• Your contact with a customer service hotline about a contract concluded should not be more costly than a regular phone call.
• UOKiK has checked relevant practices of more than 30 air, rail, bus carriers as well as online platforms.
• Following the intervention of the President of the Authority, entrepreneurs changed the challenged practices - they do not charge higher fees than the ones in the telecommunications service provider’s pricelist, while some of them made customer service hotlines available free of any charge.

Are you travelling and have some questions about your trip? For example, the ones concerning a change of a date, ticket number or details of your booking? If so, you will call a customer service. The President of UOKiK checked if and how entrepreneurs inform consumers about costs of such a call and if they do not charge fees higher than the permitted ones. For contacting a helpline on matters concerning a contract already concluded, entrepreneurs may not charge a higher fee than the one for regular voice calls, in accordance with a telecommunications service provider’s pricelist package used by the consumer. Since 1 January 2023, this prohibition has been additionally extended to include people carriers.

– If an entrepreneur makes its telephone number available for contacts on the contract concluded, they may not establish a cost of such a call at their discretion. We have been continuously monitoring the customer service hotlines made available. As part of the preliminary proceedings, we have checked relevant practices of more than 30 carriers - air, rail, bus carriers as well as online platforms through which transport contracts may be concluded. Following our actions, all the investigated entrepreneurs do not charge excessive fees for a customer service hotlines call any more – says Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

Finding a customer service number on a website should not be difficult for consumers and the information on the costs of the call must be exact. The key is that a call with a number made available by an entrepreneur is not more costly than a regular call. An entrepreneur may additionally provide a free-of-charge phone number. Additionally, it is necessary that foreign entrepreneurs provide consumers with a phone contact and an opportunity to call and submit a complaint in Polish.

Sample interventions

Following the intervention of the President of UOKiK, customer service hotlines consistent with the pricelist of telecommunications service providers were made available by the entities such as: PKP Intercity, Traveltech (websites: europodroze.pl and euroautokar.pl), Astarium (KOLEO app and website), Teroplan (websites: e-podróznik superpks.pl and busportal.pl, rozkłady.com.pl). Booking.com introduced some changes which facilitated finding customer service numbers on its website. The exact information on the consistency of the fees for a call with the telecommunications service provider pricelist was made available, among others, by the following: Kiwi.com, Sindbad, Unibus, eSky. A free-of-charge Polish customer service hotline was also launched by TAP Portugal air carrier and the Opodo platform.

The President of UOKiK checked practices of the Wizz Air airline as well. The company made a general platform available for calling which it charged a discretionary fee per one minute of a call and for the waiting time. Following the intervention, the entrepreneur charges a fee consistent with the pricelist of a telecommunications service provider used by the consumer, while customers calling in matters related to their booking are re-directed to this customer service number. Wizz Air returned its consumers the unjustified fees in a form of WIZZ funds whose value amounted to 150% of the fee charged.

The President of UOKiK has been continuously monitoring the customer service hotlines made available not only in the transport industry. The purpose is to ensure that consumers have actual and easily-available contact with an entrepreneur with no additional costs.

Worth remembering

For calls made from abroad or as part of roaming, the cost of the call with a customer service hotline may be higher - not due to the fault of an entrepreneur but because of telecommunications service provider rates. Article 11 of the Act on Consumer Rights protects consumers from excessive fees on the part of an entrepreneur but it fails to cover the costs arising from a pricelist policy of a telecommunications service provider.