and completely stopped working after 2 years of light use. Took it into JB hifi, explained that under automatic rights and garuntees I’m entitled to a repair, replacement or refund. As I would assume a premium keyboard would last at least 5+ years, and if I had known otherwise I wouldn’t have bought it, and they refunded me on the spot. (Yeah this is why all those businesses got finned for selling extended warranties, because they would have had to replace those goods in that timeframe anyway).

The example the ACCC give for where this doesn’t apply is if your smartphone battery turns to shit after two years, because everyone kind of knows they’re not good after that long.

It also astounds me how many businesses (including bigish businesses) don’t know about these obligations. I got fobbed off by a big online retailer recently, explained this too them and they replaced my router that broke after a year and a half.

You can learn more here: