Hello, Nice to speak you on the radio today. As promised - actually, a bit sooner than promised - here's confirmation of some of the areas we covered and some more.
You'll find some of my Christmas shopping tips here. http://www.breakinglaw.co.uk/search/label/consumer%20rights
They are as good for the New Year, any day of the year and any minute of that day.
When it comes to sale goods, they like non-sale goods, must be of satisfactory quality and reasonably fit for their purpose. Regard will be had to the price you paid but the thing must still work! If you buy a hot water bottle which is marked down by 95% and it has holes in it, the seller can't say: 'But what did you expect for that price?!'
If the seller has gone out of business or is being unhelpful about your complaint then you may be able to look to the credit card company for a refund and compensation provided the cash price was more than £100 and you used that credit card to finance any part of the repurchase. You could be scuppered if there was an intermediary like PayPal which processed the payment. But if you used a debit card to pay, whatever the price, then the issuing bank will often make a refund if the goods weren't up to legal standard though they won't pay consequential losses which you could collect where the credit card situation applies (like having to pay more for a comparable item elsewhere, out of pocket expenses and compensation for not being able to use the defective item as intended).
For a non-delivery where you have stipulated a date on or by which you must have the goods, you are entitled to cancel and have a refund and compensation for losses once the date has passed without a delivery. Where no date has been agreed, you should get the goods within 30 days. If at the end of 30 days there is no sign of them then you can give notice to the seller that if they are not delivered within a reasonable time, which you should stipulate - usually safe to plump for around 28 days - then you will cancel and that you would be entitled to do and have a refund with compensation for any losses.
For goods ordered on line, the cancellation period will generally not start to run until those goods have been delivered so you can cancel earlier.
You can find much, much more in my book Breaking Law. And , if the pages fall out, you would have a good claim!
Something else. I mentioned compensation for cold calling. Here's something on the laws which came into force in September 2017.
http://www.breakinglaw.co.uk/search/label/cold%20calling
Similar laws are being brought into force on 09 January 2019 in relation to cold calls (by callers not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority) to individuals in relation to their pension schemes where they have not consented to receive the calls and they are not already a client of the calling firm. Tell the caller to read the Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendment) (No 2) Regulations 2018 SI/2018/1396, put that into their pipe and pay you some dosh.
Happy New Year.
