CHRISTMAS shoppers were given tips and advice at a special roadshow organised by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

The event at the city's fish market, Market Street, yesterday (Wednesday) saw officers from the OFT and the county council's Trading Standards department giving one-to-one advice on a range of consumer issues from rogue traders to internet shopping.

Impulse buying, fake competitions claiming you have won big prizes, internet purchases and price fixing, were top of the agenda at the roadshow where the OFT unveiled its new advice guide Hot Shopping Tips.

Penny Boys, executive director of the OFT, said: "Competitions that tell a consumer they have won a lot of money and then it turns out to be false are a big problem.

"Thousands if not millions of pounds have been lost to these types of pursuits.

"People will send £2,000 to an address hoping they will get a lot more back. But it's likely they'll never see it again and will never get their money back."

Lancashire Trading Standards chief officer, Jim Potts, said the service receives 28,000 complaints from consumers every year.

Mrs Boys said: "It's all about raising awareness of people's rights.

"We had a very high profile case we won where retailers had fixed the price of football shirts which is a criminal offence.

"That helped our plight substantially but we're now trying to make preventative steps to try and stop things before they happen."

Some of the tips included:

Any good purchased should be of satisfactory quality and fit for its purpose.

A retailer cannot avoid giving a refund on faulty goods by blaming the manufacturer as the contract is with the seller.

A credit card provider is liable as well as the retailer if the item bought costs between £100 and £30,000 and is faulty, broken or doesn't arrive.