Be careful where you buy building materials in Poland!

Warning! I would very much like to advise ex-pats to be very careful when deciding where to buy building materials, home renovation stuff in Warsaw. Our six month struggle with a sh*t Polish flooring company (yes the big one) has just come to an end. The company and in particular the shop we bought from treated us terribly and used the lowest form of personal attacks to get their way! In the end we were advised to pay up for sub standard flooring, suitable only as expensive firewood! We gave up as their last threat of handing it over to a debt collector sounded a bit beyond my stress levels. I did want to name them in an earlier post as a warning but admin were not too keen on the possible legal consequences of 'naming and shaming' such businesses (understandable I suppose). If anyone is concerned and/or planning on purchasing flooring feel free to PM me and I can send you the name of the shop I think you should avoid

This is still the kind of thing that can happen if you try to support small shops!

If that's true, that's not right admin. You are based in US where there's suppose to be freedom of speech.....as a consumer, I think he has every right to share the name of the business and his experience with them. Honestly, what kind of legal recourse would a business in Poland have against a forum based in the US?

People share their opinions and experiences here all the time. Just because Fin had a bad experience, someone else on here might be able to say they had a good experience with the company.

You can name the company's name on the forum if you like.

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What if a competitor of companyX wants to slander companyX so that the customers avoided them and went to his/her company? How would you check the truthfulness of the complaint and who would be willing to do the checking and take responsibility?

Admin

I read the other thread after this one about giving a special place on the forum for such complaints, and I agree there should not be one. If someone has a problem with a company, then start a single thread.

As for company x saying negatives about company y, it's an anonymous forum.....lies are spewed on forums all the time. People who read things on forums need to take the info with a grain of salt.....plus, if someone is giving their account of the type of service they rec'd from a company, it would be very difficult for a company to dispell. It's not illegal to share an opinion.

Now if someone states that company x is involved in laundering money to terrorists, mobsters, etc....something which can be proven, then I could see your point, but that would go on the individual.

obviously valid questions admin but one of the great things about the forum is that there is such diversity of opinions being posted, theres normally enough information for people to make up their own minds.

in the case of finT's flooring, it would be of value to me personally to know exactly which company hes talking about

Come on FinT, spill the beans.....

This is my reply to finT on Dec 21, 2007:


I never mentioned it's prohibited to name the company as finT now may suggest.

Admin

Admin. I didn't say you 'prohibited' me from naming and I absolutely accept your reservations about difficulties arising from such discussions so decided to be low key about it! So I apologise if that wasn't clear. I only mentioned that you were 'not too keen'. A few folk have PM'ed me for the info so I'm glad I could help and I really hope they don't get in the mess we did!

On a more personal note, I don't recommend Barlinek floors and I certainly would not buy them from 'Parkiet Plus' in Warsaw/Katowice but if you are really intent on doing that then all I can say is "Good Luck!" ;-)

Just to update this thread, after months of trying to get satisfaction the 'Biuro Praw Konsumenta' final say on the matter is "we can take it to court if we like but it's 50/50 and will take about a year". It sounds like far too much hassle now but after being at a business meeting where it was mentioned that companies have to be VERY NICE to customers as the internet and forums can ruin their reputations, I urge everyone on this forum not to buy from those c@nts at 'Parkiet Plus' Katowice,Warsaw,Krakow or buy from Barlinek flooring. Perhaps one day they will learn to have some kind of respect for the silly people (me included) who buy their sh!t products and try to support Polish companies! (note: I'm still f@cking angry and our flat is still not finished!)

I think that it is actually quite good to name companies we feel are not delivering proper service and those that we thorougly recommend so that other consumers at least know about others 'experience;We of course know that it is always a matter of subjectivity but still it is great to share good and bad opinions about companies.

There must be a national organization in Poland such as 50 Millions of Consumers and I think that you should complain about this Parkiet company to them.

in theory its a great idea

in practice its open to abuse

^but everything is these days isn't it?^
I think it's our moral responsiblity to eachother to ensure others avoid costly mistakes with companies- they get way more breaks than person does anyhow.

Parkiet Plus and Barlinek Flooring are crap and to be avoided- got it!

Thanks Foreigner4. It means a lot to me.................................NEXT!