You may or may not  have noticed it, but consumers are fighting a war against the firms they have to deal with after falling victim to mindless companies, whether it be due to faulty products that need replacing, or out-right poor service.

Sale Of Goods Act

Think twice before upgrading your cover to a five-year extended warranty.

The Scenario: Your 42” HD-Ready plasma TV, the totemic centre of your life, fails to switch on after just 366 days since you first met in the electric store. The firm you bought it from tells you that as you failed to extend your warranty, there is nothing they can do for you, and suggests you purchase the latest model together with the 5-year guarantee.

Tears begin to fill your eyes, dropping onto your lifeless grey screen as you ponder what to do next.

But as long as your tears didn’t cause your TV to smoke, hold that thought, because lucky for you the TV salesman didn’t know what he was talking about!

Here’s why. The Sale of Goods Act states that your TV must be fit for purpose upon purchase.

Dr Christian Twigg-Flesner, a consumer law expert at the University of Hull, says: “It must be as described. It must be of satisfactory quality, sufficiently durable, free from any defects”.

Before you get too excited, you need to make sure you didn’t ignore any of the warnings provided in the manufacturer’s handbook. This can be obvious things, for example you didn’t install it in your bathroom, or attempt to fix it by removing the back in desperation to try to fix the problem. If this is the case then you’re unlikely to have a leg to stand on.

However, if, in the short time you spent together, you treated your television with respect and despite this it still broke down, it could suggest that there was in fact a fault with it when you bought it, which would not meet the above regulation.

In this position, your legal rights will differ depending on the amount of time that has passed since you bought the TV. You could have a case for faulty items for any period of time up to 6 years. Here’s how it works. From the date of purchase, up until four to five weeks (depending on the retailers policy), you have the “right of rejection” – which basically means that if your TV/MP3 Player/Mobile Phone, stops working within this time, you can demand a refund.

Up to six months after the purchase date you are still entitled to get your TV replaced or repair, and if the retailer contests your request, it is up to them to acquire sufficient proof that it was you that was to blame, therefore avoiding responsibility. After this time, you can still get the retailer to replace or repair faulty goods, but in this case it is your responsibility to prove that you were indeed not at fault.

Many will be surprised to hear the next part. Goods are covered by the Sale of Goods Act for up to six years from the purchase date, but you need to be able to argue your corned, as you need to convince the retailer that your item was not “sufficiently durable”.

Government guidelines state that: “Goods are of satisfactory quality if they reach the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking into account the price and any description.”

Something that should be pointed out is that if you go to the TV repair man and spend £50 in an attempt to diagnose an inherent fault, only to find out that your dog mistook your TV for the tree in your back garden and you failed to notice the damp spot where your TV once stood, then you will end up footing the bill, so be warned.

Another good piece of advice is to remember that your relationship in the Sale of Goods Act is through the retailer rather than the manufacturer.

Dr Twigg-Flesner points out that “The retailer likes shepherding you off to the manufacturer”.

Looking on the bright side of extended warranties, they can offer ongoing services such as technical support, providing useful information, from setting up your appliance, to getting the best use from it. But I wouldn’t necessarily recommend adding one when buying a new electric toothbrush.

The Sale Of Goods Act applies throughout the UK, but has several minor differences in Scotland.

Consumer Credit Act

Most credit card providers offer guarantees on purchases as standard when made using the card.

The Scenario: After lots of searching and emptying your savings accounts, you’ve finally found your dream computer. You’re extremely happy as surprisingly it was much cheaper than you could find anywhere else, so excitedly you complete the payment of £300 using your credit card. The date of delivery arrives, but after eagerly awaiting the delivery man, you don’t hear a peep. Gutted. After switching on the radio, you hear the news reader report that cheapestcomputers’r'us has gone bust. It turns out that £300 was too good to be true and the company had been going further and further into the red.

You call up the company to find out what’s going on and a displeased operator is rather unhelpful. You are told that won’t be receiving your computer, nor will you be expecting a £300 refund as all remaining money was passed to the liquidators to pay all of the creditors.

Head in hands, you break down into tears. No computer and £300 down. Gutted.

But hold onto your dignity, because the good news for you is that you don’t need to attempt to follow up further correspondence with cheapestcomputers’r'us as there’s another avenue you have yet to explore.

As you paid for the computer using your credit card, It is very likely that you can make use of section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act to retrieve your £300 refund. This regulation is used exclusively for credit cards and states that your provider will guarantee you for any purchases made using the card for items costing between £100 and £30,000.

So in terms of a refund, you may as well have purchased the computer from your credit card provider.

Supply Of Goods And Services Act

Think of services as goods.

The Scenario: Your car fails to start, so begrudgingly you take it to your local garage. The mechanic pops the bonnet and immediately lets out a lasting sigh – the kind of sigh that tells you things could get expensive. After handing over your hard earned cash you’re pleased to be back on the road, but the next morning, to your despair, you experience the same problem. After calling the garage you are horrified to find out that the garage refuses to fix the problem without leaving you further out of pocket.

Thank goodness you knew that services are covered in the same way as goods. It is in fact up to the garage to provide a service that is carried out with reasonable care and skill.

To sum up, you can demand to have the issue put right, either by the garage that failed to solve the problem in the first place, or charge the first garage to pay for another mechanic to sort it.

This applies throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but has some small differences in Scotland.

Denied Boarding Regulations

Airliners can’t get away with messing with your schedule.

The Scenario: You book a flight to the south of France using low cost airliner ‘nickel-and-dime airline’. After arriving at the airport you are told that the flight has been cancelled, and you are not offered any compensation.

What you should know: The European Union recently brought in new regulations that have angered some sectors of the airline industry.

If upon arriving at the airport, you are able to meet the boarding criteria, for example checking-in on-time with a valid ticket, but you were denied entry onto a flight – or the flight is cancelled, fight your corner, because you have rights!

To begin with, you are entitled to refund within seven days, or another return flight to your destination.

You are also entitled to be at least fed and watered. The EU’s regulations state that “refreshments, meals, hotel accommodation, transport between the airport and place of accommodation, two free telephone calls, telex or fax messages, or e-mails” must be provided, with different levels of ‘care’ depending on how much you have been put out.

As well as the above, if your flight is cancelled and you were due to fly 1,500km+, you can claim compensation of 250 euros, and 400 euros for flights within the European Union of 1,500km or more. All other flights between 1,500 – 3,500km can also provide 400 euros compensation.

However, if you were informed of the cancellation at least two weeks before departure, then you cannot claim compensation. This also applies if you are told less than two weeks before, but the airliner arranges another flight causing you only minor delays.

Delays of five hours hours or more entitle customers to get a refund, although this probably won’t help you in your travels.

But unfortunately the legislation back the side of the airliner in some cases. In “extraordinary circumstances”, compensation does not have to be given.

The problem comes when airlines over-use the “extraordinary circumstances” reason for just about anything, from “shortages in crew” to “technical faults”. But worry not, as this shouldn’t be going on for much longer.

Dr Twigg-Flesner said: “The European Court of Justice has cracked down. Technical problems are not extraordinary circumstances.”

This is an EU regulation, so applies across the whole of the European Union.

Securing your money

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he will do “whatever it takes” to ensure that people’s savings are protected as the economy continues to battle through the financial crisis.

The possibility of savers losing money deposited into a bank never even crossed the minds of most people, and it was not until Northern Rock suffered financial problems and had to be nationalised that this possibility became more of a reality. The initial strategy started the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) raising the level of potential compensation on savers deposits from £35,000 to £50,000. This limit is currently under review for a further increase.

After the Icelandic bank Icesave collapsed, many panicked as conditions with the way that their compensation scheme was set up meant that UK savers would not be covered for the first £16,000 of deposits. The UK government reacted by assuring all UK Icesave customers that their money would be refunded in full, regardless of any limits set by the FSCS.

So what measures have been put into place to ensure the safety of savers if a UK regulated bank or building society were to face similar problems?

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) was re-enforced last October to ease the crisis, and there has been a lot of debate over how to improve the system.

How has the system improved?

Before Northern Rock fell into trouble, the first £2,000 of savers money was fully protected, then 90% of the following £33,000 was protected. This meant that a £35,000 investment was only covered up to £31,700.

In October 2007, the system was re-structured, protecting savers for 100% of the first £35,000 per institution per person. This meant that as long as your money was spread out between different institutions, you could effectively protect large sums of money, and joint accounts would be seen as two people, therefore covering £70,000.

In October 2008 that threshold was again raised, from £35,000 to £50,000 per savings account
per institution.
A fast track strategy has also been designed to provide those affected with access to some of their savings within 7 days of a bank closing.

It would currently take around a month before savers would be compensated if a large bank were to close.

How much of my savings are covered?

As it currently stands, any UK bank, building society or credit union will guarantee protection for deposits up to £50,000.

Banks from outside of Europe must set up a UK subsidiary in order to be allowed to operate in the UK and those subsidiaries must have a FSCS membership to provide protection on your savings.

Other systems are in place for banks based in the European Economic Area (EU members plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein) that cover against their home scheme.

These schemes are set up to provide compensation for at least the first €20,000, although some offer substantially more than that which can amount to more than current UK protection limit.

Most of these schemes are also partly covered by the FSCS so any remaining money between the €20,000 (around £16,300) and up to £50,000 is also covered.

All individuals are currently covered up to £50,000, so joint accounts are seen as two seperate individuals, thus covering up to £100,000.

The protection limit only applies per institution, so if you have more than £50,000 savings it is recommended that you spread the money around to ensure you are fully covered.

For example, if you had £50,000 saved with Alliance & Leicester and an additional £50,000 with Abbey,  the full £100,000 would be protected. However, if you had accounts held with different brands that fall under the same institution such as Halifax and Bank of Scotland, you would only be covered up to £50,000 of your £100,000. Some institutions also allow multiple claims over their brands, so make sure you have done some research before deciding where to keep your money.

For an up-to-date list of which banks fall under the same institution and which are counted as independent with individual registrations to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) see which4u’s List of banks by institutions.

Something else to keep in mind is that if you have your money in high interest savings accounts, your £50,000 can quickly increase, taking it over the protection limit so your interest will not be covered. The best way to avoid any problems is to work out how much interest you expect to accumulate, and invest the limit minus the difference.

What protection is provided for small businesses?

The FSCS set up the deposit protection scheme for private individuals. However, small businesses can also benefit from similar protection to savers if the limited company meets at least two of the following three criteria:

• A turnover of no more than £6.5 million

• A balance sheet total of no more than £3.26 million

• No more than 50 employees

Partnerships can only claim up to £50,000, rather than £50,000 per partner.

Sole traders can only claim up to £50,000 in total, with both personal and business accounts included. This means that personal and business accounts must be spread over different institutions.

What about Irish banks?

The Irish government recently decided to offer full protection on all deposits, bonds and debts. This gives investers the freedom to keep all of their money in one place without having to worry about the possibility of losing any of it.

The banks currently offering this unlimited protection are Allied Irish, Bank of Ireland, Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Life and Permanent, Irish Nationwide Building Society and the Educational Building Society.

Gordon Brown has not followed Ireland’s move to offer an unlimited protection, but has stated that the government won’t let any UK depositors lose any money.