7 Christmas consumer rights rules

Here’s what you need to know

- MARTIN

Consumer rights aren’t just for Christmas, they’re worth knowing all year round. Yet as the calendar canters on towards the January sales, this is a key time to understand shopping rights and wrongs. So here are my seven key need-to-knows.

1 You don’t have a right to change your mind – so don’t assume you can take it back. Whenever I say this, jaws drop and people look at me askance. Buy goods in-store and you have no legal right to return them if you change your mind, if it’s the wrong colour, or you got the wrong size.

You may have a contractual right, but only if the store has a published ‘returns policy’; for example, ‘you can exchange within 30 days’. If so, then that is enforceable, but stores don’t have to offer this – and some don’t.

2 Buy online and you can change your mind. Online shoppers have more rights. The Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 state that unless goods are personalised or perishable you have the right to send them back whether they’re faulty or not (even if you’ve opened the box).