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France should put up 'not for sale' signs in all their shops...


Kitty
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.. these signs would save a lot of time.

I'm not a happy bunny:

1. I have been trying to buy a fridge/freezer.  I have trawled through 3 electrical shops in our nearest town and when I could get someone to chat to me (this is difficult as the assistants are so indifferent), there was nothing remotely near to what I need.  So I travelled into Bordeaux to Auchan.  There, I found what I wanted BUT they do not deliver to my area.

2. I have been trying to buy 3 (yes, 3) mobile phones on the LeClerc promo.  Now if I went into a mobile phone shop in the UK and asked for 3 phones, don't you think that they would bite my hand off.  Here?  No chance.  They sold me one and said that they would order the other two as they were out of stock.  Fine.  But over 3 weeks and 7 visits have passed and the phones have still not arrived.  Today, the assistant was so rude to me about it.  So I telephoned another LeClerc branch about 45 mins away but they are not prepared to hold them for me and I don't want to do a 90 min round trip to find they have gone.

Why does France bother having shops?  You can't buy anything in them.

 

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It is a long story but Napoleon thought describing the British as a nation of shop keepers was an insult. Even the 'Phonehouse' which is UK owned are miles off the standards of customer service you take for the norm in the UK. The French have shops to provide a location for social intercourse between people who work in shops. I am ashamed to say that whenever I have a technical problem and want to talk to somebody with a brain I target the assistants who look like the have emigrated to France. When we bought the Plasma TV we ended up  with about a dozen people round us because we were thinking about buying and because we were giving the staff a hard time because we were really interested. All we were asking was please could we see the picture from a normal satellite transmission as opposed to a HD DVD demo so we could find out which looked better.

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'Sfunny because I wanted to buy a cooker last week and went to both Cora and Conforama and in both shops I was approached by assistants asking if I needed any information within a minute or two of standing in the cooker section. I had all my questions answered and did a deal at Conforama and was able to take the cooker away in the back of my car within 10 minutes.

I've done a bit of mystery shopping in the UK in places like Currys and I have to say that mostly they score low marks for customer service both in terms of their product knowledge and their ability to spot a likely purchaser.

Richard T

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Must be an area thing.We find exactly the opposite from staff at all the local supermarkets/stores and small shops.Even the staff in France Telecom spent half an hour sorting out a problem we were having with Wanadoo which we were getting no joy with.No complaints at this end.

Regards

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Geant Casino.  Hardwood exterior dining table.  V reasonable price. Eventually find callow youth to assist.

"Can we order one of these?"

"Sorry, no, it's the end of the line".

"Well, can we buy this one then?"

"Sorry, no, it's the demonstration model".

At this point, OH forcibly removed my hands which were wrapped round aforementioned youth's throat.

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Like it !!!  [:D][:D][:D]

Not long after I bought my place I needed to sort out the gas 'Bombe' in the back garden which was completely empty and to buy a new oven. Went to local  shop selling white goods including ovens and lots of gas bottles outside of same brand as my bombe.  Only got as far as polietly asking if arrangements could be made for a refill when I was confronted with a load of abuse based around the fact that they only had bottled gas.  Stunned, I never mentioned that I also wanted to buy a substantial item so left, vowing never to darken their doorstep again. 

Really weird, never had anything like it before or since.

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A couple of years ago, we stopped off at a garage that had been advertising the make of second-hand car we were interested in.

We saw the car - parked on the opposite side of the road to the garage so we went and looked at it externally, decided we might be interested so went across to the main building.

The man and woman - who'd seen us looking at the car - both refused to look up when we went in. When we bonjour-ed, they just mumbled and when we tried to ask about the car, total consternation: it wasn't theirs to sell, it was their son's car, nothing to do with them. We'd have to speak to their son... we asked when he'd be there and just got shrugs in return. We asked if he'd call us and gave them our card with a number... they looked horrified and wouldn't pick up the card...

Everso weird! OH speaks excellent French so it wasn't that they couldn't understand us but they certainly didn't want to even try and sell us the car. The car was still there some months later. Unsurprisingly.
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After several years of frustrating experiences in French shops, I realised that when Napoleon called the English a nation of shopkeepers he was saying what he admired about them. He had obviously had one gallic shrug too many when trying to buy a new bonnet for Josephine. I agree with the first poster. French shops exist so the staff have somewhere to socialise. Top of the list for indifference and rudeness are bricolages, closely followed by pharmacies. On the other hand, public service outlets like mairies, CPAMs etc, which have no profit motive, I have always found patient and helpful. Who can explain it? Who can tell you why?

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We've had a succession of digital cameras which have a disappointingly large 'lag' (the time from pressing the shutter to it actually capturing the image) so when we went in search of the latest one we were determined to be satisfied with its performance before parting with money. Have you ever tried to get a French assistant to help you in an endevour like this? Impossible ! They'll reluctantly get the keys and open the vitirine, (although they'd far rather you just looked through the glass, and said "yes that one looks pretty, I'll have it. Here's 400 euros.") and let you actually hold it in your hand, but that's as far as it goes. Getting the box and fitting the battery so that if works is about as likely as getting the president of the Lumix division of Panasonic to personally pay a house-call to teach you how to use it. In one particular store - where perhaps they concentrate rather too much on sponsoring F2's weather) I was in a similar position to an earlier poster whose partner was reduced to uncoiling my fingers from round the idiot's neck.

paul
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I was in Darty in Cholet a few weeks ago and waiting for an assistant to finish dealing with another couple.  The couple were American tourists and were buying a digital camera.  The assistant had the camera out of the box for them, batteries in, and they spent the next ten minutes happily twiddling with the knobs and merrily snapping away.

Me?  I was standing by snarling under my breath "come on, come on, bl**dy  Yanks"..............

[:(]

 

 

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[quote user="Quarmby"]

Top of the list for indifference and rudeness are bricolages [/quote]

Last week, at a brocante, I saw a box of paste jewellery and having three teenage daughters who love the stuff, I asked for a price for the whole lot.  She refused and said that I could only buy each piece individually.

Then, on another stall, there was a packet of stamps.  My young son collects them and so, again, I asked if I could buy the whole packet.  No, was the answer.  Choose one stamp and he would give me a price. 

Weird.  Don't they want to sell their goods?

 

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I think the French problem goes far deeper than that. It is not just shops, it can be the whole attitude of complete organisations and the fact they seem dissinterested in living up to their contractual responsibilities.

I recently finished a large project in Kazakhstan. I was working for the client who are a very large American oil company. As part of the project a large French company based in Grenoble had been contracted to design, deliver and commission an electrical control and power management system. Which they attempted to do. During commissioning we experienced all manner of problems. Huge time delays in starting equipment and similar time delays in the feedback from the control system confirming a start. They had a raft of specialists on site, none of whom seemed keen to leave there cups of coffee and deal with problems. Getting them to address the problems was a nightmare. Bearing in mind we were trying to commission and start up a 500, 000 barrel per day facility.

This went on for some time. Eventually a meeting was called and we were told that we were going to redesign the control system using other manufacturers equipment. This was kept secret from the French company and when the new equipment arrived onsite two American managers flew to Grenoble and told the French company their fortune. All of the French employees were sent home and we intsalled and commissioned the new system. All this at a cost of over $20,000,000. What the French failed to realise is that the plant once up and running would make $65,000,000 per day and that the oil company was not going to wait around for them or accept they were French and in that they had a different work ethic to everyone else on the project.

Another slightly different example. I got a new mobile phone from a French provider and it broke. I went back to the shop who would have nothing to do with the problem and insited I should contact the repairer directly which I did. I was told to post it to them at my cost. They repaired the phone which took a month. All of the time I was without a phone and when it came back it had no Sony Ericsson sticker on the front of the phone as they had to remove it to get at the screws.

Maybe I am just expencting too much of people!

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Any time I ve had a pb with my cell phones, orange were very helpful , and I was lent a mobile while my phone was being repaired, so I guess you can't generalize from your own experience.

I ve had good and bad shopping experiences in the UK too..

Same thing everywhere IMHO .

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Cathy I am of the opinion that the big places like LeClerc, Auchan etc are just job creation schemes here. They don't care if you buy anything and the floor staff are uncharming, unhelpful and actually a hinderance - being surly must be the main requirement to work in these stores I reckon.  
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[quote user="Frenchie"]  I ve had good and bad shopping experiences in the UK too..  Same thing everywhere IMHO .[/quote]

I'm not so sure about that, Frenchie.  There is such things as national traits and the French are not too good at 'service'.  Witness the length of queues here, the paperwork oddities (to get a guarantee, you have to get the receipt stamped in a different place from the till etc), the insolent staff etc etc.  The Americans are good at 'service' (a sort of "can do" culture) and this has crossed the pond into the UK.

I'm not on the point of packing up and going back to the UK because of this.  It's just one of the crosses that you have to bear if you live here, compared to the UK.  But it's frustrating as the French are going to have to do something about it, if they want to compete in the global economy.

 

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Part of the problem comes down to the over protective employment laws in France, in that employees know their job does not depend on being helpful to customers!

Mind you matters are not helped by the fact that French customers are not exactly known for being easy going either and therefore if you have to deal with agressive and over bearing customers everyday, service declines to a level of mutual disrespect!

One area which highlights the difference in business service culture is in the UK it seems you are regularily bombarded with requests to complete customer feedback forms every time you buy something reasonably substantive, but I can never recall that happening in France, even when I bought a new car last year.

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Sprogster maybe be correct. It all reminds me of the Moscow McDonalds story I heard recently.

McDonalds about to open ther first outlet train all the Russian employees the 'McDonalds' way. As you would expect the emphasis being on speed and customer satisfaction etc. After 1 group had completed the training the instructor asked 'any questions'. A young lad raised ghis hand and spoke, 'let me try and understand. We are this side of the counter with burgers, fries, coke etc and the customers are the other side with nothing'. Yes was the reply. 'We have what they want this side of the counter and they do not have it'. Yes again was the reply from the instructor. 'Then please tell me why we have to be pleasant to them!!'.

Enough said!

 

On a serious note we have found the service in France indefferent and also brilliant.

We bought our bed from the local Literie and it was duly delivered ontime by the owner of the store who would not except payment until we had slept in the bed for a few nights and were satisfied (with the bed that is).

France Telecomm.....arrrgghhh!!!!!!! 

 

John

 

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