Under the Australian Consumer Law (“ACL”) a consumer of goods is provided with a number of statutory guarantees regarding the quality of the goods. The purpose of these guarantees is to provide minimum standards and obligations on suppliers of both goods and services to consumers. Please see the “Consumer Guarantees” article for this month by Kendell Bocos.
These statutory guarantees cannot be contracted out. There is a statutory limit which requires the goods to be valued less than $40,000.00 and the requirement is that he goods must be of “acceptable quality” and also, the goods must be “of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption”.
Two and a half years ago my wife and I purchased an Apple iMac computer. The computer failed a few months after purchase. It was repaired under the normal 12 month warranty. In the last few weeks the computer has again failed. This time it was 2 1/2 years after purchase.
I contacted Apple who informed me that unfortunately the 12 month warranty had expired and I would have to pay to have the computer fixed and it would cost about $1,500.00. I was given the alternative of buying a new computer. I pointed out to the Apple representative that I was aware of my rights and the application of the statutory guarantees provided for under the ACL. I was told, “No worries we will pay to have it fixed”. I replied saying that I was not satisfied.
Given that this was the second time that the computer had failed it clearly was not of an “acceptable quality” and accordingly I asked for a new computer.
The determination of what is “acceptable quality” requires reference to the nature of the goods and the price of the goods. This was an expensive computer and given the expected lifespan of such a computer I did not believe that the failure of the computer within 2 1/2 years reflected “acceptable quality”. I told the Apple representative that, in the circumstances, I expected a new computer. The representative then told me that he would look into it and ring me back in five minutes. He did call me back and Apple did agree to supply us with a new computer.
This is a practical illustration of why it pays to be aware of your rights. Had I not been aware of my rights then I might otherwise have accepted that the failure of the computer had occurred outside of the warranty period. It also demonstrates that you don’t have to pay extra money to obtain an additional guarantee or warranty.
The ACL gives you those rights in any event. You just need to be aware of those rights. Retailers obviously rely upon the ignorance of consumers to their rights.
