This right is limited to 30 days from the date you buy your product. After 30 days you will not be legally entitled to a full refund if your item develops a fault. This right to a refund doesn't apply to purely digital products though - such as music, games or apps that you buy as downloads.
You can however ask for a digital product to be repaired or replaced if it develops a fault. The 30 days is shorter for perishable goods where the period will be determined by how long it is reasonable to have expected the goods to last. For example, milk would be expected to last until its use-by date as long as it’s stored correctly.
If you are outside the 30-day right to reject, you have to give the retailer one opportunity to repair or replace any goods or digital content which are of unsatisfactory quality, unfit for purpose or not as described. You can choose whether you want the goods to be repaired or replaced.
But the retailer can refuse if they can show that your choice is disproportionately expensive compared to the alternative. If the attempt at a repair or replacement is unsuccessful, you can then claim a refund or a price reduction if you wish to keep the product.
You're entitled to a full or partial refund instead of a repair or replacement if any of the following are true:
the cost of the repair or replacement is disproportionate to the value of the goods or digital content
a repair or replacement is impossible
a repair or replacement would be significantly inconvenient
the repair would take unreasonably long
the repair has been unsuccessful.
If a repair or replacement is not possible, or the attempt at repair fails, or the first replacement also turns out to be defective, you have a further right to reject the goods for a full or partial refund. If you don't want a refund and still want your product repaired or replaced, you have the right to request the retailer makes further attempts at a repair or replacement.
Use Which?'s step-by-step guide if you want to ask a retailer to repair or replace something you've bought that subsequently develops a fault. If you discover the fault within the first six months from delivery, it is presumed to have been there from the time of delivery - unless the retailer can prove otherwise.
During this time it's up to retailer to prove that the fault wasn't there at the time of delivery - it's not up to you to prove that it was. If an attempt at repair or replacement has failed, you have the right to reject the goods for a full refund or price reduction - if you wish to keep the product.
No deduction can be made from a refund in the first six months following an unsuccessful attempt at repair or replacement. The only exception to this rule is motor vehicles where a reasonable reduction may be made for the use you've already had of the vehicle.
If you'd prefer to keep the goods in question you can request an appropriate price reduction. After the first six months the burden is on you to prove that the product was faulty at the time of delivery.
In practice, this may require some form of expert report, opinion or evidence of similar problems across the product range. You have six years to take a claim to the small claims court for faulty goods in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and five years in Scotland.
This doesn't mean that a product has to last six years - just that you have this length of time in which to make a claim if a retailer refuses to repair or replace a faulty product.