Iwo Klisz i Wspolnicy in Wroclaw Poland Anna Klisz Overcharging Wrocław Lower Silesia

I was charged 250 PLN  for my first phone consultation with the lawyer (actually his wife - a lawyer herself).  250 PLN is pretty high even by Polish standards. The consultation lasted an hour and I called them on my phone from Canada. They never mentioned to me that perhaps I deserved a small credit for the incurred expense. Most consultaions in North America are free of charge. That would have been nice but I have to remind myself that after all I am dealing with a different country.

The phone call was preceeded by a few e-mails between me and the law firm. Some of my e-mails could not be sent as they kept coming back with a big sign: "Mail Delivery Failure". It was like a crap shoot. You could never be sure if the next e-mail would get through or not.
On a similar note, the office contact information doesn't provide a fax number or a voice mail option. You can't help but think these guys are trying to run their fledgling business on a shoe string budget.

A nice looking website but that's about where it all ends.

I asked Anna Klisz (the lawyer's wife) how much I would be charged for contacting the Land Registry office to check on 4 properties that I was interested in.

Three years ago the Polish government came up with an interesting website available to everyone interested in the Land Registry information. There is a charge of 39 PLN per property. It can be looked up on the computer at any time.  For me, the four properties in question would total 156 PLN. The only problem I encountered was the fact that I could not use my own form of payment such as Visa, Mastercard or PayPal. They are using strictly domestic and European Banks to complete the transaction.

The lawyer's office charged me 460 PLN for all the four properties in question. So the service charge was 156 PLN. She decided she would pocket another 304 PLN on top of that for roughly a ten minute job. Am I missing something? Or is it an obvious case of a double standard ? "Why not charge the Canadians or the American citizens a bit more just because we feel like it". Do different rules apply to me because I am from Canada? Would she charge anyone else in Poland the same amount? I think not.
I am speechless and flabbergasted.

Another huge red flag went up when she could not come up with a ball park estimate for my particular case. How convenient is that? They will keep you in the dark the entire time and then give you the little bitty surprise right at the end? You have NO idea what to expect. How can you possibly budget yourself ? After my discussion with her the rates suddenly appeared on their website. It was an absolute joke. Those rates were as useless as a glass hammer.
In the same vein they also managed to remove all the negative reviews by other posters. I had seen them before so I know they were there.

When I talk to a lawyer I want to feel safe and looked after. I want to hear  something positive and feel the case will be resolved. I want to know what I will be requested to pay at the end ( more or less) without leaving it to anyone's imagination. The first conversation seriously lacked any positive spin, they were not able to sell themselves to me or convince me that I was in good hands. Their e-mail communication skills are deplorable. I felt I was talking to a robot the whole time. I sensed a huge lack of integrity and professionalism on their part. You can't learn it in school. You either have it or you don't.

Not "trustworthy" is an understatement.

 I would never hire them.

Disappointing.