Consumer guarantees your services must meet
The law automatically gives consumers rights when they buy goods and services from you. These are called consumer guarantees.
There are 3 consumer guarantees that apply to any services purchased from businesses in Queensland.
Consumer guarantees for services apply to:
- anything that costs $100,000 or less
- anything for personal or household use, regardless of price.
Consumer guarantees for services do not apply to:
- services the consumer would normally use for business
- transport or storage for work-related goods
- insurance contracts.
A consumer can seek a remedy if they buy something that doesn't meet these guarantees. This means you must fix the fault. This might be a refund, a repeat service or compensation for the reduced value of the service.
Find more details about remedies.
The following clip from our Australian Consumer Law video explains the consumer guarantees that apply to services.
As I mentioned in chapter 2, consumer guarantees define the rights and responsibilities of both the consumer and the supplier in the event something goes wrong with a service. There are 3 guarantees on services, which I'll now take you through.
The supplier guarantees that services are going to be supplied with due care and skill. For example, if a consumer hires a plumber to install plumbing in their new house, the plumber should be able to do so. As a licensed trade person, the plumber is expected to work with a certain level of skill and exercise appropriate care while carrying out the service.
The supplier guarantees that the service will be fit for the specified purpose. For example, if the consumer asks the handyman to build a wall-mounted shelf, capable of holding a heavy vase, but the shelf collapses when the vase is placed on it, the service has not achieved the desired result.
The supplier guarantees that the service will be supplied within a reasonable time frame if the completion date has not been stated. A contract or agreement for the supply of a service usually includes a completion date, but if it does not, the service must be completed within a reasonable time. Again, what is reasonable depends on the service being performed.
Sometimes a service that a consumer buys won't be completely right. The service might have to be repeated. So what happens then?
When a consumer guarantee on a service is not met, the consumer has the right to a remedy, that is to have the problem put right. The type of remedy will depend on whether the problem is classed as either a major or minor failure, but usually it will be a repeat of the service.
So what qualifies as a major failure? A major failure with a service guarantee is when the consumer wouldn't have acquired the services if they had known the nature and extent of the problem. For example, they would not have had a jacket dry cleaned if they knew the dye would run. The services are substantially unfit for their normal purpose and cannot easily be made fit within a reasonable time.
For example, a carpet cleaning service changes the colour of the consumer's carpet in some places. The consumer told the supplier they wanted a specific result, but the services and any resulting product do not achieve that result, nor can the result be rectified easily or within a reasonable time.
The consumer told the supplier that they wanted the service for a specific purpose, but the services and any resulting product do not achieve that purpose, nor can it be fixed easily or within a reasonable time. For example, a consumer tells a pay-TV company they’re signing up specifically to watch a sporting event, but the package the company installs doesn't contain the sports channel and the new package can't be delivered before the event starts.
The supplier of services has created an unsafe situation. For example, an electrician incorrectly wires downlights in a consumer's new kitchen, which creates a fire risk.
A minor failure with a service guarantee is anything not classed as major. In a major failure situation, the consumer has the right to choose the remedy, while in a minor failure situation, the supplier chooses the remedy. It's important to remember the consumer has a right to a remedy either way – it's just a matter of who chooses the type of remedy.
So, for a major failure, the consumer can cancel the service contract with the business and claim a refund or keep the contract and claim compensation for the difference in the value of the service delivered and what was paid.
And for a minor failure, the supplier can fix the problem free of charge and within a reasonable time or arrange another supplier to fix the problem free of charge.
So, to summarise, consumer guarantees on services boil down to a couple of pretty simple ideas.
- The service will do what the consumer needs it to do.
- It will be completed within a reasonable time.
- If something goes wrong, the supplier must make it right by providing a remedy such as a repeat service.
Due care and skill
You guarantee you provide your services with due care and skill. This means that you must:
- take care to avoid loss or damage
- meet a level of professional skill or knowledge.
Example
A consumer hires a painter to paint her house. The painter does not remove all of the old, flaking paint before applying the new paint. The new paint starts to flake after 6 months. The painter has not shown due care and skill and the consumer is entitled to a remedy.
Fit for a specific purpose
You guarantee that your services will achieve the results the consumer wants. The consumer will need to outline these expectations before you start the job.
Examples
A homeowner hires a carpenter to build a carport for his car, which he explains is to be 2 metres wide. The carpenter builds a carport that is only 1.8 metres wide and does not fully cover the car. The carpenter has not met this guarantee and the homeowner is entitled to a remedy.
A sports fan buys a pay TV subscription so she can watch an upcoming football game. She tells the sales representative that she is buying the subscription to watch the game. On the day of the match, she realises that it’s on a different channel that she doesn’t have access to. The pay TV company has not met their guarantee, and the sports fan is entitled to a remedy.
A young man goes to the barber and gets a permanent hair colouring. The barber applies the colour and warns the young man not to wash his hair for 24 hours. The young man follows this instruction, but the colour runs from his hair during his shower a few days later. The barber hasn’t met this guarantee, and the young man is entitled to a remedy.
Exceptions
This guarantee does not apply when:
- you say the service is unlikely to achieve the consumer’s intended result, but they decide to hire you anyway
- you are a qualified architect or engineer.
Finished in a reasonable time
You guarantee to supply your services:
- at the agreed time (or reasonably close to that time)
- within a ‘reasonable’ time (if your contract did not set a time).
A 'reasonable' time will depend on what type of service you offer. For example, the time needed for building a house is longer than for lopping a tree.
However, most contracts should set out when work will start and end. We recommend that you include these in your contract.
