Law / WARNING - To Individuals setting up companies in Poland to trade outside of EU. [12]

THIS IS A WARNING TO BUSINESS PEOPLE THINKING ABOUT OPENING A COMPANY IN POLAND THAT TRADES WITH CONSUMERS OUTSIDE OF THE EU.

I am British and own a Polish Registered company with my Polish Wife. We have recently gone "legit" and registered the business properly in Poland and now "all" transactions are being put through our shiney new cash resgister. (Kasa Fiskalny)

We have an online shop that sells consumer products all over the world, the problem we have faced recently is receiving customer returns from outside the EU. Polish customs are stopping every single package that is sent back and I mean every single one! regardless of it being marked "Returned Goods" they simply stop it and send a 2 page document which demands copy of original sales invoice (proving we originally sold the item) and proof of postage. This isnt the problem, the problem is they also ask for an SAD document to be completed and sent in, this is a 30 page document.

The problem is in Poland there is no difference between one brush being sent in and a container of brushes its the same paperwork for customs clearance. I spoke with customs and explained that we couldnt fill out the SAD document it was quite simply too complicated, my wife is a highly educated person and she even said that are phrases and codes used within the documentation that can not be understood at all. The Customs officer I spoke with on the telephone basically confirmed that the SAD is not designed for individuals to complete it is too complex and we would not be able to do it ourself we would have to go to a customs clearance agency, give them the SAD document and our paperowork for our packages and they would obtain the items on our behalf.

Now here is the kicker... The customs clearance agency want 150PLN to go to Warsaw, 100PLN for completing the documentation plus we would still be liable for additional VAT and handling charges which could amount to over 500PLN.

So we sold a designer brush for £50, we bought it for £25 we make £25 profit. The customer returns the brush we refund the customer £50. We then have to pay £150 to get our brush out of customs!?! I dont want to state the obvious here but this is not the recipe for a profitable company.

Based on the above we have deemed it absolutely impossible for a company to sell goods from Poland to consumers outside the EU that may require returning or exchanging because the money you have to pay to retrieve your goods from the Polish Gestapo far outweighs any profit you would make on the item.

There is no speaking to the Polish officials, they are not interested. I have begged for our items back they are currently holding onto 4 of my packages, two of which have been returned to the United States once already and our poor customers have paid to return them again for the second time only for them to be stopped again. Not only can we kiss goodbye to the clients ever ordering from us again we can also kiss goodbye to our profit on all 4 items as we will have to cover the return postage (To the UK) on them this time around.

Its an impossible situation and no one is willing to help us or listen to the problem, their is no ombudsmen or governing body you can speak to like you would have in the UK (Which I now call Normal Land). There is no recourse at all, its incrediably primative the customs officer for Poczta Polska just says sorry you must provide ALL paperwork for each parcel including the 30 page SAD document which should be submitted by a customs clearance agency. Failure to do this in 20 days and your parcels will be returned to your customers.

We have now resorted to using a mail forwarding address in the UK (normal land) where our customers RETURNED GOODS are treated as such by the normal people there and delivered to our address there, once a month we then have to pay £20 to have the whole lot couriered back over here.

The situation is sickening and worsened by the fact that the customer service here is non existant, a shocking situation that prevents small companies from trading with consumers outside of the european union. Anyone thinking about having a business of this nature here in Poland be warned, Polish customs will try to extort payment from you to receive your returned goods and there is no way out of it.