In his latest Podcast, Frank explores your Consumer, Digital and Data Rights and E-Receipts

Hello and welcome to my latest Podcast, it’s good to have you joining me today and indeed welcome to the first in my series of Consumer Essentials where I hope to guide you toward solutions to the problems you may face! 

I recently did a radio interview for BBC Hereford & Worcester, following identification of a potential problem that Consumers may face, discovered by the very active production team at the station. 

They had discovered that some of their listeners had bought goods from stores where the receipt for the goods could be delivered by e mail at checkout rather than receive a hard-copy. It appears that whilst one customer had returned to the store with their goods, they were unable to prove their purchase because they hadn’t received the e-receipt. 

It was an interesting scenario because as I explained on-air, I had not heard of such difficulties and these were only likely to arise if a customer had a problem with the goods they bought, but it was likely to become an increasing difficulty or experience if for example, the e mail address for the receipt was incorrectly taken, or that the e mail was rejected or junked by the customers own settings. And, if the goods they bought had failed or failed to live up to expectations, would the trader’s refusal to deal with the Consumer block their access to some very important Consumer Rights? 

I explained that I was like many Consumers that either requested an e-receipt or on occasions, I refused to receive any receipt whatsoever; hey, we’re all human, even if we should know better! 

So the key question during the interview was, ‘what can Consumers do about not receiving their e-receipt; what are the key things they can do about it’? 

I thought that there were two approaches that Consumers needed to think about in this rapidly changing digital-age; firstly the practical and secondly the law! 

The first step is that when you get the goods home, is where possible to retain the packaging until you’re satisfied that the goods are in good working order. If you are satisfied at this point, then you should at the very least, retain any bar-codes contained on the packaging as these may help you when you get to the store to argue your rights against goods that have failed. 

In practical terms, if your product was not working or was not fit for purpose, and you requested an e-receipt at the time of the purchase, then the first step is to check your e mail server. The obvious place to look is within your in-box or deleted folder just in case the sender’s name was not recognised by you after the purchase. A good example of this is found on bank statements. When you look at a particular statement entry and you don’t recognise the name, but on investigation, you discover that the office for the trader is based somewhere else in the UK or is trading under its parent company’s name and that’s what appears on the statement. The same logic may apply in the name of the sender of the e mail. 

If you don’t find your e-receipt in the in-box or deleted folders, then the next step is to check your Junk folder because your operating system and firewall may decide that the e mail is junk! 

If the e-receipt is not found through these methods, and the goods have failed in some way, then there are other practical steps you can take in the store. 

When making a complaint in a shop or with a trader, the first thing to remember is to always present your complaint politely and calmly; it’s not the retail assistant’s fault that you’ve encountered problems! Simply explain the problem with the goods and the fact that you did not receive the e-receipt. Explain further that you carried out all checks on your device and the e-receipt has not been found. 

A retailer should be able to do one of two things: either use your credit or debit card to search for your transaction (I have done this several times and they have always found my purchase), or, they could potentially scan the bar-codes you have retained to check through for the purchase of that particular item. Once they have found the purchase, the store assistant can simply carry out a quick to make sure that the details of your e mail were recorded correctly, if at all. If they were recorded incorrectly, then the details can be amended and an e-receipt sent to you, whilst dealing with your complaint about the goods because the transaction has been found. 

But what happens if the trader for some inexplicable reason refuses to help you or look into the transaction? 

Well, we now come to potential legal solutions. 

In the first instance, in every transaction we make, details of our passage through life is now digitally recorded. Those digital records of our lives are covered by the Data Protection Act 2018, which incorporated the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. 

In simple terms, you have a right to access your data and that includes your transactional data. The law also give you the right to have your data corrected if it has been incorrectly recorded. 

The UK’s Information Commissioner sets out very clearly on its website those rights, confirming that you have a right of access to your data, to have rectification of that personal data and all without a fee except if the request was unfounded, excessive or following a previous request. 

Let’s face it, in the scenario I was discussing on the radio, most Consumers would be dealing with one distinct purchase or transaction so the prospect of you being a repeat requester is somewhat remote. 

But coming back to any difficulties you have with a trader, you should again politely and simply express disappointment that they are not willing to help you. You should point them to your new-found rights under the Data Protection Act (these rights can be expressed verbally but I always recommend that you put these formally in writing after your encounter). Clearly if they refused you access to your personal data, then you could make a complaint to the Information Commissioner who should be able to help you further. 

You should also point out to the Trader that their actions are preventing you from exercising your rights under Chapter 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Advise them that because of the problems with the goods you purchased, that they should have been supplied as being satisfactory in quality, fit for purpose or that the goods should fit the description as supplied. Advise them that you are concerned that because they are preventing you from accessing your transaction data, you are being prevented from enjoying your right to reject the goods or partially reject the goods, or your rights to have the goods repaired or replaced. Obviously if they continued to block your access to those rights, then their refusal of your data would be brought to the attention of a court or some traders arbitration scheme. 

On a separate note, don’t forget that the Consumer Rights Act also covers your purchases for Digital content and Services, and there are regulations that also govern Unfair Contract Terms should you ever have a dispute with a Trader and their contracts! 

But coming back to e-receipts and goods that have failed, I accept that not every Consumer is able to confront what they will see as a potential confrontation, but again in law, if you found yourself in a dispute with a trader who wouldn’t access your transaction history, then you could always make a Section 75 complaint to your credit card company under the Consumer Credit Card Act, or, where you bought the goods with a debit-card, you could contact your card-issuing bank and begin the process of a chargeback complaint – these solutions may also help you resolve your complaints about the goods. 

Hopefully when the trader see’s that you are a knowledgeable and determined Consumer that will relent and search for your transaction and help you to provide any corrections needed to your data and above all, help you with your faulty goods! 

These are seemingly new problems that Consumers will face as we progress into the digital-future and the practical steps I have outlined in this Podcast will help you whether you buy the product in a store or indeed online. As for the legal challenges you can make, they may seem daunting at first, but be assured, many Consumers before you have trod the same path in using the law to make their arguments and they have succeeded. 

One thing is for certain, our digital-pathways will not just be affected by failures or problems during our transactional lives but will become more important as we begin to understand the use and deployment of algorithms; it is well to heed these changes and design a pathway of how to deal with these problems as we gallop headlong into our Consumer futures! 

Thank you for listening, until the next time, take care!

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