NOT SO FUNNY NOW.......
Hi,
Months ago I ordered online a replacement toilet from M bricolage, Bergerac. They emailed me and said they couldn't supply the one I wanted for a considerable period. I replied with a (slightly) amusing 'shocked' reply, saying that ' eight weeks (or thereabouts) is a very long time to wait for a toilet'......but I was 'prepared to wait, hoping that they would be able to deliver it earlier.'...(.like something from a Danny Boon film...)
The delivery had to be postponed, because of my return to the UK for 'medical reasons'.....we kept in touch and despite that they tried to make a delivery just before I returned.....
Then, I was told that I would need to pay to have the item redelivered...49.20 euros !.....As I wanted that particular design of loo...I agreed. But, there would still be a considerable wait.......strangely enough...I should have 'smelled a rat'...something was wrong....
So, I paid up and a new delivery man arrived with a large heavy item in a large cardbord box with a nice large photographic drawing on the outside of the package...of a big piece of woodworking machinery ! Being a perceptive type of person, I noticed this error and so the delivery man reluctantly took the item away with him.
Straightaway, I emailed the, by now, English-speaking Frenchwoman, dealing with this......and made my complaint requesting a refund and cancelling my order. They are still trying to keep my money by offering me 2 bizarre alternatives.....See below.......Sacre bleu !
conciliateur@mr-bricolage.fr
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Mrs Dunk,
I’m surprised to receive your mail.
I sent you an email on the 16th of décember explaining the situation. I had no answer.
I transfer you my email :
When our one opened it was inside Jo Lyons which was our meeting place. I reckon about 1962. When it moved out in '64 or '65 and had plastic everything, including burgers, I met my first 'serious' gf, Sarah, those were the days....
Cripes, Wimpy Bars. That's where my first (real deal) gf chucked me way back in 1973. Had to have a Fish to get over it, followed by several pints of brown top with mild in the Black Horse :)
That is hilarious although not that surprising! The customer doesn't "come first "as he does in the US, he comes last!
With you there. I lasted two terms, bit less I guess at the end of the 60s. I just got dog tired, to get to bed late and get up in the morning smelling like an ashtray left in the cellar with a leaky barrel. Hard work for bad pay at that. Never forgot that one. It must be hell in one of the chain pubs that prevail nowadays.
So presumably, what this means is that, as well as managing these magazins, the 'owners' have had to put up a fair amount of cash to purchase the franchise, which enables them to take a large part of the profits as their salary ? I wonder how independent they can be to drive up trade,or is what they do still very much dictated by the brand owners ?..
I friend of mine got married to a (much younger)man, a recent immigrant from Cyprus to the UK. We always thought that it was sad that he bought into a franchise (previously owned by a distant member of his Cypriot family), being taken in by the 'hype' and thinking that it was trendy, like McDonald's, when, in fact, it was a poorly sited (not much good parking, main road) and very dated & old fashioned, 'Wimpy Bar'.
He never made any real money and worked ridiculous hours, with the place nearly always half empty....Being from another culture, he never realised just how 'naff' and redolent of the 1950's/60's Wimpys are.
What was so bad is that he could cook wonderful Cypriot food (often served at their garden barbecues) and the rules governing the franchise didn't allow him to make any changes to the menu or the environment in order to drum up better trade. In the end he recognised it for the millstone it was and got out, somewhat delusioned !
You've only got to have worked a few evenings in a pub (a I did as a student in the 2nd year of my BA), to realise that working in that environment, day in day out with evenings as well, is anything but glamorous and that to have bought into it is a massive tie.I like my freedom too much, to ever go down that route....
Half of the apparent chains are franchises Hilary. Small supermarkets like Casino through to big ones like Intermarché, we know local proprietors of both, the latter owns the local Netto as well. Ditto Expert where the owner was the salesman when we bought our washing machine, you name it. Marketing and packaging are about the only real connections.
Thanks again,
Interesting...franchising in the Uk in terms of burger restaurants, hairdressers, I've come across...and of course pubs (although most of them seem to be going out of business)....but not, I think builder's merchants...
Yes Hilary M Bricolage in Bergerac is a franchise . The franchise is owned by the Léglise family a long established family in the building supplies business. Until last year they operated a M Bricolage both in Pineuilh and in Bergerac but they have since sold the Pineuilh store to Tridome. Both stores were directed by Richard and he remains the director of the store in Bergerac.
This pattern of ownership is very common in France the store is owned by an individual and the franchise provides the buying and marketing power. Leclerc, Super U, Expert, Gitem are examples
Thanks David,
I'll look them up under 'Leglise' ?....
I suppose I'm a bit fussy, but all that I am trying to do is find a nice, white, elegant, geometric design with clean lines and minus those horrible cut away areas around the bowl where dust etc can collect. It also needs to flush & close quietly, as it's for an (eventual) ensuite by the bedrooms upstairs.
Not a particularly tall order...
Thanks David,
Not sure I understand...do you mean that M Bricolage is Franchise operation ?...Or there is another builder's suppliers called Leglise ?
It might seem a bit of a fuss, but I'm trying to find a loo that is a simple elegant, geometric design, without those cut out areas/recesses where dust/grime can collect and I was prepared to pay a bit more for it than the run of the mill Brico version......
After this recent, ridiculous, experience, a company that doesn't have to send for goods from the other side of the country !
I
You should contact Richard Leglise the owner of the franchise in Bergerac. I dealt with his family for many years before Richard turned out to speak good English. They are an old established builders supplies business by origin and i've always found them honorable to do business with.
