Opinion: Consumer matters at Christmas
Savvy consumers avoid wasting money on Boxing Day.
With freshly unwrapped gift cards and every store offering a sale, Boxing Day is heaven for bargain hunters. But the satisfaction from saving dollars soon dulls if your bargain doesn’t perform as well as expected. That’s why you should check our test results before temptation takes over — a savvy consumer saves money on a great appliance or device, rather than wasting it on heavily discounted underperformers.
It’s not just what you buy that matters, but where you buy it. Our retailer satisfaction survey shows which stores deliver a great shopping experience and which, well, don’t. While you can put up with the hard sell at time of purchase, the retailer really matters if things go wrong with your bargain afterwards. Sale or not, you still have your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act and a good retailer won’t try to fob you off.
Speaking of your consumer rights, we have plenty of advice to help there too. It pays to browse our website to swot up on how the Consumer Guarantees and Fair Trading Acts protect you during the sales silly season.
About the author:
Paul Smith manages Consumer’s product test programme. He has spent most of his career pushing user-focused quality into the design and manufacture of cars in the UK, and educating design engineers of the future in New Zealand. Paul wants Consumer’s independent tests to empower people to make informed purchase decisions. He’ll only be satisfied when he rids the world (or at least New Zealand) of underperforming, poorly designed products. Paul’s favourite items are his steel fixed-wheel bicycle and Dieter Rams-designed Braun travel clock.
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