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Australia's consumer guarantees cannot be replaced or excluded by warranties and offer huge protections for consumers who know how to exercise their rights. Companies try to apply friction to the process and I suspect that frustrates a lot of people to the point of giving up.

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I'd encourage Australians not to muck around in this regard. Fair Trading gives explicit instructions:

1) Contact the organisation

2) Suggest a resolution

3) give them a reasonable time to respond (ie. not forever)

4) Be polite

5) Lodge a complaint with Fair Trading

The more people that do this, the less sellers will try to do people over.

https://www.nsw.gov.au/legal-and-justice/consumer-rights-and...

(5) is often a waste of time, but filing an application in NCAT (or your state/territory’s equivalent) will get their attention.

I used to think Australia's consumer protection legislation and enforcement agencies were the envy of the world, until I tried to actually exercise some of those rights. Companies will do everything they can to be as unhelpful and frustrating as possible while still following the letter of the law. It feels like something out of the Simple Sabotage Field Manual.

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