Before pulling out your credit card, know Connecticut's consumer laws.
The State of Connecticut has a robust series of consumer protection laws. These laws are enforced by the cabinet-level Department of Consumer Protection. Laws enforced by the Department of Consumer Protection regard areas such as "bait-and-switch" tactics, retail refunds and exchanges and telemarketing. Knowing the law will help you, as a consumer, avoid being taken advantage of by unscrupulous business practices.
Refunds and Exchanges
Connecticut state law provides for specific regulations for returning items for refund or merchandise credit. Stores are required under Connecticut consumer law to have their return policy posted in a conspicuous place. This policy must include the amount of time a customer has to return items after purchase. Stores that electronically record the number of returns made by individual customers must declare that they use such a system on their return policy. If a store has a limit on the number of returns a customer can make, it must inform a customer when he has passed this limit and cannot deny returns made with a valid receipt. These provisions do not apply to perishable goods or anything clearly marked as nonreturnable.
Bait and Switch
Connecticut consumer protection law includes specific provisions against "bait-and-switch" tactics. The law prevents businesses from deceptively advertising products that they do not sincerely wish to sell at the advertised price to customers. Evidence that a business is engaged in a "bait and switch" includes refusal to demonstrate the merchandise or to sell it on the terms advertised, actively discouraging a customer from buying the product advertised, failing to have a sufficient supply of advertised merchandise at all locations, demonstrating defective merchandise or the existence of a company sales plan to discourage salesman from selling the product advertised.
Telemarketing
The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection keeps a running list of residents who do not wish to receive unsolicited telephone marketing calls. This list is not a suggestion and telemarketers are legally prohibited from contacting such customers over the phone. Telemarketing calls must be made during the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time. Connecticut law prohibits the use of previously recorded phone messages for the purpose of making sales pitches over the phone as well as using fax machines for the purpose of making telemarketing sales pitches.
Tags: Department Consumer, Department Consumer Protection, bait-and-switch tactics, Connecticut consumer, Consumer Protection, number returns