Outside of warranty issues, discussions about the legal remedies available for breach of contract don’t tend to come up much in the context of customer purchase of tools and equipment for outdoor chores like lawn care and tree maintenance. However, it is an important topic that can help you as a consumer to be more informed and develop better leverage when buying equipment like log splitters or snow plows from online retailers and other sellers. An article published online at comprehensive remedies for breach of contract in general explains some specific remedies that are available in the context of these retail sales.
Breach of contract is normally a term that comes up in the legal context, referring to problems that occur when one party to a contract act in a way that deviates from the terms of that contract. In practice, it means that the contractual agreement is broken in some way, and this can manifest in many ways. For consumers buying equipment online, this can come up if items that are sent to customers are different than they originally ordered, such as if someone orders a particular metal spear head for their spear, and then a shipping error results in something that is not exactly the type of spear head that was originally requested, that would typically involve a breach of contract.
Breaches of contract can also come up in other ways, such as if a company does not deliver items in the kind of condition that was originally agreed upon. Once an item is bought, a customer has a reasonable amount of time to inspect that item, and the law protects consumers from defective products or anything that may be missing.
Consumers can also suffer from what could be termed “philosophical” breaches of contract, where a person’s expectations are not met, and the seller or other party to the contract does not exactly follow through with the agreement. So, for example, a company may use the phrase “guarantee” when discussing a return policy, which is not a legally binding term.
Again, these issues usually result in warranty claims, but they can also result in a breach of contract claim, and again, this is a very basic primer on how contract law can impact these sales. For consumers, it’s important to understand some of this language, and to know where these rights come into play, as they generally elevate protections for consumers, as well as help consumers to ensure safer and smoother transactions with retailers.
