Concluding a contract by phone carries many risks. First of all, in the vast majority of cases, only second party recordings are recorded; an entrepreneur who offers you his goods or services. "The content of the contract is everything you have agreed upon during a call. If you do not have a chance to verify what was said during the call, it will be very difficult to prove your claims, " explains Lukáš Zelený, head of the legal department of consumer organization dTest.
In practice, you can even encounter cases where a business phone call calls purposefully as needed, and the original innocent conversation becomes an effective weapon against the consumer. "These are, however, extreme cases. In most cases, consumers are complicating their lives by making a nod to the offer, which at first glance looks tempting. But then he finds more information, thinks, and changes his mind. The problem arises when the consumer remains passive. Since the conclusion of the contract, an inexorable withdrawal period begins to run, and the default is not paid, " says Lukas Zeleny. It is good to know that for different types of contracts, the start of the withdrawal period may vary. For example, when negotiating the purchase agreement, the period begins to run only after the goods have been taken over.
Never notify a businessman by phone. If you do not record the call yourself, you will not be able to prove that you have actually withdrawn from your contract. If you call back the missed call or you want to cancel the contract, beware of the color lines. In addition to an unwanted commitment, you can also wait for a bold phone bill.
Failure of the withdrawal period for you may have far-reaching consequences. "If you order an inexhaustible sale of commemorative coins, the mailbox will flood you at regular monthly intervals with unnecessary goods that will no longer return. If you agree to a change in the energy supplier or operator, in addition to the unfavorable contract, you may also be penalized with a penalty fee for early cancellation of your existing contract, " calculates the Green Examples.
There is still some general belief among consumers that what is not on paper does not bind anyone. Written copy of the contract does not affect the validity of the oral arrangement. Additionally, an entrepreneur is under no obligation to provide the consumer with a written contract. The only exception is electronic communications contracts, for which the law explicitly provides that the service provider must provide the consumer with all information about its content in electronic or paper form immediately after the conclusion of the contract. The 14-day withdrawal period starts running only when the relevant information is available to the consumer.
At present, however, the factual aim of the new Consumer Protection Act is being discussed, which should in the future bring about a fairly substantial change. "If this idea succeeds, the trader will have to make every offer made by phone on the consumer on a durable medium. The contract will then be closed only when the consumer confirms it in writing, " adds Green.
And finally one warning for buyers who, seen by the law, are not in the position of consumers. These may be cases of purchase between citizens or business contracts between two businessmen. The non-consumer buyer, who says "YES" to the phone, will not withdraw from the contract without a good reason.
Source: tz dTest.cz
