Your consumer rights

You have rights that protect you. These rights are there:

• when you shop in a store or online
• when you buy from someone who comes to your door
• when you buy from someone who calls you on the phone.

You have the right to:

• take your time and ask for what you want
• ask for a better price
• say no if you don’t want the goods or services offered
• be treated fairly
• be given all the important and correct information as businesses must not tell you things to confuse or trick you into buying their goods or services.

It doesn’t matter whether you paid for the goods or service yourself, as a National Disability Insurance Scheme participant, or through Queensland’s disability support system. Your consumer rights still apply.

Repairs, replacements and refunds

When you buy goods or services, they come with automatic guarantees set out under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL). These include that:

• goods are of an acceptable quality
• goods will match their description or any sample or demonstration model
• goods and services will be fit for their usual purpose or any purpose you made known to the seller
• services will be provided with due care and skill and in a reasonable time.

If something goes wrong and the product or service does not meet a consumer guarantee, you have a right to a repair, replacement or refund for goods, or to have a service fixed.

If the failure to meet the guarantee for goods is big, you have the right to choose how the failure is to be fixed. If it is small, the business chooses.

Find more information on guarantees, warranties and refunds.

It’s ok to say no

When you are looking at products or services, or are approached at your home, you may sometimes find yourself wanting to stop them talking to you or you want the seller to leave which can be hard.

No matter what, you don’t ever have to agree to buy anything or sign a contract.

Take your time and don’t be rushed into buying or signing anything you aren’t happy with or you don’t understand what it means.

If you feel like a seller is forcing you to agree to buy their goods or their services, tell them you have changed your mind and you don’t want it, or that you need to talk to someone else and take some time to think about it.

Learn more about about door-to-door and telephone selling.