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Some answers are wrong. Others are only partly right or depend on facts the organisation has left out. Search the wording you were given, or narrow the statements below by category.

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Banking & paymentsIt depends

“Because the merchant offered a partial refund, Section 75 is no longer relevant”

A supplier remedy can reduce or resolve loss, but it does not automatically extinguish every possible Section 75 issue.

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Banking & paymentsGenerally incorrect

“Chargeback is a statutory legal right just like Section 75”

Chargeback is generally a card-scheme process, not the same statutory cause of action as Section 75.

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Banking & paymentsGenerally incorrect

“It is a merchant dispute, so the bank cannot help”

A dispute beginning with a merchant can still engage card-scheme chargeback or statutory Section 75 rights where their conditions are met.

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Banking & paymentsIt depends

“Section 75 can never apply if PayPal or another payment intermediary was involved”

An intermediary can affect the required debtor-creditor-supplier chain, but the answer depends on the payment structure rather than the brand name alone.

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Banking & paymentsGenerally incorrect

“Section 75 only applies if the whole purchase price was paid on the credit card”

A qualifying Section 75 claim can exist even where only part of the purchase price was paid using the relevant credit arrangement, subject to the statutory conditions.

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Banking & paymentsGenerally incorrect

“The bank followed its own policy, so the Financial Ombudsman cannot disagree”

An internal policy does not bind FOS to find the outcome fair and reasonable.

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Banking & paymentsGenerally incorrect

“You always have exactly 120 days to make a chargeback”

Card-scheme chargeback time limits vary by reason code and can run from different trigger dates.

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Banking & paymentsGenerally incorrect

“You authorised the transfer, so there can never be a scam reimbursement issue”

Authorising a payment does not necessarily end all analysis of an authorised push-payment scam under the applicable reimbursement/regulatory framework.

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Complaints & ombudsmenGenerally incorrect

“An ombudsman cannot consider the law at all”

Many ombudsman schemes are required or expected to have regard to law, regulation and good practice while applying their own fair-and-reasonable/remit tests.

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Complaints & ombudsmenGenerally incorrect

“It is our final response, so the matter is legally closed”

A final response generally marks the organisation’s final internal complaint position; it is not the same thing as a court judgment.

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Complaints & ombudsmenGenerally incorrect

“Our complaints procedure has no appeal, so there is nowhere else to go”

No further internal complaint stage does not necessarily mean there is no external route.

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Complaints & ombudsmenGenerally incorrect

“The ombudsman agreed with us, so the issue is now legal precedent”

An ombudsman outcome is not the same as legal precedent and its binding effect depends on the particular scheme and acceptance rules.

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Complaints & ombudsmenGenerally incorrect

“The regulator has not taken action, so our conduct must be lawful”

Regulatory non-action does not prove that an individual complaint has no merit.

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Complaints & ombudsmenGenerally incorrect

“We mentioned the issue in our response, so we answered it”

Mentioning an issue is not necessarily the same as addressing the question, evidence and conclusion required to decide it.

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Complaints & ombudsmenGenerally correct

“We offered goodwill, so we have not accepted that anything went wrong”

A goodwill offer can expressly be made without admission of liability.

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Complaints & ombudsmenGenerally incorrect

“You must accept our goodwill payment before you can escalate”

An organisation cannot generally make access to an external statutory/ADR complaint route depend on accepting settlement of the dispute.

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Court actionGenerally incorrect

“Anything marked ‘without prejudice’ can never be shown to a court for any purpose”

Without-prejudice privilege is a nuanced rule protecting genuine settlement negotiations; the label alone is not conclusive and exceptions exist.

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Court actionIt depends

“If you complained to an ombudsman first, you can never go to court”

Whether an ombudsman outcome affects later court rights depends on the scheme, whether the decision was accepted, settlement terms and the cause of action.

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Court actionGenerally incorrect

“If you lose a small claim, you will have to pay all of the other side’s solicitor fees”

Costs on the small-claims track are generally restricted; it is not the same ordinary costs regime as higher-value litigation.

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Court actionGenerally incorrect

“Once you win judgment, the court automatically gets the money for you”

Judgment establishes the obligation, but payment and enforcement are separate stages if the losing party does not pay voluntarily.

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Court actionGenerally incorrect

“Small claims are informal, so evidence rules and court directions do not matter”

The small-claims track is designed to be proportionate, but parties still need to comply with court orders and prove the facts they rely on.

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Court actionGenerally incorrect

“The court issued the claim form, so it has already decided the claim has merit”

Administrative issue of a claim does not mean a judge has determined that the allegations are true.

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Court actionGenerally incorrect

“You can issue a claim immediately; a letter before claim is just optional courtesy”

Pre-action conduct is an important part of civil procedure and can affect case management and costs.

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Court actionGenerally incorrect

“You need a solicitor to bring a small claim”

Individuals can represent themselves in civil proceedings, including small claims.

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Credit & debtGenerally incorrect

“If they cannot immediately send the agreement, the debt is automatically written off”

Consumer Credit Act information/enforceability issues are more nuanced than “no copy means no debt”.

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Credit & debtGenerally incorrect

“The account is with collections now, so additional fees can be added”

Collection status does not create a free-standing right to impose any fee the collector chooses.

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Credit & debtGenerally incorrect

“The debt was sold, so the original lender has no responsibility for anything that happened before the sale”

Assignment can change who owns or collects the debt, but it does not rewrite the historical conduct or necessarily remove complaint responsibility for the original firm’s acts.

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Credit & debtGenerally incorrect

“We sent a Consumer Credit Act default notice, so the credit-file default is automatically correct”

A statutory CCA default notice and a default reported to a credit reference agency are related to different legal/reporting concepts.

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Credit & debtIt depends

“You complained, but we can keep collecting exactly as normal”

Making a complaint does not automatically extinguish a debt, but firms and collectors may have obligations about fair treatment and genuinely disputed balances.

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Credit & debtGenerally incorrect

“You made a payment, so you admitted the whole debt”

A payment can be evidence, but it does not automatically prove every disputed component, contractual basis or amount.

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Credit & debtMisleading without context

“You must pay the disputed balance before we will investigate it”

A business can maintain that money remains due, but conditioning any investigation on prior payment can be problematic where there is a substantive dispute.

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Credit & debtGenerally incorrect

“You signed the agreement, so affordability cannot be challenged”

A consumer agreeing to credit does not automatically answer whether a regulated lender carried out appropriate creditworthiness/affordability assessment or treated the customer fairly.

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Credit files & defaultsGenerally incorrect

“A default stays for six years, so it cannot be changed before then”

The normal retention period does not prevent correction or removal where the entry itself is inaccurate or should not have been reported as it was.

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Credit files & defaultsGenerally incorrect

“If you had any repayment arrangement, a default can never be recorded”

A repayment arrangement is relevant to the chronology, but it does not create an absolute bar on a later default.

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Credit files & defaultsGenerally incorrect

“My score fell, so the credit-file data must be wrong”

A lower credit score is not itself evidence that the underlying account data is inaccurate.

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Credit files & defaultsGenerally incorrect

“No Consumer Credit Act default notice means the credit-file default must be removed”

The absence or defect of a CCA enforcement notice does not automatically determine whether a CRA default entry is accurate.

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Credit files & defaultsGenerally incorrect

“Once a default is paid, it must be deleted”

Paying a defaulted account ordinarily changes its status to satisfied/settled; it does not by itself require immediate deletion of an otherwise accurate default.

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Credit files & defaultsMisleading without context

“One missed payment means we can register a default immediately”

A credit-file default is intended to represent a serious breakdown in the relationship, not simply any isolated late payment.

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Credit files & defaultsGenerally incorrect

“Only the credit reference agency can change your credit file”

The organisation that supplied the data normally has an important role in correcting inaccurate information; the CRA is not the sole decision-maker.

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Credit files & defaultsGenerally incorrect

“The provider verified it, so the credit-file entry must be accurate”

A verification response is evidence of the provider’s position, not proof that the underlying data is correct.

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Data protection & SARsGenerally incorrect

“A SAR means we must give you every document that mentions you in full”

Subject access is a right to personal data and supplementary information, not automatically to complete unredacted copies of every document.

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Data protection & SARsGenerally incorrect

“If you ask for erasure, an organisation must delete every record about you”

The right to erasure is qualified and does not apply in every circumstance.

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Data protection & SARsGenerally incorrect

“Internal emails are never included in a SAR”

Internal emails can contain the requester’s personal data and are not categorically excluded merely because they are internal.

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Data protection & SARsGenerally incorrect

“Our system says the data is correct, so we will not rectify it”

A controller should take reasonable steps to assess a substantiated accuracy challenge; the existing system entry is not self-proving.

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Data protection & SARsGenerally incorrect

“The ICO can award you compensation for a data-protection breach”

The ICO can investigate/regulate compliance but does not ordinarily award damages to an individual complainant.

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Data protection & SARsGenerally incorrect

“We automatically get three months because your SAR is large”

An extension is not automatic merely because a request is large.

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Data protection & SARsMisleading without context

“We have 30 days to answer a SAR”

UK GDPR uses a one-month response period, which is not always identical to 30 calendar days.

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Data protection & SARsGenerally incorrect

“You must use our SAR form or portal”

An organisation can provide a convenient form, but a valid subject access request does not generally depend on using the controller’s preferred wording or channel.

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EmploymentGenerally incorrect

“It is a work device, so the employer can monitor anything without restriction”

Ownership of equipment does not remove data-protection, privacy and employment-law considerations.

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EmploymentGenerally incorrect

“Our policy allows deductions, so any deduction from wages is lawful”

A policy alone does not automatically make every wage deduction lawful.

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EmploymentGenerally incorrect

“Redundancy is a business decision, so it cannot be challenged”

A genuine business rationale does not make selection and dismissal procedure immune from scrutiny.

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EmploymentPartly correct

“Workplace bullying only counts if it relates to a protected characteristic”

Harassment under the Equality Act is tied to protected characteristics (and specific sexual-harassment rules), but harmful workplace bullying can still raise grievance, contractual, health-and-safety or other employment issues.

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EmploymentGenerally incorrect

“You are on probation, so you have no employment rights”

Probation is mainly a contractual/employment-management concept; it does not switch off statutory employment rights.

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EmploymentMisleading without context

“You have under two years’ service, so you cannot challenge a dismissal”

Length of service can be crucial for ordinary unfair dismissal under the current transitional regime, but it is not a universal bar to every dismissal-related claim.

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EmploymentGenerally incorrect

“You never signed a written contract, so you have no employment contract”

An employment contract can exist without a signed written document.

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EmploymentGenerally incorrect

“Your grievance is ongoing, so the tribunal deadline is paused”

An internal grievance or appeal does not generally stop an employment tribunal limitation period running.

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Food delivery & takeawaysGenerally incorrect

“Food is perishable, so normal consumer rights do not apply”

Perishable goods are excluded from the ordinary distance-selling change-of-mind cancellation right, but that does not remove rights when food is not supplied, is wrong, unsafe, misdescribed or otherwise fails the contract.

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Food delivery & takeawaysGenerally incorrect

“Most of the order arrived, so you are not entitled to a refund”

Missing or incorrect items can still justify a refund or price reduction for the affected part. Whether the whole order can be rejected depends on how significant and inseparable the failure is.

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Food delivery & takeawaysGenerally incorrect

“The app rejected your refund, so there is nothing else you can do”

An app or support-team decision is not the same thing as a legal determination of your rights. A valid contractual or statutory claim can still exist after an internal refund request is refused.

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Food delivery & takeawaysMisleading without context

“The delivery time was only an estimate, so lateness can never justify a refund”

An estimate is relevant, but it is not a universal immunity from serious delay. Timing can be contractually important, and with prepared food excessive delay can also affect the condition and value of what arrives.

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Food delivery & takeawaysMisleading without context

“The driver marked it delivered, so we cannot refund you”

A delivery status is evidence, but it does not by itself prove that the order actually reached you or an authorised recipient.

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Food delivery & takeawaysMisleading without context

“We do not refund cold food”

There is no sensible blanket rule that temperature can never matter. Food sold as a hot prepared meal can fail the required quality or contractual standard if it arrives materially cold or otherwise unusable, depending on the facts.

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Food delivery & takeawaysMisleading without context

“We only offer app credit, not a refund”

Account credit can be offered as goodwill, but where a statutory monetary refund is actually due the trader cannot necessarily force the consumer to accept platform credit instead.

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Food delivery & takeawaysMisleading without context

“You have had refunds before, so this order is not eligible”

Fraud controls can legitimately inform an investigation, but a customer’s refund history does not by itself determine whether this particular order was delivered correctly and met the required standard.

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Food delivery & takeawaysIt depends on the contract

“You need to take it up with the restaurant; the platform is not responsible”

The restaurant may be the supplier of the food, but some platforms separately provide the delivery service themselves. Responsibility depends on what failed and who contracted to provide that part.

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Food delivery & takeawaysMisleading without context

“You reported it outside our 24-hour window, so you have no rights”

A platform can set a prompt reporting process, and delay can make a food complaint much harder to prove, but an internal time window does not automatically erase statutory rights.

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Online buying & deliveryGenerally incorrect

“Sale items bought online are not covered by cooling-off rights”

A sale price does not by itself remove the ordinary distance-contract cancellation regime.

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Online buying & deliveryMisleading without context

“The courier says it was delivered, so it is no longer our problem”

A tracking scan is evidence, not an automatic answer to a retailer’s delivery obligations.

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Online buying & deliveryPartly correct

“We never have to refund until the returned goods are physically back with us”

For distance cancellations involving goods, the trader can in some circumstances withhold reimbursement until it receives the goods back or the consumer supplies evidence of having sent them back, whichever occurs first.

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Online buying & deliveryGenerally incorrect

“We never refund the original delivery charge”

On a qualifying distance cancellation, the refund normally includes the cost of the least expensive standard delivery option offered by the trader.

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Online buying & deliveryGenerally incorrect

“You always have to pay return postage”

Return-cost rules differ between change-of-mind cancellation and faulty goods; “you always pay” is too broad.

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Online buying & deliveryIt depends

“You chose a safe place, so anything that happens is automatically your risk”

An authorised safe-place instruction can affect the delivery analysis, but it is not a universal answer to every missing-parcel dispute.

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Online buying & deliveryIt depends

“You collected it in store, so it counts as an in-store purchase”

Collection location does not necessarily decide where or how the contract was concluded.

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Online buying & deliveryIt depends

“You opened the packaging, so you lost your online cancellation right”

Opening packaging does not automatically defeat every distance cancellation, but exceptions and handling rules can matter.

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Public bodies & informationGenerally incorrect

“An internal review is always optional before going to the ICO”

For FOI/EIR complaints, the expected route usually includes asking the authority to conduct an internal review before ICO escalation, subject to the applicable regime and circumstances.

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Public bodies & informationGenerally incorrect

“Environmental information is handled exactly the same way as ordinary FOI”

EIR is a distinct access regime with overlapping but different rules, exceptions and public-interest considerations.

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Public bodies & informationGenerally incorrect

“Every council complaint legally has to have Stage 1 and Stage 2”

There is no single universal two-stage structure governing every local-authority complaint.

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Public bodies & informationGenerally incorrect

“FOI gives us 20 calendar days”

The ordinary FOIA response period is 20 working days, not 20 calendar days.

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Public bodies & informationGenerally incorrect

“FOI is the right route to get all information a council holds about you personally”

A request for your own personal data is usually handled under data-protection subject access rules rather than FOIA.

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Public bodies & informationGenerally incorrect

“Just complain to the ombudsman instead of using the statutory appeal”

Where legislation provides a specific appeal/review route, an ombudsman may be unable or unwilling to substitute for it.

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Public bodies & informationGenerally incorrect

“The NHS has a universal 28-day deadline for every complaint response”

NHS complaint handling does not operate under one universal 28-day final-response deadline.

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Public bodies & informationGenerally incorrect

“You have to explain why you want the information before we process FOI”

FOI requests generally do not require the applicant to justify why they want the information.

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Refunds & faulty goodsMisleading without context

“It is outside our 14/28/30-day returns window”

A retailer’s voluntary returns window does not automatically determine a statutory faulty-goods claim.

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Refunds & faulty goodsMisleading without context

“No receipt, no refund”

A receipt is useful evidence, but it is not automatically the only way to prove a purchase or exercise statutory rights.

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Refunds & faulty goodsMisleading without context

“Sale items cannot be returned”

A reduced price does not remove statutory rights simply because the item was on sale.

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Refunds & faulty goodsGenerally incorrect

“The warranty has expired, so you have no rights”

A commercial warranty and your statutory rights are separate. Expiry of the warranty does not itself decide whether the retailer is liable for faulty goods.

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Refunds & faulty goodsGenerally incorrect

“We are allowed three repair attempts before you can reject it”

The Consumer Rights Act does not create a general rule giving a trader three repair attempts before further remedies can arise.

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Refunds & faulty goodsGenerally incorrect

“We can only give you store credit”

Where the law gives a consumer a right to a refund, a trader cannot normally substitute store credit merely because that is its preferred policy.

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Refunds & faulty goodsIt depends

“We cannot exchange or replace it because it is out of stock”

They may be correct that a replacement or exchange itself cannot be supplied if there is genuinely no stock. What follows depends on why you wanted the exchange: a voluntary change-of-mind policy is different from the statutory remedy route for faulty goods.

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Refunds & faulty goodsGenerally incorrect

“You need to contact the manufacturer, not us”

For statutory rights relating to goods sold by a retailer, the consumer’s contract is ordinarily with the retailer.

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Refunds & faulty goodsIt depends

“You used it, so you cannot return it”

Use can matter differently depending on whether you are cancelling an online purchase, relying on a voluntary returns policy, or asserting that the goods are faulty.

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Services & contractsGenerally incorrect

“A quote is never binding”

Whether a quote forms part of the contract depends on the wording, context and later agreement; it cannot be dismissed categorically.

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Services & contractsGenerally incorrect

“Deposits are always non-refundable”

Calling a payment a “non-refundable deposit” does not make every retention automatically lawful.

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Services & contractsGenerally incorrect

“If it was not in the written contract, it does not count”

Oral statements can matter. The real question is whether the statement became a contractual term, representation or otherwise legally relevant promise.

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Services & contractsGenerally incorrect

“Once we start the service, you can never get a refund”

Starting performance does not create a universal “no refund” rule.

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Services & contractsMisleading without context

“Our terms say we can change the contract whenever we want”

A variation clause is not automatically a blank cheque, particularly in a consumer contract.

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Services & contractsMisleading without context

“The terms were on our website, so you automatically agreed to them”

A term normally needs to be properly incorporated into the contract; merely existing somewhere on a website does not answer when or how it was brought to the consumer’s attention.

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Services & contractsGenerally incorrect

“We never guaranteed the result, so you cannot complain about the service”

A trader may still have a statutory duty to perform a paid service with reasonable care and skill even where no particular result was guaranteed.

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Services & contractsGenerally incorrect

“You signed it, so every term is enforceable”

Signature can be important evidence of agreement, but it does not make every consumer term immune from statutory controls.

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Telecoms & broadbandGenerally incorrect

“Because the bill is due under our system, the credit-file default cannot be challenged”

An internal billing position does not by itself prove that external credit reporting is accurate.

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Telecoms & broadbandGenerally incorrect

“Complain to Ofcom and they will order the provider to refund you”

Ofcom is the sector regulator and does not ordinarily resolve individual telecom disputes by awarding consumer redress.

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Telecoms & broadbandMisleading without context

“Our contract lets us increase the price by any amount during the minimum term”

Current telecom price-rise rules require much clearer upfront information, and contracts entered under the newer regime cannot rely on opaque inflation-linked formulas in the old way.

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Telecoms & broadbandGenerally incorrect

“Our terms exclude compensation for all service outages”

Contract terms do not necessarily displace statutory, regulatory or automatic-compensation obligations where those regimes apply.

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Telecoms & broadbandMisleading without context

“The order confirmation proves what you agreed”

An order confirmation is useful evidence of what the provider processed, but it may be generated after consent and does not by itself prove what was disclosed or represented beforehand.

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Telecoms & broadbandGenerally incorrect

“The salesperson would not have said that”

A statement about normal training or process does not prove what was said in one particular sale. Transaction-specific evidence matters.

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Telecoms & broadbandMisleading without context

“The service was activated, so billing was correct”

An internal activation status can be relevant, but it does not automatically establish that usable service was supplied or that every charge from that date is contractually correct.

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Telecoms & broadbandGenerally incorrect

“The speed was only an estimate, so you have no complaint”

Broadband speed information is more nuanced: point-of-sale estimates matter, and providers signed up to Ofcom’s Broadband Speeds Code give a minimum guaranteed speed with specific resolution and exit protections.

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Telecoms & broadbandGenerally incorrect

“The switch completed, so there is nothing left to complain about”

Completion of a switch does not erase billing errors, loss of service, double charging or compensation issues caused during the process.

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Telecoms & broadbandGenerally incorrect

“Usage charges are generated automatically, so they cannot be wrong”

Automated billing records are evidence, not infallible proof.

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Telecoms & broadbandGenerally incorrect

“We closed the complaint, so you cannot take it to ADR”

A provider closing its internal case does not itself remove an eligible consumer’s external ADR rights.

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Telecoms & broadbandIt depends

“We do not have to provide the sales call”

A SAR gives you access to your personal data, not an automatic right to every original document or recording in a particular format. But personal data in a held call recording can fall within the right of access, and the provider should search reasonably and proportionately.

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Telecoms & broadbandGenerally incorrect

“We sent the terms after the call, so that is enough”

For residential telecom contracts, Ofcom’s rules require the contract summary before consent and the detailed contract information before the customer is bound; sending everything only after agreement does not normally answer that requirement.

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Telecoms & broadbandMisleading without context

“You accepted the renewal, so that ends the matter”

Acceptance can be central, but it does not answer what terms were presented, whether the required pre-contract information was supplied, or whether the sale was misrepresented.

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Telecoms & broadbandMisleading without context

“You agreed to it on the phone”

A verbal consent record can be important evidence, but the provider still needs to establish what you agreed to and that the required pre-contract information was supplied before consent.

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Telecoms & broadbandGenerally incorrect

“You must always wait eight weeks before taking a telecom complaint to ADR”

That is outdated for current UK telecom complaint handling: the general ADR waiting period was reduced to six weeks from 8 April 2026.

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Telecoms & broadbandIt depends

“Your Wi-Fi is slow, but the broadband line is fine”

That can be a valid diagnosis if the incoming broadband connection meets its benchmark, but it does not resolve a separate Wi-Fi guarantee or prove that Wi-Fi is actually the cause.

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