For those of you who are planning to go out in the middle days to exchange your Christmas presents, there are a few things to keep in mind. It is up to each store to decide which rules they have regarding the right of exchange and return, explains Jan Bertoft, general secretary of Sweden’s consumers.
– If it is a whole product, where the packaging has not been broken, you can often exchange it in the same store. But you cannot legally demand it. Open purchase or right of exchange is something that is voluntary, which the stores can choose to have. They often have them, but may have different rules and time limits for it, he says.
Right of exchange
Despite this, the vast majority of stores have some form of right of exchange, and are polite when it comes to exchanges and returns of Christmas presents, if you go to the store.
– Ideally you should have the receipt with you, but often they are so generous that you don’t even need it. Sometimes you can show a pay statement from your bank instead. But you have to remember that if someone bought something with a payment card, and gave it away, the money goes back to the person who has the card. That’s the rules. Then you can choose to get a credit receipt, or switch to another item, instead, says Jan.
Right of withdrawal
When it comes to returns of things bought online, the rules look a little different.
– Then you automatically legally, via EU rules, have a 14-day right of withdrawal. The right of withdrawal applies from the moment you pick up the item, and means that you can send it back and get your money back. The money still usually goes back to the person who bought it – the donor, so you have to settle it then in that case, explains Jan.
However, Jan urges consumers to be a little thoughtful on sites that are outside the EU and do not have their own warehouses.
– Then you may have to send back to China, for example, and it is not certain that the right of withdrawal applies. But if you buy within the EU, it always applies.
Right of complaint
In addition to the right of exchange and right of withdrawal, there is a statutory right of complaint, which applies if an item is broken.
– A common misconception is that it only applies for one year, or as long as the guarantee is valid. But it is actually three years if it is an original error. Then there are certain rules that say that for two years it is the store that must prove that you have been negligent. But the right to complain is valid for three years according to the Consumer Purchase Act, says Jan.
“Easy to be seduced by bargains and sales”
If you’re completely satisfied with all your Christmas presents, but still have to hit the town or the sites in the days between to find a bargain, there are a few things to keep in mind. According to Jan, it is common for stores to raise their prices just before the sale, in order to lower them again and make it look like a better deal than it is.
– It is easy to be seduced by all the numbers and bargains and sales. It is important to look at how many percentages it is, without looking at the price itself, he says.