Buying exercise equipment: your rights

Stage 1: before you pay

Signs and policies

A business can’t remove the guarantees by putting up a “no refunds” sign, by saying refunds end after a set number of days, by saying it isn’t responsible for problems, or by suggesting you need an extended warranty to keep your rights after a certain date. Misleading you about your rights in those ways is against the law.

Extended warranties

An extended warranty, sometimes called a care package, lengthens the manufacturer’s warranty and is usually sold separately, at extra cost, sometimes by a different business. It may or may not add anything to the rights you already have, and the business should explain what it adds. It is optional. A business must not pressure you into one, or mislead you into paying for rights you have anyway.

What the seller tells you

Extra promises about a product’s quality, condition, performance, what it can do and for how long, or whether parts and servicing will be available, are express warranties, spoken or written, and the business has to keep them. The guarantee that a product is fit for purpose also covers a purpose you told the business about, what the business advertised, and a product you bought on the business’s advice.

Stage 2: delivery

If equipment you bought from a business hasn’t arrived when expected, contact the business first. It should tell you why and what it is doing about it.

An overseas business that sells directly to people in Australia must follow the Australian Consumer Law. The ACCC adds that getting a remedy from an overseas business can be hard in practice, and that Australian consumer protection agencies can offer only limited help, so it suggests asking the agency where the seller is based. The law doesn’t cover a purchase the business never offered here, such as goods sent to an overseas address and then forwarded on.

Stage 3: when something goes wrong

What you can ask for depends on whether the problem is major or minor. A problem is major if the product:

• is unsafe
• is very different from its description or sample
• has one serious problem, or several smaller ones, that would have stopped someone buying it had they known
• can’t do its normal job, or a job you told the seller about, and can’t easily be fixed in a reasonable time.

For a major problem, you choose between a refund and a replacement of the same type. The refund is everything you paid; the business can’t reduce it because you have already ridden the bike. You can instead keep the product and be compensated for the drop in its value.

For a minor problem, the business must fix it free of charge; it may offer a refund or replacement, but doesn’t have to. If it won’t fix it, or can’t within a reasonable time, you can have it fixed elsewhere and recover the reasonable cost, take a refund or replacement, or keep it with compensation for the lost value.

The business that sold it to you is responsible for putting it right, and it can’t tell you to take the problem to the manufacturer instead.

Stage 4: getting a heavy item back

You have the right to return a product you think has a problem, and it doesn’t need its original packaging, though the business can ask for proof of purchase such as a receipt.

For things that post easily, returning them is up to you. For goods that are large, heavy or hard to remove, the business pays the shipping or collects them, within a reasonable time; the ACCC’s examples include widescreen televisions, beds and installed appliances.

If the business confirms the fault, it repays your reasonable return costs, so keep the receipts. If it finds no fault, it can charge you for collection and inspection, but only if it gave you a reasonable estimate of those costs before collecting.

Stage 5: after the warranty runs out

A manufacturer’s warranty, also called a warranty against defects, sits on top of the guarantees and doesn’t limit them. When it expires, the guarantee of acceptable quality usually still applies, so you are likely still entitled to a remedy for a problem. A business must not suggest your rights end with the warranty.

The same holds if you lose the warranty, for example by missing a service it required: the guarantee rights stay with you. A warranty against defects must include set wording, and for goods it opens: “Our goods come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law.”

Where the guarantees don’t reach

You aren’t entitled to a repair, replacement or refund under the guarantees if you simply changed your mind, found it cheaper elsewhere, or no longer want it, though a business with a change of mind policy must honour it. The same goes for a problem caused by misuse, or one you knew about before you bought.

Two situations work a little differently. Equipment you were given as a gift carries the same rights as if you had bought it yourself. Equipment you hire or lease is covered by most of the guarantees, apart from those about owning it, and the right to use it undisturbed lasts for the length of the hire.

A bike bought from a private seller is a different case again: see Buying second-hand exercise equipment.