Know Your Consumer Rights

Posted on 15th September 2009 at 23:10 Tagged under Toys & Games, Mobile Phones, Home Appliances, Health & Beauty, Food & Drink, Entertainment, Clothing, Books, Computing, Electronics, Gifts & Gadgets and Home & Garden

One in three shoppers feel their consumer rights have been ignored when trying to return goods or get a refund.

In a survey* for the ‘Know Your Consumer Rights’ campaign nearly 40 per cent of men and just over 30 per cent of women said that they felt retailers had attempted to dismiss their claims when they’ve tried to return goods or get a refund.

Ann Hopwood, of Kirkby-Stephen in Cumbria, was glad she stuck to her guns after feeling her rights were ignored after being refused a refund for an engagement ring.

“After buying an engagement ring from Argos in December 2007 I was disappointed when in June this year two of the diamonds fell out of the setting.

I took the £300 ring back to Argos but they said that the goods were outside of the guarantee period so I’d have to pay for any repairs. I wasn’t impressed, to put it mildly. I then got in touch with Consumer Direct to find out exactly what my rights were. They advised me of my statutory rights under the Sale of Goods Act. If it can be proved that they goods are not of satisfactory quality, then the trader is required to offer a free repair or like-for-like replacement.

The next step was to download a template letter from the Consumer Direct website and send it by recorded delivery to Argos, requesting a reply within 14 days. Argos replied straightaway and offered a full refund of the £300!

Overall I was happy with the service once I got my refund. I’m a bit more wary and alert when buying goods now, but it would take more than that to put me off shopping!”

It pays to know your rights. The ‘Know Your Consumer Rights’ campaign aims to educate shoppers about their three key rights – “goods must fit the description given, be of satisfactory quality and suitable for purpose”. For further information and clear, practical advice contact Consumer Direct on 08454 040506 or visit the website www.consumerdirect.gov.uk.

Anyone visiting the Consumer Direct web site can test their Consumer rights knowledge by taking part in an online quiz. Test your knowledge for the chance to win £150 worth of shopping vouchers.

(*The survey was conducted by BMRB and questioned 2,009 people in England, Scotland and Wales. Further information is available at www.bis.gov.uk)

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How you can avoid the fatal Sandalwood-Cedarwood mistake

Posted on 16th April 2009 at 16:54 Tagged under Books

We here at Shopping Place are big fans of The Apprentice. If you were privileged enough to watch the show last night, you'll have witnessed probably the biggest mistake mankind has ever made concerning oil. And this time we're not talking about climate change.

Paula, the team manager of Empire, was sadly fired in last night's episode despite making what seemed to be possibly the best set of products seen this series - the Rock Poole seaweed based soap and shower gel. Despite the pathetic leadership of rival team leader Noorul, Paula found herself in Sir Alan's firing line after producing a loss of £68.04. Her mistake? Mixing up cedarwood oil and sandalwood oil.

Whilst Empire insisted that the two names sounded the same (the only thing we can see in common is the word 'wood'), the difference in terms of cost was about £1170 per kilo. Cause we're the scientific type, we've had a look on Wikipedia and can inform you with the following:

"Sandalwood essential oil provides perfumes with a striking wood base note. Sandalwood smells not unlike other wood scents, except it has a bright and fresh edge with few natural analogues. When used in smaller proportions in a perfume, it is an excellent fixative to enhance the head space of other fragrances. The oil from sandalwood is widely used in the cosmetic industry and is expensive."

OK, sounds good, but what about cedarwood?

"Cedar wood and cedar oil is known to be a natural repellent to moths, hence cedar is a popular lining for modern-day closets in which woolens are stored. This specific use of cedar is mentioned in The Iliad (Book 24), referring to the cedar-roofed or lined storage chamber where Priam goes to fetch treasures to be used as ransom."

Personally I wouldn't want moth repellant in my soap, however if the team had used cedarwood instead of the more expensive sandalwood, they would have rightly won the task with a profit of £590. Admittedly it didn't help either that the team sporting a trainee stockbroker (in the form of Ben) couldn't do some simple primary school maths, and thought ingredients costing £700 would cost a couple of quid. That comes firmly under the category of 'epic fail'.

If you saw the after-show, The Apprentice - You're Fired, afterwards on BBC2, you'll have seen Paula given a book as a leaving gift. We've had a look on the internet, and you too can own this essential (pun intended) guide to your essential oils, and pretend to be your favourite Apprentice star. It's called 'The Essential Oils Handbook: All the Oils You Will Ever Need for Health, Vitality and Well-being' and you can buy it from Amazon now for the measly price of £6.99 delivered. The book costs £7 - the team wasted £700 on ingredients. Sounds like a 100x markup to me. Had the team known about this book beforehand, it would've been a no-brainer, and could have kept Paula in a job.

So now you too can avoid making the fatal mistake of mixing up your sandalwood and cedarwood. If you get onto the next series of The Apprentice and this book ends up saving your skin in the boardroom - I'll expect a cheque through the post.

Best Shopping Place Price for a The Essential Oils Handbook ~ £6.74 at Amazon

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How to get Free Next Day Delivery at Amazon

Posted on 20th July 2008 at 19:30 Tagged under Books, Computing, Electronics, Entertainment, Gifts & Gadgets, Home & Garden, Mobile Phones and Toys & Games

Although many retailers, such as Play.com, now include free delivery in their product prices, unfortunately the web's largest retailer Amazon still hasn't cottoned on to this craze. Standard first class delivery from Amazon can be expensive - for example an electronics item could cost up to £5.88 to be delivered (or for Royal Mail to lose it). Fortunately for a short period of time, Amazon is now offering all customers a month's worth of free next day deliveries, courtesy of their Amazon Prime service.

Amazon Prime is a subscription service from Amazon, a bit like a golf club, or paying to get into the House of Lords. You pay Amazon £49 a year, and get free stuff and preferential treatment in exchange for your hard earned cash. One of these treats is unlimited free next day delivery on all qualifying products, so if you're a serial Amazon shopper, this could be quite a worthwhile service to have under your belt. But that's not all - you can also get:

- Express delivery (before 1pm) for the discounted rate of £4.49 per item

- Evening delivery (same day) for the discounted rate of £7.49 per item, if you live in Birmingham or London

- The ability to share your benefits with up to four other people in your household

There's no minimum order value, meaning there's no more buying unnecessary stuff just to get up to the £15 free Super Saver Delivery threshold. If you want to buy the Now 18 CD and listen to it in the car on the way to work in a couple of days, you can.

Best of all, for a short period Amazon are offering Amazon customers who have not previously used Amazon Prime with a free month's trial of the service. If you're looking to buy a new TV or home furnishings from Amazon, it may be worth taking a look to see if you can start a trial and get quicker and free delivery. As with any freebie, there are a few catches and clauses - if you don't cancel the service by the end of the month, Amazon will automatically start to bill you for the service, although £49 a year works out at just about £4 per month, which isn't too bad, and you could probably spend that amount on delivery from Amazon already. Free delivery is only available on certain items, and you can't get free delivery if you live in some ridiculously remote offshore cave in the British Isles - but have a look at the Amazon website for details.

Click here for more information on free next day delivery with a month's free trial of Amazon Prime. Give it a go if you're shopping with Amazon, you've got nothing to lose!

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How to reduce your Home and Car Insurance

Posted on 14th June 2008 at 17:16 Tagged under Finance

Is your wallet feeling lighter than usual? Run out of cash to buy that 400" plasma? Worried about the future of your finances? Whilst there's not a lot we can do about the credit crunch gripping the country, and fixed priced necessities such as food and petrol, there are some simple steps you can take to help avoid financial meltdown. One of these is lowering your monthly outgoings on services and recurring payments - such as broadband, insurance, and energy.

There's goldmines of money to be saved on financial services such as home and car insurance. A saving of just a tenner a month equates to a saving across the year of £120, which isn't to be sniffed at, and could be used for a weekend away or 12,000 penny sweets. A great place to start lowering your insurance is with one of the many comparison websites on the web. One such comparion site is GoCompare.com, where you can compare car insurance or compare home insurance, as well as insurance for vans, motorbikes, travel, and humans.

GoCompare.com is different from other comparison websites in that they use a magical five-star rating system. You tell GoCompare what you require, and they come back to you with not just the prices, but a rating system showing which products most match your requirements. The price you see is the price you'll pay, with up-to-date information and accurate information, and the comparison is made on a like for like basis, so you can choose exactly which insurer you wish to buy from. The comparison takes place at lightning speed with GoCompare's simple four-step process.

As well as comparing prices to get the best deal, there are also a few simple steps you can take to help reduce your car insurance costs:

1. Don't just park anywhere - if you leave your car in a driveway or garage as opposed to on the road, it's much less likely to be hit by a skip lorry or have the windows smashed in by drunken yobs, resulting in a huge saving of between 3 and 7%!

2. Prevent it being stolen - a car with an alarm, immobiliser or tracker is much less likely to be stolen, resulting in lower insurance for you, and saving all the hassle of dealing with a stolen car. Bit of a no brainer really.

3. Unpimp your ride - any modifications you make to your car will result in higher insurance, except security enhancements. Resist the temptation to pimp your ride, and tell Westwood to shove off.

4. Keep it clean - whilst insurers don't charge more for dirty cars - yet - if you have a clean license, less convictions means lower insurance costs.

5. Pay in one go - paying monthly may be convenient, but insurers are likely to charge interest on top. If you have the option to pay it all in one lump sum - go for it, it'll most likely be cheaper.

6. Change your job - think about what you put as your occupation. In a multi-skilled world, if you could define your job as many different things, pick the one you think might result in lower insurance costs. For example, a doctor is likely to have lower car insurance than 'Getaway Driver'.

Similar sort of tips apply to home insurance, by installing additional security features, and not living on a flood plain or in tornado alley, you're likely to be able to reduce your insurance costs. Just use your common sense, and think about what would result in lower insurance costs if you were playing the insurance company. By taking advantage of some of these tips, and comparing your car insurance or comparing your home insurance with our recommended comparison site, GoCompare.com, you could easily save money on your insurance costs. It costs nothing, except for a small amount of time, and could result in a big saving.

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Saving energy is elementary with Wattson

Posted on 4th June 2008 at 20:48 Tagged under Electronics, Gifts & Gadgets and Home & Garden

Even though it looks like a plastic bridge over a purple river of light, the Wattson does a lot more than just look pretty. Wattson allows you to monitor how much energy your home is using, presents it to you in fancy charts and graphs on your computer, and suggests ways to cut your usage. So whether you're a hardcore environmentalist looking to save the planet or simply a savvy consumer looking to save some money on your electricity bills, the Wattson could be the invention you've been looking for.

Developed by the clever people at DIY Kyoto, the Wattson comes in two parts. The first is the main box which looks pretty, and wouldn't look out of place in the most stylish of homes. The second is the sensor clip and transmitter. Even though Wattson allows you to measure the energy usage of your whole house, you won't have to rewire the mains system to be able to use it. The sensor clip simply clips like a peg around one of the cables running into your electricity meter, and the transmitter wirelessly sends this information about the electricity you're using to the main box, which can be positioned anywhere in your home. It's all perfectly safe, and can be done by anyone with half a brain at home without having to call out an electrician.

Wattson relays the information it receives in many ways. When the lights glow blue, you're using less energy than usual, and the planet is happy. When they're purple, you're using about the same amount of energy as usual. And when they're red, you'll have Greenpeace knocking on your door telling you to turn off the plasma TV. If you prefer to work with numbers, Wattson can even tell you how many Watts your home is gobbling up at any moment, and how much it's costing you in the Queen's pounds and pence. If you connect your Wattson up to your PC or Mac, the free holmes software can produce plenty of nifty graphs and charts, showing you how to reduce your energy usage, and even connecting you up to other eco-nuts over the internet to share energy saving tips and tricks. The video below shows some of these nuts turning lights on and off to show you exactly how the Wattson works (warning, watching for longer than about half a minute may cause drowsiness), and we can assure you you'll be doing the same thing as soon as you get your mitts on one.

The Wattson is simple, portable, stylish, and the creators claim it'll help you save around 5%-20% of your electricity bill. It's environmentally friendly, quick and easy to install, and only uses four watts, costing about £4 a year to run. Do you need one? Probably not. Do you want one? That's for you to decide. Will it help you save money on your electricity bills, whilst looking snazzy at the same time? Almost definitely.

Best Shopping Place Price for a Wattson Energy Monitor ~ £103.90 at Firebox

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