You broke the goods
You walk down the aisle of merchandise and touch a bottle of olive oil with your bag. The vessel falls and breaks. The store employee says that you are required to pay for the damaged goods.
What to do
According to the law of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Article 211, the risk of accidental loss or damage to property is borne by its owner. So until you have paid for the goods, you do not owe the store anything. But only if you broke something by accident.
Accidental damage and damage due to negligence are not the same thing.
When you miscalculate your strength, pick up too many bottles, and one slips onto the tiled floor, it’s entirely your fault. You will have to pay for damaged goods. And all the more fair would be the store’s demand to compensate for damage when you broke something on purpose.
If you think you are not at fault, the store can seek compensation through court. But they have no right to detain you in the supermarket. If this happens, call the police.
Samples of complaints (applications) to Rospotrebnadzor
2. Organizations and individual entrepreneurs, in accordance with the procedure determined by the Government of the Russian Federation, can carry out cash payments and (or) payments using payment cards without the use of cash register equipment in the case of providing services to the population, provided that they issue the appropriate strict reporting forms. The procedure for approving the form of strict reporting forms equated to cash receipts, as well as the procedure for their recording, storage and destruction, is established by the Government of the Russian Federation.
2.1. Organizations and individual entrepreneurs who are taxpayers of the single tax on imputed income for certain types of activities that are not subject to paragraphs 2 and 3 of this article, when carrying out types of business activities established by paragraph 2 of Article 346.26 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, can make cash payments and (or) settlements using payment cards without the use of cash register equipment, subject to the issuance at the request of the buyer (client) of a document (sales receipt, receipt or other document confirming the receipt of funds for the relevant product (work, service). The specified document is issued in the moment of payment for goods (work, services) and must contain the following information: name of the document; serial number of the document, date of its issue; name for the organization (last name, first name, patronymic - for an individual entrepreneur); taxpayer identification number assigned to the organization (individual entrepreneur) who issued (issued) the document; name and quantity of paid goods purchased (work performed, services rendered); the amount of payment made in cash and (or) using a payment card, in rubles; position, surname and initials of the person who issued the document, and his personal signature.
3. Organizations and individual entrepreneurs, due to the specifics of their activities or the characteristics of their location, can make cash payments and (or) payments using payment cards without the use of cash register equipment when carrying out the following types of activities: sales of newspapers and magazines, as well as related products in newsstands and magazine kiosks, provided that the share of sales of newspapers and magazines in their turnover is at least 50 percent and the range of related products is approved by the executive authority of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. Accounting for trading revenue from the sale of newspapers and magazines and from the sale of related products is carried out separately; sales of securities; sales of lottery tickets; sales of travel tickets and coupons for travel on city public transport; providing meals to students and employees of secondary schools and equivalent educational institutions during school hours; trade in markets, fairs, exhibition complexes, as well as in other territories designated for trade, with the exception of shops, pavilions, kiosks, tents, auto shops, auto shops, vans, container-type premises and other similarly equipped and ensuring the display and safety of goods of trading places (premises and vehicles, including trailers and semi-trailers), open counters inside covered market premises when selling non-food products; peddling small retail trade in food and non-food products (with the exception of technically complex goods and food products requiring certain conditions of storage and sale) from hand carts, baskets, trays (including frames protected from precipitation, covered with plastic film, canvas, tarpaulin); sales of tea products in passenger carriages of trains in an assortment approved by the federal executive body in the field of railway transport; selling ice cream and soft drinks on tap at kiosks; trade from tanks in beer, kvass, milk, vegetable oil, live fish, kerosene, waddling vegetables and melons; acceptance of glassware and waste materials from the population, with the exception of scrap metal; sale of objects of religious worship and religious literature, provision of services for conducting religious rites and ceremonies in religious buildings and structures and on the territories related to them, in other places provided to religious organizations for these purposes, in institutions and enterprises of religious organizations registered in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of the Russian Federation; sales at nominal value of state postage stamps (postage stamps and other signs applied to postal items), confirming payment for postal services. Organizations and individual entrepreneurs located in remote or hard-to-reach areas (with the exception of cities, regional centers, urban-type settlements) specified in the list approved by the government body of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation can make cash payments and (or) payments using payment cards without the use of cash register equipment. Pharmacy organizations located in paramedic and paramedic-obstetric centers located in rural settlements, and separate divisions of medical organizations licensed for pharmaceutical activities (outpatient clinics, paramedic and paramedic-obstetric stations, centers (departments) of general medical (family) practice), located in rural settlements where there are no pharmacies, can make cash payments and (or) payments using payment cards when selling medicines without using cash register equipment. 4. The provisions of paragraphs 2, 2.1 and 3 of this article do not apply to payment agents engaged in accepting payments from individuals, as well as to credit organizations and bank payment agents operating in accordance with the legislation on banks and banking activities.
Your child broke the goods
While you're carefully reading the labels on jars of canned peas, your child decides that a round jar of pickles would be perfect for a soccer ball. But the sports equipment did not survive the tests. The floor is in shards, the child is in tears, the seller is angry.
What to do
According to the law of the RF IC Article 63, parents are obliged to monitor their children and are obliged by the RF Civil Code Article 1073 to pay for the damage caused by them. Therefore, if a child damages something in a store, you will have to pay for it.
Orest Matsala
Leading lawyer of the European Legal Service
The best option is to pay for the damage on the spot and document this in the loss settlement agreement or pay for the goods at the checkout.
According to the lawyer, disagreements often arise between parents and the store about the amount of damage. In this case, you need to offer to record the circumstances of the incident in a photo or video and resolve the issue through negotiations with the management of the retail facility or in court. It is worth keeping in mind that in the second case, the parents will have to compensate for legal costs and expenses.
You are forced to leave your bag in the storage room
You are returning from a hike with a backpack and decide to go to the supermarket for bread. But the security says they won't let you in until you leave your bag in the storage room.
What to do
By inviting you to leave your bag in the locker, the supermarket offers you to enter into an agreement to store the item in exchange for a key with a number. And you can refuse the Civil Code of the Russian Federation Article 421 - no one has the right to force you.
If you are not allowed into a store with a bag, this violates your right to make a purchase. It is illegal for a supermarket to choose who to sell a product to and who not to sell it to, Article 426 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. A record of the violation should be left in the book of complaints and suggestions, photographed and contacted by Rospotrebnadzor.
What should a buyer do if he has an expired product in his hands?
Consumer rights advocates and Rospotrebnadzor experts are talking about a real pandemic of expired products in Russian stores. You can encounter unsuitable food not only on the shelves, but also in school and kindergarten canteens, even in restaurants. Some factories, in response to the crisis, stopped caring about the quality of their products.
Konstantin Okatiev from Kirov bought cervelat with an unusual filling in a large store. At the festive table, both children and guests ate sausage. In the morning, Konstantin called the meat factory where such a delicacy was produced. Half an hour later the buyer was called back and offered 500 rubles.
Konstantin was able to refuse such an offer. He took the sausage to Rospotrebnadzor. There the buyer was sent for examination. However, Konstantin was not welcome here either.
Rospotrebnadzor frankly admitted: by the time of the audit, all violations can be eliminated. In addition, sanitary doctors do not have the right to visit both product manufacturers and sellers too often, and sometimes they simply do not want to.
A small neighborhood next to the railway. At the end of the street there is a food market. But it is very difficult to find it yourself. These shopping arcades are never advertised anywhere. However, there are many buyers here in any weather. The main advantage of the market is the cheap prices for all goods.
From afar, this is an ordinary market; there are hundreds of them in Moscow. But if you walk through the rows, you can easily understand what is special about it: sour cream that expired 5 days ago or juice that should have been consumed back in June. There are vegetables, fruits and frozen fish. Garbage and goods that definitely cannot be sold are thrown around the corner. This dirt, unpleasant smell and expired labels do not bother either buyers or sellers.
As knowledgeable people say, all of Moscow, all supermarkets are in this. They just fake deadlines and sell the same thing. In Moscow warehouses they take expired goods and write new deadlines, then sell them.
It was not difficult to verify what was said. In a Moscow store, expired food is literally on every shelf. During the raid, police found dozens of expired packages of juice, yogurt and sliced cheese. However, the director of the supermarket denied even the obvious facts and said that the expired goods found in the store were an accident.
Because of such accidents, buyers end up in the hospital. In Voronezh, there are dozens of patients in the infectious diseases department of a hospital who were poisoned by low-quality products.
An entire family was hospitalized in Ulyanovsk. The day before we ate canned fish bought at the supermarket. At night, mother and daughter were taken to the hospital by ambulance. It’s still difficult for 18-year-old Elena to even speak.
Most often they are poisoned by canned food and dairy products that are not fresh. Doctors also know why this happens.
Galina Belyakova, head of the infectious diseases department of the Central City Clinical Hospital of Ulyanovsk: “Supermarkets put on the first line products that have an expiration date of today, and in the back they receive them today!”
Being vigilant and always paying attention to the expiration date is the only thing that can save the buyer from a low-quality product. If, however, the products turn out to be spoiled, experts advise contacting the consumer rights protection committee or the court.
Presenter: What to do if you accidentally bought expired products and, even more so, suffered because of them. Our rights will be explained to us by the lawyer of the Society for the Protection of Consumer Rights, Alisher Zahidov. We see a moldy cake in the store, swollen cans of canned food, and something else like that, what can we do?
Guest: First of all, pay attention to this seller. The conversation should be calm, not emotional, polite, correct and to the point. What should be the reaction after the consumer, the buyer pays attention? This product must be immediately withdrawn from sale from the shelves of this store.
Host: Even in our presence?
Guest: Even in our presence. If dialogue does not work out, there is a consumer corner in every store, in which there must be a Book of Complaints and Suggestions, always indicating this specific product. The person must leave detailed information about all the circumstances of the incident. We have such a structure - this is Rospotrebnadzor. Today, the main and main structure that monitors the sanitary qualities of trade, which in the next check looks through this book: who wrote what in it.
Host: We brought the food home, opened it: by looking, by smelling, by tasting, we understand what is spoiled, what do we do?
Guest: Calmly took everything, there is a receipt, there is no receipt, it doesn’t matter. It’s good, of course, if you still have it, but it happens that you don’t. Do not be shy. And it is advisable to take it to the store on the same day or, if this is not possible, put it in the freezer as a last resort. Because if you come to the store after 3-4-5 days, the first question from the seller or store director is: where were you before? Or maybe you had it all standing outside or in the sun, and naturally it deteriorated naturally.
Host: What if the label still has a normal expiration date, but the product is clearly no longer edible. On this basis, can they balk at the store?
Guest: Even if the expiration date for the product has not passed, and the product has already turned out to be damaged, this is an absolute reason to apply for a refund for the product sold to you of poor quality. Because very often there are violations of the rules for storing goods, this is for meat, for confectionery products, in particular for milk. Everything related to the protection of consumer rights, the responsibility of proving that your product is of proper quality lies with the store, with the seller. I don't have to prove anything. So I came and said: you sold me something bad. And they are obliged to prove that this is how the law works.
Host: A more difficult situation. The man was hungry, came, ate something sour, rotten, did not notice, got poisoned and ended up in the hospital. How can you prove that it was this product from this store that caused the harm?
Guest: First of all, it is necessary to collect written evidence, facts of contacting medical institutions. Having in hand all the written evidence of how much you spent on the hospital, on restoring treatment, you have the undeniable right to go to the store where you bought it so that you can be reimbursed. If they start to look confused and say: “You didn’t buy it from us, you ate something else,” well, then go to court.
Presenter: Now products with an expiration date approaching their expiration date are sold at a discount. Based on the fact that the product was sold cheaper, they may not accept it back if it is damaged?
Guest: A discount is a sales ploy. But this does not deprive the consumer of the right to return a product of inadequate quality if you bought it within the expiration date.
Your bag was stolen from the storage room
You checked your backpack into the storage room and didn’t find it there when you returned. Security and store administration point to a sign that says that employees are not responsible for the contents of the cells, and refuse to talk.
What to do
Such signs are illegal: as soon as you place the bag in the storage room and take the key with the number, a legal relationship arises between you and the store. On this basis, the retail facility assumes the obligation to store the buyer’s item and return it safely.
Vladislav Varshavsky
managing partner of legal
The store must compensate the buyer for losses caused by the loss of the bag and its contents. The victim may also make a claim for compensation for moral damage caused.
Varshavsky also advises filing a criminal complaint regarding the theft with the police.
They suspect you of theft and are trying to inspect you
You went to the store to buy feijoa jam, but it wasn’t there, so you had to leave without buying anything. On your way out, security stops you, says that he suspects you of theft, and asks you to go to a separate room to search your belongings.
What to do
Only police can check the contents of your bags and conduct personal searches. Store employees do not have this right.
If a store security officer exceeds his authority, warn him of criminal liability for arbitrariness and unlawful deprivation of liberty. The use of force will add battery to the list of violations.
Orest Matsala
Leading lawyer of the European Legal Service
The expert recommends attracting the attention of eyewitnesses and asking them to record everything on video. Get their phone numbers so they can document the violation. And, of course, you should call the police yourself to stop the arbitrariness of the guards.
The price of the item at the checkout does not match the price tag
You took a bottle of liqueur from the shelf at an attractive price and joyfully carried it to the checkout. But they are trying to sell the drink for 500 rubles more. You say that the price tag indicated a different price. But the cashier claims that they simply didn’t have time to change it, and everything is different in the system.
What to do
The seller is obliged to provide the consumer with reliable information about the goods in a timely manner, and the price refers to this information. If there is a price tag on a shelf with products, this is recognized as a public offer.
The seller is obliged to sell the goods exactly at the price indicated in the offer, that is, on the price tag. And selling at a higher price qualifies as shortchanging the consumer.
Vladislav Varshavsky
managing partner of legal
It is better to take a photo of the price tag so that you have proof that you are right. This will make it easier to understand in a conversation with the store administration and provide evidence in court if the supermarket refuses to act according to the law.
Appeal to the Federal Budgetary Institution of Health "Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology"
Contact the Federal Budgetary Health Institution Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology.
Going to court
I consider financial illiteracy to be one of the main problems of the residents of Russia and other post-Soviet countries, and in recent years I have been actively fighting it - both my own and others. More than 20 years of work in the media in positions from reporter to editor-in-chief. Author of two books.
If the receipt is preserved, good. If not, you can use the testimony of witnesses as evidence that you bought the goods in this store (Clause 5 of Article 18 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”).
There is an extra item in the receipt
You have paid for your purchases and see that the receipt has a hole in it for an item that you did not take.
What to do
Contact the cashier and he will issue a refund. If a store employee refuses to do this, start with a written complaint to the store administration. At this stage, enlist the help of witnesses who will help prove your case.
Usually the money is returned, but if the situation reaches a dead end, write a complaint to Rospotrebnadzor. Attach photos of the receipt, purchases and a written complaint against the cashier.
Is it possible to get a refund for an expired product?
If the check is well preserved.
What can you do if you find an expired item among your purchases? (read more…)
All retailers are required to comply with the requirements of sanitary legislation, as well as ensure the safety of products for health during transportation, storage and sale of food products. Anyone who does not comply with the requirements of the law may be subject to disciplinary, civil, administrative and even criminal liability!
You bought a damaged product
You really wanted to eat, went to the store, bought drinking yogurt, took a sip and got terribly upset. Instead of a fermented milk product, the bottle contains some kind of flakes, and it is impossible to drink it. The expiration date is fine.
What to do
Demand that the product be replaced with a similar one or a refund. In this case, you must return the defective product.
If the seller refuses, the buyer can complain about the sale of damaged goods to Rospotrebnadzor and go to court demanding a refund or replacement of goods.
Orest Matsala
Leading lawyer of the European Legal Service
Before doing this, submit your complaint to the store management in writing so that you have proof of your complaint in the future.
Submit the application to the authorized person of the store
Additionally, you can apply for a free examination at the “Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology” nearest to the retail outlet. However, the specialists of this organization will not check the spoiled product brought by the consumer, but the goods on the store shelves. Make an application
Do you buy promotional products at Magnit?
Yes, I buy No, never
Bring witnesses
If the buyer was alone at the time of the transaction, a sales assistant or cashier can act as a witness. When store employees refuse to return money even with testimony, you should move on to the next step.
The buyer has the right to return expired goods to the store even without a receipt. According to Article 25 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”, a person who has purchased an unusable product may demand its replacement or refund. A simple sequence of actions will help you achieve justice.
You are not allowed into the store
You are walking with your baby. The child is sleeping, and you decide to quickly run to the supermarket for milk. But they won't let you into the store with a stroller. I don’t want to wake up the baby and get him out of the stroller, and it’s scary to leave the vehicle unattended.
What to do
Usually security guards refer to certain local regulations when they prohibit someone from entering a supermarket. But such documents apply only to employees. Such prohibitions violate the right of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Article 426, of the consumer to purchase goods. A note about this should be left in the book of reviews and suggestions of the outlet.
When it comes to baby strollers, this is a special case. People with such transport belong to low-mobility groups of the population. Store representatives who prohibit strollers from entering the store put such groups at a disadvantage, which is prohibited by law.
Vladislav Varshavsky
managing partner of legal
Cashier refuses to accept change
You paid in a minibus with a five thousand dollar bill, and they gave you change in small change. You wanted to make a payment with coins at the checkout in a supermarket, but the seller looks at you with contempt, refuses to accept the change and asks you to give him “normal money”.
What to do
Remind the cashier that this is illegal. Federal Law No. 86-FZ dated July 10, 2002 (as amended on April 23, 2018) “On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)”. Coins are unconditional means of payment, and you are required to accept them in exchange for a product or service.
If the seller refuses, ask for a book of reviews and suggestions, make a record of the violation, photograph it and contact Rospotrebnadzor.
The cashier does not sell the goods because he does not have change
You came to the store with a thousand dollar bill and bought a chocolate bar for 30 rubles. The cashier says there is no change, so he cannot sell you anything. And I really want chocolate.
What to do
The seller has no legal right to refuse to sell the goods to the buyer.
Simply by saying that he will not sell you the goods due to lack of change, the cashier violates Article 426 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. By law, the store must serve everyone who comes to them for goods and tries to exchange it for money.
Orest Matsala
Leading lawyer of the European Legal Service
If you still receive a refusal, write about it in the book of reviews and suggestions, record the fact of the complaint (for example, take a photo of the page with the entry) and contact Rospotrebnadzor.
For reference:
Shelf life is the period after which a product is considered unsuitable for its intended use. Who sets the expiration date and is responsible for the quality of the product?
1. Return it to the seller
In pursuit of profit, retailers are ready to do a lot, even to deceive the buyer. One of the techniques is to sell expired goods. Is it possible to restore justice if you only noticed after purchase that the product’s expiration date had expired?
If there are no witnesses, you can ask to view the recordings from the surveillance cameras that are now installed in each store.
