3 July 2013

Has anyone gone through fair trading in Canberra? Any tips?

| towerofsoup
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Hello hivemind,

I’m going to be taking a retailer through fair trading to enforce the consumer right to exchange of faulty goods – has anyone been through this before? what can I expect?

Also, if this route fails I will be taking them through small claims court – does anyone have any experience going through the courts?

Thanks!

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martin75 said :

Who do report a dodgy GP to?

I believe it is AHPRA – http://www.ahpra.gov.au/Notifications/What-is-a-notification.aspx

martin75 said :

Who do report a dodgy GP to?

The Medical Board of Australia.

If he/she has actually broken the law, though, call the police.

Who do report a dodgy GP to?

grrrr, not “sager”, it’s SAGA – now to find my medication……..

The pleasure of shopping at COSTCO, no questions asked refunds (except remote controlled helicopters)

The ACT Fair Trading website has some fairly clear and useful instructions as to how to get them involved. Generally they require you to have attempted to sort out the issue yourself, then if that doesn’t work, you can write an “Official Complaint” to ACT Fair Trading.

I tried to get Fair Trading involved previously in an attempt to ruffle a local firm into cooperation and accepting their responsibilities but the response from ACT Fair Trading seemed like they couldn’t really be bothered getting involved. The sager with this particular local firm has only worsened since so I shall be writing again to Fair Trading, pointing out that their previous inaction has allowed the to continue to be uncooperative.

It’s a long story/sager and I would be happy to discuss further elsewhere (you can find me with this user name at Hotmail).

I put a deposit down for a lounge the year before last at a furniture franchise store in Fyshwick. I was told delivery would be in Sept. Then Oct. Then Nov. After the third postponing I asked for my money back. They refused. I went in to the store, the manager refused to even contact the store owner and said he was not authorised to refund my money. I did get the satisfaction of watching a few customers leave the store though.
Then the owner stopped responding to my calls/emails, so I went to the ORS group for advice.

One mention of ‘litigation’ and I got a cheque in the mail with my deposit. Now I just give them awful reviews whenever anyone mentions needing new furniture 🙂

Thanks guys, that’s comforting! The store was advised that I would be contacting OFT and they pretty much told me to go ahead – a letter to the store has been ignored and the ‘manager’ is the one who is being unreasonable.

All this over a $20 jumper. For shame.

I’ve used fair trading once as a travel company was using weasel words to get out of supplying everything they said they would (luckily I picked up on it prior to going).

Sent letter to company = company ignored it
Sent letter to OFT and company = company changed their tune and supplied tickets to everything they said they would prior to any official investigation by OFT starting.

Chances are that if you have even a close to reasonable case, the retailer will honour your consumer rights before OFT actually needs to do anything. (provided you advise the retailer at the same time as placing in a complaint to the OFT)

I made a complaint to OFT a couple of months ago about a well-known company’s on-line order system. I had ordered some goods which didn’t arrive but I had been charged for. When I approached the company, they took a big step away and said that once the goods had left their depot, it was “no longer their problem”. This was despite the fact that the goods were supposed to be delivered by a courier company under contract with this company.

I struggled with them for weeks and after several phonecalls and e-mails I made a complaint with OFT. My money was re-credited to my credit card a week later.

OFT were really good to deal with.

Madam Cholet9:54 am 03 Jul 13

A few years ago we purchased a DVD recorder of the Samsung variety. It was faulty from the word go and was subsequently quite easy to find information online about what a dud this particular model was. It also seemed like no one was having success with repairs.

We tried the repair path as the retailer – Good Guys in Fyshwick – basically kept pushing us to the manufacturer. Repairs were useless as it was a major fault in the design of the machine. Eventually I got jack of being fobbed off and called Fair Trading. They confirmed that the retailer is responsible in the first instance and kindly offered to assist. I then called the retailer and told them that they had to replace the unit and if they didn’t that Fair Trading were more than happy to get involved. I remember that the guy I spoke with who I believe was the manager gave a chuckle as if he knew what his obligations were and thought it was amusing that he had been rumbled. They swapped the machine for a totally different brand.

The moral of the story is that a mere mention of Fair Trading might be enough to get what you are entitled to. It’s a shame that is the case though.

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