Poland - Consumer can count on ombudsman

We are more and more willing to turn to poviat and municipal consumer ombudsmen for free of charge assistance. Nearly 350,000 pieces of advice and 45,000 interventions against undertakings to protect consumers – this is the result of ombudsmen work, as indicated in the latest report of UOKIK (Office of Competition and Consumer Protection).

Consumer ombudsmen protect our rights in each town and poviat. They organise educational actions, issue opinions on self-government resolutions, provide consumers with advice in individual cases, and if necessary, intervene to defend them, addressing the undertakings or taking a legal action. The consumers do not pay for the provided aid. On the basis of data sent by 369 ombudsmen from Poland, UOKIK has prepared an annual report concerning their activity.

Provided advice

Last year the municipal and poviat consumer ombudsmen provided nearly 350,000 pieces of advice – approximately a dozen thousand more than in the previous year.  The ombudsmen councelling usually regarded the sale of shoes (over 38,000 pieces), audio and video equipment (over 28,000 pieces), interior furnishings (over 23,000 pieces), as well as contracts for the sale of mobile phones (over 16,000). There were also many cases of provision of advice concerning the services, in particular telecommunication ones  (nearly 27,000 cases), renovation and construction (nearly 18,000),  or banking ones (over 14,500).

The ombudsmen have provided advice for consumers that complained about operators due to long-lasting procedure of transfer of telephone numbers. Furthermore, the issue of insufficient quality of mobile internet services has aroused particular dissatisfaction.

In the case of renovation and construction services, consumers had most reservations concerning the incorrect performance, failure to comply with the deadlines and attempts by contractors to avoid the removal of faults and defects reported after the performance of work.

Counselling concerning banking services was usually related to the cases of misleading consumers as regards the interest rate and charges for the operation of accounts, as well as the interest rate, commission and additional fees for loan servicing and illegal registration in a database of unreliable bank debtors.

Distance selling

Over 18,000 consultancies concerned undertakings with whom consumers have concluded distance and off-premises contracts e.g. during the purchase of goods and services via the Internet. In the case of such transactions, consumers have more rights than during standard purchase – first of all, they may resign from the purchase within 10 days of the product delivery or contract conclusion. Regarding financial services, this deadline is 14 days for off-premises contracts. The vendors have not always respected this law. The subject of distance and off-premises transactions covered the sale of home appliances, digital and cable television licence fees, phone contracts, access to the Internet, rehabilitation equipment (therapeutic quilts, mattresses) and even renovation and construction services (replacement of doors and windows).

Weaker market participants had particular difficulties in the case of distance and off-premises linked agreements, when during the contract conclusion, simultaneously a loan agreement is concluded to cover the purchase of goods or services. The problems were caused both by undertakings and banks – by hindering the consumers the access to originals of concluded agreements. It was an obstacle to file a potential declaration of withdrawal from the agreement concluded outside the business premise, with the compliance with the deadline.

In the past year, the advice was also provided regarding agreements concluded inter alia for various types of shows, presentations during trips e.g. to places of religious worship, during a stay in sanatoriums or holidays – so-called distance and off-premises contracts. During the presentation, the vendors frequently assured about extraordinary properties of offered products and persuaded customers to sign various documents, which contrary to vendors’ suggestions, proved to be consumer loan contracts, sometimes amounting to several thousand zlotys. The consumers who turned  to ombudsmen have informed that repayment of such loans is not possible for them due to their low income. Furthermore, the properties of sold products were not always compliant with the assurances of vendors. The persons aggrieved due disadvantageous offers of travelling salesman complained also that during the presentation they were not informed about the right vested in them on such occassions to withdraw from the agreement within 10 days of its conclusion.

Protecting  the consumer

Usually, in the case of dispute between consumers and undertakings, the weaker party cannot enforce their rights without the ombudsman intervention. Consumer ombudsmen very often file requests to businesses to clarify the facts and settle the dispute by way of conciliation. Last year they used this opportunity in ca. 45 thousand cases. Most often it concerned sales contracts (almost 33 thousand cases) questioning, inter alia, the quality of goods and the way of considering the complaint.

Addressing undertakings  proves very effective. According to data included in the report, most of the requests (over 60%) resulted in complying with consumers demands - in entirety or at least a considerable part.

Ombudsmen also participate in developing legal regulations protecting consumers – they issue opinions on self-government resolutions at the local level. Moreover, they take measures concerning consumer protection. Consumer ombudsman from Oława dealt with the case of a consumer who suffered from foot edema and pain after several days of wearing shoes. Following the ombudsman intervention, it turned out that the problem might have occured as a result of placing by the producers bags protecting shoes from moisture in shoes boxes. Finally, shoes suppliers removed the faulty bags, and shops took back shoes from consumers along with providing them with money refund.

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