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Consumer's Telegramm European Edition
If you wish to be informed monthly about European consumer news, just subscribe our free newsletter.Consumer's Telegram March 2006
Insert of n. 21 - Editorial office: Centro Europeo Consumatori (European Consumer Centre, Italy)E-COMMERCE
More safety for online purchase on ebay
Since January, there are some news for ebay costumers: the online platform doesn’t accept prepaid cards as means of payment among private users anymore. Visa cards can only be used via PayPal. This system should provide higher security standards, which is interesting for buyers as well as for sellers. It consists in a virtual cashier to whom the consumer gives its personal data and the order to effect the remittance. At the end of the transaction PayPal sends to both parts a confirmation of the effected payment.TRAVELLING
Trenitalia: initiatives for the consumer protection
Those who take the train daily are continuously exposed to some inconveniences due, in particular, to frequent delays, cancelling, lack of cleanness and minimal security measures. Some consumer unions have therefore proposed some interesting initiatives for the defence of the rights of Trenitalia costumers.One consists in a civil protest against the meanwhile already ordinary lacking services: if the user joins the initiative, when the ticket controller asks for the ticket, the user hands him/her out a form in which he/she declares that the ticket will be shown with the same delay with which the train has departed.
Another form of protest consists in the strike of the season-ticket. (For further information please consult the website: http://www.acu.it/Attachments/Modulo_disobbedienza.doc
Others, however, have decided to take the matter in front of the Justice of the Peace in order to get a refund for the damages provoked by the continuous delays and disservices. In joining these initiatives the passenger must also be aware of the consequences of his behaviour.
CONTRACTS
„Verba volant scripta manent“: Only written things last forever!
This slogan should be a guideline for every consumer when he/she is about to conclude a contract; because the sentence “…but he had promised me that faithfully” can only be used as an argument if the business partner has put his signature under the promise.Therefore our hint: if something is really important to you and you want to be sure that your wish is respected at the conclusion of the contract, then you should insist that it is written down and signed.
Writing down avoids misunderstandings and the sudden forgetting of rights which were granted and assured to the consumer at the moment of signing the contract.
CASE OF THE MONTH
The peculiarity of this case is not that it deals with a special subject or it is particularly interesting, but it is the fact that we were able to solve it for our new colleagues of the ECC of Malta. Malta is not only a new EU member but also its ECC has just been opened its doors at the end of 2005.For the new member countries it is especially difficult to create a new structure as they have to face many new things. Even the general framework has to build up before practical work can be done.
The object of the case is a down-jacket which a consumer of Malta had bought in Sicily for her daughter and which soon after lost its first feathers. The colleague of Malta asked for our help. After our letter, we received a call from the seller in which he immediately offered to substitute the contested jacket or to emit a voucher.
Our joy was obviously enormous as we could inform our colleagues about the positive ending of the case. It is to be wished that more pleasant contacts like this one will happen in future.
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