Credit Agricole [britline]

[Gardian]

Well Dick, we could nit-pick all night, but that's not what I understood LG to express in reply to your post:

"Like you, I don't believe in rudeness but assertiveness is a very positive thing when dealing with certain institutions in all countries including France."

I agree entirely. 

[David]

[quote user="LanguedocGal"]

[quote user="Kristine"]I have lived an equal lengh of time in both france and Spain, believe me if you find French systems ,banks,health system etc archaic ,don't ever consider moving to Andalucia .Compared to the way things operate there french systems are wonderful .At least if you go with the flow and follow the laid down proceedures everything works and you achive your goal. In Andalucia no system works because the people will not work to a system.Stay where you are and be thankful you're not here ![/quote]

Kristine, I spent just under a year in Andalucia a few years back and I wholeheartedly agree with you when talking about institutions in general but I found the Spanish Banking System no worse than the French.

 However, I feel David has unwittingly highlighted some of the problems with French banks and other institutions. He is praising (rightfully if he has had a good experience) an individual branch of a banking network.  As a client, I do not feel the need for the staff of any bank/branch or institution to like me. They are employed to offer a service and I do not need to transfer my financial portfolio (if I had one) to them or anything else. Simple professionalism is all I ask from any institution anywhere and it should not be too much to ask from France. 

David then mentions his personal experience in the UK, so I will do likewise.

Out of 3 banks (not branches) with which I had accounts in the UK, 2 provided me with excellent professional service for over 20 years. I could move around the UK and abroad and call 24/7 if I ever needed help or stranded anywhere in the world without having to go in, smile at them whilst asking about their kids, cats and dogs. (Not interested!)

I suppose what we seek depends on our lifestyles and a bank with the ‘village’ mentality may suit some but not others. Not every French person lives in a village anymore as far as I’m aware. 

It's a little pointless always making comparisions with other countries though. I live here now and if I find institutions here ineffective, I will demand professionalism, as I would expect them to do if they were seeking a service from me. It’s not personal.

 

[/quote]

I apologise if my post was not clear, but even after re-reading it I think it is clear.

However, to set the record straight I did not unwittingly highlight problems.  I was replying to the original poster that I found it very easy to change from Britline to a local CA branch - that was the question was it not?

I did not feel the need for the staff to like me, and I did not discuss kids, cats and dogs.  I do find it a more pleasant experience if transactions can be conducted in a pleasant, professional, polite and friendly manner.  I have been through too much to go looking for hassle, and in a strange country (of which I have worked in many) I find that a smile can go a long way.

When I said they still welcomed me with open arms, I should add for clarity that this is their approach to all customers.

I did not need to transfer my "financial portfolio" to them.  I did it because they were efficient, professional, helpful, polite, and offered lower quotes for better insurance than I could find elsewhere.  They also have a claims service where they assist the customer with any claims that the customer may wish to make.  Not a "village mentality" I think, but a helpful service to those who do not know all the ins and outs of French insurance.

To re-assure the original poster, I found it easy and hassle free to change from Britline to a local CA branch.  I went into the local branch and they did all the work efficiently and professionally, while being friendly as well.

David

[Dick Smith]

Ian - calm down - you are the only one nit-picking.

[Ron Avery]

Ian

 I apologise, it was UK bank employees that you said you may have called w**kers.    It was not a dig at you as such, I am glad that you go with the flow, but you do seem to have had more than your fair share of brushes with authority which suggested perhaps this was not always the case.  In some cases you just have to accept that the boulders are there for a purpose, like in your case of paying in money, there are controls to identify potential money laundering. 

[LanguedocGal]

However, to set the record straight I did not unwittingly highlight problems. 

I did not feel the need for the staff to like me, and I did not discuss kids, cats and dogs. David

 

David, just know that I did fully understand your original post.

However, I think I’ll bow out gracefully from this thread, as speaking the same language is evidently no panacea for communication and mutual understanding. [;-)]

Happy French Banking everybody!

 

 

[P]

Interesting reading the various comments.

I am the type who normally leaps up and down. However, having read these and ones before I am trying to put  myself into a different mind set. I.e. there will be bureaucracy, things will take a long time and some things will not happen. We opened a bank account with a normal branch - the reasoning being that if forced to it will speed our learning of the language. When we permanently move to France things will be different and we will need to take the good with the bad - if someone moved to th UK now and started to rant to me about this system or that being bad then my reaction would be if you do not like it here go back to where you came from.

I suppose that old saying about when in Rome do as the romans do is translatable into 'when in Paris (France) do as the French do'.

Paul

[Benjamin]

I agree with your sentiments Paul but what a lot of people don't like is being told something by an under trained employee who you pretty well suspect from your experience with banking systems in other countries is simply not true. It's then that you start to ask the same question again but in a different manner hoping that the employee will have the common sense to realise that they may be wrong and go away and double check.

Of course the other but much more annoying situation is when you're being given the run around simply because your command of the language is not up to scratch or because the employee can't be bothered and hopes you'll just go away.

Being forceful in getting what you want from this type of relationship, as other posters have said, is not  been rude or aggresive.

Benjamin

[Gardian]

Ron - have pm'd you.

[LanguedocGal]

  A little Britline/Call centre humour

 I promised to bow out of this thread but this is too daft not to share. Hope no one else has had to go through this. 

A friend lost her Britline card on Saturday and only realised in the evening.  Being away from home, she checked on the net to find the emergency number to stop the card. On the statement page, the following number is given under SOS URGENCES for stolen or lost cards : The number on the site was as follows: 01 45 67 84 84  ( I checked before posting this and still true as of today)

 She called only to fall onto a message saying the number had changed and she should call: 0892 69 92 92.  (the digits Brits love and can understand easily[:)]). Why they can’t update this section too is difficult to understand. However the correct number is on the CA-Normandie homepage under ‘’Les numeros pratiques’’

 So far so good.

 Problem (or twilight zone).

The employee who answered, insisted categorically that they did not deal with Britline and only with CA and Mastercard. She speaks fluent French so explained to the employee that Britline was part of CA, he refused to listen and – wait for it-  CUT HER OFF. Initially, she thought her mobile was playing up so rang back and unfortunately got the same employee. She explained that the number was on the website and he said that she had the wrong number, then cut her off again. She ended up calling from her friends landline as she was too shocked to believe that an employee of a bank could be so rude (silly girl! Where does she live?). He cut her off 4 times in total.  She was furious but as it was Saturday night, had no option but wait until the following day and call again when she returned home. Her evening out with friends was marred as she naturally kept worrying about the card not having been stopped.

 The next day, she called again and this time got through to a very pleasant employee who actually knew that Britline was part of CA and who politely apologised for her colleague’s behaviour. She stopped the card but this was now about 20 hours after the loss and around 15 hours from the moment she noticed the loss and it could have been stopped.

 Moral of the story

None really, but perhaps a little warning to those who have the ‘When in Rome…’ philosophy on moving to France. In France that only applies to wine, cheese, bread, and, if in the south, lunchtimes 12-14 hrs, it’s the law!

 Seriously, perhaps avoid saying Britline if you need to call that number.  Simply say CA or Mastercard in case you fall onto another badly trained stroppy employee at a moment of relative stress when you desperately need assistance from knowledgeable staff. 

 Failing that, just make sure that your card is lost or stolen during Britline’s opening hours….

 

(can't work out why my friend doesn't see the funny side of this[:D])

[Llwyncelyn]

We too bank with CA.  When we asked about 21 days ahead to xfer monies to the Notaire we arrived at the Notaire to find nothing had happened and of course being snooty he adopted the approach of 'yet another English person'  I then politely explained to him that I was not a Govt employee but akin but better in my view (profession wise) to their avocats and just because I turned up in causual clothes one should not.........  However I digress.

CA and this was in the day of the old Branch Manager and who I see still advertises.  What did they do nothing did not even say sorry and I had to carry the can.

Recently I asked for a large sum to be transferred from a savings account to a current account what did they do they debited both accounts and sent the money to someone else.  What did they do nothing.

Then I wanted to play in some excess cash here in Percy at CA to Britline they were aghast and the fluent French speaking person I was with suggested they their banking system was firmly footed in the 19th century.

I agree but this is France and if I do not like it or its ways then I can leave.

However if one were to see the CA sign outside a bank it would be reasonable to suggest that if I paid in cash then it would find its way to another CA branch.  Imagine say Nat West (or their Scottish owners) saying sorry cash paid into your account at Bristol cannot be transferred to your other account in Cardiff.

 The English banking system (save for of course credit on monies in transit and cleared that day but only credited to your account days later) our system is much much better.  But of course those traders who paid on the nail in Corn Street Bristol before or after their coffees would say that plain old simple cash was better.

[David]

Glad to see you back on this thread LanguedocGal, I think that you have much to contribute.  (Hurried edit - not patronising, but friendly and welcoming).

Sorry to hear about your friend's problems.

I too had problems, both with Britline, and also with local CA branches when I was still with Britline.  I do not know, but could there be some resistance by some people in local branches to dealing with Brits who stay with English speaking banks such as Britline?  Unacceptable I know, but perhaps human?

I can only say that I have had no problems since changing to a local branch of CA.  They have stopped cheques by my request over the phone (I thought this was impossible in France), they have chased up debit card re-imbursements for me, they have sent authority to draw cash at other branches when I have asked by telephone, and they even try to speak English (rather well) when my basic French falls short of the mark.

David

[Will]

[quote user="Llwyncelyn"]

CA and this was in the day of the old Branch Manager and who I see still advertises.  [/quote]

Is that the former head of CA Britline you are referring to, who was convicted of fraud and runs one of the 'hand holding' agencies featured in a recent Living France article?

[quote user="Llwyncelyn"]

However if one were to see the CA sign outside a bank it would be reasonable to suggest that if I paid in cash then it would find its way to another CA branch.  Imagine say Nat West (or their Scottish owners) saying sorry cash paid into your account at Bristol cannot be transferred to your other account in Cardiff.

[/quote]

But that is exactly the situation - not just with Credit Agricole, but with the other regionalised French banks. You can take money out from any cash machine, but cannot usually pay in out of your region - or if you can, you can expect bureaucracy, delays, and potential for errors.

In fact at some branches, particularly larger CA ones, paying in cash is made very difficult indeed and strongly discouraged. Some other branches will only accept cash deposits put in an envelope and posted in a box, with no check of what is paid in and no receipt given. It doesn't take a genius to recognise that in a bank where senior management can be involved in fraud (see comments above, and my understanding is that the Britline guy was mainly carrying the can for various other senior personnel) then the juniors who open the envelopes may be less than careful to ensure the cash reaches its rightful destination. I'm sure most cashiers are perfectly honest, but it only takes one...

[emma5]

Just to refer back to Micks original posting, c/a in the charente maritime have now stopped accepting payments to be made to britline at a local branch as they were getting too many requests and can't make any money from it themselves, this is what a friend was told in the Pons branch.

 

However she was told Charente havn't stopped, so she had to drive to Cognac and had no problems there.

 

Hope this helps

 

Emma

[Sunday Driver]

With regard to cashiers being pefectly honest - just to put things into perspective.

Under the terms of their banking licence, banks are required to have in place a system of internal control, the purpose of which is to mitigate the potential for theft of customer funds.  The most fundamental of these measures is that which covers cash handling.  All postal/box/ATM deposits (where the client is not present to receive a receipt) are checked and processed by two members of staff as a matter of routine - as much for their protection as anything else.

In the case of the former Head of Britline, clearly there was a failure of the high level controls that would have applied in the case of a person with his level of authority, and I have no doubt that the bank's internal audit will have reviewed the existing controls and procedures.  This action is mandatory and in the case of high value fraud, the bank is required to submit a full report to the French regulator, detailing the method of perpetration together with the steps taken to prevent a re-occurance.