Complaints in a franchise network: allocating responsibility

Customers see a shared brand, but their contract is with a specific business. When you turn an established business into a franchise network, the old rule that “the owner handles difficult cases” is no longer enough. Before opening your first franchised outlet, allocate responsibility for complaints: towards customers, between the businesses involved and for settling costs. This is a separate process worth testing at your own premises first.

1. Start by identifying who contracts with the customer

Map out every purchasing route. Distinguish between sales on the premises, orders through the central website, collection from another outlet and services booked through a shared app. For each route, identify the seller or service provider, the business taking payment and the point at which the customer receives the contracting business’s details. These roles do not always belong to the same company.

A shared brand does not automatically mean shared liability for every transaction. If the franchisee is the seller, the franchisor’s provision of the brand does not, as a general rule, make it a party to the sales contract. The position may be different where the franchisor sells the goods and the franchisee merely hands them over.

Prepare a simple table covering:

• the sales channel and the party contracting with the customer;
• the business details shown in the terms and conditions, purchase confirmation and sales documents;
• the channels for submitting complaints;
• the person authorised to make a decision;
• the business responsible for carrying out a repair, providing a replacement or issuing a refund.

Check that the table reflects what happens in practice. If a member of staff says “you are buying from head office”, but the documents name the local franchisee, you need to correct customer communications, not just the back-office instructions.

2. Separate statutory duties from network standards

Poland has no separate legislation comprehensively regulating franchising, nor a specific register of franchise agreements. A franchise agreement is an “innominate contract”, meaning it is not a separately defined statutory contract type, and is based on the principle of freedom of contract under Article 353¹ of the Polish Civil Code. However, that freedom does not allow businesses to exclude mandatory consumer rights.

For sales of goods to consumers, the provisions of the Polish Consumer Rights Act on conformity of goods with the contract are central. For services, you need to take account of the Civil Code and the rules applicable to the particular type of service. The Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Act and the prohibition of misleading commercial practices are also relevant.

Do not use a single procedure for every case. A complaint, withdrawal from a distance contract, a voluntary returns policy and a guarantee are distinct grounds for action. Buying goods on the premises does not give customers a general statutory right to return non-faulty goods simply because they have changed their mind. You may offer that right voluntarily, setting out the conditions.

In consumer matters, a business must generally respond to a complaint within 14 days of receiving it, unless specific legislation provides otherwise. Failure to respond means the complaint is deemed accepted; the response must be provided on paper or another durable medium. Waiting internally for a head-office decision does not stop the clock.

3. Build a procedure that works across separate businesses

At an owner-operated outlet, the owner can approve a return immediately. A franchise network needs clear decision-making authority. Define which cases franchisees can decide themselves, when they must consult head office and who stands in for the responsible person during an absence.

The operations manual should set out the steps: logging the complaint, identifying the transaction, gathering the necessary information, assessing the customer’s request, responding and providing the agreed remedy. Do not make presenting a receipt the sole condition for accepting a complaint — a purchase can also be established through other evidence.

If customers can submit complaints at any outlet, ensure that each outlet is authorised to receive them and forwards them immediately to the appropriate business. Customers should not bear the consequences of internal document handling. Record the date the complaint is received in the system, not merely the date head office reads it.

A shared complaints inbox also requires clear data protection arrangements. Establish the parties’ actual roles under the GDPR, the legal bases for sharing information, access permissions and retention periods for records. A data processing agreement is appropriate where one business processes data on behalf of another; it is not a substitute for analysing how the parties actually work together.

4. Agree costs and test difficult cases

The franchise agreement should govern how costs are settled between the franchisee and head office without restricting customer rights. Distinguish the cost of meeting a valid claim from voluntary compensation offered to preserve goodwill. Specify who pays for transport, labour, replacement goods and any goodwill gesture offered by the central customer service team.

Also specify the documents needed to settle costs, the reimbursement deadline and the dispute resolution process. Do not assume that the supplier will automatically cover every complaint. Claims against a supplier depend on their legal basis and the terms of the commercial relationship, and resolving the consumer’s complaint should not wait until those costs have been settled.

Before launching your first franchised outlet, run through sample cases: an online purchase collected in store, a complaint submitted at another outlet, an absent manager and a defect recurring across several locations. Check whether staff can identify the responsible business, the response deadline and the decision-maker without calling the owner.

Practical takeaway: before signing your first franchise agreement, prepare a responsibility map, a complaints procedure and rules for settling costs. A franchise network builds trust when its shared brand means efficient service, rather than customers being passed from one business to another.