Is a five-day returns policy legal?

QA microwave I bought from Appliances Direct ( www. appliancesdirect.co.uk) arrived badly damaged. Initially, they told me I had no rights to a replacement or refund because I hadn’t told them within five days of delivery that it was damaged. It’s now been replaced, but I still had to pay £35.69 to return it. Is this lawful? Steve Hemborough

ANo, this five-day rule isn’t lawful. The Consumer Rights Directive gives you 30 days to reject damaged or inherently faulty goods. During this time you can ask for a full refund or a replacement.

This is different to your rights under the Consumer Contracts Directive – commonly known as distance-selling regulations – which gives you 14 days to reject an item for any reason, such as simply changing your mind. You have to tell the retailer within 14 days of receiving the goods, returning them within a further 14 days. However, you usually do have to bear the return costs.

We’re glad that Appliances Direct has replaced the oven, but because the original was faulty it must also refund Steve the cost of returning it. Ideally, the company would have sent Steve a pre-paid returns label to save him the hassle of chasing a refund. We’ve asked the company to sort this out, and enquired why it gave him such misleading advice in the first place.