Sale of Goods Act

Your rights are can be found in  The Sale of Goods Act 1974.  This old piece of legislation has been amended over the past 25 years to strengthen the consumers’ position.  Basically you should expect your purchase to be as described and of satisfactory quality.

If your purchase does not conform to this then you can either ask for a full refund within a reasonable timescale or a reasonable amount of damages or compensation.  Your rights don’t stop here you can alternatively ask for a repair or replacement of the goods.

So how does this translate into a problem with a piece of camping equipment.  Well you may have bought a tent which claims to stand up to gale force winds but falls apart in a breeze or a sleeping bag which has a tear inside it.  In these circumstances you should contact the retailer and assert your rights, its up to you what you ask for.

When you complain about your product the retailer may say that there was nothing wrong with the goods when he sent them out to you.  Under the Sale of Goods Act, for the first six months, the onus to prove that the goods were faulty at the time of purchase is on the retailer and not you.  After six months is is up to you to prove  this.

How to complain?

Getting angry is pointless.  You have been unlucky and so losing your cool will not help.  The most important thing to do is ensure you get a remedy and the best way to get a resolution you are happy with,  is to negotiate.

Now this negotiation doesn’t mean excepting less than you are entitled to.  No, it means  understanding the cost of what would happen should the retailer be stubborn about your situation.  The last thing you want to do is to take legal action against him in a court but that sanction is available to you at a small cost which you need to make clear if you are not getting any satisfaction.  This is part of the negotiation, you hold all the cards!

So speak to the retailer, let him know that you know your rights.  Explain clearly what you want (don’t go asking for any more than you are entitled to) and the timescales you want them achieved in.  More often than not many retailers “backs are put up” by the angry consumer trying to get their pound of flesh so remain calm and reasonable.

Don’t send off your item unless you get a some form of written consent from the retailer that he will refund you the out of pocket expenses and pay in full should he lose the item.  Also take plenty of photographs of the damaged item and send the item off recorded delivery.  All this will back up your case should your item “get lost”.

Unsatisfactory outcome, what next?

You have tried to negotiate with the retailer and he is unwilling to satisfy your demands so your next step is to take him to court.  The Small Claims procedure (England and Wale up to £5k, Scotland up to £3k) is relatively easy and cheap to lodge a claim and is designed for this type of small dispute.  You’ll find that many retailers will find the cost of defending the claim not cost effective so they’ll probably settle before it gets to that point.

You could also post your problem below, don’t mention the company, for free advice and help as one of our contributors used to be a Trading Standards Officer.

Next the Distance Selling Regulations

If the answer is yes, you have probably already discovered the Cool Camping books.  The Cool Camping book series was created by travel writer Jonathan Knight who saw a gap in the market for informative campsite guides.  Jonathan is an experienced travel writer who has written for guidebooks “The Lonely Planet” and “Rough Guide” before he turned his attention to writing his own books.

Jonathan’s idea for the series started when he couldn’t find a decent book which wasn’t aimed at caravanners or which could tell him more about a campsite than a basic directory listing.  So was born Cool Camping England, a book which understands the needs of tent campers and provides them with a selection of hand picked tent-orientated campsites.

Cool Camping England combines plenty of pictures and information to give campers a really good feel for the place where they’ll be camping.  But the book doesn’t lay a tent carpet over the rough patches, it also lets you know about the downsides of each site – like what to do if it rains and where the best pubs are.  (no link there)  This collection of useful information makes the books in this series essential reading for planning a camping trip.

Here at Tents Camping, we love these books and believe that the tent camping community was, until these books came on the scene, neglected.  With Cool Camping, we can expand our horizons and explore with confidence .

Other books in the series are Cool Camping Scotland, Cool Camping Wales, Cool Camping France, Cool Camping Europe, Cool Camping Kids, The Cool Camping Guide to Festivals.

Unlike some websites, we place the voucher codes on full view so that anyone can see and use them as they require.  Many unscrupulous voucher code websites claim they have voucher  and discounts codes for various retailers when they don’t.  They use this ploy to entice you to “click and reveal” the voucher code when in actual fact they have no discount  code or voucher code at all!  The reason behind this type of deception is that they are trying to get the commission from your sale.  Tents Camping urges you to ignore these types of websites as they cannot be trusted!

Tents Camping is quite up-front about the links it provides, we do get a small amount of commission from referring you to the various merchants on our site which we see as fair as we have gone to a lot of effort to provided you with a superb choice of retailers to base your final purchase decision.

The retailers below are happy for Tents Camping to publish these discount codes. If you know of other retailers who are offering great deals just get in contact with us and we will be happy to credit you with the discover as well as add them to our ever growing list.  Also Tents Camping would welcome some feed back if you are not totally happy with the service received from any of these retailers.

Discount codes and Voucher codes

Retailer	Offers
	Free postage on orders over £29.99	Check Site
	25th May – 31 May 11 additional 15% off code 9jKN9n	Check Site
	Free postage on orders over £50	Check Site
	10% off Go-Systems code: GSYSTEMS1 ends 31 May 11	Check Site
	10% off baby products code: AFFBABY10	Check Site
	Web exclusive deals	Check Site
	Save up to £100 on family tents	Check Site
	Free delivery on orders over £100	Check Site