The nightmares of online shopping are that something else is delivered, the goods arrive broken, nothing is delivered or that the seller doesn’t refund the money after withdrawal. About 3% of internet users fall victim to fraud each year. The European Consumer Centre by the Czech Trade Inspection Authority advises on how to prevent problems and how to get out of them. If the consumer unpacks the parcel with…

The worsening epidemic situation in Europe may encourage people to buy caravans or motorhomes. But this is being exploited by scammers who post an offer for a relatively cheap second-hand vehicle on a mainstream advertising site and wait for someone to catch on and send thousands of euros to their account for a non-existent car. “A Czech couple were recently tempted by the idea of having an older caravan for 5…

A record 170,000 consumers benefited from the free services of the European Consumer Centres Network in the year of the coronavirus pandemic. Its lawyers either advised or directly helped them resolve their dispute with a vendor from another EU country and recover € 4 million, i.e more than CZK 104 million in total. These often involved non-refund of money for cancelled flights, tours and accommodation, but also…

Today is the World Consumer Day and Europe commemorates successfully resolved complaints of consumers against traders. One of them is the story of Czech Miroslav Krekáč who bought return flight tickets from Krakow to Los Angeles with transfer in Warsaw, all flights to be operated with a Polish carrier. All flights were cancelled one day after the purchase and the passenger started requiring the refund of the paid…