Motor Cycle Monthly Article January 2007

Getting Christmas presents is great. Unfortunately many of them are the wrong size, wrong colour and not necessarily what they say they are on the box. One or two might even have the potential to kill. So what can we do?

There are dozens of laws covering this and to go through all the possibilities would take forever so I am going to have a quick look at the main ones. Again, get advice. A quick call to someone like sorrymate.com takes a few minutes but can point you in the right direction from the start.

If a present, which you don’t want or need, is in good condition and is what it says it is, then you have no legal right to change it. But do not give up.

Many shops are struggling to make ends meet and all shops need happy customers. The vast majority of shops will give an exchange so simply go in, explain why you don’t want the gift and ask to use the value to buy something you do want. Most will agree. If not then it’s off to eBay or better still, the adverts section of Motor Cycle Monthly.

If you receive a present that is defective in some way, for example, bad stitching on a jacket or a snapped tool in a kit, then the person who bought it can obtain a refund or replacement for you. The law does not give you, as a person who has been given something, many rights. However, once again a visit to the shop with a friendly approach often works as, at the end of the day, the shop will simply return the goods to the supplier anyway.

And now to the, hopefully rare, but important question, what happens if you are injured as a result of using an item. Again, seek advice, but in short you have a right against the supplier, importer or manufacturer. It does not matter if you were not the buyer.

Finally, if a defective item causes damage to property, for example a defective part for your bike causing engine damage, and the damage exceeds a set amount, you can claim for this. So in short:

a) If the product is not what it should be then, while you do not have many rights, a visit to the shop that sold the item will usually work.

b) If you are injured then you have a legal right against the supplier, importer or manufacturer. You would normally choose the supplier unless they are out of business.

c) If a defective item causes damage to other property you own, you may have a claim.

Fergus Dalgarno, sorrymate.com