Do I h have any l legal rights with ‘awful’ Bixby?

QI bought a Samsung S8 Plus phone, with its voice-activated assistant ‘Bixby’, for £799 from Three. I chose this phone purely on the strength that Three told me it had Bixby ready to use. But it wasn’t available at first, and when I could finally download it after a month, I had to use the US version, which I find awful. Can I get a refund because Bixby isn’t ‘fit for purpose’? Peter Williams

APeter’s view of the phone not being ‘fit for purpose’ because he doesn’t like Bixby probably won’t meet the legal requirement of the term. What matters is not whether he enjoys using Bixby, but whether it does what it claims to – however poorly. Peter might be able to prove that Bixby is so bad that it seriously weakens the entire phone, but we think this opinion is too subjective to succeed legally. Instead, Peter should have more luck telling Three that the phone wasn’t ‘as described’ because he had to wait a month for Bixby to be available.

If Three doesn’t refund Peter at this stage, he could cite the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations concerning advertising. These ban “misleading omissions” from adverts. He should say that the adverts promoting Bixby – which wasn’t available – influenced his decision to buy. He has up to 90 days to try to end the contract for a full or partial refund. For contracts worth under £5,000, you can get a 25, 50, 75 or 100 per cent refund depending whether the seller’s breach is considered to be minor, significant, serious or very serious. If Peter takes this route, he should seek advice from Citizens Advice Bureau at www.snipca. com/25646.