The right to a complaint for goods up to two years also applies to visible defects that could have been identified at the time of purchase. This is explained by the online platform “We, the consumers“ in a special podcast episode, the occasion of which is the story of a consumer about his unlawfully rejected complaint.
The consumer purchased sneakers from a physical store and after returning home discovered that the shoes had a crooked seam on the upper part. When he returned to the retailer and filed a complaint, he received a response that the defect was visible and he should have noticed it in the store before buying the shoes. The trader's response may sound logical, but refusing to consider the complaint is unlawful.
“The fact that a non-conformity was visible does not automatically mean that the consumer has lost his right to file a complaint. The law obliges the seller to provide a product that meets both the agreement upon purchase and the usual requirements for an item of this type, which certainly do not imply a crooked seam like this“, commented the author and host of the podcast Gabriela Rumenova.
In the event of non-conformity of the product with the sales contract, the consumer has the right to file a complaint within two years of delivery. For such a defect, the legislator may assume that it existed at the time of purchase, and if the trader claims the opposite, he must prove it. And this is the essential protection for the consumer.
Gabriela Rumenova emphasizes that the consumer may lose his right to file a complaint if he was explicitly notified of the specific deviation at the time of purchase and accepted it with an explicit and separate statement. “Then there is no lack of conformity for the deviation in question. But this is something completely different from the situation in which, after the purchase, the trader says: “It was visible. You should have noticed it.“, the expert specifies.
When a product does not comply with the sales contract, the consumer may request that it be repaired or replaced. In this case, the crooked seam is unlikely to be able to be straightened, so the shoes should be replaced - free of charge and within one month of the seller being notified of the non-conformity, without significant inconvenience to the consumer. In turn, the consumer must provide the product to the seller. But how to do it when the claim is rejected?!
If the repair or replacement is impossible or would result in disproportionately high costs for the seller, the law allows the specific remedy to be rejected, but not the claim itself. In the event that the goods are not brought into conformity within the one-month period, the consumer may be entitled to a proportional price reduction or to terminate the contract. The same can happen if the problem recurs after the repair or replacement has been undertaken. Or if the non-conformity is so serious that it justifies an immediate price reduction or termination of the contract.
A price reduction or termination of the contract may also occur when the trader declares or it is clear from the circumstances that he will not bring the goods into conformity within the time limit – as in this case.
When reducing the price, it must be proportional to the difference between the value of the goods with the defect and the value it would have had without this defect. And if the contract is terminated, the consumer returns the goods to the seller, who must refund the price paid using the same means of payment that was used for the purchase, unless the consumer expressly agrees otherwise and this does not create costs for him. However, there is one important limitation. The contract cannot be terminated if the discrepancy is insignificant. But this is not decided simply by the seller's words - he has the burden of proving this, explain from “We, the consumers“.