While most Kiwis are aware that laws exist to protect their consumer rights, more than half report knowing only “a little” or “nothing” about what these rights are.

That is according to the 2018 New Zealand Consumer Survey, which was released on Wednesday.

Commissioned by Consumer Protection, a part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the survey aimed to find out what New Zealanders think about their rights and experiences of dealing with problems. Nearly 2600 people aged 18 years or over responded to the survey.

Besides the fact that many Kiwis don’t know their consumer rights, the survey also found that more than half have experienced a problem with something they have purchased in the past two years.

Around three quarters of those who experienced a problem said they took steps to try and resolve their most recent issue. However, a quarter of consumers chose not to take action, largely due to lack of time or lack of knowledge about what to do.

This year’s survey asked respondents more about how the problems they encountered with their purchases have impacted their lives to understand more about the severity of the problems and the pain points in the resolution process. The results show that certain industries have a bigger impact than others.

“For example, while ‘home-based telecommunication services’ followed by ‘building, repairs, renovations or maintenance on your home’ and ‘mobile telecommunication services’ had the highest incidence of perceived problems, problems relating to ‘motor vehicle sales’ were found to have the most severe impact on consumers’ everyday lives; and ‘insurance’ problems were the most time consuming for consumers to try and resolve,” Mark Hollingsworth, Consumer Protection manager, said in a statement.

Hollingsworth noted that it is positive to see that consumers have trust and confidence in their rights, but that they need to understand more about what their rights are and how to apply them.

“We want everyone to be a confident consumer, increasing knowledge of consumer rights and how to apply them is vital to build confidence – to know what to do before buying, and where to go for help and what to do if something goes wrong,” Hollingsworth said.

“There are plenty of places to find information on consumer rights, with the Consumer Protection website being a great place to start.”