New regulations mean you can only return unused online purchases
QI BOUGHT a Hotpoint HAE60KS cooker online for £379 from Currys which was delivered and installed by a qualified electrician a week ago.
There was something wrong with it. It took twice as long to cook a Sunday leg-of-lamb roast dinner and my cakes, for church teas, were a disaster. And then I read Hotpoint’s policy on recycling, which states’ they reserve the right to use quality, recycled components’.
I contacted Currys, saying the oven was not working properly, and that I was not happy with this recycling policy, especially as I had not been made aware of it. Did this cause my failure to bake cakes and roast meat properly? But Currys said I could not return the cooker as it had been installed, and used, and the only reason it could be returned was if there was a fault with it. What about my rights under the Distance Selling Regulations? Patricia R
ATHE Distance Selling Regulations, which give additional rights of return if you buy online, have been replaced by the Consumer Contract Regulations.
The idea is to give you the same rights as if you had seen the physical goods in a shop. You could not return store-bought goods once you used them – as you did – and so you cannot use these rules to send back online goods once you have tried them out. You have to return them unused, and in as near to the original wrapping as possible given that you have to see the goods – again, the way you would see the cooker in a Currys shop.
As for the “recycling”, this is now a legal and compliance warning feature on goods from many manufacturers. It may mean nothing.
It certainly does not mean Hotpoint uses second hand parts from old cookers. But it might mean recycled metals and plastics are used in the bodywork or the trim.
However, there is a happy ending for your Sunday lunch and church cakes. Currys sent a Hotpoint engineer who diagnosed your new cooker with a severe fault. The oven door was not closing as it should – so it was not surprising that you found it impossible to cook properly.
The cooker will now be taken away and replaced by Currys with a new one. You say you are willing to pay more for a higher specification model.