01There is no fixed number of years
The consumer guarantees don’t say “one year” or “two years”. Goods must be of acceptable quality: safe, durable, free from defects, and lasting as long as a reasonable consumer would expect.
What is reasonable depends on what the product is, what you paid, and what you were told when you bought it. A $2,500 washing machine dying in year four is a very different story from a $40 toaster doing the same. Price is evidence about expected life.
02It runs alongside the manufacturer's warranty, not instead of it
A manufacturer’s warranty is an extra promise the company chose to make. It has an end date printed on it.
The consumer guarantees are a legal right that comes automatically with goods you buy for personal or household use, and a business can’t contract out of them. When the warranty ends, the guarantees keep going for as long as the product should reasonably last.
03Major failure or minor failure decides who chooses
If the problem is minor, the business chooses the remedy: repair, replacement or refund. It has to happen within a reasonable time.
If it is major, you choose. A failure is major when you wouldn’t have bought the product had you known about it, when it is significantly different from its description or sample, when it is substantially unfit for its purpose and can’t easily be fixed, or when it is unsafe. You can ask for a refund or a replacement, and you may also be entitled to compensation for reasonably foreseeable loss the failure caused.
04Start with the business that sold it to you
Your claim is with the retailer. Being told to “take it up with the manufacturer” doesn’t end their obligation. In some situations you can also go to the manufacturer directly, but you never have to.
Put it in writing. Say that you are relying on the consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law, describe the fault and when it appeared, and say what you want done.
05If they won't help
Each state and territory has a consumer protection agency that can step in, and a tribunal that hears consumer claims, such as NCAT in New South Wales, VCAT in Victoria and QCAT in Queensland. They are built to be used without a lawyer.
What wins these claims is evidence: proof of purchase, the date, the price, and a clear record of what went wrong and when. That is exactly the paperwork that tends to disappear.
06The law follows the purchase, not where you live now
The consumer guarantees cover goods supplied in Australia. If you bought a TV in Brisbane and then moved to Auckland, your claim is still against the Australian retailer under Australian law. New Zealand’s Consumer Guarantees Act only covers goods supplied in trade in New Zealand.
I Kept It records the country of each purchase separately from where you live, so every item is judged under the law that actually applies to it. Manufacturer warranties are a different matter, and are often limited to the region of sale.
07What this has to do with I Kept It
I Kept It keeps the receipt, the date and the price for you, and estimates how long the consumer guarantees should reasonably cover each item, based on its category and what you paid. You see it before you walk into the shop, not after.
Those estimates are a starting point, not a ruling. But a dated receipt and a number make for a much shorter conversation than neither.
