Just when you thought things with EDF had a minute chance of picking up, they sent me the "minutes" of our 2 hour long phone conversation from Monday 20/8/2012. That Monday they blackmailed me into paying 1200€ ("pay, or we wont put your electricity back on until the dispute has been treated" was their message). I also had to verbally agree to pay roughly an additional 1600€ of "disputed invoices" before the end of they year, and start paying my monthly bills from September onwards (we "agreed" that all payments should start on Sept 28th).
In the CR of today they mention the monthly payments plus the 1600€, making it sound as if they are k i n d l y allowing me a deferred credit on the "amount due", which is already total bollocks of course. What is worse, they are also putting in writing that I have accepted during our conversation to pay an additional 2239€ between end august and end January 2013, without any explanation of what this amount is for. The first installment is August 28th. This is complete and utter B-S. No such thing was agreed! No way! In fact, during the conversation it was made very clear that 1200€ was all that I would swing in August.
How can the bastards (pardon my french) do this?! They have the conversation on tape!? Already, I accepted the 1200€ direct payment, the 1600€ between september and december plus the increased monthly bills, ONLY because I had a "gun to my head". No way in HELL that I would have accepted to pay even these amounts (as they have been disputed and are still being "investigated by EDF"), let alone another 2239€ that have not even been explained!
Soon very soon, you'll read about the Swede that committed suicide with an EDF-letter in his hand... There's a limit even to the patience of an extremely patient and tolerant Swede!
Jesper...I think you are being amazingly cool about it....coping with these large organisations, who frankly, dont talk to eachother in the first place...so right hand never knows what left hand is doing...is bad for everyones health...I held a sit in at FT in Perpignan....sandwiches...spread out all my home comforts on one of their sofa's.....I told them I would be there till they sorted the problem....it wasnt something they were used to and caused huge consternation...that I wouldnt just go away and accept a shrug and pout in answer to my request to find out why they could not install our telephone line...they kept repeating 'there is a problem'....with no explanation. I really hope your electricity stays in place.... maybe you should take up meditation! my blood pressure ran at 105/70 for all my life...after a year in the Languedoc it was 140/90.... It returned to normal after a month of moving back to the UK!
Woke up rather happily this morning only to realise that I had no electricity. Been there done that...
My resting pulse of 50-54 quickly shifted to 150+ and I was so incredibly angry that my hand started shaking! Awaited 08h00 to call the EDF "Service Client" and surprisingly managed to keep calm when I had to explain the entire story again to yet another person (for the 5th time since last Friday night).
He told me that there should not have been any intervention done as we had "sorted things out" on Monday and the line should be back to its normal state. While he was on the phone with ErDF, the electricity came back on again (it had popped on and off twice before during the conversation but only stayed on for less than 5 seconds) and stayed on.
Phew. This thing is really getting to me. I'm not too old, in pretty good physical condition, very sporty, but this is making me age at twice the normal rate...
We have had an interesting few years in France Terry...and have given up complaining! we now ignore any requests for service out of sync....but breweries come to mind!
VW in Wolfsburg have funny ideas about their cars. I had one in Germany and the concessionaire where I bought it insisted I could only have it serviced by him and showed me a document to that effect. I think it is just knock on of that madness here.
Funny...your last comment reminded me of something. When we moved to France and were living in the Languedoc....sans broadband and phone for 6 months because of the ineptitude of FT, we were buying our present house in the Dordogne. The only way we could do this was to find wifi and transfer the money etc on line....McDonalds were fantastic! We were aware in Perpignan most stores have their opening hours outside, and many opened late...(most in fact) FT opened half an hour late one morning and there were 37 customers queued outside...in the winter...we received a shrug when we complained. But McDonalds...opened bang on time every single morning. We got a smile with our morning coffee....and never a grump or complaint that we bought 2 coffees and wifi'ed for an hour every single day.
They can't force you to take your car in for servicing. Just ignore them! If it's new, and on long life oil, servicing should be every 30,000 km or every two years, whichever comes first. If they keep harassing you, you could complain to VW France customer service. http://www.volkswagen.fr/fr/marque/contact.html, click on "reclamations concernant votre vehicule" and either send them an e-mail or opt to have them call you.
We havent had the best experience with VW in Bergerac...we bought a new car and the handbook wasnt with the car...took 3 months for us to get it along with the bag of extras you get with the car. Also the car is supposed to only need servicing every 2 years...but they still keep phoning us for services...we try and explain...they insist the car comes in...we take it in...they tell us it doesnt need a service for another year...!
Sure. But I wasn't comparing my VW dealership with EDF et al but with Finn's Ford/Mazda garage in Avignon.
However, VW, which is also a big corporate, has a great customer relations department in my experience. VW France always call me a week or so after I've taken my car in for service to find out if everything went OK, whether I've got any complaints, was the car clean, did the local dealer call me to check all was OK etc etc. They even called me today to find out whether I was happy with the spare car key I collected on Monday!
Now if everybody did that there'd be a lot more satisfied customers out there!
Terry, I think there is a big difference between local businesses and the big corporates. With a local one you can go and see a real person who generally will conduct a polite rather than a bullying position? The local business relies on a local reputation. Corporate (EDF, SFR etc) enterprises rely on us all not getting together nationally.
Our wood supply man arrived today. He is a Brit who has lived here for 12 years. In another life he was a senior exec in the Oil business in Scotland. He told my OH about a government scheme here..which sounds like work experience. You take on someone and pay them minimum wage for a month...if they are no good...you can let them go, but.........only after you have filled in the forms in duplicate...stated why you cannot keep them on....these forms then go to a panel who discuss and at length decide if you are being reasonable....if they feel not...you are required to attend to put your case forward....they can still decide against you...and then you are royally stuffed and have to keep the useless person....even if you are permitted to get rid...you still have to give them a months notice.... now how I ask you...does that encourage anyone to employ a person? France have a big problem with this...its no good constantly championing the employee....if you do that...you end up with no employers...its got to be a fairer market place.
hmmm.....its a trait which really annoys me...something I cant come to terms with...I also dont understand why there is such pride for not enjoying your job...just doing it because you have to...surely instilling love of your work is one of the important things teachers and parents do? am happy to say we loved our work...loved mine so much I am going back and all 3 of my kids say they love their work....rare to hear that in France...
Excellent tip! I am having serious problems with my Internet provider, SFR, and will try the same course. After months of complaining I have got nowhere. I am regularly cut off Internet and telephone for hours on end. I have said I wish to end my abonnement but they say I can't even if its not working.
Let us not have any more advice from dullards who say, 'go back to England'. What to they say to bad service in England, 'go to Australia"? No, one has to work to get good service for the benefit of everyone! Let the service providers know they won't get away with it.
My local VW dealership, from whom I've now bought four cars, has never let me down. One of my Passats is now being driven by my son and has topped 300,000 km with no problems. But he does try to get it serviced here rather than up there in Paris where the service is not on the same level.
Had a meeting with our Mayors office today. They have already been involved in this case but when they learned that it was still not over, they immediately freed themselves up for us. We had a lengthy discussion of what has happened and what has been done. In little time it was clear that EDF had made themselves guilty of several serious errors.
The first one was cutting us off at end November last year (they do not have the right to cut anyone off during the winter season, even if the client would have breeched contractual agreements). Also, EDF are obliged to inform not only the customer, but also the Mairie, when they are proceeding with forced changes to the contracts of the communes clients due to disputes/disagreements (such as putting a limit to the "puissance", or cutting off people). This information should be done prior to this action. This was not done in either of the two cases in our EDF adventure.
They are now setting up two meetings for us. One with a mediateur that is often used by our Mayors office to settle various types of disputes (a former "Juge", and totally disconnected from EDF), and a lawyer who is doing lots of work for my village (at least initially, his services would be for free, or the possible charges taken care off by the commune). Cannot wait for this to come to a close.