Minor construction defects - what is the correct legal procedure?

Hello Uwe,

Only when it became official did things start moving. Before the letter, I was also a bit apprehensive about whether this would get things moving and whether someone would react insulted, but you probably have to free yourself from that ;)

Yes, everyone should do that!

The "problem" is – from my point of view, largely the www and the many negative reports contained therein. Not everyone checks negative reports as we do here; it is an enormous amount of work and much does not see the light of day at all in our moderated section about a provider "x"**. The inclined user may ask themselves why that is so.

I suspect that your garage provider only reacted to your letter because they have a huge number of orders to process; everything _seemingly_ non-binding that could not result in an order is always pushed aside first. As far as that is human, and everyone must ask themselves whether they would not react the same way. On the other hand, it is only the customers who make this "pushing aside" possible by avoiding – like the devil avoids holy water – simply issuing a complaint about defects. What result a complaint about defects (which is very simple to write; there are plenty of templates at associations and lawyers) has, you have described here. And – it is not an insult to majesty if a justified defect is to be corrected. I already wrote about this a few days ago: it is part of normal business operations.

"He who writes, remains" my wise grandmother already knew ;)

**And although we do this very carefully, I have to defend myself in court. That is why I am not amused when anonymous users approach the operator, like our mods or me, in the manner of "I am right and you must publish" or conjure up censorship if they want to evade the special requirements of the moderated section.

Rhine greetings

...with our doors, the deadlines worked - but only with the last one. The door manufacturer even threatened us with a collection agency in the meantime if we didn't pay the remaining invoice. We, in turn, responded by initiating a preservation of evidence procedure. Then everything was handled perfectly. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with the developer, we have given the lawyer approval to file a lawsuit.

: The behavior has led to significant frustration and a lot of work on both sides. The consultant always responded to our complaint email with different excuses and evasions, and even the face-to-face meeting on site did not change anything; simply nothing happened.

It would have been easier from the start to send a technician. But that only happened after the complaint sent by registered mail probably ended up in another department.

What remains: a bad impression and definitely no recommendation due to this behavior. Therefore, I cannot understand the behavior, as I also deal with such matters in my profession, even though it is a different industry. Such an approach would lead to massive customer loss...

Letter by registered mail

I do not want to deny that this is the right way. But in the forum, you are allowed to be annoyed about it, right? When I hear the term registered mail (+return receipt), I always think of the GEZ. In the civilized world, a normal letter is enough ... well, I am naive, there are just many "sharks" around ... So, write your letters in the presence of a witness, seal them in the presence of a witness, and send it all as registered mail/return receipt! Know-it-all note: The registered mail only proves delivery, but not the content.

Hello Uwe,

What remains: a bad impression and definitely no recommendation with this behavior. Therefore, I cannot understand the behavior, because I also deal with such things in my profession even if it is a different industry. The approach would lead to massive customer loss...

I don’t understand it either, because we work differently; but the vacancy of humanity remains.

On the other hand, I don’t believe it will/would lead to massive customer loss; neither for you nor for your provider. That is only the case if a niche product is offered and the customer base is manageable.

Rhenish greetings

On the other hand, I don't believe it will/would lead to massive customer loss; neither for you nor for your provider.

Certainly not with my provider, as the customer base there is very large and mostly consists of people who come once and then never again. After all, they have their garage then. I work with my customers over many years, and over various projects you build a relationship of trust, so something like that must not happen. For such reasons, I have already taken over several customers from competitors without having to actively pursue it. In the industry, that happens relatively quickly.

The human factor remains, of course; even with me it happens that I take a long time to respond or overlook something. But I don’t pull flimsy excuses out of my hat to calm the customer. If a mistake has been made, then you stand by it and make sure it gets fixed. I have worked towards this for 4 months without success. I am curious if anything will still come from the respective consultant afterwards, but I don’t expect it to, the order is too insignificant for that.

But I think we are digressing, although I find the discussion about it very interesting :).