What do you like about Poland?

What?

Poles and Serbs were basically one people, separated in one period of history due to Roman and later Teutonic conquests onto the Slavdom (Sarmatian world), on Balkan-Baltic Danubian line, what became Roman-Sarmatian (Slavic) border. So, with time, what were dialectal differences in Polish and Serbian languages turned into the linguistic differences. Still, i think that Poles didn`t forget their origins. That`s what i like in Poles. Among other things.

Dynamite post, Kamaz! Does your wife have an equally admirable single sister? ;)
I would usually find it hard to believe a shop would be boarded up after such a thing, but sounds like your wife knows her onions in some way and the fine for the transgression scared the proprietor into shutting up shop and disappearing.

I'm going to print your post out when my printer gets a new cartridge - it's definitely a classic piece of advice and anecdote! It should be pinned!

(Just to add, in the UK the consumer bureau or trading standards were as much use as a chocolate teapot. I had to research the law myself to bring the very same big firms to book which the TS people whimpered out of dealing with. In some cases, it was EU consumer law which even TS didn't know about or didn't want to use for whatever reason!)

To close the shop the owner must be doing some serious crime as for overcharging and false advertising is punishable by fines esp if its first offense.Either the boarding up post is exaggerated or the owner is at serious fault.

I think here the law differs with the UK, if this is so for PL. In England & Wales, a physical (not online) supermarket or other shop can put the wrong price on and they don't have to sell it at that price.


This may well be different in Poland, however, as Biedronka refunded my money recently when the shelf price was almost half the price of the price required at the checkout. There was no fuss, they were very nice about it.

That's right. The advertised price in a supermarket is an 'invitation to treat' rather than an offer to sell - that bit comes at the checkout.

In PL however it was very normal a few years ago for prices to be wrong - they just didn't bother to change the price tickets. A hangover from the days of high inflation probably when people were used to prices constantly and quickly rising which shop owners were keen to take advantage of even when things had settled down. The arrival of the big chains put a stop to that.

What I'm unclear on is whether the law in Poland on this matter is different to England & Wales? I.E. wrong prices are binding?


It's certainly given me a new hobby :)

Have you noticed the checkout assistants opening packaging and looking inside? It isn't to ensure that you as a customer are getting the product you paid for...

I think those assistants opening things are under orders to do that in case you have slipped a small high value item into the box..?? My wife is not here at the moment (she does a lot of work for charidee!!!) but she researched all the laws on the internet, how they have been integrated into Polish law etc etc and she carries highlithted copies of the laws in her bag (so that's why women have big shoulder bags?) Once she shows the relevant section to a manager he usually crumbles, stops arguing and starts to 'deal'. Again if you have to write to 'head Office' Biedronka etc...they do know the law and if you quote it, they will assume that you know what you are talking about too and the apologies and vouchers etc will start to flow. Small shops, maybe not worth the hassle? No exaggeration on the bag shop, was it my wife that got it closed?? no idea really, but it was all closed up 4 days later and 3 weeks later...it was in a mall, it became a 'car show room' you know the kind where the car is parked out in the mall and the shop became the sales office). The managers of the big multinationals have orders to run their shops to the same standards as the rest of Europe and the customer is 'king' especially if they know what they are talking about.....so the managers are all trained to give in to the customer and give the old guff about reviewing procedures so the same mistake doesn't happen again etc etc.....whilst offering vouchers etc......we have taken tins of Dulux paint, large family sized ice creams, cakes, tins of chocolates (that was a good one...found some tins of chocolates at a silly price.....bought 4 of the tins got to the counter and they said wrong price!!! called manager......wife out bluffed her by photographing the tins with the price and starting to load up the other 20 tins into a trolley......she gave in we got the 4 tins cheap and an extra free if we'd go away quick!!!! and some poor member of staff had to re-price. My wife is a gem, but remember she managed a very large retail store in a posh town in UK, (she once told the manager of an Auchan that her store had half again the floor area of his so he'd better listen to her!!!!) she has a sister who is a lovely person......but is just not like my wife in this area......it's a kind of 'it takes a thief to catch a thief' thing...she was a manager for many years and had to comply herself, so she knows the ins and out's of big retail and what is and isn't possible.

Exactly that.


That's a good idea.

LMAO :D

Nice!

Your wife must be exceptionally sharp to have learned English consumer law, so she is frankly the Nemesis of many of these communist-alike staff at shops in Poland. I'd like to let her loose on the customer service staff at a certain French supermarket here (not Auchan, who behave fine in my experience, very nice staff there too in the main).

I've taken things back to Biedronka twice now, I think both times there was no hassle although maybe some sarcasm from a checkout woman when I said the tea was awful. But I got my money back pronto.