Goods not as described Consumer Rights Act: your tube

The metre you ordered was a hollow aluminium section, and the piece on the bench is the wrong shape, the wrong size, or too light to be the bar in the title. On amazon.co.uk that is an item not as described. The goods not as described rule in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 is the duty you name when you write to the seller. This is not legal advice.

Keep the title you paid against, the Sold by line, a tape, and photographs taken before you cut the metal. The aluminium rectangular tube comparison includes a listing whose title says a 60 × 40 × 3 mm hollow section while the technical block stores the form Sheet. Prices and stars here are the amazon.co.uk figures from that comparison. We did not test the bars in a lab. Links to amazon.co.uk are affiliate links, and a qualifying purchase can earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

In short

Section 11 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says goods supplied by description must match that description, and the title on amazon.co.uk is the description you can point to. A conflicting technical block is a reason to photograph the page and the parcel, and the remedy sits with the retailer named as the seller. The Act does not promise that a refund button will appear, and it does not cover a purchase you made for your business.

The description is the title you paid for

Section 11 treats every contract to supply goods by description as including a term that the goods will match the description. Buying from a product page is still a supply by description. Information the trader gives about the main characteristics is a term as well. On a tube those characteristics are outside section, wall, length, and whether the goods are a hollow section rather than a flat sheet. A title that reads 60 mm by 40 mm by 3 mm at 1,000 mm, and model text such as RH060x40x3, is describing a tube.

In the comparison set the Aluminium Online listing was about £21.59, the figure to screenshot with the title. A later message that rewrites a 3 mm wall as a thin sheet is not an agreement you already made by paying. Lay a tape on the outside faces, measure the length, and look at the cut end for a wall and a bore. That examination is how you decide whether section 11 is engaged.

When the technical block says sheet

The Aluminium Online listing titled as a 60 × 40 × 3 mm hollow section, model RH060x40x3, also stores item form Sheet and dimensions of 6 × 4 × 0.1 cm, beside an item thickness of 3 mm and a length of 100 cm. A sheet of about 60 mm by 40 mm by 1 mm is not a metre of tube with a 3 mm wall. If a tube of the stated section arrives, you have the goods the title described. Tell the seller the Sheet field is wrong. A refund is not owed merely because a dropdown is wrong while the metal is right.

If a sheet arrives, or a bar of a different section, quote the title, the model, the form field, and what the tape shows. Stars do not settle it. That listing showed 5.0 from a single written review that said as described. One sentence records that buyer's parcel, not yours. The top pick in the same set, a Fabal 30 × 15 × 1.3 mm metre at about £13.15 with 6063-T6 on the listing, stores 30 mm in an outside-diameter field. That figure echoes one face of the rectangle, so measure it on the day.

Satisfactory quality is a separate duty

Section 9 is satisfactory quality, a separate duty from the description. Quality is what a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking account of the description, the price, and anything else relevant. A hollow section that matches the title can still fail section 9 if it arrives kinked, deeply scored, or split along a seam. A sheet fails the description first, so say that in the first sentence of your message.

At these prices, satisfactory quality means a usable bar that matches the stated section and is fit to cut, drill, and frame in the ordinary way. It does not include a working load or an alloy the listing never printed. Where the Fabal title states 6063-T6, that temper is part of the description. Where the Aluminium Online title states aluminium, mill finish, and a commercial grade, and states no alloy, you cannot later invent 6082 and call its absence a breach. A tube bought as a tube is being bought to span or to sleeve. You do not have to type that ordinary purpose into the order notes.

Sold by Amazon or a marketplace seller

The remedy sits with the seller. Amazon's statutory-rights help treats incorrect, damaged, or defective goods as a customer-rights question and names Citizens Advice. Read the Sold by line on the product page and again on the order. If Amazon sold the tube, you deal with Amazon as the retailer. If a marketplace seller sold it, the contract is with that business. Name the seller, the order number, the ASIN, and the section you rely on. A note that only says not as described, with no title and no tape reading, is easy to close with a standard reply.

The short-term right to reject lasts 30 days, counted for a posted tube from the day after delivery. Inside that period you can reject for a description breach without offering a repair first. The refund is what you paid, with no deduction for use, within 14 days of the trader agreeing, and the trader pays the reasonable cost of the return. After 30 days the usual order is repair or replacement, at the trader's cost.

What to do the day the parcel arrives

Open the packet and leave the bar uncut. Write down outside width, outside depth, wall thickness at the cut end, and overall length. Compare them with the title, not with the first dimension box. A stored size of 6 × 4 × 0.1 cm on a listing you bought as a metre of 60 × 40 × 3 mm tube is the conflict to record. Attach the photographs to one message, in this order.

• Photograph the title, the price in GBP, and the Sold by line from the listing or the order confirmation.
• Photograph the technical block, including item form and any dimension that is not a tube.
• Photograph the parcel label and the goods on a tape, including the outside faces and the length.
• Photograph the cut end so the wall, or the lack of a bore, is visible, plus any printed model number.

Send the photographs before you drill or saw. A look with a tape does not give up the short-term right. Cutting a wrong bar into a frame makes the return harder. If the bar matches the title, build. If it does not, say you are rejecting under the short-term right, name section 11, and ask for a refund and the return, or for a replacement of the goods the title described. Keep the piece until the seller has agreed how it comes back.

What the Act does not promise

The Act sets duties and a menu of remedies. It does not promise that a refund will be approved. A seller can disagree about the facts, ask for the photographs, or offer a replacement you do not want. A help page that mentions a refund for unused faulty goods is Amazon's summary of one situation, not a full statement of section 11.

Business purchases sit outside those consumer remedies. The rules are for an individual acting wholly or mainly outside a trade, business, craft, or profession. A single bar for a home shelf is that case. A bundle on a trade account, in a company name, for a paying customer, is not. No load figure and no alloy on the Aluminium Online title means those things were not terms. If the seller stalls, Citizens Advice is the public body Amazon's statutory-rights page names. If you reorder, use the aluminium rectangular tube comparison again and measure the new parcel the same way.