In july 2007 one of our consumers had bought outdoor floor tiles in the Bauhaus Depot GmbH in Villach, Austria to be used on her terrace. After the first significant cold spell the top layer of the tiles started to deteriorate. After closer inspection our consumer noticed that the packaging was indeed marked as outdoor use tiles but the tiles themselves were meant for indoor use. As soon as the mistake had been discovered our consumer went back to the store to replace the tiles with adequate ones. When she arrived at the store she was unable to communicate with the staff in either the English or Slovenian languages and so had to return to the store with a friend who spoke German. This time (February 2008) the store manager assured her (only verbally not in writing) that she would be able to replace the tiles if she pays the price difference for the more expensive tiles. The store manager also agreed to cover all expenses for removing and replacing the wrong tiles that had already been placed on her terrace. The consumer then decided to buy the right tiles at the store and had a proffesional replace them. She then sent the reciept for the tile replacement to the store where she bought the tiles but the store manager refused to reimburse her for the expenses incurred even though she went to the store several times personally. The consumer thus decided to contact our consumer centre.
With the help of the European Consumer Centre in Austria we managed to get into contact with the austrian retailer in Villach, Austria and demanded they reimburse our consumer for all the expenses caused by the sale of inappropriate floor tiles. At first the retailer didn't even respond to the demand forwarded. After several interventions the retailer finally decided ,in October 2009, to fulfill their legal obligation to reimburse our consumer for the whole sum of 2.094,92 EURO.
