Your rights when buying goods

When your buy something from a shop, you are making a contract. This

contract means that it’s up to the shop – not the 1 – to deal with the

complaints if the goods are not 2 .

The goods must not be broken or 3 and must work properly. This is

known as “merchantable quality”. The goods must be described – whether on the

pack or by the 4 . A hair diver which the box says is blue should not turn out

to be pink; a pair of shoes the salesman says is leather should not be plastic.

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The goods should be 5 for their purpose. This means the purpose for

which most people buy those particular goods. If you wanted something for a

special purpose, you must have said for 6 for what. Is, for instance, the shop

assures you that a certain glue will mend broken china, and it doesn’t you have a right to return it.

If the shop sells you 7 goods, it has broken its side of the bargain.

There are four golden rules:

1. 8 the goods you buy at once. If they are faulty tell the seller

quickly.

2. Keep any 9 you are given. If you have to return something, the

receipt will help to 10 where and when you bought it.

3. Don’t be afraid to complain. You are not asking a favour to have faulty goods put right. The law is on your side.

3. Be persistent but not aggressive. If your complaint is 11 , it is

somebody’s 12 to put things right.

IV. Speaking Practice

1. Discuss in pairs:

– Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Give reasons for your answers.

a. The quality of a company's product has the biggest effect on how people view a company.

b. Good customer service does not mean that that everyone in an organization has to have the same values.

c. Poor customer service always makes me take my business elsewhere.

– Below is a list of factors which contribute to good customer care. Rank them in order of importance, giving reasons for your choices.

a. Well-trained staff

b. Politeness of staff when dealing with customers

c. Efficiency and speed of dealing with customer enquiries

d. Smart appearance of staff

e. Flexibility of staff

f. Service with a smile

g. Good pay and conditions of work h. Staff familiarity with products

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i. Satisfactory response to complaints

j. Rewards for customer loyalty (e.g. air miles, money-off vouchers etc.)

k. Corporate hospitality

2. The following short texts deal with various aspects of customer care.

1. Every complaint must be put in writing and we undertake to respond to that complaint within 24 hours.

1. Despite booking wheelchair assistance, I had to ask a fellow passenger to push me to the departure gate for my Ryanair flight from Stansted to Biarritz.

1. Then there was the travel agent who told me about her customer losing a «held booking» through having to wait more than 30 minutes on the phone to confirm.

1. “Managers should put in a call after a sale to check if the client is happy with the goods or services” says Fosbrook. “This will help to avoid late payments for dissatisfaction”.

1. Tradesmen who worked for Steve Clark began to get the idea he was serious about customer care when he arrived on site and threw their transistor radio in the bin. Other things that are banned on Clark Contracts sites include earrings and brand name clothing.

1. Hotel staff in Scotland have such poor language skills that workers in 97 % of hotels were unable to answer basic questions in French and German from prospective customers, a survey has revealed.

1. Results in the survey showed that callers who managed to get through to an advertised business number spent more than 40 % of their time either on hold, in a queue or being continually transferred.

1. If there is a shipping delay, a customer-care staffer contacts the buyer in question immediately. “We don't want customers to have to call us to find out what's going on with their order” says Mauriello.

Questions on the text:

1. Which of the situations above represent good customer care, and which represent poor customer care?

GOOD CUSTOMER CARE:

POOR CUSTOMER CARE:

2. For each of the situations in the texts above which represent poor customer care, what could the company do to improve the situation?