Receiving unsolicited supplies

Unsolicited supplies are goods or services supplied to you when you haven’t agreed to purchase or receive them.

You do not have to pay for goods or services if you have not ordered them.

Examples of unsolicited supplies are all of the following:

• free product samples sent through the mail
• door-knocking households and offering to clean windows as part of a free product demonstration
• being sent books and DVDs.

It is against the law to be sent credit or debit cards unless they are a replacement, renewal or substitution for a previous card.

Returning unsolicited supplies

If you receive unsolicited goods or services that you do not want, the business must collect the goods within three months. 

If you write to the business to tell them you don’t want the goods, they must collect them within one month.

You can’t unreasonably refuse to allow them to collect the goods.

If you damage the goods during this time you may be liable to pay compensation.

If the supplier does not collect the unsolicited goods within one month you can keep the goods with no obligation to pay.

You are not entitled to keep the goods if they weren’t intended for you, for example, if the package was addressed to another person.

For more advice contact NT Consumer Affairs.