Bah, humbug!!!!
Same here on the countryside! Small local businesses are usually quite ok, some are very friendly and they take the time for you. But I tremble 3 days in advance when I have to call a Paris based company or other big companies as they are always extremely rude. (Don't these people get telephone training?)
We have had excellent service from the Volvo agents in Toulouse - Boréal Automobiles in Labège. On the debit side we have no luck at all in getting fonctionnaires to sort out our Charges sociaux.....and we have fluent French, so God help those who don't!!
Forgot to say:much as I love BRico Depot for its huge range and low prices -why are the staff so SURLY?
Generally speaking, customer service from small shops,artisans etc is excellent;larger firms e.g. supermarkets,pretty awful. Worst of all is EDF :how do you ever find the right department or person to talk to? Most supermarkets are poor; although when you do finally reach the head of the checkout queue at Auchan in Castres,the cashier is unfailingly polite and cheerful. A small "hooray" for our local butcher and boulangerie in Puylaurens [81] and also the local branch of Banque Populaire.
I have no great concerns and complaints,
Insurances with Credit Agricole, always very helpful.
I know a local plumber who has done some drains for me, when I phoned him about a friends drains he was there next morning at 8.30 unblocked it and charged them €20.
My local builders merchants can't do enough for me.
The garage I use in Marciac is fantastic, his premises are spotless, he goes overboard to explain what's needed, shows you the price of parts on his computer and afterwards keeps the old parts to show you what was wrong.
I frequently get good service here because I don't get annoyed, and I smile and try to be polite.
- At our baker the lady often puts extras in the bag which she doesn't charge for.
- At the Orange shop the lady there exchanged my TV decoder for a new HD model even though she wasn't really supposed to.
- At Casto the guy in the lighting section got a missing piece for a light I had bought there even though I had no receipt and I had likely bought it months before.
It's not such a bad place, and people respond positively if you are nice to them.
Jérôme, our insurance man is great too, then his daughter is one of my daughter's classmates and we're all in the same crowd. Joking aside, he is known as the most helpful insurance person of the four companies here and puts himself out for people consistently.
wow Anna - I could do with your insurance Man :)
I think you hit the nail firmly on the head in your last paragraph Anna. Perhaps it's more about our ability to adequately express our frustration with poor servie rather than it being particularly more prevalent in France?
We ordered a kitchen trolley from Maisons du Monde in Carcassonne, which at that time was on the main pedestrian shopping street. It arrived at the shop on time, but with a broken leg, so the shop took the liberty of ordering a replacement and took us to the stock room to show us the damage.
The shop was in the process of moving to a new ZA facility, much bigger shop, easy parking to collect large items. When we went to collect the replacement on our next visit to France, the shop was closed in readiness to move, although some staff were in packing up. We knocked on the door to attract attention, fully expecting to be sent on our way with a Gallic shrug, but no, one of the girls gesticulated for us to go to the stock room door, opened up for us and greated us by our name!! She showed us to the trolley and advised us to borrow their own wheeled truck and let us take it to the car, some distance away.
We returned the truck and cardboard packaging, as the trolley would not fit in the car inside it, waved a merry "merci beaucoup" and were waved an equally merry "au revoir" by the staff and off we trotted for a coffee!!
So, good service can happen in France!
Last week i went to Mr Bricolage in Auch to get some more paint. (decorating the lounge) They had run out of the one i wanted & if they ordered it i would have a 2 week wait, probably quite normal but i wanted my lounge finished.
The woman on the paint counter was fantastic, she got all her colour charts out and spent ages going through them all, she finally mixed me a tin of a different make but it was an absolutely perfect match, i didn't even need to repaint the wall, it blended in perfectly. She didn't have to do it, i'm sure it's not in her job description but she was so kind & helpful. Brilliant
We have actually had a wonderful experience with our Insurance Man. He made sure that his insurance cover was correct for our home, and of 5 companies visited he was the only one that actually came to the house to ensure the correct cover. The others just wanted to know how big, how many rooms etc.
Since then he has become a good friend and insists that any time we get a 'devis' for work or replacement boilers, etc. that he checks we are getting good deal and if he can get it cheaper he will help us!!!
We all have our problems, but would we not have these problems in the UK? Perhaps in england because we understand 'all' of the language we accept it more, or argue back!!!!
I must admit, it is nice when you have a good experience though!!!!
Nice to hear some positivity on this subject, I suggest we use this thread to expound our best ever customer service experiences we've had in France!
We've had this topic before and fairly recently at that. It raised some angry comments and a lot of debate. I shall be interested to see how it develops here.