Red Tape Hot Box on The gap betwen adverts and reality
Although they are still annoying when they cut in into the film you are watching, at least they aren't that boring and don't all follow the same theme, as they did 10 years ago, showing different detergents throughout the entire five minute break. Even the bank commercials nowadays can capture your attention as they stress the speed, reliability and ease of their services.
However, while firms have at last learned how to advertise products in an interesting fashion, they still often seem unable to put into practice all the qualities of which they are so fond of extolling on our TV screens.
I have one particular case of this that happened to one of our readers, a Mr. Gregor, who's a client of Raiffeisen Bank Polska on ul. Piękna. This bank recently started to offer Internet banking, and Mr. Gregor opted to sign up for the service immediately, only to be told that he could not use it to make one-off transfers because he was a non-resident. It has to be added that Mr. Gregor is a diplomat and therefore doesn't need a residency card. Instead, he just has an ID card issued by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Gregor explained that he lives in Poland, doesn't even have an address in his home country and probably spends more than 300 days here every year.
But, alas, this was all to no avail - without a permanent residence card he would be treated as a non-resident, with the bank employee claiming that this had been written into the Banking Act, and that all banks in Poland must follow this policy.
Well, when Mr. Gregor took a closer look at the Banking Act, he found no mention of the terms 'foreigner' or 'non-resident.' After going back to the branch and consulting with the bank's legal department, the bank employee apologized and informed him that, in fact, it was the Foreign Exchange Act that
contained this regulation, and that it said in Art. 2, paragraph 1, point 2 that foreign diplomats are always treated as non-residents.
In the text of the Foreign Exchange Act it's written that foreign diplomatic missions are defined as non-residents, while for natural persons, there is only one distinction: whether they live in Poland or live outside. On the next visit, our reader explained this to the bank employee, and she agreed that
he could indeed change his status to that of a resident if he showed his passport and signed a declaration to the extent that he lives in this country permanently. Of course, if you're an EU citizen who does work as a diplomat none of this applies to you anyway. Poland no longer gives permmanent resident
status to EU citizens so you're stuck with non-resident banking status forever. Unless you apply for Polish citizensip. And that's a whole other box of red tape.
Thus, it's not enough just to produce good commercials. Rather, as this case shows, it would be better if the many firms that like to eulogize their values and qualities actually put them into practice.
However, while firms have at last learned how to advertise products in an interesting fashion, they still often seem unable to put into practice all the qualities of which they are so fond of extolling on our TV screens.
I have one particular case of this that happened to one of our readers, a Mr. Gregor, who's a client of Raiffeisen Bank Polska on ul. Piękna. This bank recently started to offer Internet banking, and Mr. Gregor opted to sign up for the service immediately, only to be told that he could not use it to make one-off transfers because he was a non-resident. It has to be added that Mr. Gregor is a diplomat and therefore doesn't need a residency card. Instead, he just has an ID card issued by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Gregor explained that he lives in Poland, doesn't even have an address in his home country and probably spends more than 300 days here every year.
But, alas, this was all to no avail - without a permanent residence card he would be treated as a non-resident, with the bank employee claiming that this had been written into the Banking Act, and that all banks in Poland must follow this policy.
Well, when Mr. Gregor took a closer look at the Banking Act, he found no mention of the terms 'foreigner' or 'non-resident.' After going back to the branch and consulting with the bank's legal department, the bank employee apologized and informed him that, in fact, it was the Foreign Exchange Act that
contained this regulation, and that it said in Art. 2, paragraph 1, point 2 that foreign diplomats are always treated as non-residents.
In the text of the Foreign Exchange Act it's written that foreign diplomatic missions are defined as non-residents, while for natural persons, there is only one distinction: whether they live in Poland or live outside. On the next visit, our reader explained this to the bank employee, and she agreed that
he could indeed change his status to that of a resident if he showed his passport and signed a declaration to the extent that he lives in this country permanently. Of course, if you're an EU citizen who does work as a diplomat none of this applies to you anyway. Poland no longer gives permmanent resident
status to EU citizens so you're stuck with non-resident banking status forever. Unless you apply for Polish citizensip. And that's a whole other box of red tape.
Thus, it's not enough just to produce good commercials. Rather, as this case shows, it would be better if the many firms that like to eulogize their values and qualities actually put them into practice.
