staff discount vs consumer rights

sparkle83

I hope someone can shed some light on this.

My company have recently changed our staff discount so that we will get 50% off, but if we do buy it with our discount, we will not be given a refund, even if the item is faulty.

Is this actually legal?

wealdroam

Pretty sure that what they are planning to do is illegal.

A sale is a sale... the thing still has to work whatever price is paid.
Unless of course the fault is made known at the time of sale.

What is to stop them gathering together all their faulty unsellable stock and selling it at a 50% discount to their staff?

sparkle83

See that's what I was thinking, but wanted to pick the brains of those in the know

pcombo

They cant over ride the law with company policy i.e sale of good act etc

Sounds illegal to me, But there might be some law that states otherwise.

paddyrg

Did they just say 'no remedy' or 'no refund'? It could be that repair and replace are the order of the day, and they are justrying to be clear that maybe some tax position around vouchers and discounts for staff means they can't deal with refunding mind-changers. And maybe they have had a problem with mind-changers damaging goods and claiming 'fault' in the past, or something?

Not saying what they are doing is or is not legal, just that there may be a story behind it

George_Michael

Did they just say 'no remedy' or 'no refund'? It could be that repair and replace are the order of the day,

Even this would be illegal as the seller can't legally deny a refund if the goods were faulty at the time of sale and rejected within a reasonable time.
The refund/repair/replace option is only for goods that become faulty after they have been accepted by the buyer.

bris

It's a very generous discount, even although legally they can't deny you youy consumer rights, they can deny you the 50% discount if you complain.

wealdroam wrote: »

What is to stop them gathering together all their faulty unsellable stock and selling it at a 50% discount to their staff?

I would assume the staff are not daft enough to buy the customer returns. I also assume the managment dont tell the staff that they can only buy what they put in front of them and that they can buy anything from the shop floor.

wealdroam

bris wrote: »

I would assume the staff are not daft enough to buy the customer returns.

You may be right.

bris wrote: »

I also assume the managment dont tell the staff that they can only buy what they put in front of them and that they can buy anything from the shop floor.

I didn't assume that the employer was a shop, or that the goods would be on display.

Andy_L

If its an employer to employee sale is that a consumer purchase or does it count as a business-to-business transaction?

MackemPunk

Andy_L wrote: »

If its an employer to employee sale is that a consumer purchase or does it count as a business-to-business transaction?

I can't see any way that an employee could be classed as a business.

shaun_from_Africa

It should still class as a business to consumer transaction as it would only be a B2B if the purchased goods were intended for use in the buyers trade or profession.