What to do when complaining fails

Up until now I was pouring my sorrows on the digital paper without providing any advice to a prospective reader. Well, with baggage claims the situation is quite clear, you can either go to court suing the airline for damages, or try to find an out-of-court settlement. There are agencies dealing with airline irregularities like the National Enforcement Bodies, but they do not deal with such small matters like baggage claims. Please mind that I am writing about the EU countries here, though my limited research revealed that elsewhere it is much more difficult to exercise one's rights.

Obviously, not being a lawyer and living in a foreign country made the choice for me. This is of course what the airlines in such situations hope for - too big of an effort to bother over a hundred odd Euros. I do not know what would be Lufthansa's position in the matter, decided to try the latter option, which by no means prevented me from suing later. Please mind that under Montreal Convention the biggest refund you can get from an airline is about €1100, otherwise you need to insure your luggage separately. Montreal Convention is an international agreement about standards in dealing with air traffic irregularities, ratified by most of the developed countries, see Montreal Convention on Wikipedia. 

So I decided to contact the European Consumer Center, an European Commission body aimed to settle cases between individual consumers and companies. I must admit that they helped me greatly, managed to get Lufthansa to settle, and reimburse me for a new suitcase. 

ECC logo

The procedure is easy, you need to collect your correspondence with the company you bought a good or service from, together with all relevant documentation. Please mind that ECC requires that you had already complained to the trader but found no resolution. Also, you need to contact the appropriate ECC of you country of residence. So for the Netherlands you can use the following link.I suggest reading the descriptions carefully as they provide better explanation that I ever could.

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To be absolutely honest I tried once more to write an email to every possible recipient in hope that somebody becomes interested and pushes the case forward. So I composed one and sent it to multiple email addresses of Dolfi1920 and to Lufthansa, informing about my further step if they do not do anything. So it went:

"Dear Sir/Madam,
This is the fourth and final time I am writing to complain about the level of service you are providing. Hoping there is a party interested in solving this case: GDNLH36248, FB ID 30424550, Dolfi id:781847, I include multiple email recipients.
To describe the latest developments, there aren't any. The final communication 'deadlock', the main reason for this email, started on June 1st when I was called by  <Dolfi1920 agent> that the solution I myself proposed (of self-repair) was not possible. Since there wasn't another proposal, the consultant promised that a manager with more decision power would call me back on the same day. That did not happen, so in the evening I wrote an email to ask for a contact. With no reply, I decided to call Dolfi1920 on June 6th and talked to <another Dolfi1920 agent>. She refused to help me, connect me to a manager or provide a reason for the delay. All I could get was an email that said manager would contact me as soon as possible and explain. That did not happen either, at least for the two days since. It appears I have ran out of moves but to wait indefinitely until they might or might not contact me back, or for writing this email.
Today, I must conclude that my case is being ignored by Dolfi1920, who is unwilling to settle the matter, just as I expected in the previous complaints I wrote. I, on the other hand, am still willing to talk and solve the issue. That is why, call me as soon as possible or provide me with a direct contact to a person with decision power, and I will try again. At this point, I believe that the least you could do is to replace the damaged suitcase with a similar one acceptable by me, or to pay for a new one of my choosing, including shipment. However, if I do not hear from you within 24 hours, or we will not settle for a definite solution with a timeline by the end of the week, I will be forced to lay my case against Lufthansa, before the European Consumer Centre.
I am looking forward to your reply, and above all, your willingness to settle the matter promptly.
Kind regards,
Paweł xxx
A very disappointed customer"

Of course there was no reply from Dolfi1920, nor I ever expected one. I was pretty sure at that stage that my complaints made somebody at Dolfi1920 very upset and that person decided to be disregard me. These are of course just speculations. As for Lufthansa I could have just as well read the previous email they had sent, which was almost identical in the content. That was quite upsetting as the company did not care that there would have been a complaint made to an European body. Apparently it is not only citizens that look down on our public institutions.

But that made it clear, and the complaint to ECC was sent as soon as the deadline from the email had passed.