Can I Leave Without Paying if Card Machine is Not Working?

First, there is actually no such thing as a 'consumer rights act'. Legally, when you buy goods from a trader, whether from a shop, online or by telephone, what you are doing is entering into a binding contract according to UK law.

When you enter into any contract there are three elements to that contract. These are:

• Offer – you offer an expression of willingness to be bound by a contract with the seller, usually by agreeing to pay a price for goods or services.
• Acceptance – where the trader agrees to accept your offer to buy their goods.
• Consideration from both parties – which is where each party must receive something of value; usually money and goods.

In this case, the offer was payment for petrol at the price advertised. The acceptance was the garage accepting that offer of payment. Consideration was due in the form of petrol into your tank, followed by payment to the garage. If you were unable to pay by card, you would still be in breach of contract if you refused to pay at all, and the garage would be within their rights to take action against you to recover the non payment.

Obviously, under the circumstances, the garage should be reasonable and offer you the option of the 'unable to pay' form and/or giving you the opportunity to go to a cash point or even send an invoice. In short, unfortunately you can't get out of paying for your petrol just because a card machine is out of service. You're legally obliged to pay for it even if you have to send a cheque, go to the cash point or come back later!

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Faulty Goods Rights Checker lets you find out your legal rights on a faulty product in less than a minute. Try it now →