What if you change your mind Can you get your money back?

Press, 12 May 1987, Page 37

What if you change your mind Can you get your money back?

You see a jacket during your lunch hour, quickly try it on and put it on lay-by. Back in the office you . realise you cannot afford to pay it off in the four weeks the shop allows. You go back the next day and the assistant says cash refunds are not given but the shop will give you a credit note. You would rather have your money back but the assistant insists that your only option is the credit note. A workmate later tells you that you were entitled to the cash and that you should go back. But you are not sure and do not want to make a fool of yourself. Did you have the right to insist on your money back?

CONSUMERS’ Institute gets “heaps” of complaints from people dissatisfied with how shops treat their requests to withdraw from lay-by arrangements.

Many of those who. complain are unaware of their rights but believe they have not had a fair deal.

The Lay-By Sales Act is clear that people are entitled to cancel a lay-by — for any or no reason — and ask for their money back. (You do not have to explain to the shop assistant why you want to return the goods). The shop may, however, retain what amounts to a handling charge for the time it spent selling you the goods and the paperwork involved in lay-bying them. The Consumers’ Institute’s complaints advisory service holds the view that any handling charge more than $8 is unreasonable.

The exception to getting

all your money back (perhaps minus a handling charge) is when you want to return fashion items out of season.

If you lay-by a sundress or a pair of summer sandals and in autumn want your money back, the shop can assess the value of the item not at the marked retail price when you first saw it but at its present value. This is to protect the shop which might have to sell cheaply your returned out-of-season items. The shop cannot tell you that your goods are worth less than identical goods which it still has in stock at full price. A deduction for depreciation in the value of fashion goods can only be made one month after a lay-by contract is first agreed. The provision cannot be applied to nonfashion items.

Assessing deprecation and fashionability is open to dispute. If you believe the shop is being unreasonable your

final recourse may have to be to the Small Clainis Tribunal. Before taking a case you would have to decide if the amount in dispute warranted the effort.

If you are offered a credit note and want cash you have the right to insist on cash.

If you are failing to get satisfaction from- a shop make sure you have spoken to the manager before taking any dispute further. The staff may have misunderstood your rights or they may be doing what they have been told to. Their boss may adopt a different attitude if pressed. Remember, however, that lay-bys are a customer convenience. If you have changed your mind about laybys several times at one shop it would be understandable if they offered you credit. As a consumer you have the final say — if you do not like a shop’s attitude you can take your business elsewhere.