Important new laws regarding product warranties

[Rico]

Apparently on the 1st of January there was a big change for anyone offering a warranty on a product or service:

http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.../itemId/996742

One of the requirements is that you need to add the following mandatory text on all product, or ask your manufacturer to do it:

"Our goods come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and for compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the goods repaired or replaced if the goods fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure."

Now, there are a number of problems I can think of...
Did you know about that? How are you going to update your ecommerce store? Is one dedicated warranty page enough or you need to have this text in each product page?
Also, do I need to print the warranty and add it to all the items I sell, or I can just print the mandatory text on the invoice?

Thanks,
Rico

[victorng]

Originally Posted by Rico

One of the requirements is that you need to add the following mandatory text on all product, or ask your manufacturer to do it

The requirement is that you add the mandatory text to any 'document evidencing a warranty against defects'. A warranty card would be an example. If your product packaging says '12 month manufacturer warranty' or similar that's technically a document evidencing a warranty against defects but the ACCC has said that it's ok for the mandatory information to be contained inside the packaging.

The issue that is being addressed is the arbitrary manufacturer's 12 month / 3 year / etc warranty that people are sometimes misled into believing are the only rights they have.

Cheers,
Victor

[Rico]

Thanks a lot Victor, it's good to know that there is no need to change the print out on the packaging.

My other problem is to understand how to deal with it on my ecommerce web site.

EBay is asking to all their customers to add the mandatory text on each listing, if a warranty is offered.

http://pages2.ebay.com.au/News/Insid...uct_warranties

My understanding is that eBay is not asking to simply link to a warranty page hosted on the eBay store, but to add the full compulsory text to each listing. Is this only an eBay requirement? Because if this is what now the law requires, it means that we will need to add the text to any product page on our ecommerce site as well.

Thanks again,
Rico

[victorng]

Yep, if you're going to promote a defects warranty, you need to have the mandatory wording. The ACCC has said a link won't do.