Thursday 25 October 2012

Watchdog clueless on statutory consumer rights

This week's Watchdog had a worrying story about Amazon Kindles breaking down after a short period of time.

What they totally failed to spot, as seems to happen quite often, is that Amazon's claimed policy of imposing a guarantee limited to one year has no basis in the law.

All goods bought from a business are covered by section 14 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979. This means that the goods have to last a reasonable time, considering the price paid and nature of the goods. This is fairly basic consumer rights law.

An expensive item like a Kindle that is not obviously perishable is expected to last longer than one year. It's (almost) excusable for retailers to try it on a bit, but Watchdog should know this kind of thing.

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