To read or not to read Terms & Conditions

Dear Readers,

I was asked by BEM team to submit a guest post and, to be honest with you, I had no idea what to write about. So I made myself a cup of coffee, sat in front of my computer, put on my ‚Ugly Betty’ glasses to look and feel more intelligent and then… I knew exactly what I wanted to share with you.

I have been working for a low-cost airline (one of the biggest no-frills carriers in Europe) for almost 4 years now and I have learned so many lessons from it I cannot ever recall all of them. Still, what is the most important experience coming from it and the one I will remember until the end of my days is to read and understand company’s Terms and Conditions (T&C).

Be honest with yourself: how many times have you skipped the T&C part when installing Winamp on your computer or buying anything from an online shop? I am no better, I used to do this almost every time without even a moment of hesitation. But it all ended for me when I took a new job and was forced to go through a pile of thousands complaints from passengers every day. At first I was surprised that they were all arguing about what was clearly stated in company’s T&C, like e.g. the requirement for their hand baggage to be no larger than 56 x 45 x 25 cm or the airline being non-refundable and applying charges for transferring the flight or making a name change (of course, there are some exceptions, which I will not mention today due to space limitations). However, in course of my work I realized they were all making attempts to be reimbursed for the additional charges or seeking compensation for personal damages simply because they were not familiar with company’s T&C. What was more surprising is that during the booking process they are asked to read, understand and agree with the T&C and confirm they did so by ticking a little box and pressing ‘continue’. Why would they not do this, taking into consideration they were signing a contract with a company and giving this company their money for a certain service?

We may have the impression that the T&C part of company’s website/software installing process has one hundred pages and was written in a foreign language. Actually, for most of us, it is a foreign language with all the legal terms and clauses. But, if you spend some of our precious time and go through the policy, you will not waste if not your money, then definitely time and nerves for unnecessary disputes and claims. You will not, like the passengers I mentioned earlier, call the premium rate line and argue with a poor Customer Service Representative about the charges you originally agreed to incur (but did not know about this because you did not go through the policy); you will not be surprised when your mobile phone operator informs you that the exorbitant amount visible on your phone bill is actually correct as the promotional rates you were originally offered were in force for the first six months of the agreement only.

Now, when you have the experience with various companies’ T&C, you can choose your future business partners, mobile operators, airlines, online shops, banks, etc with caution, but also certainty. You will know which airline offers the most generous weight allowance for hold luggage, which online shop allows you to return a faulty item at no cost and for a unlimited time or which bank will help arrange a mortgage and offer the lowest interest rate.

VOCABULARY:

1. no-frills – [EN] includes only basic features and is not of the highest possible quality – [PL] podstawowy serwis, bez dodatków

2. to learn a lesson – [EN] to gain experience or information that one can learn from and use – [PL] dostać nauczkę, zdobyć doświadczenie

3. Terms and Conditions – [EN] rules of contract, agreement; policy – [PL] regulamin, warunki umowy

4. to take a new job – [EN] to start working for a new company, on a different post – [PL] rozpocząć nową pracę

5. hand baggage / hold luggage – [EN] baggage one take’s onboard / luggage that is checked-in (e.g. suitcase) – [PL] bagaż podręczny / bagaż odprawiony (np. Walizka)

6. non-refundable – [EN] amount of money cannot be paid back – [PL] bezzwrotny (w przypadku opłaty za coś)

7. in course of – [EN] a period of time or process during which something happens– [PL] z biegiem czasu

8. to reimburse – [EN] to pay money back to someone when their money has been spent or lost– [PL] zwracać pieniądze, pokrywać straty

9. damages – [EN] an award of money to be paid to a person as compensation for loss or injury – [PL] odszkodowanie

10. clause – [EN] a part of a written law or legal document covering a particular subject of the whole law or document – [PL] klauzula

11. premium rate line – [EN] line for which prices charged are higher than normal– [PL] numer specjaly, za który naliczana opłata jest wyższa niż zazwyczaj (np. 0-700)

12. Customer Services – [EN] the part of a company or business that deals with questions, problems etc that customers have – [PL] Biuro Obsługi Klienta

13. to incur a cost– [EN] to pay money because of something you have done or want to do – [PL] pokryć koszta

14. exorbitant – [EN] =astronomical, much higher than it should be – [PL] wygórowana, wyśrubowana cena

15. to be in force – [EN] to exist– [PL] obowiązywać

16. agreement – [EN] contract – [PL] kontrakt, umowa

17. mortgage – [EN] a legal arrangement by which you borrow money from a bank or similar organization in order to buy a house, and pay back the money over a period of years – [PL] kredyt hipoteczny

18. interest – [EN] the extra money that you must pay back when you borrow money – [PL] odsetki