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 More fine customer service from the French arm of a large company…
BMW France – you just lost my business. A few weeks ago my wife bought a new car. A BMW. Fine car. Superbly designed and tremendous quality. As a car, we are delighted with it.
Next year I’ll be replacing my car. I had my eye on a sparkling new BMW estate. But so long as I have to buy it from BMW France, it’s not going to happen. Shame, as I really do like the cars. I just can’t stand the company. In the short time we’ve had the new car I’ve had two major issues. Neither concern the quality of the car itself. Continue reading BMW France – To be avoided
You know how it goes: you discover a company that pleases you and can’t stop raving about it to friends and family. I’ve been like that regarding Amazon for some years. These days I mainly used Amazon France: books, toys, cameras, you name it. In the last couple of years I’ve spent more than 2000 Euros with Amazon France. I was what I would think of as a Good Customer.
I was even, ironically, signed up as one of their Premium Customers, which ensured they got even MORE business out of me!
I liked their prices – not always cheapest, but close enough.
I liked their web-site.
I liked their customer service – when something “went wrong” they would sort it out. It has to be said, though, that my experience of Amazon’s customer service is more based upon dealing with Amazon UK in times past, not so much with Amazon France.
So I was a keen customer and advocate, and spent oodles of money with Amazon. So how come today I cancel my Premium account and, once my final orders have limped in some time next week, will cancel my whole account and never, ever, darken their web site again? Continue reading Amazon France – Adieu, not Au Revoir
And so to court.
We arrive at the Antibes Tribunal at the designated time. Here’s where things differed from my knowledge of the British Small Claims Court. I expected that the time we had been told to arrive would be the appointment for our case, and we’d all sit in a small office, us, the other solicitor and the judge, and everything would be discussed over a desk, and agreement reached.
Oh no. Not at all. No no no…
Continue reading France, property rental and getting ripped off – Part 4
Having resolved to recover the money not paid to me (see here and here) I was then faced with the challenge of doing this in France. While I’ve lived a a number of different countries, my background is predominantly British. So my main familiarity with legal systems and so on is thus also British.
In this article I will describe how I set about recovering the money in France. I will occasionally compare and contrast with how these sorts of things happen in Britain. Now I’m not one of those whinging Brits who bangs on about how “we” do it and how badly “they” do it!! I merely offer the comparisons as a point of reference which may or may not clarify things.
In summary, while the British system and the French system used in such cases are somewhat different in the details, I’d suggest that the overall effectiveness of them is very similar – so I’m not raging against either one.
So read on for how to do it…
Continue reading France, property rental and getting ripped off – Part 3
In the first part of this story, I offered some general advice regarding not losing your deposit when renting property in France. The key advice I gave is to be sure that before accepting the property, you must make sure the état des lieux is absolutely correct and comprehensive.
Now let’s jump ahead several months or years, to the point at which you leave the property, and the Great French Rental Rip-Off starts…
Continue reading France, property rental and getting ripped off – Part 2
This article is all about how you get ripped off when living in rented accomodation in France, how to avoid it and, if it happens, how to fight back.
One important disclaimer up front: I am not a lawyer, and none of this should be taken as formal legal advice. All I will do is relate my experiences and thoughts. And if they give you some ideas or pointers, great, but check with others too!
(parts 2, 3 and 4 are here, here and here)
Continue reading France, property rental and getting ripped off
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