I am not just baffled I am also falbberghasted, so much so that there is flabber all over my floor, yukk!
Poor old Victor. I’m not surprised you’re so frustrated actually. I always put my postcode before town name - I’ve received mail from the UK, Malta and France and it works fine. Why Luxembourg should have a problem…? And presumably it would pass through the French postal system so I’m baffled.
A Victor Meldrew 'I don't believe it' is due. Amazon Fr, who are in Belgium, have written to me to tell me the postcode is wrong. Instead of postcode first it should be the place name followed by the number, so they are resending the books with that format. That bit as follows:
En effet, votre adresse de livraison est présenté de la façon suivante :
Dr Brian Milne
c/o Invernizzi-Milne
lieu dit La Brande
24150 Calès,
France
Je suis désolée du désagrément que peut causer cette situation.
Afin de résoudre votre problème, j'ai modifie votre adresse dans votre compte comme suivante :
Dr Brian Milne
c/o Invernizzi-Milne
lieu dit La Brande
Calès, 24150
France
It astonishes me that they are telling me how to write a French address! That format works for the UK, Germany, Luxembourg, etc but not France offically. What planet are the French people who are actually in Luxembourg on? If it does not turn up again then a lound scream might be heard all over France!
OAS, inevitable. Chavez of Venezuela was pushing them and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil is trying anything to eclipse the USA.
The other, interesting, sums up the inside of our fridge or my feelings about Amazon all in one ;-D
Will watch, fortunately two evenings of guests and recently being allowed alcohol again has seen me wake up with renewed complaining vigor. Now where is bl**dy Assange's ear so that I can drag him out of the Ruritanian Embassy?
Thought I'd rub salt into the wound and wrote a complaint to the 'help/complaints' department in Luxembourg that Cate gave me. Why are they coaxing the sadistic streak in me out?
Having found no satisfaction with the people in Luxembourg yesterday evening, after guest had left and none the better from a few lemonades (red variety) I e-mailed Amazon UK with the whole story. I found the response this morning (!) and they are going to 'look into' it. They are particularly disturbed by the fact that one part of the first order arrived and the second, then subsequent did not given that all were sent out from Amazon and not one of their partners. It is an order of books to give my daughter a head start on English grammar as she will learn it in a French school and with books to do that in French language. It is now only 10 days until she returns to school instead of nearly a month and I do not think I am being unreasonable to complain, given Amazon has had my address correctly for three years and that I was basically accused of giving them the wrong address yesterday. This is a message to other members which I could keep to myself, which might help people understand (sic) when their orders do not turn up. Or am I just moaning as some people might say?
Here we go AGAIN. The three books I reordered have been returned to Amazon again! Had the e-mail half an hour ago. Spoke to somebody on the phone number from the connection Cate gave me and basically it is my fault! Although all other orders get to me OK, this order is being returned for a reason I cannot fathom which they claim is because I have given them the wrong address! Eh what? Why then, I asked did the other part of an order arrive last week. Must have been the right address, said he. But it was a single order they divided into two parts, so used the usual address on their database that normally functions perfectly well. I was told that once the money was reimbursed I should try again! So, I shall now reiterate the whole story to Amazon UK who manage to have an almost flawless record of delivering to this address. Incidentally, the expected by date was 25 August, tomorrow, so they did not exactly try hard. Now, in case somebody thinks I am moaning, yes now I am because Amazon are driving me nuts!
It gets more intricate doesn't it? Cate gave me a web address that works. If I look at the Amazon site that I bookmarked maybe 18 months ago I do not find it, although it updates as I know because I have both debit cards I use replaced with the new numbers. They don't know what is going on in France, but France doesn't exist any longer but works out of Luxemburg! Julie calls them and speaks to somebody in Dublin. I know that when I recently ordered some books from the UK on one of those £5.99 for one book, but buy three for £8.99 type deals, that one came from the UK and the other two from Luxemburg. Now I am waiting to see if my reordered books turn up tomorrow, as the expect by date and post already having been today. Is Amazon going down the road of other big international concerns and disappearing up its own order book?
Good news Julie. However, if the Frenchman is based in Dublin, this suggests that Amazon.co.uk does have an input into Customer Support for problems with amazon.fr., because as far as I know Amazon.co.uk took down their Irish website, but set up a centre in Dublin.
Thanks Cate - did not appear on the site anywhere but now I shall have my large GSD guard it day and night! ;-D
From Amazon's own comment "Despite having believed Amazon France had a helpline, we have now established the fact that there is no telephone point of contact at all, nor indeed a complaints email address." is sounds as though they are equally surprised at the lack of contact points. At least they seem to be proactive, Brian, and have contacted the Director of Operations themselves. I should imagine they'll have a few tips for him. If they're operating under the umbrella of the Amazon Group, they'll probably be asked to explain themselves.
Well, call it a moan or expressing frustration, it doesn't matter to me. I am glad Brian highlighted the fact that there is no point of contact for Amazon.fr customers (yet - hopefully this will change). I am less likely therefore to buy for example an expensive item, and end up being potentially at a loss because there is no helpline/point of contact, or whatever.
And if I do feel the need to have a moan here on SFN, it is because I know others will probably have had the same experience. I don't belong to any other "ex-pat" network/forum because I have no need. I have all I want and have made some good friends here on SFN. Right, that's enough from me (for now). :-)
Christa, are you defending Amazon? I also order books from Chapitre who have good customer service, what makes Amazon different. Please do not call this a moan as well, I was using irony and not complaining and found out why I was needing to do so. By the way, is it 'garbage' and 'big deal' as you so charmingly described my ironic question, you may well train people or be trained yourself, which is not absolutely clear from your irately expressed words, but it does not mean they do what you expect them to do. I taught undergraduates and masters students for roughly 36 years and know full well that very little of what my colleagues or I taught was used once the degree diploma was in their hands.
Christa, I did. But what allows Amazon France to be DIFFERENT to the rest of the world? If you can answer that, then I would like to know. I use Decathlon, they have excellent customer service, a few other companies too. Amazon I cannot fathom, no more than that...
Easy one Kenneth - there is NO customer service in France.
Bernadette - I was ordering French books that did not come up on Amazon UK, so no choice...
I always order from the AmazonUk website, get a note that it is being shipped from France and have had no problems. Am sure if I did they would sorted out PDQ as they are in the uk. I have to say the French do not do internet as we do - UK and Americian sites seem to run more smoothly
Does that mean that in general, customer service in the UK outshines the customer service in France?
I wrote to Amazon UK again, telling them (again) that France does not have a phone number, despite what they said. My response was:
'Dear Dr Milne, as you know Amazon always endeavours to provide the highest standards of customer service and satisfaction. We have therefore looked into your complaint. Despite having believed Amazon France had a helpline, we have now established the fact that there is no telephone point of contact at all, nor indeed a complaints email address. Since Amazon France works as a company in its own right within the Amazon corporate group we have no control over that aspect of their operation. We are forwarding your complaint to the director of operations in France.'
Well, well. I have ordered again already, but what a farce. France clearly does not meet Amazon's standards of customer service but they can't bring themselves to quite say it outright.
One of the first things I did, not withstanding the fact that the address does not change anyway.