When Jenny bought a ride-on mower she paid for it with a credit card. The mower was faulty, and the shop Jenny bought the mower from took the mower away for repairs. Jenny did not consider the mower was capable of repair and wanted to cancel the transaction with the credit card provider and get her money back.
When the credit card provider did not agree, Jenny referred her complaint to FSCL.
Dispute
The credit card provider said Jenny’s dispute was really with the shop where Jenny bought the mower, and declined to reverse the transaction.
Jenny referred to the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 (the Act) which says that where goods are supplied to the consumer, there is a guarantee that the goods are of an acceptable quality. Where the goods are not of an acceptable quality, the Act says the consumer may have a right of redress against the supplier.
Jenny then looked at the definition of supplier in the Act, and discovered that a supplier could be a creditor as defined by the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003. This would include the credit card provider.
Jenny said that under the Act she had the right to reject the goods and the credit card provider was obliged to reverse the transaction.
Review
We considered it arguable that the credit card provider was caught by the Act.
However, under the Act the supplier is given the option to remedy the failure, and only if the failure cannot be remedied is the consumer able to reject the goods. We observed that the credit card provider was not able to fix the mower, only the shop could do that and the shop had told the credit card provider that it had fixed the mower.
We suggested to Jenny that, although she may not agree that the mower was fixed and that she was entitled to reject the goods, this was a question of fact and unrelated to a financial service. As we were unable to assess the shop’s evidence, that the mower was repaired, it was our view that the complaint would be more appropriately dealt with by the Disputes Tribunal.
Resolution
We declined to investigate Jenny’s complaint and we understand that Jenny is pursuing the matter in the Disputes Tribunal.
Insights for consumers
Occasionally we form the view that another agency is better able to help with a complaint. If we think this is the case, we will point you in the right direction.
