this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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Hello. I've been trying to find genuine legal advice in Berlin for a month now, but every single lawyer I have emailed has refused to take the case, citing their lack of capacity. Or, I simply do not hear back.

I purchased a defective product from Dell for 2,000 euro and now they're refusing to give me a refund after 2 failed repair attempts. I tried to educate myself as best I could about German consumer law, and from what I understand, when a defect is discovered within the first year, it is automatically assumed to be manufacturer defect unless definitively proven otherwise. This defect was discovered at month 6, and resulted in total system failure by month 9.

I also read that the customer gets to decide whether to replace or repair. I chose replace, Dell refused.

I also read that they are legally obligated to make the customer whole within a reasonable amount of time. It has been 3 weeks since their 2nd failed repair attempt, and have not acknowledged that I demanded a refund or made any substantial attempts to offer replacement, repair, or refund. They just tell me they're "Still working on it." every other day. When I ask what that means, they just repeat the statement.

I submitted the issue for arbitration, but Dell refused to participate.

I don't know what else to do. I've tried contacting lawyers, I've tried getting arbitration, I've tried asking around, but Dell is ignoring me while keeping my money. And I can't find anybody willing to help me. I don't know where to go to ask for help. I'm out 5% of my annual wages and I don't know what to do about it!

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[–] grober_Unfug@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe try the Verbraucherzentrale: https://www.verbraucherzentrale-berlin.de/beratung-be

They should be able to give you legal advice.

[–] Fawkes@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I did contact them actually, but they explicitly state that they do not offer advice in English. My German is not good enough to understand legal advice, and I don't know any one well enough that I can ask to help with it.

[–] ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Whenever I have to deal with a French-only gov agency, I give them a bilingual letter with my original English directly next to machine translated French. The machine translation for French is good enough, which is likely the same for German. So the machine translation serves to get the letter past the 1st tier staff who just look for trivial reasons to reject a case. Then having the original English next to it enables the case worker to potentially have a chance at understanding what you mean whenever the machine translation is rough.

Not sure about Germany specifically but worth a try.

[–] Fawkes@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I managed to get an appointment for a consultation on the 14th. But they contacted me to say that they were required to only speak to me in German. So I either had to cancel or bring an interpreter. Machine translating is fine for written, but problematic for real time.

[–] ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io 1 points 3 weeks ago

Indeed, you lose the convenience of a realtime chat. Which means the conversation will be slow because when they respond in writing it may trigger more questions.

In Brussels we have social interpretters. I’m not sure if they are paid or if they volunteer, but at no cost they send an interpretter to wherever they are needed. They do this for anyone, not just poor people. But there’s a limitation: they are not certified interpretters thus cannot be used in court.

I mention this because perhaps Berlin has something comparable. OTOH, if the legal advice /must/ be in German, it stands to reason that they would also reject non-certified interpretters. Otherwise I don’t understand the purpose of the law. If they would even theoretically allow a friend or anyone arbitrary to help you, it would somewhat defeat the point.

[–] grober_Unfug@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 weeks ago

How do you want to get in contact with them? Go there in person or via email?

Please contact me via message.