How do you complain about your factrice?

[mint]

We have a lovely factrice but she's off sick and the replacement is making me very cross.

There have been a few little things which I was happy to overlook but today I knew that I have a parcel coming and I waited in for the woman.  By 1 o'clock, I knew she wouldn't be coming today and I did think I hadn't heard the car but OH said she put a letter in the box and was off like a bat out of hell.

I went on the colissimo site and, to my chagrin, saw that I was supposed to be "absent".  The contents of the parcel have been eagerly awaited and I did feel, for me, really angry.

I am out tomorrow morning but I will try to get home in time to "have a word" with the woman. 

What I'd like to ask is, is there a formal way, such as by letter or email ,to complain?  I won't do it yet, just see what she has to say about my supposed absence today and also to point out the bell at the gate.

Anyone has any information, svp? 

[YCCMB]

[url]http://www.laposte.fr/Service-Consommateurs/Deposez-une-reclamation[/url]

[woolybanana]

There is a fone number you can use which was very effective for me on the one occasion when I had to make a complaint. The matter was sorted in 24 hours with smiles all round. The error was in fact mine, but caused because my postie came back a second time to deliver a package, having already put the notification in the letter box, and I thought it was a different item.

[NormanH]

"saw that I was supposed to be "absent".  The contents of the parcel have

been eagerly awaited and I did feel, for me, really angry."

But this is standard behaviour. They fill in the yellow slip things in advance,  so they don't have to carry all the parcels and you have to go and get them yoursleves. Then they just leave the slip in the letter box and disappear.

The only thing that surprises me is that you are surprised[:)]

At least you have some idea of who your facteur is. In town they change all the time and it is quite usual to go for a week with no post and for important letters to go missing if they haven't been send 'avec accusé de reception'.

I had a passport go missing a few years back and I note that now they are sent out by courrier not by post which speaks volumes about the appalling service of La Poste

[nomoss]

If I have parcles coming from a French address I ask for them to be sent by Mondial Relay.

It's cheaper, they are delivered to the Tabac just down the road, I get an email advising they have arrived, and can collect them within an hour or so (I give him chance to sort the day's delivery).

[Clair]

[quote user="NormanH"]"saw that I was supposed to be "absent".  The contents of the parcel have

been eagerly awaited and I did feel, for me, really angry."

But this is standard behaviour. They fill in the yellow slip things in advance,  so they don't have to carry all the parcels and you have to go and get them yoursleves. Then they just leave the slip in the letter box and disappear.[/quote]

I feel the need to balance this sweeping generalisation [:)]

My factrice toots the horn if she needs my signature or if a parcel is too big for the letterbox.

The only time I had a parcel missing was with a courier who wrote I had been "absente", even though I was following the delivery number online at home at the time he wrote I wasn't there. The missing Kindle appeared in the letterbox a week later (it had already been replaced by Amazon who sent it by post!)

Last month, I needed to send a letter and had run out of stamps. And Mr Clair had borrowed my last euros...

Michèle the factrice let me have a book of stamps and simply asked me to leave the money in the letterbox the following day.

There! [:D]

[mint]

Thanks for your replies, everyone.

The thing which made me really cross was that she didn't even bother to fill out a slip, Norman.  No slip, no parcel and I knew it was due yesterday because the sender told me when it was sent and when it would arrive.

We did have one instance in the previous house when I had a heavy parcel of dog food that I had to go and retrieve myself but I have never, until now, had a problem at the present address.  And, I do get a fair few parcels as we live miles away from a big town and I tend to buy many things on line.

Anyway, back to today.  I lay in wait for her and she was nearly an hour late; about 1.30.  To be honest, I thought she'd knocked off for lunch.  When I heard her car (not difficult as maybe only 6 or 8 cars pass per day), I waited out in the middle of the road.  Do you have my parcel?  Yes, I have it.  Whilst not heavy, it was quite a big box and she would have had to ring the bell and hand it over.

Well, what happened yesterday?  I waited en express and I was in the house?  No reply, just handed me the box.  I persisted:  so what did happen yesterday and why wasn't my parcel delivered?  Cornered, she made some excuse about not having seen it and then admitted it was her fault, no apology, naturally.  I said, look, here is my bell, you can ring the bell, right?  AND, I don't want you to leave packets half in and half out of the letter-box; I want you to open the box with your key (you have one, don't you?) and put them INSIDE, OK? 

She'd done that only last week, left a packet half hanging out of the letter-box, and the envelop was torn in the process of her trying to force it through.  Anyone could have taken my packet and, with the weather we've been having, it could have been rained upon..............ggrrrrrrrrrr.

I'd already sent an email to Colissimo as I really didn't think she'd come in her lunch hour but I didn't tell her that.  Instead, I said that if I had any more problems with delivery, I would be making a formal complaint.

I'd be mighty surprised, despite what Norman says, if I got any more problems from this little madame.

Nomoss, I don't use Mondial Relay because the depot is over half an hour there and back and I'd rather pay a couple more euros to have stuff delivered to my house.  Mind you, after paying the not inconsiderable postal charges, I do expect that parcels get delivered when they should be and I certainly don't expect the factrice to say I was out when I'd waited all bloody morning for her[+o(]

BTW, many thanks to Betty for that website which is now in my favourites.  The Colissimo.fr site is in fact easy to use and I could have used it last night if it hadn't been so late and I was panicking about my French homework on le futur antérieur for this morning!

[Chancer]

I have a feeling she wont be ringing your bell anytime soon to sell you a calendrier [:D]

My factrice is excellent and I actually have to stop her to ask for a calender (an excuse to tip her) problem is for the last few years they have been totally useless, nice pictures and a great choice, all the usefull info and local maps, all in all a superb offering but effing useless as the actual space given over to the calender is so small that you cannot even write médecin 14.00 in one of the days. And do I give a flying 4X for what saints day is today?

But she does deliver the parcels on time and is very persistant in trying to find me, I dont have a doorbell and could be working on one of 4 floors or in my flat at the rear, usually having une grasse matinée, one meeting with me unshaven and wearing a dressing gown would be enough to put off any factrice or facteur but not her.

[NormanH]

You all really do live in a different world [:)]

I think that apart from Chancer it is because you are in rural locations with a personal service.

When this sort of thing happens I have no idea of who the particular facteur might have been, so I have no chance of remonstrating, so Sweet's comment about this 'madame' or Clair's about 'Michèle' are incomprehensible.

I can assure you that those of us in towns, and especially quartiers such as mine have exactly the sort of experience I outlined...

[mint]

Norman, my usual factrice (the one who is off sick) brought me big, fat, ripe tomatoes one summer when our own crop was so dismal I think she felt a bit sorry for us!

[Catalpa]

[quote user="NormanH"]You all really do live in a different world [:)]

I think that apart from Chancer it is because you are in rural locations with a personal service.[/quote]

We're very rural and our Facteur Fred picks up (stamped) mail as well as delivering mail. He gave us a magnet sticker thing which we stick on the outside of the box if there are (stamped) letters in the box which we'd like him to take and put in the mail. I think it's normal around here.

Generally, though, he's a lazy sod and will do as someone else mentioned - open the post box to push a package in which doesn't fit so he leaves the door open allowing the rest of the post to fall out, get blown around, rained on... [:@]

That's a useful link, Betty. Thank you.

[Chancer]

As a game of one-upmanship with Norman, a sort of "my street is worse than yours!" I have just recieved notification that INSEE are going to interview me for an Enquête sur le cadre de vie et la sécurité, do you have one Norman [:P]

La premiére partie de cette enquête porte sur la qualité de l'environnement de votre habitat, les immeubles environnants, sont-ils en mauvaise état? Les Abribus, cabines téléphoniques font-ils l'objet de destructions ou de dégradations?

La seconde partie aborde les problémes d'insécurité auxquels vous avez pu confrontés au cours des deux derniéres années: cambriolages, degradations des résidences principale et secondaire, vols et dégradations des vehicules possédées, aggressions, vols personnels, ménaces et injures. Elle traite également de votre sentiment d'insecurité et de votre opinion sur l'action de la police et de la justice.

Sorry for any spelling mistakes.

Now is it just me or do you find those somewhat leading statements? I was feeling very upbeat before reading them [:D] if the person doing the interview takes themselves and the study seriously I am going to have a lot of laughs [:D]

[Clair]

[quote user="Catalpa"]

We're very rural and our Facteur Fred picks up (stamped) mail as well as delivering mail. He gave us a magnet sticker thing which we stick on the outside of the box if there are (stamped) letters in the box which we'd like him to take and put in the mail. I think it's normal around here.[/quote]

I'm dead jealous! [:@]

If I want Michèle (our factrice) to stop to collect some post, I have to clip a clothes-peg on the letterbox to indicate there's something for her to pick up...

I've thought of getting one of those US-style spring-loaded flags... [Www]

[NormanH]

As a game of one-upmanship with Norman, a sort of "my street is worse

than yours!" I have just recieved notification that INSEE are going to

interview me for an Enquête sur le cadre de vie et la sécurité, do you

have one Norman

You mean that somebody in an official capacity is going to dare to come down your way?

I have a devil of a job to get a nurse to visit and the one Doctor who does home visits here will be retiring in a couple of months...

On the other hand do you have a pseudo FN candidate as a front runner for Maire?

[Chancer]

[quote user="NormanH"]
On the other hand do you have a pseudo FN candidate as a front runner for Maire?

[/quote]

We get this guy that even the party communist eventually refused to be associated with [:(]

http://www.20minutes.fr/politique/692796-politique-les-plus-beaux-coups-eclat-maxime-gremetz-videos

TBH the videos dont do this rabble raiser any justice at all although the last one goes some way to showing his character.

He led a strike in the 70's that resulted in the total closure of a very large employer, many parallels to the Goodyear dispute, he has made his living in politics since, some employees of the party communist were even awarded €50K damages against him.

A fine role model and you will find most of the syndicalistes around here comport themselves following his example.

[NormanH]

Well we have this one:

http://www.midilibre.fr/2014/01/15/municipales,808364.php

or the other one that Sarkozy is coming to support while supposedly watching Carla Bruni...

And that one is a member of the sinister Droite populaire   so they are out-doing themselves in the scrabble for the rabble..

[Pickles]

[quote user="NormanH"]the scrabble for the rabble.[/quote]

I liked this description of the process of wooing the voters. A quick search seems to indicate that NH is the originator of this useful phrase, as it does not seem to crop up elsewhere. Chapeau!

[mint]

Well, I have today received an email from in reply to my filling in the form on the Colissimo site.

It's got an individual's name on it, no less!

This person has given me a number to ring as it's apparently the correct action to take, given the nature of my "demande".  What do you know, it's a number for all-day opening plus half day on Saturdays and, more surprisingly, it's non surtaxé!!!  I am still reeling a bit from the shock............

[Chancer]

Dont ring it unless you believe that your words with the factrice had no effect.

[mint]

No, Chance, I'm not going to drop her in it.  I've received my parcel now and I think my words hit home OK.  Thanks.