Does this sound familiar? You’ve ordered some goods online from another European country but they never arrived. You’ve already transferred the money to the seller via your bank. And now the seller refuses to return the money.
Half of all complaints from European consumers who have bought goods online concern delivery.
“The first condition for ensuring that consumers begin accepting cross border e-trade is that they get the goods they have paid for,” says Peter Fogh Knudsen, director of European Consumer Centre Denmark. “So naturally it’s a problem when half of the complaints we receive are about delivery problems.”
Peter Fogh Knudsen is co-author of a joint European report that describes the problems Europeans, including Danes, experienced last year when making purchases across European borders via the Internet.
The report shows, for example, that:
- 50 per cent of the complaints involve delivery
- 25 per cent of the complaints are due to faulty or deficient goods
Avoid problems
According to Peter Fogh Knudsen, Danes can avoid most problems by always paying by credit card, as this means the money can be reimbursed if the goods don’t arrive. If the money is transferred via a bank, you can lose it altogether if the company refuses to refund the money.
It can also be worth making Howard’s acquaintance. Howard is the shopping assistant that European Consumer Centre Denmark has developed to facilitate online shopping with European companies.
As a new feature, Howard now provides ratings of more than 14,000 European e-trading companies, making it easier to distinguish popular and reliable sites from unreliable and problematic sites.
“If you take these precautions before shopping with a European e-trading company, you are well on your way to covering your bases. Other surveys show that by far the majority are satisfied after a transaction,” says Peter Fogh Knudsen.
More enforcement necessary
In the report, the European Consumer Centres Network also encourages the authorities in the individual countries to more actively enforce measures to stop illegal activities. European Consumer Centre Denmark supports this approach.
“If consumers are to feel secure about purchasing from traders in EU countries, they must see that unprofessional traders are dealt with effectively and promptly,” says Peter Fogh Knudsen.
About the report
Consumers’ problems with European e-trade are described in the report The European Online Marketplace: Consumer Complaints 2007.
The report is based on more than 8,000 complaints received by the European Consumer Centres Network last year from European consumers.
It deals only with complaints about goods and therefore does not include complaints about services such as flights.