An update to the Consumer Rights Act 2015 has the potential to give bike retailers an enormous headache, warns one retailer affected by the legislation today.
Revised legislation now entitles a customer to a full refund inside 30 days of purchase when any fault, no matter how small, occurs.
Furthermore, the legislation places the onus on the retailer, not the manufacturer to handle the complaint, meaning tricky customers are perfectly entitled to refuse attempts to resolve the matter higher in the chain.
Wishing to remain anonymous, our source, (who owns a store in the UK) said: “The new legislation is called the Consumer Rights Act 2015. It is a nightmare and as yet untested. Our client runs a chain of well known shops and used his knowledge to twist our arm from a very trivial fault (chain snapped). We still have no idea what caused it. But in essence any fault, no matter how small, means a consumer is entitled to a full refund within 30 days. So, if you buy a new car and an indicator bulb fails 29 days from purchase you can get all your money back, in theory. We are particularly vulnerable in the bike-trade and especially at the high-end custom end where we are assembling from many components.
“No ‘reasonableness’ exceptions have been tested through the court yet, so the letter of the act applies under all circumstances. The retailer is in the front line, without any protection. The manufacturer is protected by the retailer because the consumer doesn’t have to claim off the manufacturer warranty for redress.”
To read the details in full and find out where your business stands, click here.
