Ripped Off in Poland? - Expose here:

Not only me but some of my friends have been ripped off in Poland; some big time (ie to the tune of 17.000 zl). This is in ways you wouldn't expect in, say, the UK or USA etc. In Bochnia I bought a pack of brand new DURACELL batteries from a decent-looking shop in "Pod Filarami". It's the only shop there which sells electrical stuff like calculators etc. OK that's small-time stuff, but it's still annoying and being ripped off all mounts up over a period of time.

Name and shame who ripped you off.

bimber94

Fail.

...and?

OK, you bought batteries and...

There is no "and". The man bought batteries. DURACELL batteries. I don't need to know the rest, I'm already outraged.

What's with the batteries?

What 17,000 PLN for batteries? but i hear you my friend i have bought two packs of duracell batteries and once home and put them into torches they are flat as pancakes. Its like the distributors somewhere say send all this shite off to Poland nobody complains there they always ripp each other off anyway.

Somebody somewhere put out of date batteries into new packets with new best before dates.

This thread serves as a pretence for threads which ive been toying with putting up for years, you sure can buy some crap in Poland! Like kitchen utensils, get them home and use them for soup right, if you leave them in the soup overnight the whole fcuking thing tastes like plastic the next day. WTFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK. What happened to Polish standrds of fair trade, ohh sorry they dont exist. If you try to take them back you get fooked anyway with a no sir, we cant do that.

Haa what am i talking about they dont say no sir its a flat, nie ma.

...just like anywhere else for that matter. Depending on where and what you buy, you'll get a whole range of experiences.
If you use something to cook with, then I'm not surprised the shop doesn't want to take it back. Why so upset about it? Did you pay so much for the damn thing? Personally, I hate plastic kitchen utensils and try to buy stainless steel whenever possible :-)

Not in England we have the British Standards Agency or BSA. If it doesnt meet stringent standard specifics you cant sell it.

Also if you buy a new pack of batteries and they are faulty you can return them for a full refund no questions asked. On that note ive bought phones three times (in Poland) the home phones and theyve all been crap, when you take them back before you can get your money back or even exchange they send them off for repair, in England you get an instant refund or exchange for the same amount. Customer service and product quality has a lot to answer for in Poland, what are you even on about?

and...? I don't see the connection between 17,000zl and DURACELL batteries here. don't let others do the guesswork for you.

Tell that to Poundland customers.

That's cadmium in the plastic. Banned in the UK for food use, probably banned here too, but it still turns up.

In the UK, the Trading Standards Authority and local councils' consumer protection units are very easy to use and shopkeepers are scared to attract their attention. Keeps them in line.

What annoys me here is when a product in a food shop has a price printed on the label, but the shop ignores it and charges more. Never less.

Surely you know it's the principle, not the small change it cost, which is the point. Multiply that a few thousand times and you're rolling in it, mate. As for the 17.000 zl, that was for building work which was meantto be carried out. OK, call him a sucker, but he's a decent bloke who didn't deserve it. You just wait till you're ripped off.

Why did i buy three times? you ask, because i couldnt afford to wait and i knew they wouldnt refund.


Ohh right cheers, are you Polish Jonni?

I once bought a pencil in England and it broke. I think I will start a thread about it, maybe two, because the eraser broke off. In the US, I kept buying ham and it was always disgusting. Another thread. Not even gonna mention the bread. Ripped off every day.

Irish Travellers do driveway resurfacing in Florida for geezers which washes away after the first rain, and so on and on...

Next time bring your flashlight with you. Better yet, get one like the one I have - I doesn't need batteries.

In any case, whinning about petty shite is...petty.

Nevermind ham. There's only ONE kind of pencil to buy in the US. It's Dixon Ticonderoga the black ones, if you don't buy them, the lead will keep breaking inside the pencil that's made mostly of cheap saw dust so that everytime you sharpen it, the lead breaks and you have to keep sharpening until it's gone. So, don't buy those. Only buy the Dixons.

Really, what kind of pencil was it? I remember anti break dropped pencils in England form when i was around 10. I bought a fan heater the other day in Leeroy Merlin in Poland and its fcuking crap, it shorts out after every 4 minutes, what good is a fan heater that overheats every four fcuking minutes. Managed to sift through my shite and found an English one, it just goes and goes.

That's called green, sustainable practice. Or would be, if it was done in the UK ;-p


This has nothing to do with customer service, you know as well as I do that the conditions of the warranty come from the manufacturer, not the actual vendor. If the warranty says "send back for repair" then this is the only course of action the shop can take.

And as far as product quality is concerned, please don't get me started on the utter rubbish I see in the UK. Shoes which fall apart after half of one season. Appliances, admittedly cheap, which stop working almost immediately. Ill-fitting and poor quality clothes - also admittedly cheap. But I am not a top earner, so what am I supposed to do? The rip-off is that those things are cheap to buy, so if they break or shrink in the wash or whatever, it doesn't seem such a loss. But then you need to buy new ones - much more often then if you had bought something of better quality. But you can't afford the better quality. So you end up spending loads of money, not at one time, but in installments so to speak, and still have nothing to show for it. :-(

BTW - I used to buy cheap stuff in Poland too. But it lasted longer, somehow. Maybe the toxic London air is messing my things up ;-P

Ahh ha haa, i think your argument can be diposed of rather quickly with a few fundamental facts.

International products are usually more expensive here in Poland even though the average disposable income is way, waaay less than that of their competitors.

They have a stringent polocy of manufacturers not abiding to EU laws with regard to faulty products, its internal legislation protecting the corporations NOT the customer. Why can i return a Panasonic phone in England but not in Poland????


Actually dont get me started on the crap ive bought and witnessed fall apart at the seems in Poland from reputable dealerships. Some of those £15 pri-mark Jackets well outlast the most expensive brands sold over here.

Hey Magda, youre just another Pole which i have to say come on back to POLSKA, come on lets have it live the great life hey. You guys are all talk but no mouth. You aint coming back for nothing, except maybe a funeral and even then its England this or how great the UK is that. Come on back to Poland, i always say that and they always stay in England.....

You dont have a leg to stand on and you know it.

The rubbish there tends to be much, much cheaper than the good stuff. Not so here.


Have you tried to breath in Warsaw lately? They took down the digital pollution readout on al. Jerozolimskie ages ago because it was scaring people.

Nice sunsets though ;-)

Ask Panasonic.


Have you ever actually had to wear Primark? Like every day? I brought all my old Polish clothes over after a year in the UK. I try to buy the absolute bare minimum here.


...working on it... Can't wait to get back. Hey!


I come back as often as possible, to canoe down the Brda for example. Ever done that? Highly recommended. Might help you relax and get off your high horse.

I don't fall over myself praising the UK, you can bet on that. It's a country like any other.


I know I've got two, actually. I don't live in la-la land and I don't get carried away by a misplaced sense of superiority. I just keep on repeating that both Poland and the UK have their good and bad sides, and if you keep moaning about Poland, I can jolly well moan about the UK.

That's exactly what a shopkeeper in Poland would say. Argumentative and passing on the problem.

More-or-less the answer is: Poland is not UK and UK is not Poland. I don't really see any point in accusing one country of not being the other. Customs are differ. That is why we call it "abroad" isn't it? :-)

Its not only Panasonic its all tech suppliers.

I hear you and may your dreams come true to the fullist. Please stay in Poland.

Its pretty obvious im not going to win this argument, so have fun and all the best.

Indeed. But we all want fair service from shops and businesses.

So if they're selling Panasonic goods, what are they supposed to say? They are not a party to the conditions of the warranty. They simply sell the product - as in pass on from manufacturer to customer. If British vendors have a better agreement with Panasonic re: warranty and replacement policies, this is something to discuss with Panasonic going via the proper channels in Poland, e.g. uokik.gov.pl/en/

Yeh thats basically it, you the supplier contrcat to this and we contrcat that to the customer any breach what so ever breaches the terms and conditions. So whos heads on the block?? yours or ours. Usualy yours..

A big apology for selling a faulty product would be a good start. Then maybe replace or refund it and deal with their supplier.

That way the customer might just go back to them.

It's not unreasonable for the purchaser to expect that something works, and that the shop sells things that are not faulty.

Well sorry actually I don't know that. If I had loads of money - then I would get the quality. But then I would get high quality for loads of money anywhere in the world.


Thank you! :-) I never knew you had it in you to so nice :-D (And yes, I got the intended sarcasm, but why not take what you say at face value? It's so much nicer that way).


Because I'm articulate, hold an opinion, and actually seem to know what I'm talking about? ;-)

Wrocław Boy is jinxed, don't talk to him or you gonna contract this nasty stuff.