I must say that I too order a lot of stuff from UK. Some delivered direct some bought over by my gite guests or family visitors.
Just about the only 'french sites' I use are amazon.fr & mister-auto. Though on amazon.fr I recently searched for a torque wrench which needed due to busting my old one. I found a Silverline make one for 48€ and thought "EEK" ............. the exact same item on amazon.co.uk was £14.99 (delivery was less than a tenner) !!!!! .co.uk got the order.... .fr received an email asking 'why so expensive?' . Yes they replied, but only a 'standard thank you for your comments' type one.....
Most frequently I buy stuff in the Uk and have it shipped. Shipping is often very cheap and sometimes two or three days. I even order Indian vegetables sometimes in this way- I can't find them anywhere nearby in Brittany and the £8 cost is really a very good deal compared to fuel, parking etc let alone time. Car spares are usually much cheaper in the UK but I have bought in the USA and Germany. I did buy a steam cleaner in France recently- it took six weeks!!!!! Order Amazon UK and iy gets shipped from their depot in France and is very quick. I do however desist from telling French people and their companies about technology failings here, as I actually like the slower life now!
After several disappointments and wasted time, we have opted for a different strategy: when we need equipment or supplies for many things we email suppliers in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium. Those that respond with a good service and price get the job. Spain seem to be on the ball. Germany also good. Not had any business with a french website so far using this technique, I wonder why?
Have had the same response as everyone on here unfortunately the uk appears to be going the same way, a PC is for playing games or watching You tube the novelty of Email is a passing phase text me is the reply i get, i don’t do text, one guy in the uk came back to me weeks later after i mailed him, my reply to him was sorry your competitor got back to me sooner items bought sent and job completed, needs to do better, brought no response, those that make the effort get my money there is always someone out there making the effort so make it worth their while
I am a teacher and ALL my work stuff is done by mail, it's very efficient and only the odd dinosaur doesn't use it... we have to use email because we are unreachable by telephone (obviously) during the working day. All new teachers have to pass the Cii which is a fairly bog-standard IT exam (continuous assessment) & usually part of their Master's degree if they haven't already got it while doing their BA.
Very few enterprises have mastered the art of communication via email, then just when you think one has all communication stops until you ring them up and explain that you have been sending them more emails but received no replies. You are then told that they have reached the receptionist (presumably) who understands the technology but she has passed them to the engineer who does not!!
Brian, Glad to hear that others are having the same problems. It is impossible to do business here as nobody ever returns emails or phone calls!!. What do they do all day?. I guess 2 hour lunch breaks, a short working week, loads of bank holidays and a laisser-faire attitude to work are the reasons. Everything you try to do feels like you've walking through treacle!. Frustrating to say the least!.
Brian, like you I have had some bad experiences using email, but even a letter is no better. Have been trying to get an appointment for eye tests, and so wrote to the ophthalmologist asking for an appointment for my wife, who really needs one, and for me, just a check-up. Translated everything carefully into French, but was totally ignored. Sent off forms to the local Trésorerie to pay our Déchets Menageres by Direct Debit, but was totally ignored. However, I’ve had one success with Leroy Merlin, where I got a very sweet email back in response to my request: ‘You can be deliver on friday the 17th in the morning, sorry we can't deliver before. Please, give me your answer by mail if you are ok or not. See you soon on our site and in our shop.’ First time anyone in France has attempted to respond in English. So I replied to the young lady thanking her profusely, in my poor French, hope I didn’t get it wrong!!
I’ve had similar issues with many companies. The most annoying being a 'well known ’ tyre and exhaust type place. I phoned for a devis. Constantly no reply. I found another number for the same depot. It answered but I was told quite ‘shortly’ that I’d used the wrong number and I must ring the other. I explained it was constantly engaged. The phone went down! To say I was by now seething is an understatement !
I found a Facebook page for the organisation. I posted my thoughts… Within in minutes the reply came: ’ deplacer <*sp) vous Monsieur ’ .
I had the work carried out elsewhere .
IMHO, sadly customer service overall in France is atrocious ! But I still love it here!
Debra - the French tend not to answer snail mail either!
Agree David....but the IT avoidance is much more noticeable in France. In terms of inefficiency...the hospital that interviewed me in October...and confirmed my job as a bank nurse the same month...have taken 7 months and I still do not have a smart card to access the intranet....havent been offered a drug course I have to do in order to do a drug round...(this means some wards offer me work as an untrained nurse at half the salary...because the hospital have failed not me!) I have had a few stroppy fits with them...and had a dozen apologies...but still no further forward...however...they do answer emails...even if its only to confirm their failures!
There are technophobes everywhere. I have to deal with a firm of country solicitors in Kent who scarely ever return emails let alone letters. Only when you threaten them with the SRA to they respond. In France a gardener (who charges 32 eauros per hour BTW) failed to show last week. I eventually saw him and in front of others he promised to come today. No sign natch. I have already done myself half the work I wanted him to do and by the time he comes I will have done it all saving about 300 euros. I can't wait as I have loads of plants waiting to go in. I saw him sliding off to work on his own house this afternoon! A local notaire never answered any of my letters so I just switched and never heard from him again. He took 4 years to do a small succession for a friend who threatened him with disciplinary action. Another notiare I mad an appoinement with denied all knowledge of me or the appointement when I turned up and even the Mediateur de France fouled up on a meeting. On balance I do think the French are much less disiplined at meetings etc than the British but there are inefficient British too.
Hilarious you hit the nail on the head... No concept of customer expectations, business competition, reasonable levels of service or indeed reality in general. I've lived here for years and the bubble these guys are in still cracks me up. The only people who actually see the wood for the trees and realise the joke situation in which France lingers are those who have properly lived and worked abroad - about 0.1% of the population
We realised early on that France hasnt really caught onto emails. The very fact that if you want to send a letter to anyone regarding a business matter...you have to send by registered delivery says a lot...ie. if it isnt registered, we will pretend we never got it. I think the lack of real business competition (by which I mean trying to undercut other competition with price and extended opening hours) means there is no real desire to get into emails....instead of another way of providing customer service...its another way of ignoring the customer...banking for us was a case in point...we still do our online banking for our British bank...we can see on screen all recent activity on our account for the last month. With our French bank we can see the last 10 actions on the account...we complained and said we would like to see all activity...but we are out of luck...I think maybe in another 10 years before France really catches on?
France has always been a giant Club Med and is still more or less stuck in Roman times.. If you want a progressive thinking technology embracing dynamic modern email friendly country I suggest you leave ASAP.
sleepwalking to financial oblivion come to mind
110 mails after 10 days! Eleven a day arriving. I've found almost that number on this topic in the last hour or so. Would somebody put on the alarm clock and wake these sleeping beauties up!
About ten days ago we emailed our new bank. All our dealings with them have been via email as they don't have a cutesy little office in the local village so I can't pop in for a laid back chat with the local bank manager :)
We got an out of office auto reply from our designated contact and an alternative 'please contact my colleague X ' email address. Which we duly did. And waited. And waited. And waited.
We were not terribly impressed esp. as our query was quite urgent. When this was pointed out to our contact, she offered no explanation for the lack of response and did (sort of) apologise for her late reply to us but explained that when she had returned from holiday, she "had 110 emails to deal with"......
I found it incredible that a) she thought that was a lot after ten days - we get that number every day, b) that it was ok not to deal with stuff until you return and c) that it was acceptable not to do it instantly.
This is a bank for goodness sake!
I think Orange / France Telecom are the worst culprits for doing this. Over the last month, I've sent them 4 emails from their website to ask for clarification of a clause in my Mobile/Internet contract and all I get is a bXXXX Automated Response ...we'll get back to you shortly. It's very annoying and I can see no sense in them providing the facility if they don't bother to respond properly .....grrrr!
This is too common and I don't understand it. I work in what might be imagined a professional environment spread across serval campuses so you've got to use email. Most of the time contacts within France don't reply, even when it's urgent. Why? Too busy. Really they are just too busy to do their work and as a consequence I can't do mine. If I expect a reply from my boss I would be disappointed as 8 times out of 10 I don't get one and he's not French but has lived here 20 years.
In an organisation which is international I see NO excuse for rudeness and unprofessionalism. Some of my French colleagues agree with my gripe but when no one is accountable, has a CDI or is a fonctionnaire these people don't care.