How to return a product under consumer protection law

Unfortunately, few entrepreneurs and consumers are familiar with the Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights” (No. 2300-1 of 02/07/1992)

, because the correct application of this law in practice, on the one hand, will protect the consumer from careless sellers, and on the other hand, will help the entrepreneur avoid unnecessary financial losses and lawsuits from dissatisfied customers.

The rules for returning goods by the consumer are regulated by the provisions of Chapter Two of the Law.

The grounds for returning goods by a consumer can be divided into two large groups:

• return of goods of proper quality;
• return of goods of inadequate quality.

Each of the above groups of grounds for return has its own terms and procedure for the consumer’s application, so they should be considered separately from each other.

RETURN OF QUALITY PRODUCT

The basic rights of buyers to exchange and return goods of good quality are stipulated in Article 25 of the Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights” and Article 502 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. For the return of quality goods purchased from online stores, other rules apply as prescribed in Art. 26.1 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”.

• You can request the return of a quality product purchased in a regular store within 14 days after purchase. (Article 25 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”)
• If the last day of the deadline for returning goods falls on a weekend or holiday, you can request the return of goods on the next business day. (Article 193 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.)
• You can return a product of proper quality if the specified product has not been used, it has retained its original presentation, consumer properties, seals, factory labels, and there are also any documents confirming the fact of purchase. (Article 25 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”)
• The loss by the buyer of a sales or cash receipt for a product does not deprive the consumer of the right to rely on the testimony of witnesses. (Article 25 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”)

IMPORTANT: Not all high-quality goods can be returned or exchanged Goods of good quality that cannot be returned or exchanged within 14 days: - Food products - Goods included in the List of high-quality goods that cannot be returned or exchanged

IMPORTANT: The buyer has the right to return the purchased quality product to the seller and receive the amount of money paid for it only if the seller does not have the product required for exchange. If, for example, the consumer makes a demand for the return of a quality product on the basis that the product did not suit him size, the seller has the right to refuse the consumer a refund for the product, offering the consumer the same product of a different size. Therefore, be careful when choosing the basis for returning a quality product.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR RETURNING GOODS OF GOOD QUALITY

In order to return a purchase to the store within 14 days, you should: 1. Pay special attention to paragraph 2 of Article 25 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”2. Find out whether the purchased item is included in the list of goods that cannot be returned, if it is not included, go to step 3 3. Write a claim in two copies for the return of a quality product, in which indicate the reason for returning the purchase with a requirement to terminate the sales contract and refund. Attach a copy of the receipt or other document confirming the fact of purchase to the claim. 4. Arrive at the store, contact the customer service manager and present him with your claim and the packaged goods. 5. Ask the manager in your presence to inspect the goods you handed over to ensure that there are no traces of use and that the original presentation is intact. 6. Offer to record the results of the inspection of the goods in a separate document or on your copy of the claim. 7. Request that the copy of the claim in the store be marked with a note indicating that the claim has been served (for example, a stamp, seal or signature of the store manager indicating his name and the date of delivery). 8. Check with the seller about the rules and terms for returning money for the goods you returned in their retail network

The buyer's request for a refund must be satisfied within three days. (Clause 2 of Article 25 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”).

Sample claims: Sample claim for the return of goods of proper quality

Answers to questions received through the online reception to the editorial office of Potrebinforms.ru on the topic: Return of quality goods (of proper quality)

How many days will it take for the money to be returned?

According to Part 2 of Art. 25 of the ZoPP, the seller is obliged to return the money for the returned goods within 3 days from the date of receipt of the application.

If we are talking about a remote purchase, the refund period increases to 10 days (clause 4, part 4, article 26.1 of the Law of the Russian Federation).

In the second case, the reference date is also considered to be the day of circulation. If you sent your application by registered mail, you need to rely on the date indicated on the postal receipt. How long it takes to deliver the document does not matter.

RETURN OF POOR-QUALITY PRODUCTS

The rights of consumers to return low-quality goods are prescribed in Article 18 of the Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”. If you need to return a defective product to a store, you should first determine:

1. Is a low-quality product included in the List of technically complex goods?
2. Has the warranty period for a low-quality product expired or not, or maybe there was no warranty at all?

You need to know this in order to plan the sequence of your actions taking into account current legislation. For example, the editors of the portal Potrebinforms.ru published the procedure for consumers to follow when returning a particular low-quality product in a given situation:

1. Return of low-quality goods if the warranty has not yet expired and the product is not included in the List of technically complex goods.
2. Return of low-quality goods if the warranty has already expired, but less than 2 years have passed from the date of purchase and the product is not included in the List of technically complex goods.
3. Return of low-quality goods if the product is included in the List of technically complex goods.

Answers to questions received through the online reception on the topic: Return of low-quality goods (poor quality, defective)

INSTRUCTIONS FOR RETURNING DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS

Return of goods if the warranty has not yet expired and the goods are not included in the List of technically complex goods

1. Draw up a written claim in two copies, indicating the requirements for termination of the sales contract and return of money on the basis of Article 18 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”
2. Come to the store, submit a claim, demand that a copy of the claim be marked in the store as having been delivered to you, and hand over the defective product to the seller.
3. In accordance with paragraph 5 of Article 18 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”, the seller is obliged to accept the goods from you and, if necessary, within 10 days and make a refund.

However, in practice, this only happens when returning low-quality clothing, furniture and other goods, except equipment. When returning low-quality equipment, sellers force consumers to take the low-quality product to the service center themselves and carry out a quality check there. Only after this procedure do stores decide to accept claims from consumers for a refund for a low-quality product. This requirement of sellers in stores is illegal. In any case, you must accept the claim in the store before the quality check is carried out, and only then the store may ask you to take the product to the service center yourself.

When you come to the service center, be careful. When submitting goods for quality control, make sure that the receipts reflect information that your product is being submitted specifically for quality control and not for repair. In addition, carefully read what the service center employee fills out on the receipt and only then, if you agree with everything, sign the document. After filling out the receipt, request a copy of the receipt.

Many consumers are very wary of submitting their equipment to service centers for quality checks, worrying that during the quality check, service center employees can easily do whatever they want with the equipment in order to subsequently accuse the consumer of improper operation of the equipment , depriving the consumer of the right to make any further claims regarding the quality of the product.

In order not to worry about this, the editors of Potrebinforms.ru recommend that consumers be present during the quality check. To do this, you must indicate in your claim and receipt information that you wish to be present when checking the quality of the product. In addition, before submitting the equipment for quality control, you should definitely check that the service center employee records all visible traces of use in the receipt: scratches, abrasions, incl. no signs of corrosion, marks from falls, dents, etc. In this case, it will be quite difficult to fabricate evidence of improper use of, for example, a telephone or computer. In addition, if the consumer does not agree with the results of the quality check, you can always submit the product for examination to an independent expert center, and if the examination establishes the presence of manufacturing defects and the absence of violations of the rules of operation, storage or transportation of the goods, the consumer will be able to restore his violated rights.

In accordance with current legislation, the store must conduct a quality check within 10 days and return the money (Article 22 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”). The consumer has the right to participate in checking the quality of the product (Paragraph 2 of paragraph 5 of Article 18 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”) If the consumer does not agree with the results of the quality check, the consumer has the right to submit the product for examination to an independent expert organization (3 and 4 paragraphs of paragraph 5 of Article 18 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”)

Answers to questions received through the online reception on the topic: Return of low-quality goods (poor quality, defective)

Return of low-quality goods if the warranty has already expired, but less than 2 years have passed from the date of purchase and the product is not included in the List of technically complex goods

1. The rights of consumers to return low-quality goods are prescribed in Article 18 of the Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”.
2. The consumer must independently organize an independent examination to determine the cause of defects in the product and pay the cost of the examination. (Clause 6 of Article 18 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”)
3. If the expert’s conclusion confirms the presence of manufacturing defects in the product, draw up a written claim in two copies, indicating the requirements for termination of the sales contract, return of money and reimbursement of costs for the examination, attaching copies of the conclusion, a copy of the receipt for payment for the examination, receipts for the goods and etc. documentation.
4. Arrive at the store, present your claim and a copy of the expert report, demand that the copy of the claim be stamped in the store, and hand over the defective product to the seller.
5. In accordance with the Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”, the store seller is obliged to accept the defective product from you and return the money within 10 days.

Return of low-quality goods, provided that the goods are included in the List of technically complex goods

In essence, the procedure for returning a technically complex product of inadequate quality is the same as an ordinary low-quality product, but there are some peculiarities.

The consumer can demand termination of the contract and a refund for a low-quality, technically complex product in one of the following cases if: - less than 15 days have passed since the date of purchase; - significant defects in the product were discovered; - there are violations of the deadlines established by the Law for eliminating defects in the product when repairs are ongoing more than 45 days in a row. - impossibility of using the product during each year of the warranty period in total for more than thirty days due to repeated elimination of its various defects. (For example, the warranty period is 1 year, the product was under repair from the beginning for 10 days, then another 25, in total the repair was more than 30 days during the year). (3 paragraph of paragraph 38 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated June 28, 2012 N 17 “On the consideration by courts of civil cases in disputes regarding the protection of consumer rights”)

In accordance with current legislation, the store must conduct a quality check within 10 days and return the money (Article 22 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”)

Advice: if you want to return a technically complex product within 15 days from the date of purchase, you should first contact the store with a written complaint to record the fact of your request, and only then deal with the store for what reason there were defects in the product. Read more here.

Answers to questions received through the online reception on the topic: Return of low-quality goods (poor quality, defective)

Sample claims: Sample claim for the return of a technically complex product with a defect discovered within 15 days from the date of purchase

Application Process

Cheat sheet for the buyer

When writing an application, the buyer must indicate in the corner of the sheet on the right side: the information of the director, the address of the store where the goods were purchased and his personal data. The text of the application must indicate information about the purchase and, if desired, the reason for its return. The application must be drawn up in duplicate.

Then, with the application, you need to go to the store specialist responsible for situations of this kind; in large stores there is usually a separate person who performs such duties. He will accept one application, and mark the other and hand it back to the buyer.

RETURN OF GOODS PURCHASED AT A DISCOUNT OR MARKED OUT

The editors of Potrebinforms.ru receive many letters with the question of whether it is possible to return to the store a product that was purchased at a discount or markdown? The answer to this question depends on whether the product is high quality or low quality.

If the product is of high quality and was purchased at a discount, consumers can return it back to the store based on Art. 25 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”. The procedure for returning a quality product purchased at a discount is the same as if you were returning a quality product purchased without a discount. See quality product returns

If a discounted product turns out to be defective, you need to figure out the following: did the seller notify the consumer about the presence of a specific defect in the product (for example, a crack, chip or scratch on the body, a stain on clothing, etc.) due to which the product was marked down? If notified, the consumer does not have the right to return such a product back citing these defects, however, if new manufacturing defects appear in a discounted product during operation, the consumer has the right to return such a product, because Initially, the consumer knew nothing about these shortcomings. See return of defective goods.

Documents to be presented

First of all, you need to have an identification document with you, namely a passport, because it is guaranteed that an application will be drawn up in which you need to indicate your passport details. The most basic proof of purchase is, of course, the sales receipt. But even if by accident you dropped it, it is very possible to prove the fact of purchase. Examples of evidence:

• information taken from the second cash register tape;
• materials captured by CCTV cameras;
• packaging with a seal or any other branded logo of the store;
• invoice for goods;
• testimony of persons present at the time of the purchase;
• Verification of the serial number of the purchased item.

Situations in which it is impossible to return a purchase

There is a category of goods that cannot be returned

The legislation of the Russian Federation defines categories of goods that cannot be returned to the seller:

• Food;
• goods measured by footage: cable, fabric, etc.;
• pharmaceutical and medical preparations;
• weapon accessories;
• hosiery and underwear;
• plants and animals;
• household goods with a certain warranty period;
• cosmetic products and perfume;
• personal hygiene products (toothbrushes, razors, comb, etc.);
• jewelry made of precious metals and stones;
• household chemicals, poisons;
• furniture and fittings;
• non-periodical publications.

Technically complex items are also not eligible for return. In the past, the legislation did not provide a clear list of goods falling under this rule, but now everything is spelled out there and there should be no controversial situations.