How long to return faulty goods in Australia

You bought something, it turned out to be faulty, and now you're wondering whether you've left it too long. Maybe the warranty has expired, maybe it's been six months, maybe the retailer told you "the return window has closed". Here's what the Australian Consumer Law actually says.

Quick answer

There are two different clocks here, and they are easy to confuse.

The consumer guarantees have no fixed expiry. They last as long as a reasonable person would expect that kind of product to last — months or years, depending on what you bought and what it cost. A 30-day or 60-day "return window" is store policy, not law, and it cannot cut those guarantees short.

But the right to reject the goods — which is how you get a refund or a replacement rather than a repair — does have a statutory limit. Section 262 sets a rejection period that starts when the goods are supplied to you. Once it ends, the guarantee survives but rejection does not, and you are generally left with repair or compensation.

So "how long do I have?" has two answers, and which one matters depends on what you are asking for.

What the law actually says

The Australian Consumer Law is Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. You get the consumer guarantees when you acquire goods as a consumer under section 3: broadly, where the price was $100,000 or less, or the goods were of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, or they were a vehicle or trailer acquired mainly to carry goods on public roads. Any one limb is enough — buying for business use does not by itself remove coverage. Section 3 does exclude goods acquired to re-supply, or to use up or transform in production or repair.

The guarantee that matters most for faulty goods is section 54 — acceptable quality. Goods must be safe, durable, free from defects, acceptable in appearance and finish, and fit for all the purposes goods of that kind are commonly supplied for — measured by what a reasonable consumer, fully acquainted with their state and condition, would accept given the nature of the goods, the price, and what was said about them.

"Durable" is the key word. Durability is judged against what a reasonable consumer would expect for that kind of product at that price: a $15 pair of earbuds is not expected to last five years, a $3,000 fridge is. The law sets no number — it asks what is reasonable.

When a guarantee is breached, your remedies sit in sections 259 to 263, and what you can ask for depends on whether the failure is major or non-major.

Under section 260, a goods failure may be major where:

• a reasonable consumer, fully aware of the nature and extent of the failure, would not have acquired the goods;
• the goods depart in one or more significant respects from their description, or from a sample or demonstration model;
• the goods are substantially unfit for a purpose goods of the same kind are commonly supplied for, and cannot easily and within a reasonable time be remedied to make them fit;
• the goods are unfit for a particular purpose you disclosed, and cannot easily and within a reasonable time be remedied to make them fit; or
• the goods are not of acceptable quality because they are unsafe.

Section 260(2) adds that two or more failures, which need not relate to the same guarantee, can together make a failure major where a reasonable consumer aware of them as a whole would not have acquired the goods — so a string of smaller faults can qualify even where no single one would.

For a major failure, section 259(3) gives you two alternatives, not three options: reject the goods — and then elect a refund or a replacement of the same type and similar value, if reasonably available — or keep them and claim compensation for the reduction in value. Refund and replacement sit inside the rejection branch; they are not free-standing choices. Section 259(4) allows damages for other reasonably foreseeable loss in addition, whether the failure is major or not.

For a non-major failure that can be remedied, the supplier gets the first opportunity and under section 261 chooses between repair, replacement or refund. That first bite belongs to the supplier only on a non-major failure — for a major one the election is yours from the start, and a repair cannot be imposed on you. And the supplier's opportunity is not open-ended: under section 259(2), if it refuses to remedy the failure or does not do so within a reasonable time, you may have the problem fixed elsewhere and recover the reasonable cost from the supplier, or reject the goods — subject to the rejection period below.

The clock the ACL does impose

Here is the part most summaries leave out, including earlier versions of this article. The guarantees themselves carry no expiry date. The right to reject does.

Under section 262 you cannot reject once the rejection period has ended. Section 262(2) defines that period: it runs from the time the goods were supplied to you, and lasts as long as it would be reasonable to expect a failure of that kind to become apparent — judged by the type of goods, how a consumer is likely to use them, how long it is reasonable for them to be used, and how much use they would reasonably get before such a failure showed up.

Read that carefully, because two common misreadings both cost people money. It is not a reasonable period after you discovered the fault — it starts at supply, whenever you noticed. And it is not an open-ended question of whether you have had the goods so long that rejection feels unfair. The ACL also has no "acceptance" rule: using the goods, or simply having had them a while, does not by itself end the right to reject.

The right to reject is also lost where you lost, destroyed or disposed of the goods, where they were damaged after delivery for reasons unrelated to their condition at supply, or where they have been attached to or incorporated in other property and cannot be detached or isolated without damaging the goods.

When the rejection period ends, your claim does not. The guarantee still applies for as long as the goods should reasonably have lasted — you simply lose refund-or-replacement by rejection, and are generally left with a repair or compensation for the reduction in value.

If you do reject, tell the supplier in writing and state the ground. You ordinarily return the goods, but under section 263 the supplier must collect them at its own expense where return would cost significantly because of the nature of the failure or the size, height or method of attachment. If you elect a refund, section 263(5) stops the supplier discharging it with store credit.

Your claim runs against the supplier, which cannot discharge it by pointing you at the manufacturer. Sections 271 and 272 may separately support a damages claim against a manufacturer, barred by section 273 three years after you first became, or ought reasonably to have become, aware that the guarantee was not complied with. The claim against the supplier has no equivalent deadline in the ACL itself, but your state or territory limitation legislation sets an outer limit on bringing proceedings, and it differs by cause of action — check the period that applies before you rely on having time.

What does affect your position over time:

• The expected lifespan of the product. A fault in year one of a ten-year product is a strong claim; the same fault in year nine may not be, because the goods have largely delivered the life promised.
• How quickly you acted once you discovered the fault. This is practical, not statutory: the rejection period runs from supply, not from your discovery. But delay makes it harder to show the fault was inherent rather than something that developed later, and every week you wait is a week of the rejection period gone. Raise it as soon as you notice.
• Whether the defect is inherent or caused by use. A manufacturing defect present from day one is covered regardless of when it surfaces. Damage you caused is not.

One more thing worth knowing: the consumer guarantee is entirely separate from the manufacturer's warranty. The warranty is a voluntary promise from the manufacturer — it might last one year, two years, or five. The consumer guarantee is a legal right against the seller that exists independently of the warranty and often outlasts it. For a deeper look at that distinction, see consumer guarantees vs warranty.

When this applies (and when it doesn't)

The consumer guarantees — and the flexible time frame that comes with them — apply when:

• You bought the goods from a business, not a private individual.
• The goods cost up to $100,000 (or are of a kind ordinarily bought for personal, domestic, or household use).
• The defect is something the seller is responsible for — a manufacturing fault, a design problem, or goods that simply don't do what they're supposed to.
• You can show proof of purchase — a receipt, bank statement, email confirmation or loyalty record. You don't need the original paper receipt, but the record has to identify the business, the transaction and the goods well enough to be useful.

They do not apply when:

• You bought from a genuine private seller (Gumtree, or an individual on Facebook Marketplace). Acceptable quality, fitness for purpose and correspondence with description apply to business sales only — though the separate guarantees of title, undisturbed possession and freedom from undisclosed securities are not limited that way, and a private sale is still a contract.
• You caused the damage yourself — dropped it, got it wet, used it outside its intended purpose.
• The defect was pointed out to you before purchase ("sold as is — cracked screen noted"). You can't claim on a known defect you accepted.
• You simply changed your mind. The ACL does not require any seller to accept a change-of-mind return. That's entirely at the store's discretion.
• The goods have reached the end of a reasonable lifespan — a blender that fails after eight years of daily use has probably delivered what was promised.

One situation that trips people up: goods bought online from an overseas seller. If the seller has no Australian presence, enforcing ACL rights is difficult in practice, even though the law technically applies to goods supplied in Australia. Buying through an Australian-based platform does not by itself make the platform the supplier — the guarantees are owed by whoever supplied the goods in trade or commerce, which may still be an overseas seller using that platform. Check who the contract is actually with.

What to do today

If you have faulty goods and you're wondering whether it's too late, here's how to move quickly and protect your position:

1. Stop waiting. The longer you wait after discovering a fault, the weaker your practical position becomes — even if you're still within the legal window. Act now.
2. Work out the expected lifespan — and when the goods were supplied. How long would a reasonable person expect this product to last? A $900 laptop, several years; $40 headphones, perhaps one to two. That tells you whether the guarantee is likely still running. Separately, note the supply date: that is when the rejection period started, and it decides whether you can still get a refund by rejecting the goods. Being inside a reasonable lifespan does not by itself make a claim good — a guarantee still has to have been breached.
3. Gather your proof of purchase. Check your email for order confirmations, your bank statement, or your loyalty account. Any of these may be enough, depending on how clearly it identifies the business, the transaction and the goods — a card statement showing a trader name and an amount may not establish what you actually bought, so keep anything that does.
4. Document the defect. Photos or video, plus a note of when you first noticed it. If the goods are dangerous, say so — it goes directly to whether the failure is major.
5. Write to the seller. A written complaint — email is fine — creates a record a phone call does not. State the date of purchase, describe the defect, say which guarantee you rely on (acceptable quality under section 54 is the most common), and state the remedy you want.
6. Set a deadline. About 14 days is often practical, but urgency, complexity and the remedy sought may justify shorter or longer — there is no ACL 14-day rule. Say that if they don't respond you will escalate.

If you're not sure how to write that letter, fairgo can generate one for free in about 90 seconds. The tool identifies the relevant ACL sections for your situation and produces a letter you send under your own name. Start your letter now.

For more detail on the full process of demanding a refund under the ACL, including what to do if the store says no, that article walks through every step.

What if the business refuses

If the seller tells you the return window has closed, the warranty has expired, or they simply won't help, you have real options:

• Escalate within the business. Frontline staff often quote store policy as if it were law. Ask for a manager and name the ACL.
• Your state or territory consumer body. Each has a complaints service that may provide information, assess your complaint or offer dispute resolution, subject to its own criteria. Most expect you to have tried the business first, and they generally cannot compel a business to take part or make binding orders. Contact details for every state and territory are at /agencies.
• A court or tribunal with jurisdiction. For a binding decision you need a forum that can make one, and which forum that is depends on your state or territory, the dispute and the amount. Several states route consumer claims to a tribunal, but not all do: in South Australia and Tasmania an ordinary ACL claim goes to the Magistrates Court instead. Claim limits, fees and representation rules differ sharply between jurisdictions, so confirm which forum has jurisdiction and what its current thresholds are on the official site before you file rather than assuming your state works like the one next door. Our state-by-state comparison is a starting point, not a substitute for that check.
• The ACCC. It takes reports of systemic conduct but does not handle individual disputes. Report a retailer systematically misleading consumers — but for your own claim, use your state body and the forum with jurisdiction.

A demand letter that cites the ACL, names the guarantee breached and states the remedy puts your position on record and gives the business a clear opportunity to fix the problem before anyone files anything.

Common mistakes

These are the errors that most often sink an otherwise valid claim:

• Assuming the return window is the law. A 30-day return policy is a store's own rule, not a legal limit. The ACL's consumer guarantees are separate and cannot be removed by store policy.
• Confusing warranty expiry with guarantee expiry. "Your one-year warranty has expired" is a statement about the manufacturer's voluntary promise. It says nothing about your statutory rights under section 54. The two are independent.
• Assuming there is no clock at all. The guarantees have no fixed expiry, but the section 262 rejection period bounds the right to reject — and it has been running since the goods were supplied, not since you noticed. Delay also makes it harder to argue the fault was inherent rather than something that developed through use. Raise it promptly.
• Throwing out the faulty goods. Without the item, the business can dispute whether it was actually defective. Keep it until the dispute is resolved.
• Accepting a repair when you're entitled to more. For a major failure the election is yours, not the seller's — but it exists only while rejection remains available. Reject and elect a refund or replacement, or keep the goods and claim the reduction in value. See what major failure means under the ACL.
• Going straight to the ACCC. It investigates systemic issues across industries; for your own dispute, your state consumer body is the right first call.
• Not putting it in writing. A phone call leaves no record. An email does. Always follow up verbal conversations with a written summary.

The ACL's approach to time is deliberately flexible, because a fixed deadline would be arbitrary — a fridge and a phone have very different expected lifespans. The rejection period is flexible in the same way; what is fixed about it is only where it starts. That is the reason to act as soon as a fault appears rather than when it becomes inconvenient: the clock has been running since the day the goods were handed over.

Related reading

• Consumer guarantees vs warranty — what's the difference?
• Can I demand a refund? When Australian Consumer Law gives you the right
• What "major failure" really means under the ACL

This article is general information about Australian Consumer Law, not legal advice. The ACL is complex and your situation may have details that change the analysis. For advice on your specific case, see your state's Fair Trading body — full list at /agencies.