The Consumer Rights Act 2015 has now come into force. The Act replaces a number of laws, including the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, giving consumers new rights to deal with faulty/not as described goods and services.
For most businesses this means reviewing existing complaints handling procedures and ensuring customer service teams are aware of and understand the legislation changes.
Click here for a checklist (put together by the Dept. for Business, Innovation & Skills) to see if you have everything covered http://www.businesscompanion.info/en/news-and-updates/consumer-rights-act
The Consumer Rights Act is a positive step forward in many ways, and will hopefully lead to more arbitration and less court action should any issues occur between retailer and customer. Ensuring you have excellent customer service provision, that includes prompt issue resolution and complaints handling will pay dividends for your business – with more referrals, greater customer loyalty and, of course, fewer complaints.
The new Consumer Rights Act covers:
- What should happen when goods are faulty
- How services should match up to what has been agreed, and what should happen when they do not, or when they are not provided with reasonable care and skill
- Unfair terms in a contract
- What happens when a business is acting in a way which isn’t competitive
- Written notice for routine inspections by public enforcers, such as Trading Standards
- Greater flexibility for public enforcers, such as Trading Standards, to respond to breaches of consumer law, such as seeking redress for consumers who have suffered harm
You can read the legislation in full here http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/contents/enacted