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Complaint Proceedings
General Provisions
These Proceedings define filling, adjusting and handling of complaint proceedings concerning quality and quantity of coal sold by PG SILESIA. The Purchaser, who entered into a contract for the sale of coal, is authorized to make a complaint. The complaint should be filled via B2B Portal by filling in an appropriate part of the Protocol under the "Complaints" link. The B2B Portal allows the Purchaser to enclose documents in an electronic form. Upon filling in all necessary data and enclosing necessary complaint documents a "Complaint Protocol" is generated.
The date of receipt acknowledgment of properly completed Complaint Protocol, including a set of annexes, on the B2B Portal shall be the date of filling a complaint. If for any reason the use of the B2B Portal is impossible, a complaint shall be made in writing to the Sales Department of the Seller. The date of receipt of properly completed Complaint Protocol (a specimen of which is provided in Annex No. 1 to the General Terms of Sale) and relevant documents by the Seller shall constitute the date of making a complaint.
A different mode of complaint proceedings is permitted if the contract between the Seller and the Purchaser stipulates otherwise. In the course of the complaints proceedings, the legal acts shall govern over these Proceedings. Filling a complaint shall not influence on the date of payment of the (original) invoice, including a batch of coal being the subject of the complaint. The Sales Department is a communication unit of the Seller as far as the complaint is concerned. Any communication, despite electronic communication via the B2B Portal, shall be sent to the following e-mail address:
In the event of any differences between the Seller's and the Purchaser's understanding of the content or the form of these Proceedings, the Seller’s Quality Control Department reserves the right to interpret them.
Umpire analysis: a physicochemical analysis of coal samples for control sample to be used for arbitration purposes made in independent and agreed by the Parties laboratory. The result of the analysis made by the accredited laboratory shall be conclusive for the Parties.
Sieve analysis: a process or a result of the process of separation in grain classes, each having a specific grain size range, yield of each class is expressed in percentage by mass (m/m), in relation to the weight of the sample.
Business days: days of the week from Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays under the Act of January 18th, 1951 on public holidays (Journal of Laws of 1951, No. 4, item 28, as amended).
Sale class: a classification of coal, according to quality parameters, into ranges constituting commercial classes.
Grain class: a part of a sample belonging to a specific range of grain size limited by one or two sieves.
Commission: a composition of people set in this chapter, whose task is common acting according to established rules.
Sieve residue: are grains included in the product of grain classification of a grain size larger than the upper limit value of grains of the product.
Independent laboratory: a business entity which is independent and agreed by the Parties, carrying accredited testing in the scope of collecting and making designations of quality parameters.
Qualitative parameters of coal: a result of qualitative testing, characterized by physicochemical properties of coal.
Contractual parameters of coal: specified quality parameters of coal included in contracts
Actual parameters: qualitative parameters determined from a general sample of a batch of coal.
Batch of coal: coal of one type, one size grade, in one sale class/quality range, shipped in one wagon load or, in case of a different type of transport, the sum of daily shipments of a single order.
PN Polish Standards.
Subgrain: grains included in the product of grain classification of a grain size smaller than the lower limit value of grains of the product.
B2B Portal: a portal which can be accessed via the Internet, used for communication of the Seller and the Purchaser in the following areas: orders, deliveries, invoicing and quality of goods in accordance with the concluded contracts.
Commercial sample: a sample of coal taken from a batch of coal in accordance with the Polish Standards, whose marked quality parameters form the basis for the valuation of a batch of coal.
Commission sample: a sample of coal taken under a commission supervision (of both Parties), in accordance with the Polish Standards, in order to determine final quality parameters of a given batch of coal. Laboratory samples are prepared from a commission sample, one for each Party, and one sealed umpire sample for an independent accredited laboratory. Qualitative results from the umpire sample shall be deemed conclusive.
Complaint: agreed proceedings in case of filing a complaint regarding the defect of the product if a coal is owned by the Purchaser.
SGS Poland: a Laboratory of SGS Polska Sp. z o.o., Pracownia Paliw Stałych (PPS) [Solid Fuels Laboratory], ul. Kopalniana 11, 43-225 Wola.
Quantitative complaints shall be submitted up to 3 business days from the date of shipment. The quantitative complaint shall include the following documents:
The decision on the mode of carrying out the complaint proceedings shall be taken by the Seller within 7 business days from the correct filling of the complaint. The date of entering on the B2B Portal the mode of complaint proceedings by the Seller shall be deemed to be a date of response. In case of claim recognition, the Seller shall issue the Purchaser an appropriate correcting invoice. The proceedings concerning the quantitative complaint should be completed within 90 calendar days from the date of correct filing of the complaint.
In case of acceptance of coal for road means of transport at the Seller, the complaint in terms of quantity shortages and visible defects will not be recognised after leaving the Seller's mine site. The Purchaser may request additional weighting carried out under commission supervision on scales installed in the Seller's site. The Purchaser has the right to require scales verification documents, required under the rules of the Central Office of Measures. The complaint shall be settled on the date of loading.
The qualitative complaints shall be submitted up to 7 business days from the date of shipment. The qualitative complaint shall include the following documents:
The decision on the mode of the complaint proceedings shall be taken by the Seller within 7 business days from correct filling of the complaint. The date of a written reply shall be deemed to be a date of entering the mode of complaint proceedings on the B2B Portal by the Seller. The Purchaser is obliged to secure the whole batch of coal being the subject of a complaint for complaint activities. A questioned batch of coal shall be stored separately on a clean, hardened storage area and secured until the complaint proceedings are finished. If the Purchaser, for technical and motor reasons, does not have the possibility of storing and securing such a coal for the Seller's disposal, for examination of its quality or taking samples carried out under a commission supervision, or if the questioned coal was consumed before the examination under a commission supervision, the complaint is being recognized based on the pre-shipment inspection made at the Seller's site. Upon both of the Parties' agreement, the complaint might be recognized based on the average parameters values of coal marked by the Parties.
In case of making a decision on the need for sampling of the questioned batch of coal under the commission supervision, the commission is required to take a sample within 14 calendar days from the date of making a decision on a way of recognizing a complaint. A commission sample shall be taken in accordance with the Polish Standards. Each Party shall receive one laboratory sample of coal. The third laboratory sample, properly secured and sealed, shall be stored as an umpire sample
The complaint might be recognized based on arithmetic means of the result values, as both of the Parties agreed such a fact. In the absence of common approach, each Party shall have the right to order the analysis of an umpire sample at the time agreed by the Parties in an independent and accredited laboratory. If the Parties do not agree on the accredited laboratory, SGS Polska shall decide. The results of the qualitative analysis from the umpire sample shall be deemed conclusive. The costs of the analysis in an external laboratory shall be borne by the Party in case of which the assessment of coal, based on qualitative parameters of its own analysis of the commission sample, is less similar to that determined based on the results of the analysis of the umpire sample being conclusive in the complaint. If it is determined that the actual quality of coal is lower than declared, the Seller shall issue a correcting invoice for the Purchaser.
As a result of repeated indications of differences in the parameters, the Parties may agree on a common procedures for collecting samples of coal of further deliveries at the Seller's or the Purchaser's site, by a committee consisting of the representatives of the Parties, including the possibility of taking an umpire sample. The Seller is liable for the content of foreign bodies in coal if the type of such impurities indicates that they come from the mining site. In case of any doubts as to the origin of the batch of coal indicated for sampling by the Purchaser, the Seller reserves the right to transfer the umpire sample to SGS Polska in order to carry out extended chemical analyses. The proceedings concerning qualitative claims shall be completed within 45 calendar days from the date of correct filing of the complaint. The final decision on recognizing or rejecting the qualitative complaint shall be made by the Seller.
The complaints of a grain composition shall be submitted up to 7 business days from the date of shipment. The Purchaser is obliged to secure the whole batch of coal being the subject of a complaint for complaint activities. A questioned batch of coal shall be stored separately on a clean, hardened storage area and secured until the complaint proceedings are finished. In case of acceptance of coal for road means of transport, the complaint in terms of grain composition shall be made only at the date of direct receipt at the employee of the Sales Department, before leaving the Seller's mine site. The complaint shall be settled on the date of loading. The complaint of grain composition shall include the following documents:
The decision on the complaint shall be made by the Seller within 7 business days from the correct filling of the complaint. The date of a written reply shall be deemed to be a date of entering the mode of complaint proceedings on the B2B Portal by the Seller. The basis for determining the actual content of sieve residue and subgrain in a questioned batch of coal shall constitute the results of the sieve analysis of the sample taken under commission supervision at the participation of the Purchaser and the Seller, in accordance with PN-ISO 1953:1999.
The control sieve and the scales to determine the sieve residue and the subgrain under the Polish Standards shall be secured by the Purchaser at the storage site. The complaint commission shall prepare the protocol from the sieve analysis carried out. In case of claim recognition, the Seller shall issue the Purchaser an appropriate correcting invoice. The proceedings concerning the complaint of a grain composition should be completed within 30 calendar days from the date of correct filing of the complaint.
