General information, not legal advice. The ACCC’s pages, linked here, set out the guarantees in full, and your state or territory consumer agency can tell you how they apply to your own job.
Three guarantees for the work
The ACCC describes three guarantees that apply when you buy a service.
Due care and skill
“Service providers must carry out all services using an acceptable level of care and skill. Their work must be at least as good as what a competent service provider with average skills and experience would provide.” The ACCC adds that they must take reasonable steps to avoid causing loss or damage while providing the service.
Fit for a particular purpose
“Services provided, and any resulting products, must be fit for any stated purpose.” This guarantee applies when:
- “a consumer tells a service provider they want to use their service for a particular purpose”
- “the consumer buys the service based on the advice of the business”
- “the service provider advertises that their service can be used for a particular purpose.”
Provided within a reasonable time
Where no time frame was agreed, the ACCC says services must be supplied within a reasonable time, and that what is reasonable can depend on factors including “the nature of the services”, weather conditions and the “availability of parts or materials.”
Guarantees for the lock itself
A new lock, cylinder or key supplied with the job is a product, and products carry their own guarantees. “A product sold to a consumer must be of acceptable quality”, which the ACCC says means it “is safe, durable and free from defects”. “Any description of a product by a business must be accurate, whether written or spoken.”
Warranties are something else again: “extra promises that a business can choose to make on top of the consumer guarantees.” A business that makes extra promises about a product “must meet these promises”, spoken or written. And a warranty “can’t replace, change or take away a consumer’s basic rights.”
Major or minor: what you can ask for
What remedy you are entitled to generally depends on whether the problem is with a product or a service, and how serious it is. For a service, the ACCC sets it out like this.
A major problem
“A service has a major problem when it:
- creates an unsafe situation
- has either one serious problem or several smaller problems that would stop someone buying the service if they knew about them beforehand
- can’t be used for its normal purpose, or for a specific purpose that the consumer told the seller about, or doesn’t achieve a specific result that the consumer told the seller about, and can’t easily be fixed within a reasonable time.”
You can then choose to cancel and get a refund (which may not be full, as a reasonable amount is payable for work done so far and as expected), or keep the contract and pay a lower price that takes the problem into account.
A minor problem
“When a product or service has a minor problem, the business must fix the problem or repair the product for free.”
If the business can’t or won’t fix it within a reasonable time, or at all, you are entitled to have it done somewhere else and be paid back the reasonable cost, to cancel the service contract and be compensated for the drop in value, or to a refund or replacement instead.
“A business has the right to assess the product or service before they provide a remedy.” For a faulty product, the ACCC adds that “Refunds should be provided in the same form as the original payment, unless the business and consumer agree otherwise.”
A warranty cannot be used to shrink any of this. “Businesses must not mislead consumers into thinking that their rights are limited to the remedies or timeframe set out in a warranty against defects.” And if someone else paid for the job as a gift, the ACCC says the person who received it has “the same basic rights as if they had bought the product or service themselves.”
Where the guarantees stop
The ACCC lists situations in which you are not entitled to a repair, replacement or refund. For a service, three of them stand out: you simply changed your mind (though a business with a ‘change of mind’ policy must follow it); you wanted the work done your way even though the business advised otherwise; or the problem was caused by someone other than the business.
Some rules run the other way. “It’s illegal for businesses to rely on store policies or terms and conditions which deny these rights.” The guarantees cover products and services “normally bought for personal or household use”, and a business can be a consumer too when what it buys costs less than $100,000 including GST, or is commonly bought for personal, domestic or household use, with exceptions the ACCC page lists.
Starting the conversation
“Your first step is to contact the business that sold the product or service to explain the problem. The business can’t refuse to help you by telling you to contact the manufacturer.” Consumer Protection WA describes the guarantees in the same terms: rights that “can’t be taken away”.
If talking to the business does not settle it, the complaints guide names where each state takes it next. For work that started with a knock at the door, the door-to-door guide adds a cooling-off period. The home page holds all six cuts.