Consumer Protection and Investigations - Consumers

Consumer Protection and Investigations exist to help consumers and businesses. We aim to protect consumers from rogue traders and to support honest businesses.

Helping Cheshire residents

We work in partnership with Consumer Direct, a government-funded helpline which offers clear, practical and impartial advice to help consumers. If you are a Cheshire resident and need assistance from Consumer Protection and Investigations. Consumer Direct will relay the details of your case to us. We will then make contact with you and we can:

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Explain what your rights are
Suggest action that you can take to resolve your problem
Help you to draft letters of complaint
Mediate on your behalf with the business that you have a dispute with
Guide you through making a claim in the County Court

Consumer Protection and Investigations also provide advice to businesses and it is not unusual for both the consumer and the business involved in a dispute to contact us. We will not make assumptions about who is right and who is wrong. Instead we remain impartial and will inform businesses of their legal obligations and advise consumers of their rights based on the information that they give to us.

If the matter involves a criminal offence we will investigate and take appropriate action. We take into account a number of factors when deciding what action to take. For example we consider the harm that the behaviour of the business is having on consumers generally. Action includes advising the business on their legal responsibilities, warning offending businesses and where the seriousness and level of complaints warrants it, we will prosecute the offending business.

What we cannot do:

Automatically obtain a refund for you.
Take action against businesses for being rude to you.
Provide assistance where your claim exceeds the limits of the County Court (currently £5,000). For these cases you should seek the advice of a solicitor.

What we expect from you:

To provide us with an honest and accurate account of what has happened. Please do not withhold details, if we do not know the full facts we cannot give you the best advice.

To listen and follow the advice we give you. Of course you can choose to ignore our advice, but if you do we may choose to withdraw our help.

To be courteous to our staff. We understand that there will be times when you will be frustrated or upset because of the situation that you are in, but remember our staff are here to help you so please be patient and co-operate with them.

What can you expect from Consumer Protection and Investigations?

Find out about our Concordat on Good Enforcement.