Guarantee: What you need to know as a consumer or business owner

A nightmare for many consumers: you’ve just bought a product only to find out it’s defective. Luckily, you’re not without recourse. Different types of guarantee are in place to protect the customer in this situation. Whether you’re a consumer curious about your rights or a business owner trying to figure out your ob­lig­a­tions, read on to find out all you need to know about a guarantee, its meaning and defin­i­tion, and find out how guar­an­tees work and what the different types are.

A guarantee is a re­as­sur­ance from a man­u­fac­turer or retailer about the quality, condition, or per­form­ance of a product. It’s meant to protect consumers in case they purchase defective products or products that don’t work as intended. If a product is defective and the terms of the guarantee are met, the customer is entitled to a free repair, full re­place­ment of the product, or a refund.

The main law governing guar­an­tees is the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015. Retailers generally must comply with statutory rights which take pre­ced­ence over any guar­an­tees or extended war­ranties they may offer. If an item breaks down or is faulty within the first 6 months after purchase, a retailer must repair or replace it. The seller is not allowed to simply pass the matter to the man­u­fac­turer to evade re­spons­ib­il­ity. In addition, man­u­fac­tur­ers may offer periods (months or years) during which the product is covered by a guarantee.

A written guarantee should include the parts covered, the length of the guarantee, what the guarantee doesn’t cover, and whether the consumer will be entitled to a repair, refund, or re­place­ment. The guarantee document must be written in plain language, so that it’s easily un­der­stand­able for laypeople.

Guar­an­tees can form an important element of customer retention. Without any type of guarantee or warranty, customers might feel that it’s too risky to purchase your products, es­pe­cially if they the goods are expensive. Or if customers discover defects, they might simply switch to the com­pet­i­tion, instead of having the problem repaired. Offering a guarantee can go a long way towards building trust with customers.

Guar­an­tees are usually offered free of charge and providers con­trac­tu­ally agree to honour the terms set out within. If a provider were to refuse a claim made against a guarantee, the buyer could take them to court. In other words, a guarantee is a legal ob­lig­a­tion and once made must be adhered to.

Guarantee vs.

The dif­fer­ence in meaning and defin­i­tion between a guarantee and a warranty is mostly semantic. However, a warranty or extended guarantee is usually provided at an added cost. Extended guar­an­tees or war­ranties can either take effect after the man­u­fac­turer’s standard guarantee or can set out ad­di­tion­al re­as­sur­ances and breakdown cover should something happen to the product in the meantime. They are legally binding.

If you’re a consumer who wants to take advantage of any of the types of guarantee discussed above, there are some things you should take into con­sid­er­a­tion.

A number of cases are typically not covered by a guarantee. Anything that comes back to the actions of the consumer rather than a defect in the product itself likely won’t be covered. For example, if you drop your phone in water and then it stops working, the retailer or man­u­fac­turer is unlikely to repair it for you. A common term in written guar­an­tees and war­ranties is that no modi­fic­a­tions can be made to the product. So if you decide to buy a car and customise it with special parts, this might in­val­id­ate your options for free repair. Man­u­fac­tur­ers can also leave out certain parts of the product from coverage in guar­an­tees. An extended warranty may then be offered to cover those parts.

If you’re buying a used product, you should think about what kind of guarantee you’d like to have. Used goods may be sold as still under guarantee by a man­u­fac­turer. A seller could also state that the product is sold as seen without any guarantee. When it comes to man­u­fac­tur­ers’ war­ranties, claims are sometimes denied if they’re not made by the original owner.

If you’re a business owner, the main takeaway is that you should be careful about what you write on your product packaging and on product pages. Even if you don’t offer written guar­an­tees, you will have to live up to the promises you make about your products.

Please note the legal dis­claim­er relating to this article.