A guarantee acts as extra protection over and above your legal rights when you buy an item. A guarantee is given at the seller’s discretion and is not legally required to provide one. After March 31st 2003, guarantees that are given for free must be written in clear English and be in a visible place for you to see.

The conditions of the guarantee are legally binding as long as they comply with this new rule.A guarantee sometimes allows you to have faulty goods repaired or replaced. When the seller does provide a guarantee, it does replace the legal rights that you have as a customer.  You can be entitled to get your money back in certain circumstances if there is a problem with the goods, even with a guarantee.

If a trader attempts to ignore a customer’s legal rights they may be committing a criminal offence.Items in a sale are often faulty already and must be marked as ‘shop soiled’ or state what the problem is. You have the same rights to expect the goods that you are buying to be of the same quality as if you had bought the item before the sale.