Customers in the mobile phone shop are brazenly cheated
Things are not going smoothly in mobile phone shops operated by Vodafone, o2 and Telekom: Customers are not given sufficient information, and necessary documents are often reluctantly handed over. An absurdity for the North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center, which accuses Germany’s mobile phone providers of “inadequate consumer protection”.
It doesn’t always have to be extreme cases of foisted contracts that mobile phone providers cause their customers trouble with. Also in everyday business Consumers are often cheated when concluding a contract. The North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center criticizes this and reveals that the majority of mobile phone shops from Telekom, Vodafone and o2 do not even comply with the minimum legal standards.
Consumer protection: deficiencies in Telekom, Vodafone and o2 shops
The sheer number of stores where action is taken to the detriment of customers is frightening: Only in six of the 198 partner shops of the three major providers For example, the essential information of the contract was summarized and given to the customer (source: Consumer Center North Rhine-Westphalia). This has actually been mandatory since the new version of the Telecommunications Act (TKG) from December 2021.
The consumer advocates determined this by means of spot checks carried out in NRW in January 2022. In 12 stores refused to put the offer in writing – even on direct request. In such a case, all alarm bells should ring for customers.
In spite of the change in the law, consumers should still be afraid of foisted contracts, which have recently been noticed in some Vodafone shops in particular. An important step for consumer protection would be Initial term of contracts to six months To shorten. But even one-year contracts did not make it into the TKG amendment. The providers criticize that customers would then have to expect higher prices.
The right of withdrawal in the shop is intended to protect consumers
In addition, consumers in the store often lack the time to examine offers and contracts in detail. Because up until now, when concluding a contract in a shop, there are no long cancellation periods such as there are with online shopping. “To better protect people from unwanted contracts, we need a Right of withdrawal for long-term contracts, that are taken out in the shop,” demands Wolfgang Schuldzinski, board member of the NRW consumer advice centre.
Regardless of the term, you should regularly terminate your contract:
According to the law, the summary of the contract components must be handed over at the time the contract is concluded. According to the consumer advice center, this should happen beforehand in the interest of the customer. Because that’s not the case, you have Telekom, Vodafone and o2 asked to comply with the information obligation.
