Fight for your rights

Earlier this month, British consumer group Which? published a survey showing that most shoppers in the UK hadn’t a breeze what their rights were, particularly when it came to returning faulty goods. Half of those polled thought something could only be returned if it was in the original packaging, while a slightly higher percentage assumed they were entitled to a refund just because they had changed their mind about their purchase.

It wasn’t just shoppers but also retailers who had a less than firm grasp of consumer law, according to Which? Shop staff were frequently to be found incorrectly insisting to disgruntled customers that they needed to complain directly to the manufacturer about faulty goods. Many also claimed that store receipts were an absolute requirement to get a refund, when the truth is that any proof of purchase, including bank statements or credit-card bills, will suffice.

“Everyone’s seen and wondered about the phrase ‘your statutory rights are not affected’, but how many people actually know their rights?” asked Malcolm Coles, editor, of which.co.uk. “We weren’t entirely surprised, when we looked into this, to find widespread confusion about what you can return, and why. Often, shop assistants are just as ill-informed about shoppers’ rights as their customers.”

While the study was carried out in Britain, it is likely that a similar number of Irish people are as confused about their rights. If the PriceWatch mail box is anything to go by, other commonly held misconceptions in an Irish context include the belief that, if an item carries a dual sterling and euro price, we can pay for it in the better-value sterling price, and the notion that stores are legally obliged to sell us an item at the lower price if the price tag and the till don’t match.

IRISH CONSUMERS may also be perplexed about where to turn when trying to find out just what their rights are. Eileen Twomey certainly is - she e-mailed us recently with a question: “Why do we have a National Consumer Agency, a Consumers’ Association of Ireland and a European Consumer Centre?” she asks. “Surely they all have the same function? And I presume all three are funded by the taxpayer? If one has a consumer problem, is it better to speak to one over the other for specific expertise? Duplication is bad enough, but triplication seems daft.”

Ann Fitzgerald of the National Consumer Agency (NCA) acknowledges that the variety of groups acting in the consumer’s interest can be confusing, and she tells PriceWatch that the NCA is putting in place cooperation agreements with the regulators and other organisations with a consumer remit “to ensure that we work efficiently and effectively together”.

Having only been formally established in May as part of the Consumer Protection Act, Fitzgerald believes the NCA is “still gearing up to full capacity”, but says that, since it started operating in a interim capacity over a year ago, it has launched a national consumer-rights awareness campaign, research and a subsequent guide into multi-unit developments, a national anti-scams campaign, a distance-selling campaign, a guide to buying a car and an extensive car-clocking enforcement campaign - amongst other initiatives.

This month, the NCA is also publishing a plethora of leaflets aimed at informing consumers about, among other things, the Sale of Goods & Supply of Services Act, which should clear up much of the confusion over returns. The NCA receives funding of over €8m to carry out its various functions, a budget the Consumer Association of Ireland (CAI) can only dream of - it gets by on a grant of just €64,000 annually, on top of which it has the €90 subscription fee of its 8,000 members. It sits on dozens of committees and boards, both nationally and internationally, where it acts as “an independent representative of the Irish consumer”, according to CEO Dermott Jewell.

In recent months, the CAI has been visible in seeking redress for Barbra Streisand fans who found themselves seatless and stuck in the mud in Castletown House, and was to the fore - as was the NCA - in shining a disapproving spotlight on NTL’s plan to impose a tariff on people not paying their bills by direct debit. “The CAI is a small organisation that, I believe, punches above its weight,” says Jewell.

THE LAST ORGANISATION mentioned by Twomey is the European Consumer Centre (ECC). While it may lack the profile of the other two, its role in assisting Irish consumers involved in cross-border disputes is as important. If an Irish consumer gets into difficulty with a retailer or service provider outside of the jurisdiction, the ECC can get involved in the building-up of a solid case, which it then passes on to its counterpart in the relevant country to make contact with the trader.

It employs eight people and is jointly funded to the tune of half-a-million euro by the European Commission and the NCA. “It is a small financial commitment, but is very good value for money in terms of what we do,” ECC manager Tina Leonard says. Some 4,500 people contact the centre each year, and while it lacks enforcement powers, in the majority of cases an “amicable resolution” is reached.

Leonard believes the EU-wide system now in place works well with legitimate businesses, although trying to reach a solution for someone who bought a suddenly-broken knock-off Rolex watch from a Spanish market stall might be too big an ask.