RETAILERS FLOUT REFUND LAW

Deborah Gough January 1, 2012
SOME of Australia's biggest retailers are breaching consumer laws and misleading customers, according to a damning analysis of their online refunds policies.
The Consumer Action Law Centre has assessed the online returns polices of a dozen companies and has failed eight retailers outright, including Apple, Coles Online and Officeworks.
With the $24 billion-a-year online retailing sector booming, two companies met or exceeded consumer law requirements, according to the assessment.
The December research found the companies were likely to be in breach of the Australian Consumer Law due to factors including unfair proof of purchase requirements, short time limits for returning faulty goods and stores only allowing returns on their own branded products.
Target and Big W were given a pass but needed to clarify consumers' rights and had unreasonable ''proof of purchase'' demands for house brand products.
Despite the law –What was the date of the referendum that created this law? Wouldn’t it be a statute?– being enacted for a year, many of the companies approached by The Sunday Age were unaware their policies breached the legal guarantees. Notice that ‘the law’ has suddenly morphed into a ‘legal guarantee’?? Just as interesting is that many of these companies appear to be running the “I didn’t know” program. Hmmm.....Do you buy that explanation?  
The law centre's policy officer, David Leermakers, said it was disappointing that some of the biggest names in retail failed to meet the legal requirements. Now it is a legal requirement. This is actually right. Do you know what the word ‘require’ means?
''They are big companies and have good access to legal advice, we would think they would do a lot better,'' he said.
''Apple's policy is probably the worst we saw.'' Apple's policy was unlikely to meet the legal guarantees on several fronts. It had unreasonable time limits for returning a faulty product and it did not offer guarantees on ''non-Apple''-branded products that it sold. It also limited the remedies customers could choose. It told its customers they could not replace a product if it continued to be faulty after it was repaired. Apple did not respond to emails and phone calls from The Sunday Age.
Coles Online's policy did not allow refunds, credits or replacements unless the customer called within 24 hours, but Mr Leermakers said a non-perishable item could go weeks before it was used. He also criticised Coles Online for appearing to offer remedies only when products were not delivered or were unsatisfactory, but not if the product was ''not as described'' or unfit for purpose. Keith Louie, general manager of Coles.com.au, said its customer agreement was not intended to limit a customer's legal rights. He said most customers complained within 24 hours of delivery of a faulty product but Coles investigated complaints after that period. ''We will review our customer agreement to ensure the additional protections we currently offer cannot be incorrectly interpreted as restricting our customers' rights,'' Mr Louie said.
Criticism of Officeworks policy included that it did not accept all faulty goods and that faulty computer software needed to be in its original packaging.

  ''This begs the question - how would a consumer know whether computer software was defective if they haven't opened it?'' Mr Leermakers said.

Officeworks managing director Mark Ward agreed with the criticisms and said the returns policy needed an urgent review. ''I think they [the law centre] are right and we should clear it up,'' Mr Ward said.
Others that failed to meet the guarantee provisions were ShoppingSquare.com.au, oo.com.au, RedBalloon, Peter's of Kensington and Zazz Trading. All but Peter's of Kensington, which was closed, said they would review or change their policies.
Zazz and Apus Corporation, parent company of ShoppingSquare.com.au, both changed elements of their policies on Friday after hearing the criticism through The Sunday Age. 
The law centre said just two companies, Deals Direct and Crazy Sales, clearly spelt out consumers' rights and had other bonuses like ''change of mind'' policies or covered the postage cost to return faulty products.
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/retailers-flout-refund-law-20111231-1pglg.html