Beware - Check your Bills!!!!!!

[Evianers]

We have now lived in France 2 months: naturally during this time we have naturally had to go shopping to various Supermarkets in our area. During this time [we go perhaps twice per week] we have only twice received bills without mistakes and of course always to the detriment of the client. Just this morning, having paid 14+ Euros for only a few items [which seemed rather high] upon checking the bill, yet another mistake - a difference of 1.95. Now over the months, this adds up and bearing in mind we are now pensioners ........ No-one at the Acceuil cared.

If only the supermarkets in France adopted the same policy as Sainsburys......... if you find a mistake, you receive the item free. Dream on.[:@]

[tj]

[quote user="Evianers"]

........ No-one at the Acceuil cared.

[/quote]

Dont you just luv em!

Apparently, but I could not swear to it, the major retailers are now actually taking seriously the old adage "customer service", and if my source is correct will be implementing a similar system, there will be a customer service helpline 35 cents a minute of course, with the obligatory 10 minute wait ( € 3.50 ) followed by a completely uninterested individual who will deny all responsibility for the company and blame you. 

c'est la vie en france, if you came here looking for good old fashioned customer service, forget it, they just hav'nt got round to it yet !

 

[cooperlola]

TJ, I am bound to wonder how you can make this rather sweeping statement about French retailers. 

 I've had 3 major problems since I got here. 

 Auchan : Charged for 33 bottles of Saumur, rather than the 3 I bought.  Went to the customer service desk and received an apology and a refund - in cash.

Boulanger : the hard drive on my DVD recorder packed up 9 months into its 2 year guarantee.  Because a new hard drive had to be ordered, it was away for 3 weeks, so they extended the guarantee for a further 6 months to make up for it.

Castorama : Bought a lawnmower which worked perfectly the first time but would not start the second.  Took it back 9 days after purchase.  The guy at the help desk told us that theoretically he should send it back to the manufacturer for repair as their terms state that we should have returned it in the first 7 days to get an immediate replacement.  He altered the date on his paperwork so we could take a new one straight away.

Have I just been lucky, or what?

[tj]

[quote user="cooperlola"]

TJ, I am bound to wonder how you can make this rather sweeping statement about French retailers. 

 [/quote]

 

Yes, I suppose it was rather a generalisation, because it is my experience generally, though not always personal, of a retail community who gives the impression of caring little for its customers satisfaction. I'm sure it is only a cultural thing since the french are I assume treated the same?

I suppose at the end of the day, it comes down to management, mediocre management acheiving mediocre results. 

On a personal level I have had one or two instances similar to those you mentioned, but did not feel as optimistic about the outcome as one might have elsewhere.

However, with all its frustrations, there is nowhere else I would rather be!  

[suein56]

[quote user="cooperlola"]

Have I just been lucky, or what?

[/quote]

No IMHO you haven't been lucky, just treated normally; though I do think a lot depends on whereabouts you live in France. You do have to check your bills though. Where we live we have had problems of a similar nature to the previous posters but they have all been 'sorted' in a satisfactory manner - same as you. Only yesterday at Casino I bought a carton of 6 bottles of wine, clearly marked by a large notice - special promo 6 bottles for 12 euros 65 including 1 bottle free. I was charged 15 euros 35 at the till; so I queried this with accueil who discovered that the special promo had ended on Sunday, but that the notice had not been removed. Result: I received an apology and was reimbursed the 2 euros 70 as the fault, they said, was their's not mine.

Sue

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="cooperlola"]

Have I just been lucky, or what?

[/quote]

Possibly, but if you have then so have I. In four-and-a-half years I don't recall any problems with getting reasonable service (including the little trick of having paperwork changed to ease the return of goods) but I hear again and again of other people having no end of problems. Perhaps it's an area thing?

[Clair]

A young French student friend has just done a 6 weeks spell at a small Leclerc in St Céré (46) and she could not wait to finish...

From her description, there seems to be no  positive incentive or motivation to encourage the employees to do more than the strict minimum.

They get paid the basic wages, there is no shop discount of any kind, no staff room where they can have a break, in other words, there is no value put on their efficiency, amiability or helpfulness. They're treated like disposable goods and act accordingly.

One day, she started work at 2pm and finished at 8:30, having not had a single break. Her break as such was the ½ hour between 8:30 and the official closing time of 9:00pm.

Her 35 hours were distributed every week over 6 days of the week, including Sundays.

As she's a student, she was quite happy to take the work, but I can well imagine that it would be quite demoralising to hold such a job as your only prospect of a wage.

I am not making apologies for anyone, but the incentive has to come from the top.

Once the managers realise that customers are valuable and should be treated accordingly, the positive attitude will trickle down to the floor.

[jc]

I had trouble at  a checkout-short change-said I'd given them a smaller note than I had-told to come back at closing time so they could check the till totals-told I'm standing here blocking this till till I get my change-Result.Change given immediately.

[cooperlola]

I'm sure the area thing is pertinent, especially given Clair's post.  Same as in the UK really.  In poor areas, and those of high unemployment, people are grateful to have jobs, and employers have a larger base from which to chose the right people; in places where the pool of potential employees is small, they (and we customers!) just get what comes along - with some unfortunate results.

[5-element]

Cooperlola and Clair, absolutely spot on! Here in the Herault, one of the poorest departements in France (highest unemployment etc.), not only I have had to query my bills at supermarkets, several times, but I have often been met with not just indifference and unpleasantness, but also incredible rudeness - such as "it's your fault if I did not deduct the 50% off as clearly marked on the item - YOU should have pointed it out to me". Never once, any word of apology, and people virtually throwing the item back at you, and telling me that if I don't like it, why don't I complain to management? (which I have done in writing at least twice). However, in one particular supermarket (Super U), I found out that the cashiers do not get ANY training whatsoever; that the manager there says about customers "If they don't like it, they can go elsewhere!" (??? really good commercial sense, this!) and I shudder to see how the staff must be treated there - presumably, just like the customers are treated by the staff. I have now boycotted this particular supermarket, having found that it had quite a reputation for errors and rudeness and bad customer treatment.

And yes, those who are "lucky enough" to get a job there, want to keep it, but they will only follow management guidelines. They are grumpy as they hate their job, and the management probably, and can only take it out on the customer with the management's blessing? Weird.

Because there are very very few jobs around here, this tends to be the norm - with very welcome exceptions, there is one little supermarket I go to specifically because the (Polish) cashier there is lovely, treats me like a human being, does not make mistakes, and presents herself as a human being too.

[Georgina]

[quote user="Clair"]A young French student friend has just done a 6 weeks spell at a small Leclerc in St Céré (46) and she could not wait to finish...

From her description, there seems to be no  positive incentive or motivation to encourage the employees to do more than the strict minimum.

They get paid the basic wages, there is no shop discount of any kind, no staff room where they can have a break, in other words, there is no value put on their efficiency, amiability or helpfulness. They're treated like disposable goods and act accordingly.

One day, she started work at 2pm and finished at 8:30, having not had a single break. Her break as such was the ½ hour between 8:30 and the official closing time of 9:00pm.

Her 35 hours were distributed every week over 6 days of the week, including Sundays.

As she's a student, she was quite happy to take the work, but I can well imagine that it would be quite demoralising to hold such a job as your only prospect of a wage.

I am not making apologies for anyone, but the incentive has to come from the top.

Once the managers realise that customers are valuable and should be treated accordingly, the positive attitude will trickle down to the floor.

[/quote]

 

 I just can't bear shopping at Leclerc because the staff are so miserable and the queues are always so long.  I found other supermarkets much better.  Now I know why.

[:(]

Georgina

[LEO]

oops, sorry ..........I misread your post..................

..............I thought it said Check your Balls !

[woolybanana]

That too LEO, that too

[LEO]

[quote user="woolybanana"]That too LEO, that too[/quote]

Had a look , thtill two!

[Rob Roy]

In contrast to the above poster re Super U - I use the Super U in Uzerche in the Correze and find it very good. Smart, friendly and helpful staff and efficient service offered. It is obviously a regional thing.

[woolybanana]

They aren franchises but have in common their high prices and vicious marketing strategies.

[Gardian]

[quote user="Georgina"]

I just can't bear shopping at Leclerc because the staff are so miserable and the queues are always so long.  I found other supermarkets much better.  Now I know why.

[/quote]

I don't doubt Georgina's experience of Leclerc, but our 'local' one is the very opposite.  Never a queue, in fact we have to make a big decision over which empty checkout to go to.  It's usually midweek late morning though.  By far and away the smartest and best-stocked local hyper. As said - local management. 

Given the likely average weekly spend per customer (£70 / €100?), it never ceases to amaze me how little emphasis the hypers both here and in the UK seem to put on the 3 things that interest us most:

• stock availability
• cleanliness / tidiness of the store
• speed & accuracy of checkout

............ and as said, it can vary from chain to chain, branch to branch.

 

[woolybanana]

very often here they are almost monopolies and missing items are easily covered. For the rest, you are their victim and prisoner.

Your experience is unusual in the extreme. Here  the local Super U is cynical, unreliable, the staff lie and their labelling is mendacious or depeptive. About par for the course i think.