As an insight into the kind of work I do daily, here’s a genuine question I received this week. For this client, we recently prepared some new and updated terms and conditions, which included their new warranty.
Q: Hi Steven, we’ve been told by a b2b customer that we need to give them a 6-year warranty as one of our earlier quotes didn’t mention a warranty and apparently that entitles them to 6 years!? Is this right?
Here was my answer, unedited in its actual form to show you how clear, concise and pragmatic my advice always is.
Hello my dear dear client (I don’t start every email like this admittedly!)
If there’s nothing in the agreement they get nothing 🙂
The Sale of Goods Act applies as default. But that relates to goods and not services.
Any goods must be of reasonable quality and fit for purpose. But there’s no definition of reasonable quality and certainly not a 6-year warranty.
People often conflate ideas; 6 years is the period in which someone can sue for breach of contract.
However, they need to show you’re in breach of contract and here they’d be solely relying on the sale of goods act. In short, no it’s not 6 years.
If it’s the service they’re unhappy with they get nothing.
If it’s the goods they’ve been sold they’re entitled to reasonable quality.
Personally, I don’t think you sell goods. You sell services. So I think they’re high and dry.
As always though, customer service comes before legal backlines.
Hope this helps.
Steven Mather
Do you want expert legal advice that you can understand and which doesn’t cost the earth?
Well this is what I do day in day out.
With every commercial contract, I provide bundled addon support for questions like this. Alternatively, you can pay for me on an ad-hoc basis, but it is a minimum of one hour’s charge so that’s often not cost-effective.
Many clients are now engaging me on a monthly subscription basis, where you pay somewhere between £500-£5000 plus VAT per month (depending on your turnover, staff numbers and requirements) and for which you get unlimited ad-hoc advice.