Refund

If repair or replacement are not practicable options, the Regulations provide for the alternative remedies of partial refund, reduction in the price (a refund, in other words) or full refund.

In considering whether a full, or partial, refund is to be given, account needs to be taken of the benefit provided by the goods to the consumer, just as it is when determining compensation.

If a spin dryer had cost £99 four years before and was two thirds of the way through its average length of life - when an inherent fault showed itself - then the retailer might offer around £33 as an adequate reduction in price bearing in mind that the consumer was being deprived of one third of the typical period for which he should have enjoyed the good.

Account might also need to be taken of the fact that goods tend to depreciate more quickly in the early years of their life-span.

If a consumer had had constant problems with a product, from the time of the sale, to such an extent that he had never enjoyed any normal benefit from the product then the retailer might be expected to offer him a full refund of his money.