Lee Melissa: Consumer Guarantees Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lee Melissa: Consumer Guarantees Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 July 2010. Volume:665;Page:12571. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise in support of my colleague and neighbour Jackie Blue. I think the last time we spoke on this bill I got slightly further than my learned colleague in front of me Cam Calder who managed only to put out “Tena koutou” before the dinner break so I did slightly better—but still. The Consumer Guarantees Amendment Bill is about consumer rights. This Government is committed to promoting an environment where consumers—all of us fit into this category—can make purchases knowing that our rights are protected. Before we broke for the last adjournment when I spoke on this bill Jackie Blue gave some wonderful examples. The one that I remember is about TradeMe. If we as consumers win a competitive online auction from a professional seller we are not covered by the Consumer Guarantees Act but if I hit the button for “buy now” on the same online auction then I am. This is an anomaly that must be fixed. 
We must remedy this because there are unscrupulous people in this world who would specifically look for these loopholes to sell inferior goods to innocent people who get really excited about winning an auction online but find that they have no protection. I prefer to hit the “buy now” button because I cannot be bothered waiting for the auction to happen. My son likes to wait for that auction to happen but by the end of it he is not protected by the Consumer Guarantees Act and that is a very very sad situation. 
There is always recourse and people could take this up with the sellers if they can find them and take them through the disputes tribunal. However without the protection in law a disputes tribunal has little legal reason for finding in favour of the buyer. We were told by Jackie Blue that millions of New Zealanders are trading on sites like TradeMe. I am a member my son is a member and I have sold and bought items on TradeMe. Even my son has traded and swapped toys through TradeMe and I had to drive miles away to pick up those toys that he traded online. Now I know that he was not actually covered by this law and was just one of the 280000 weekly online transactions on TradeMe. We are looking at over a million transactions a month and that is a lot of auctions that are probably won and not protected by the Consumer Guarantees Act. This bill addresses that issue. 
The other issue is one that was on telly recently on  
Fair Go 
 about extended warranties. Most people naive but well meaning and concerned to protect their newly purchased goods often end up buying extended warranties. We have probably all done it at one point; I know I certainly have. But as we all know it is completely useless and a complete waste of money. A lot of extended warranties that people buy at the moment cover less than what consumers are entitled to under the law. If we happen to break things by accident most home and contents insurance cover them so there is really no use for an extended warranty. 
Having said that there will be some people like my friends in Mount Albert who have seven children and their washing machine will be getting a good go 7 days of the week. That washing machine probably needs an extended warranty but that is not so in normal everyday cases. Customers and retailers must be clear as to what the Consumer Guarantee Act covers as it seems people often get turned away by retailers when things go wrong because they do not have extended warranties but the Consumer Guarantees Act should cover them. This is a good bill and I commend it to the House.