Polish companies *think* they are smart...

Why do some of the Polish companies (actually most of the ones I had a "pleasure" to deal with - marketing/advertising areas) think that foreign customers are suckers? When I try to buy a service from them AND they know I'm from Germany, they charge 2-4 times more than they would have charged a domestic client. I can speak/read Polish well and some of these companies have even in their Terms and Conditions that they charge "foreign clients" more than "Polish clients"! Then when I ask my Polish friend to call them and find out about the same service - the price they provide him with is of course much lower.

I avoid these companies like a plaque. Very poor business behavior and short-term thinking of them. I know there is "a stupid born every day", but if these Polish companies think they are that smart.... let's wait and see who'll be laughing in the end when the free ride (and protection from the EU) is over.

Fortunately, there are many other Polish companies that treat all clients equally.

Hanke

Hanke, it happens not only in Poland with foreigners, i am Polish, and when i was studying in France i was sometimes paying more for some services coz i was a foreigner, that was really annoying, some companies should simply realise such practices damage their image...

Ola, I'm glad I'm not the only one... It's a rip-off. I'm thinking of opening a new thread to list those companies and their tricky business practices...

Poland has two set of prices, one for locals and one for foreigners, this should not occur in any country, however beware if you tell somebody you are from overseas if buying real estate, the price rocketers immediately.

Poles have been brought up in this mentality ie motels charged one price for a polish national and one for a tourist.
I must add that comments by Hanke are disappearing quickly and people are becoming more informed and smarter

I think it's "normal" for all "developing" countries. When I was on vacations in Aregentina, all business acted the same way - double charged you if they see you're not one of them :|).

it is not POLAND lef but SOME polish companies as hanke said.do NOT generalise please


if a foreigner ran out of petrol in australia and asked you to sell him some i am sure you would charge him twice it cost at the petrol station.it is a human nature-sad but true.i am sure it is going on in EVERY country

if a foreigner ran out of petrol in australia and asked you to sell him some i am sure you would charge him twice it cost at the petrol station.it is a human nature-sad but true.i am sure it is going on in EVERY country

With due respect rafik and I respect what you say on these formums, can I say if a person ran out of petrol and was broken down the average aussie would assist. provide petrol, and charge him for nothing, that is the truth. (others on this forum may wish to question this) further he would say it was a pleasure to help.

Australians have a different mentality and are always ready to chip in for a person in need.
I believe the older generation pole has similiar values.

what i mean lef is that any time someone says negative about poland you pick it up and blow it to a supersize BS.
hanke says: a few companies cheat but he still cooperates with other POLISH companies who don't cheat and that is the right attitude-assholes will close their companies very soon

Then you say that cheating is normal attitude of an average Pole.how do you now that?
did you do some research?how many polish people do you now and what kind of people do you know?
i am not saying that this is the right thing to do but
you can come across different prices of goods and services for tourists and locals in many developing countries including russia(when you buy a train ticket they ask you to show tour passport). why are they different? cos locals could never afford paying a normal price for goods(like in cuba-they have different currency for tourists and locals).on the other hand a bit higher price is not going to ruin their budgets and everything is still cheaper than in their countries.

why is it not like that in countries like lets say norway?-cos services and goods are already very expensive

Why do you even bother reading what this troll has to say ?


Oh, please do that... :)

just to know what he says on this forum

He says a lot of nonsense - Some time ago I`ve seen computer programe with a script that should pretend to an Artificial Inteligence ..you`ve putten there some questions and the script generated and anwser as well as some questions of its own. The whole thing created an ilussion of a conversation - and it was endless.

The script had a lot to say - but in many ways it didn`t made much sense and the various sentences the computer wrote repeated itself - The same is with lefs trolling - you can have endless debates with him - but in all cases he`s going to say exacly the same thing in a slightly different way. So I don`t see any point in that, besides you`re only feeding that troll with your atention - and this is what he wants and needs to write more of his trolling.

What kind of nonsense is that ? "let's wait and see who'll be laughing in the end when the free ride (and protection from the EU) is over"

btw. I would really like to see that list... :)

i thought that the german companies are protected by EU rather that the other way round

I had the same situation like hanke. I'm Polish living in Canada. I do web design. Whenever I try to hire a Polish graphic company to do a project for me - I feel like I'm getting ripped-off. I use my company website's email address and it's easy to determine where I live at. Now I'm a little smarter and use a hotmail or whatever to contact these companies. Sometimes they get back to me and when they know I won't buy from them for the originally-quoted price, they even offer... 40% discount. I still don't buy from them - I think they would just do a sloppy job then because I got "so much discount".

How about some NAMES of those companies ?

And why do you feel like getting ripped-off ? - if you were provided with a similar service as if you`d choose a Canadian company - only for a lower price ?

Sorry - but what you`re saying here seems a little bit strange to me.

I'm not going to mention names - I don't want to slander them. But you can do a "test" yourself - go to google and enter "projektowanie stron www" (web design) and write to them that you are a web developer from the US and would like to design a website. Ask them for rates per hour or find a website you like and tell them you'd like to develop something like that. Today I've received a quote for something that they claimed would take them up to 4 weeks - "about 9 thousand Zlotys". I'm sure they are not even a company - they just designed a site and claim they are a company:).

Another webmaster quoted me for the same job 1,200 Zl - and I know it's a reasonable job that would take no more than a 10 days.

An average proffesional PHP service like an internet store designed by a US company costs between $1000 and $5000 - and you call 1200 PLN - $400 - a reasonable price.. I`d call THAT a rip-off.

You might be right about the company you`re refering - but at least they are good at SEO :)

Anyway that what you`re saying is only an exception from the rule - and not the rule. If we`re talking here about a professional internet store a honest Polish company would charge you around $1000-$1500 for such a service - and it would be still a fair price for you and the company.

"Store" is a VERY relevant term. Walmart is a "store" and "Dzidek's store near the Kiosk" is a "store" too. :) I think you don't know the project's specifications to be able to set a precise quote :).

Anyway, I personally prefer to work with the Russian developers - they seem to be more reliable, are usually less expensive, and do exactly what I need (without taking shortcuts to make their work less time-consuming -- like Polish designers sometimes tend to do). But when a project requires the Polish language knowledge I have no choice.

You do not know what an average internet store is ?

It`s better for you if a company works longer if they are charged by hour ?

And Russian programers are more reliable to you than ours..

What, are you trying to pull here ?

I know what an internet store is - I've designed several of them. I'm not sure if you know the details of creating such a store though. But this project didn't even include the capability of an e-commerce website; it was more informative website (nothing was sold online).


I know how many hours an average programmer needs to spend on a particular project. That's why I prefer to price the project based on its completion, not working hours.


Not trying to pull anything here - just stating my opinion regarding programmers/designers I had a pleasure to deal with both in Poland and Russia. If you have similar real-life experience I'll be happy to hear your story.

I`m trying to find a hole in what you`re saying, i.e. you`re complaining about Polish programers who - according to you have harged you more cose you`re living in Canada while endorsing Russian programmers, cose they are working longer than Polish programers and do you honestly want me to belive that Russians don`t charge more from foreiners than from their own ? Have you ever been to Russia ?


I`m still waiting for those NAMES.

I cannot recall me writing that "Rusian programmers are working longer". I don't know how much the Russian programmers charge at home, but I know they usually charge foreigners less than the Polish programmers. I'm writing about online web development services here - not other "offline" services provided on the Russian land. But that's not the point - because most of the times I use a freelance website and the service provider doesn't know where the buyer lives. The point is how well and if on time the job is done. I have positive experience with Russian programmers (by Russian I mean: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarussian, Estotnian, etc.).

Let me help you:


...


But at the same time you`re saying that:


- and just like hanke (who still hasn`t provided the NAMES of those terrible companies), you feel that way cose according to you those Polish companies that you`ve delt with are charging less at home than they charge foreigners.

Now I see.. a little conflict here.. cose as I understand from what you`re saying it dosn`t matter to you if Russian companies are charging more from foreigners than at home - and it looks as if you`d really liked it - but it`s bad if some Polish companies do the same - which is the reason why you`ve mady your first post... T`d say it`s a little bit strange - and it looks more and more to me as if`d be trying to sell here some kind of bullshit.


There is huge difference between Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Estonians...

I don't think you know much about web design, do you? I wrote:

without taking shortcuts to make their work less time-consuming -- like Polish designers sometimes tend to do

Here is a typical situation. I have described a project details - step by step. I told them: when the user fills out the contact form make sure the data s/he entered so far is first saved in case s/he provides incorrect information so that s/he doesn't have to enter the information all over again. It requires Javascript error handling and/or working with sessions and is more time-consuming to create than providing a simple back button link. The Polish programmers I tried to work with said the button link works usually the same for most browsers like the javascript error checking so they don't think that's necessary.

Well, I'm the customer and I pay them for the job so that was sort of incompetent of their part to offer me a different (worse) solution for the same money. I understand they maight have had clients in the past who didn't know exactly what they wanted and how it should work, but when I know exactly I want it just like I described. With the Russian programmers they didn't even ask unnecessary questions - they just did it exactly as I described.

Maybe I had back luck with Polish programmers, don't know.

Mayby you did.

However i still don`t understand why you`ve decided to write anything in this topic - cose the issue here is that someone says that some Polish companies charge foreign customers more than Polish customers - while now you`re saying that they charging the same amount of money as the Russians do - and you don`t have any problems with Russians charging you more than their home customers.

I find this forum interesting so I thought I'd share my story. Of course - it's the service provider's right to charge whatever he wants -- but as I wrote before -- the money isn't as important for me as the fact that the final product and the process of making this product is good. Besides, in my experience, Russians charging more is still less than Poles.

I understand you try to say everything that's was made by Poles or Poland is absolutely and unconditionally the best in the world, but I'm trying to be a little more objective here :).

I concluded it's better for us all not to reveal the names - I do not want to libel these companies. Losing a potential and serious client they will learn sooner or faster.

No, I`m not - however I don`t understand what are you complaining about in case of the comapny (was it a real company ? cose in case of services like elance.com or guru.com, you can not be 100% sure if you`re dealing with a company or some highschool students who want to earn some extra money) that you`ve been dealing with - as an emploee of the company you`re working for it is your duty to check the legitimacy of the company from which you want to outsource their services - and in case of elancing there are hundreds of thousands of such fake "companies" from all over the world. So I still don`t get it - are you complaining about:

- That there are hundreds of thousnads fake "comanies" on elance.com ?
- About the way that Polish companies are charging their customers - which this topic is about ?
- The quality of Polish programers - which according to people like Bill Gates is representing such level that a few weeks ago Microsoft decided to open its new R&D in Poland - and not in Russia ?

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Your sudden change of atitude is admirable - however it is understandable if you`d like to mention the names of the companies who allegedly treated you unfairly - I still insist for you to write a list with the names of those companies.

Hey this sort of thing happens everywhere. I am not an Indian citizen so for some things I had to pay double or more then the citizen when i was there. Even to see things and get into things, a ticket costed more. In Poland I didnt experience this but I believe it happens practically anywhere!