Consumer's Telegram May 2015

Insert of n. 34 - Editorial office: Centro Europeo Consumatori (European Consumer Centre, Bolzano - Italy)


Holiday and travel

One Click Holiday – What you should know for booking online

Click and go – with only one click you conclude a travel contract. Usually, this way of booking does not permit a withdrawal from the contract free of charge. Services in the areas of lodging and leisure are explicitly excluded from the right of withdrawal, when a specific date or period of time is scheduled. Therefore, everybody who cancels a package tour has to recognize a cancelling fee. The closer the date of departure, the more expensive may be the cancelling fee. Furthermore, more and more frequently consumers inform us about having booked two travels by mistake: The first booking confirmation may be sent to the spam folder without being noticed by the consumer. Also other important messages of the travel site sometimes end in a spam folder. Therefore, you should check regularly your spam (junk mail) folder! More information, useful tipps and concrete guidance you'll find on our homepage .


E-commerce and consumers

Experience exchange between European Consumer Centre (ECC) and Postal Police Bolzano/Bozen

In the European Union internet purchases have been part of everyday life for a long time. According to estimates, only in Italy there are 14 million online buyers. The phenomenon is still growing and provides consumers many advantages. Shopping online has become everyday practice. However, one needs to be careful and needs to be aware of many dangers. Being sceptical about the security of payment systems has led to wrong convictions: For many years payment by bank transfer has been considered as being secure, but now it is not any more like that. More information about this meeting here.


Help abroad: Equality for EC-citizens

New EC-law regulates consular protection worldwide

You lose your passport on a journey, you become a victim of an accident or a crime or you get involved in dangerous situtations like natural disasters while staying in your holiday resort, then you may seek assistance of the national representation on the local site. What happens when there is not such a representation? A new EC-law regulates such a situation. Not every EC-member state has set up an embassy or consulate in every other country. Nevertheless, EC-citizen enjoy the right of consular protection all over the world, no matter if they travel or live outside the EC. More about this issue on the homepage of the ECC Austria.

Case of the month

Last autumn a French consumer ordered through an Italian website a mountainbike at the price of 700 euros. The packaging of the bike did not show any traces of damage and the mountainbike itself was packed well. Nevertheless, the consumer opened the package and had to notice that on the bicycle frame there was a deep, two centimetre-long scratch. Thus, the scratch must have occured already before packaging and delivering. The consumer informed the seller immediately about the damage and sent the company pictures of the scratch and the undamaged packaging. The consumer asked the exchange of the good, but the company offered the consumer only a voucher at the amount of 50 Euro. Subsequently, the consumer contacted the ECC France, that asked for assistance at the ECC Bozen/Bolzano. They contacted the seller and after an initial back and forth the seller organized the redemption of the mountainbike and refunded the full amount of the purchase.