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I'm from Austria. I'd be surprised if it were different in Germany. Again, I'm not a lawyer, but the way I've been told (by my brother, who is a lawyer) is that

I'm from Austria. I'd be surprised if it were different in Germany. Again, I'm not a lawyer, but the way I've been told (by my brother, who is a lawyer) is that written and oral are equally binding. (I'd take it this is especially so for consumers.) Sure, you'll have a hard time proving agreement if there's no written record. But I do not think the law requires written agreement. If the mover says "I'll do it for 5k" and you say yes, then that is binding.

ChuckNorris89 7y ago
Funny, I lived in Austria before and I had loads of shady encounters with small and large service providers agreeing something on the phone and then not honoring that because "I don't know who you spoke to yesterday but if it's not in writing we can't honor it". Car services are notorious for this behavior where they quote you a price on the phone and after they have your car "hostage", invoice you a much higher price. Also phone companies/ISPs where sales reps would promise you some discounts on the phone or in person if you sign up today and when your first invoice arrives you have to pay everything in full with no discounts. Seems to be the norm the norm in that country and not sure how you'd be able to argue against that in court with just words and no written proof of the contrary. God I hate Google for disabling the call recording API since Android 9. Since then, I always ask them to send me "what we just agreed on the phone" in writing via e-mail. If they refuse, I know there's a high chance they won't honor it later. Please let me know if I'm wrong.
agumonkey 7y ago
honestly I'm surprised.. the reason for written agreement is that oral agreements are vapor