Refunds, repairs and replacements: your consumer rights

The consumer guarantees — the baseline promises the Australian Consumer Law attaches to almost everything you buy — are not a store perk, a loyalty benefit or a term in anyone's contract. The ACCC's consumer rights and guarantees page puts it plainly: consumers automatically receive these guarantees when they buy goods and services, and the basic rights they cover can't be taken away by anything a business says or does. Not by the fine print on the receipt, not by store policy, not by anything a salesperson tells you at the counter. They also sit underneath any warranty — warranties are extra promises a business can choose to make on top of the guarantees, never a substitute for them.

For products, the guarantees have real teeth. Goods must be of acceptable quality — safe, durable and free from defects, acceptable in appearance and finish, and able to do everything similar products are commonly used for. They must be fit for any particular purpose you told the seller about, or that the seller advertised or advised you on. Any description a business gives — written or spoken — must be accurate, and goods must match any sample or demonstration model you were shown. Extra spoken or written promises about quality, condition or performance must be honoured. And manufacturers must make repairs and spare parts available for a reasonable time after purchase, even if you didn't buy from them directly.

Services carry their own set. They must be provided with due care and skill — at least as good as what a competent provider with average skills and experience would deliver — must be fit for any purpose you stated, and must arrive within a reasonable time when no deadline was agreed. The guarantees are broad but not boundless: the ACCC notes carve-outs such as one-off private sales and traditional auctions, where only a thin slice of the guarantees (clear title and the like) still applies. For an ordinary purchase from an ordinary business, though, the full set travels with the sale — no paperwork, no registration, no opt-in.

A warranty — an extra promise a business or manufacturer makes about a product's quality, or about what it will do if something goes wrong — comes in a few shapes. The ACCC's warranties page describes express warranties (spoken or written promises about quality or performance), a warranty against defects (a promise to repair, replace or compensate if something fails), and the extended warranty — one that stretches the manufacturer's warranty period and is usually sold separately, for an extra cost.

Here is the part the counter conversation often gets wrong: every one of those warranties applies in addition to your consumer guarantees. The ACCC is explicit that warranties can't replace, change or take away a consumer's basic rights, and that businesses must not mislead consumers into thinking their rights are limited to the remedies or timeframe set out in a warranty. The guarantees run for a reasonable time that depends on the product — and they often outlast the warranty. After a manufacturer's warranty expires, the ACCC says the guarantee of acceptable quality usually still applies, which means a product that fails may still carry a right to a repair, replacement or refund even though the warranty card ran out months ago.

The same logic sinks the "no refunds" sign. On its remedies page the ACCC states that it's illegal for businesses to rely on store policies or terms and conditions which deny these rights — its own examples are policies saying "no refunds" or "no refunds or exchanges on sale items". A sign can lawfully describe a store's change-of-mind policy, because change of mind was never covered by the guarantees anyway — but it cannot wave away your rights when something is genuinely faulty. If a business offers you an extended warranty, the ACCC's position is that it should make clear what extra rights the warranty gives you beyond the ones you already hold automatically. That's the question to ask before paying.

When something you bought fails, the first question isn't "what does the store offer" — it's "how bad is the problem". The ACCC's repair, replace, refund page draws the line that everything else hangs off. A product has a major problem when it's unsafe; when it's very different from the description or sample; when it has one serious problem — or several smaller ones — that would stop someone buying it if they'd known beforehand; or when it can't do its normal job (or the job you told the seller about) and can't easily be fixed within a reasonable time. A service has a major problem on the same pattern: it creates an unsafe situation, or falls seriously short, or can't deliver what you asked for and can't easily be put right.

For a major problem, you choose the remedy. With a product, that's a refund — in the same form as your original payment, unless you agree otherwise — a replacement of the same type, or keeping the product and receiving compensation for its drop in value; in some cases you can also claim compensation for extra damage and loss the failure caused. With a service, you choose between cancelling and getting a refund (which may be partial, reflecting work already done) or staying in the contract at a reduced price. For a minor problem — one that can be fixed — the choosing flips: the business decides how to put it right, but must at minimum fix it for free, usually with a repair. If it can't or won't do that within a reasonable time, the initiative swings back to you: get it fixed elsewhere at the business's expense, ask for a replacement or refund, or keep it with compensation for the drop in value.

One more piece of the machinery matters at the counter: the remedy comes from the seller. The ACCC states that businesses must not tell consumers to go to the manufacturer for a remedy — "take it up with the brand" is not an answer the law allows them to give. You can choose to approach the manufacturer directly if you prefer, but down that path you can only claim compensation for the product's drop in value, not demand a repair, replacement or refund. The strong position is the simple one: the shop that sold it to you owns the problem.

Start where the law starts: back at the seller. Go in knowing what you're asking for — repair, replacement or refund, and who chooses — and bring your proof of purchase, the evidence you bought the thing there. The ACCC says a business is entitled to ask for some form of it, such as a receipt, but the product does not have to be in its original packaging. If a faulty item has to be posted back, keep the postage or transport receipts too — where the problem is confirmed, the business must repay reasonable return costs. Making the request by email or in writing isn't a legal requirement, but it leaves a record of what you asked for and when, which makes every later step easier.

Be clear-eyed about what a shop can refuse. Change your mind, find it cheaper elsewhere, or simply stop wanting it, and the ACCC says you're not entitled to a repair, replacement or refund under the consumer guarantees — unless the store has its own change-of-mind policy, which it must then honour. What a shop can't do is dodge a genuine fault: it can't rely on a "no refunds" sign or policy that denies your rights, and it can't wave you off to the manufacturer. If the person at the counter says no to a claim the law supports, ask to put it to someone more senior, and say plainly which guarantee you think has been breached.

If the business still won't resolve it, the ACCC's remedies page says there are more steps you can take. One of them is open to anyone: making a report to the ACCC about an issue under the consumer law. The ACCC uses those reports to inform its education, compliance and enforcement work — and it says plainly that it doesn't resolve individual disputes or give legal advice about a particular repair, replacement or refund. For a dispute of your own that needs a decision-maker, the consumer protection agency for your state or territory is the usual place to take a complaint further — a signpost worth knowing rather than an ACCC rule. None of this requires a lawyer to start. It mostly requires the receipt, the dates, and a clear sentence about whether the problem is major or minor.