Re: Consumer rights

[gosub]

There is some info on these sites.

http://www.conso.net/page/

http://www.finances.gouv.fr/DGCCRF/

Consumer help- Que Choisir

[breizh]

Here we go again, you have my sympathy. Consumer Rights are well protected under French Law, however retailers in particular flout the law, or simply ignore it. Your rights are essentially the same as you have in the UK, the shops just choose to ignore the law.

Art. L. 211-9 Code de la Consumation. En cas de défaut de conformité, l'acheteur choisit entre la réparation et le remplacement du bien. Toutefois, le vendeur peut ne pas procéder selon le choix de l'acheteur si ce choix entraîne un coût manifestement disproportionné au regard de l'autre modalité, compte tenu de la valeur du bien ou de l'importance du défaut. Il est alors tenu de procéder, sauf impossibilité, selon la modalité non choisie par l'acheteur. A free translation (I did Law at Uni, but never practiced!)I n the event of defective conformity (goods unfit for their purpose), the purchaser may choose either to have the goods repaired or replaced. However, the vendor is not bound to comply with the purchaser’s choice if such choice entails significantly disproportionate costs in comparison with the other potential option, taking account of the value of the goods concerned. The vendor is then obliged to choose the other option (ie, replace instead of repair or vice versa), unless this is impossible.

You may well be dealing with a Franchise, but it doesn't matter. Tip from my MiL, who is a very senior french politician, if you want to enforce your Consumer Rights, or make any complaints about Service Apres Vent, write direct to the CEO at Head Office. Then something will happen, it seems to work.

[Sunday Driver]

If you feel your consumer rights have been abused, you may report the store to France's equivalent of Trading Standards - DGCCRF (Direction Générale de la Concurrance, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes).

Their website is very helpful and you can download their official [url=http://www.dgccrf.minefi.gouv.fr/documentation/publications/depliants/garanties.pdf] brochure on guarantees[/url]which explains all your rights.

Even handier for laminating and keeping in your bag........[;-)]

 

[breizh]

Glad it helps. My wife is French, but lived in the UK for 10 years, so she knows how things are done in the there, and has learnt what her Consumer Rights are in France. I do try and avoid going with her to the SAV desk, to put it mildly there are often disagreements!! It also never ceases to amaze me how often my french family just accept whatever they are told, whereas the British would tell them what their Rights are, in no uncertain terms.

  

[Benjamin]

[quote user="breizh"]

 It also never ceases to amaze me how often my french family just accept whatever they are told, whereas the British would tell them what their Rights are, in no uncertain terms.

  

[/quote]

I'm always banging on about service levels but with this meek acceptance by the French what chance do we stand. I guess if you flashed a copy of these legal documents in front of the average person manning a SAV desk they wouldn't have the foggiest idea of what they even are.

[Chancer]

Well done you!

I am glad that I saw your update before posting as I was going to as why you were not happy with their compromise which in my experience you had done well to get.

However............... as you thought, you were entitled to more than a repair/loan and it just shows that even though most locals either dont know or enforce their rights it can be done.

When you said SD pamphlet do you mean that you printed off something that was linked to here?

Editted: I have just read the pamphlet, you had the right to accept either a repair carriage paid or a replacement according to what is possible and reasonable, given that they were still selling the phones it was clearly both possible and reasonable.

I am not at all surprised that they had to have a discussion over the matter though [:D]

[Chancer]

In some ways I am sorry for the smaller retailers (I am speaking about england here but suspect it is worse for the french ones) unlike the multiples who call all the shots they dont have any right of replacement with heir suppliers and end up footing the bill when customers quite rightly exercise their rights.

I used to install automatic gate systems and despite using the best and most reliable kit sometimes things wouldnt work when installed. I would always check, verify myself and if necessary repair myself as returning stuff was costly and took loads of time.

If for instance a newly installed underground gate operator had an open circuit winding or damaged seal causing water to enter and short it out or if a control board could not be programmed etc, the customer having paid thousands of pounds in total quite reasonably expected me to rectify things straight away. My suppliers however insisted that I returned the parts at my cost for analysis and subsequent repair which would take a month usually.

In order to keep my customers happy I had to bite the bullet and order new parts including delivery charges to get their system up and running straight away, when the original ones were returned I had to keep them in stock for service repair jobs offering them at a discounted price as "reconditioned".

In my case the labour element and profit meant that I was able (but unhappy) to do this but I always refused to supply only to the public for the above reasons.

I therefore would have no hesitation insisting (or trying to!) on my rights with large retailers like Leclerc but would be more sympathetic to the situation of a smaller one and perhaps accept a repair/loan.

Well done again, you are in a very small minority!

[Sunday Driver]

The issue of consumer rights comes up fairly frequently and in many cases, people trying to obtain redress are speaking to low level counter staff who are trained to just follow their internal procedures.  That means if the big ring binder says take the phone back for repair, then that's what they're instructed to do.

Another scenario is where the aggrieved customer walks in brandishing an internet printout extract from a complex EU Commission legal directive on consumer rights.  The counter assistant has probably no idea who the EU Commission is so he/she just maintains their position of following the store's rules.

The beauty of the DGCCRF leaflet is that it's issued by the DGCCRF (and they all know who they are), it's in French, and it points out the basic legal rights of the customer, and most importantly, according to French law.  It's couched in very simple terms and doesn't take a University degree to understand it, so it's difficult for someone to just scan it, then do the 'shrug' and throw it back at you.

That leaflet is the biggest hammer you can have - hit them with it and they go 'ouch'.......[;-)]