Ask LH: Do I Have To Offer A Warranty On Stuff I Sell At A Garage Sale?

Hi Lifehacker, I’m planning on having a garage sale in a month or so in preparation for moving house. The stuff I’ll be selling includes a number of electronic goods. I was wondering: what happens with warranties? Can I put up a clear ‘no refunds’ sign? I do plan on being 100 per cent honest and open about everything, but can only do so much testing. Thanks, Selling Out

Garage sale picture from Shutterstock

Dear SO,

I’d personally avoid putting up a ‘No Refunds’ sign. This is tantamount to admitting you don’t trust your wares which will give a decidedly dodgy impression to prospective buyers. They will be rightfully suspicious of everything you’re selling and may haggle the price accordingly.

According to ACCC guidelines, a customer waives their rights to a repair, replacement, refund, cancellation or compensation when engaging in one-off transactions with private sellers. This includes garage sales, which fall under the ‘buyer beware’ umbrella. So from a legal standpoint, you’re not obligated to offer a refund whether you put up a sign or not.

A disgruntled buyer could technically take you to court for selling them goods under false pretenses, but the chances of this happening are extremely low (especially if we’re talking a handful of cheap electronics). I also suspect that such a case would be very difficult for the buyer to win — as demonstrated above, you haven’t actually violated any of their consumer rights as recognised by law.

With that said, honesty is always the best policy. Be upfront about how thoroughly you tested each item, how old they are and the amount of use they’ve seen. In addition, keep your pricing at ‘bargain basement’ levels on stuff you’re unsure about — just in case it does conk out.

You can find plenty of additional advice on how to hold a garage sale via the following links:


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


3 responses to “Ask LH: Do I Have To Offer A Warranty On Stuff I Sell At A Garage Sale?”