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Everything you always wanted to know about France - from France |
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Fernando Alonso in the Renault just won the Monaco Grand Prix - my son helps build this wonerful car in a complex just outside of Oxford - the design and construction is all British and the Engine is built in France, the genius behind it all is Italian and Alonso is Spanish, makes me proud to be a British/French/European family. From what I hear Alonso is liked and respected by everyone working with him - good to see Red Bull on the podium as well. ======= Low Pressure Salesmanship Buying anything in France is certainly different from my experience in the UK or the USA. Is it better or worse? Depends on which way you look at it. Recent experiences have brought home to me how huge the cultural difference is and I am bemused as to whether I find this a good thing or a bad thing - it certainly has puzzled me. == Buying a car - my daughter Clio needs a car and with a small inheritance she has we were looking for a safe reliable and economical model. We decided on buying new and after a lot of research we came up with the Skoda Fabia, (a Volswagen with a funny hat on). In the process of emimination we visited many dealers showrooms - not one offer of a demonstration, only one took my name and even the Renault dealer who we had bought two cars off in the previous year never followed up on an enquiry. We drove for an hour to the Skoda dealer and said we would like a test drive - not possible straight away so the dealer arranged this for the following week, but never turned up, no phone call nothing. I phoned and asked them to fix another date, this time they turned up, we signed an order and paid a cheque for delivery in ten days. Ten days later they phoned saying it would be another week, another week later they said it should be another five weeks - we cancelled and got our cheque back. This dealer is also the Suzuki agent and had a showroom full of cars - not one offer of any other model, nothing, no follow-up. We still have not got a car and will never buy one in France if the service is going to be so bad. I do praise Renault service for a UK car we had in France, quick, reliable and half the price of the UK service charges - weird. So the motto seems to be - buy the car in Spain or the UK, you can get a beter price the after sales service is OK and they do not give a monkeys for your business anyway == If you think buying a car is hard, try changing you insurance company - in the UK if I just whispered that I would like to change insurers I would get a hoard of insurance salemen absailing down my chimney - in France I was told by three offices not to bother talking to them until I had cancelled my existing contracts, done all their paperwork and then they might conside giving me a quotation. I like my present agent but he is over 100 km away and I would rather deal with a local person - We still have the same insurance company we had 12 years ago and it looks as if I cannot ever change. == But for the ultimate in customer misrelations the banks in France are the champions. After 16 years of absolutely terrible, rude, expensive and useless "service" - I have got shot of the lot; Well am trying to but every time I ask for a final statement and clear the account - the idiots in Credit Agricole whack on some new charges and say they cannot close the account as it is overdrawn - I am down to 4 euro 83 centinmes now for the service charges for April whichis three monthe after I closed the account, but I cannot close it because the service charges are added lated - so I will pay this but then the service charges for May will be added so I cannot close....... == Ah - perhaps now I see why Renault never have won a F1 championship before - not until they started making the cars in Britain, with a Spanish driver and Italian charisma. They do seem to be buying a lot of leading companies and services in other countries though - if you want to see what a mess can be made of things, just look at the channel tunnel shareholders - and Wanadoo/Orange is coming to run other services - hmmm, this could be the last newsletter I ever get to sen........ ======= There are over 2,000 features and articles on this site about French life and living in France. You can search from the search box above. Do browse through our website and please use the advertising links, they help pay for the site. I do try to reply to all mail - Contact Me - most is about property or living in France. I publish comments in this newsletter which I believe are of interest and may help find answers for people wanting to come to France. I hope readers will go to the adverts which help support our overheads. |
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