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What is one relatively unknown thing that your country does much better than elsewhere, but that most people don't know about? (lemmy.world)

submitted 20 hours ago by NateNate60@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] dan@upvote.au 52 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

Australia: Consumer protection laws are better than most other countries, even European countries. For example:

Products must last as long as a "reasonable consumer" would expect them to last, regardless of the warranty period. For example, at least 5-10 years for large appliances.
If there's a "major failure" any time during that period (a big problem with the product, if it stops working, if it differs from the description, is missing advertised features, or you wouldn't have bought it if you knew about the problem beforehand), the customer has a choice of whether they want to have the item repaired, replaced, or return it and get a refund. Customers can also ask for a partial refund based on loss of value.
The store you bought the item from must accept returns and warranty claims. They can't tell you to go to the manufacturer.
For repairs, returns and replacements of large items (like appliances), the company must pick it up and drop it off for free.
It's illegal for a store to not offer refunds (unless the items are second-hand).
Products must match descriptions in advertising, including what a sales person tells you. If a sales person tells you the product does something but it actually doesn't, you can get a refund.
Businesses get fined for breaking these rules. A chain of computer stores had to pay a $200,000 fine for showing an illegal "no refunds" sign and forcing people to go to the manufacturer for warranty claims, and were later fined $750,000 for doing it again: https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/msy-technology-ordered-to-pay-penalties-of-750000-for-consumer-guarantee-misrepresentations

This applies for digital goods, too. As far as I know, Australia is the only country where you can get a refund from Steam for a major bug in a game regardless of how long you've owned the game for or how many hours you've played. Valve tried to avoid doing this and was fined $3 million: https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/valve-to-pay-3-million-fine-for-misleading-australian-gamers/

[–] SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Agreed except for the archaic rating system for video games. Gonna tell full adults they can't handle seeing a drug in a game that's called by its real name? That's pretty ridiculous.

[–] dan@upvote.au 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah, video game ratings in Australia aren't great. Australia didn't even have an adult (R18+) rating for video games until 2013. Before then, all games rated higher than MA were illegal in Australia. Some games were banned, while others were modified to reduce violence, remove sexual themes, remove drug use, etc.