Retail signs seen to be misleading

Retail signs claiming consumers are not entitled to refunds for faulty goods are misleading, Consumer NZ says.

An investigation by the consumer watchdog revealed signs displayed in some retail stores in New Zealand may breach the Consumer Guarantees Act (CGA).

Some of the worst signs included, ‘‘no returns on sale items’’, ‘‘no returns on goods outside of warranty’’ and ‘‘faulty items must be returned within five days’’.

Retail strategist Chris Wilkinson, of First Retail Group, said the more signs a retailer had, the more concerned shoppers should be. The signs were often an indication the retailer did not have good policies in place to deal with refunds, Wilkinson said.

Small retailers were more likely to have such signs, he said.

‘‘The reason for that is, in any case, they just don’t have those systems in place to be able to send something back to suppliers, and financially they are not as resourceful as some of the bigger ones.’’

Retailers needed to be careful how they worded signs in their stores, he said.

‘‘There are clearly signs out there that fall very far short [of the act].’’

One of the signs Consumer NZ found said: ‘‘No cash refunds, please choose carefully.’’

Wilkinson said in the past, retailers had ‘‘big problems’’ with staff theft from cash refunds.

In addition, shoppers were stealing products, then coming back to claim a refund on them, he said.

‘‘So retailers have been working to strengthen their systems around this.’’

However, that didn’t mean they should ignore their responsibilities under the act, Wilkinson said.