I Guess It Is Legal

[Grecian]

Following on from my 'Anyone Bought a Thomson TV' thread, at the time of posting both Leclerc and But had the 50 inch Thomson on offer at €849. On Monday I popped into But again to check the price and I noticed they had reduced it to €776 (or so I thought), and had a 55 inch LED Sony for €1176 (or so I thought), thinking the Sony to be a real bargain I dragged Mrs G into But again yesterday afternoon.

I had researched the Sony via the internet and everybody was giving it glowing reviews, so I thought this is the TV for me, we called over a young lad of an assistant and asked for a demonstration of the Sony, although it was limited in what he could show us, we decided to take the Sony. That's where the confusion started, in front of the TV there was a sign showing the TV for sale at €1490, but on the top right-hand corner of the TV the price was stating €1176 as previously mentioned. Having been living in France for 4 years now our French is better than when we first arrived, but not really up to speed yet to be proficient in the language. I asked why there were two prices showing for the same TV, thinking it must be showing before and now prices. As the assistant was very young I thought  he is bound to break into English now, as he would have remembered it from school, no chance. Fair enough he carried on speaking French really fast, but I was still getting the feeling all was not well. We caught the bit about the TV costing €1176, but then he proceeded to say the three year warranty with the TV was an extra €200, I thought can't blame him for trying to flog us the warranty, but I said no thanks we don't want the warranty. He said we had to take the warranty to get the price of €1176, I still said I didn't want it; standing my ground, so then he turned around and with the classic shrug, said then you can have it for €1490 without the warranty!

Looking at the sign that stated the TV was £1176 in the smallest of small print you could possibly imagine, there was something about the warranty but no mention of how much it would cost extra. As I stated in the title of this thread I guess it must be legal in France how But are trying to sell the TV, but I am not sure it would be allowed in the UK, because basically the price was not €1176 as shown in big print, but €1376 in total, admittedly with an extra three year warranty. Has anybody else experienced the same situation in France, as I have never come across this situation before.

We did not proceed with the purchase as I felt the whole thing to be a bit shady, and felt like we were being ripped off. After looking on the internet for the same model, I found it on Sony's own site for €1109 with free delivery, but the model is out of stock, not surprising at that price, the next cheapest is Amazon.fr at €1309, with no mention of a compulsory warranty.

[woolybanana]

I doubt that Sony is out of stock. More likely they are holding back that particular model after an under the counter agreement with the shop chain. Understand that there is no real competition in France, means to rip off the customer to the maximum.

Maybe wait until after Xmas

 

[Loiseau]

I was researching the price of a new TV a few months back, and poring over some of the free mags that drop into my boîte aux lettres. Among the good deals, in very small print next to the most desirably-priced TV, it said 100 sets would be sold at this price - IN THE WHOLE OF FRANCE!

Angela

[idun]

There were a few shops I ended up treating with great caution. One was But and I stopped even looking in there. The other Conforama, they changed their logo and I'd forgotten about previous problems..... we had sat down to buy a new fridge freezer when they miraculously had all my details, when I asked HOW? she looked it up and said that we'd bought a cooker. I told the saleswoman that I would not ever buy anything from them and that she could royally cancel the new order and we walked out.  And I would hesitate before using Darty too.

Shop around, sales'll be coming soon. Sometimes the local dealers have good deals and good service apres vente.

 

[Judith]

So idun, are there any chains you would recommend?

[Quillan]

I had a 'good do' at Intermarche last year. Walking past the meat counter I saw sirloin steak at €14 a kilo. I though it was a 'special' so got three kilo's. Got to the checkout and the girl rang it up at nearly €120. I told them the price was wrong, she called the butcher chap down, we went back and I pointed at the price. He went rather red, scribbled over the bar code (so the scales were set to the right price) and wrote €32 on the label. He then removed the price sign, apologised and said something along the lines of that was the price indicated and that's what I would pay. Needless to say I was a very happy bunny. I have also found Leroy Merlin very good and Brico depot sort of OK but you have to wave the consumer rights guide in front of the latter to get any action. Carrefour are pretty useless round here I have found.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

Brico Depot the other week.

Friday morning.. massive sign over a huge pallet of bathroom tiles...."promo" - 30% off. So the wife bought a load. On looking at the receipt when she got home it showed that she paid full wack, so back on the monday morning to argue the toss. An hour and half later she managed to get a store credit (i.e. money back but you have to spend it in the shop).

Apparently the *promo* didn't start until Saturday morning, even though the sign was up on the Friday (the bloke whose job it is to write the signs doesn't work on Saturdays, so that is why it went up on Friday...you couldn't make this stuff up...honest!). She got a whole shed load of abuse about it all but she stood her ground and refused to back down. She was accused of buying them and then going back when the promo was on to get a refund. The fact that the receipt was dated the friday morning had no bearing on the store manager. The store manager wriggled and squirmed like a wriggly-squirmy thing to try and get out of the fact that they had made a mistake.She had to follow him round the store for almost an hour before he relented.

It really gets my goat the way they treat their customers.

 

[Quillan]

I had a ruck with them as well. Installed a new a/c unit and when powered up internal fan made a terrible noise like something was touching it as it went round. It comes in two box's so I took just the inside bit with all it's bits and bobs back with the receipt, told I need to bring the lot back in the original packaging. Went back a second time (I should point out it is an hours drive one way) but armed with a printout (pointed to by Clair) of French consumer law and a copy of the EU one as well.

They told me first that they had to contact the manufacturer to ensure they would get their money back. I told them that my 'contract' was with them and started waving the papers around. Eventually, after an hour wasted, the manager came down and like you got dirty looks so I asked him if he knew about consumer law and rights in France, that got him going. Anyway he took the unit out the box, gave it a shake and told a guy to get another for me, just the inside bit that is. So all that struggling to get the outside unit down off the wall was a waste. The other thing is you are not obliged to accept a credit note, when I have taken things back unused they have tried that one on me, I always demand either my card be credited or cash.

[idun]

What would I recommend Judith. Well, I would chat with french friends.

 

In the end we bought quite a few things from MDA, and their guarantees worked well. We bought from Carrefour and Casino, and we used La Camif quite a bit too, along with the odd local shop.

 

[Pommier]

I used to like Carrefour as their after sales was good, but we haven't got one near us now. Conforama - well, we had great service from one (Bergerac) and terrible service from another (Avranches) so it's very hit and miss; I suppose because they're franchises and do as they please. We've had some terrific arguments with Bricomarché's all over the place - once they've got your money they don't want to know. I'm going to buy my next oven from the UK - not for the after sales, but because it's so much cheaper there. 

[Quillan]

[quote user="Pommier"]I'm going to buy my next oven from the UK - not for the after sales, but because it's so much cheaper there. [/quote]

I am not one normally to recommend but I have bought a lot of things from http://www.mistergooddeal.com/ and have recomended them to friends. The prices have been very good, delivery excellent (and free) and never a problem.

[Grecian]

Well I am glad to see it is not just me who has fallen foul to the shady dealings abounding in France, and thank you all for the links you provided.

I have taken the plunge on a new Sony 55 inch 3D TV, I thought the price tooooooooo good to miss, after checking on all the links provided, alas the prices quoted  could not beat the €1309 being offered by Amazon.fr, still not convinced on what to do I have left the matter since last week. Today I checked the price comparison website I had stored for the Sony, and I saw Amazon.fr was now offering the TV for €1223 plus €19.99 delivery, bon prix I thought to myself, so I logged on to Amazon to place the TV in my basket and check the price at the checkout, the price showed as €1243 delivered, but hang on a minute what is this about une réduction immédiate, by the way I read it they are offering a further  €100 off the TV with the promotional code provided, so I tapped in the code and the price reduced to €1143 delivered, I thought I'm having some of that, so hit the button, and can now expect to be the proud owner of a 55 inch Sony sometime between 19th and 22nd December.

I am glad I walked away from the deal at But, it didn't feel right at the time and after researching further on the internet, the TV on offer at But is a 2011 model, as opposed to the one I have ordered from Amazon which is the latest 2012 TV.