can't stand this place anymore

[Driller]

Things are definitely changing in the UK but I don't think it will ever get anywhere near as bad as this in France.

Here the reasons for all the crap are cultural and historic.

On the upside (blimey!) the inlaws have been around this week and the food has been quite amazing.

I've been ill for several months with unshakeable coughs/colds and have been knackered. It's getting better now so there'll soon be the energy to join in the ranting again

Here's a nice little story illustrating the problems businesses face here:

Voilà pourquoi je n’embaucherai pas Marcel

Edited by Driller on Sunday 1st March 09:09

[Driller]

lowdrag said:

Marçon not far from here; a local makes parpaings, breeze blocks, and has done so for 30 years. He employs 11 people from the village. Things haven't been going so well and unfortunately one of his long term employees is now, after hurting himself at home, classed as an invalid. So the employer is required to pay him 36,000€ as compensation. The result is he's chucked the keys away and filed for bankruptcy, is on the dole with his employees, and there is no work in the area to be found. Totally logical of course.

That's terrible

Le Pop said:

Driller, I hope you don't mind but my French is not good enough to fully understand that article, especially in the fog of a Sunday morning, so I google translated it and attach it below. The translation is full of errors, but you'll get the gist and hopefully it'll save others who perhaps wouldn't have read this excellent piece from missing it:-

Ah, thanks for doing that Le Pop, I always forget about google translate. I see it even corrected the missing "S" in Australia at the beginning!

Perik Omo said:

Driller said:

Things are definitely changing in the UK but I don't think it will ever get anywhere near as bad as this in France.

Here the reasons for all the crap are cultural and historic.

On the upside (blimey!) the inlaws have been around this week and the food has been quite amazing.

I've been ill for several months with unshakeable coughs/colds and have been knackered. It's getting better now so there'll soon be the energy to join in the ranting again

Here's a nice little story illustrating the problems businesses face here:

Voilà pourquoi je n’embaucherai pas Marcel

Driller,

That should be required reading for any dreamer thinking of coming here and starting a business, an excellent summary of all that's wrong. I'm just glad that I'm retired and don't have to try and run a business here, I just don't know how anybody can.

I was chatting to my heating and plumbing man when he cam to service the heating at the end of January and he said that he had had to let his last remaining employee go as it was impossible to make any money now, he didn't make him redundant but gave him some equipment and help to set himself up in business. So that bloke went from 5/6 employees to just himself in 5 years and he is now really struggling to make a living, he said for every €1k he gets in income over €600 goes in taxes and charges. He also mentioned that he is going on some sort of demo in Paris on 9th March to protest about the charges on small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Edited by Driller on Sunday 1st March 09:09

Sorry to hear that but it's another crazy story of why this country is fked. To put that in perspective, or to match it I should say, for every €1k I make, €760 goes in charges and tax!

Edited by Driller on Sunday 1st March 22:01

Edited by Driller on Sunday 1st March 22:02

[Driller]

jammy_basturd said:

Saw this answer on Quora just now and thought about this topic!

STUPID, it's fking STUPID!!! AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùùù!!!!!

[Driller]

Another piss boiler with non-existant customer service and I-can't-be-bothered-attitude from shop assistants.

Waited in the car whilsts the Mrs goes in to Alinea to get a gift voucher for a friend's house warming. She comes back with an €80 one and we both decide that a €100 woukd be better so she goes back to change it.

She comes back five minutes later and says they told her they "cant't change it".

I immediately feel the rage and frustrating rising up because yet again the fkers are pulling their same old st.

So I take the card and go back in. Even if I say so myself, to my credit I didn't lose it.

Me to supervisor whilst smiling: "Hello! Just bought this voucher card and would like to change for one of higher value please"

Supervisor with scrutinising look "Oh no we can't do that"

Me, still smiling, breezy " I don't understand? Just reimburse the €80 and I'll pay you €100 for a new voucher"

Supervisor with increasingly irritated look on her face: "No Monsieur (I fking love it when they act like they're being respectful) the computer won't do that, it's not possible."

Me, staying calm but firm "Look I can't believe they didn't include that functionality in the computer, I'm not asking for anything unusual, just an exchange/refund"

Supervisor very irritated with this customer who dares to ask for stuff "I can't do it Monsieur"

Me: "It's not that you can't do it, it's that you won't do it"

She then literally convulses her whole body in anger and throws her arms out, asks me for the voucher, tells me not to move and walks off muttering "I don't believe it! I don't believe it!"

5 minutes later she comes back, asks me to pay the €20 difference and gives me a new €100 voucher card.

I smiled and thanked her for the great customer service.

Lying, lazy, bad willed, mediocre weasels!

[Driller]

Yeah, you've got a long way to go to redress that balance.

All the above happened in French by the way.

[Driller]

I do agree that chez Leroy there is the semblance of some kind of customer service compared to the rest of French commerce.

Still relatively kack compared to the UK though and of course no British cheeriness!

[Driller]

Glad you've a good week so far . Also great with your Leroy experience but I genuinely think you struck lucky.

Also, when you come across a real problem that needs to be sorted put which needs a little extra something from someone, that's when it goes <CRUNCH>.

You have to be here for a few years before the irritation accumulates and, like the situation I described above, you get annoyed in your head even before you speak to them because you just know what's coming: the standard replies of "no we can't do that", "you'll have to come back later" or "that"s not in my job description".

[Driller]

Ah God it's good to share

[Driller]

LDN said:

Seems I got lucky and I suppose I'll use the same store for years to come as a result!

[Driller]

Bitter experience?

[Driller]

That's because people here have no appreciation of the value of things, they just don't give a fk.

Property is theft for these communists.

Just got a taxi from the hotel to the SNCF station in Biarritz. Taxi driver throws the suitcase in the boot aeemingly in more of a hurry than us (and we don't hang around) and when she sees our pushchair she goes right off on one.

"What do you want me to do with that? You should have told me you had a pushchair I can't get that in here!"

"Well can't we put it on the back seat?"

"No way! You'll mess up the car! I can't take it bla bla bla weep weep weep scowl scowl"

I took the wheels off and it slid into the boot next to the suitcase and bags. She spent the whole journey cursing out loud about the traffic.

So no, it's not just in the Paris area that these rude, uncivilised fks give you an earful apparently it's the South too.

ETA I add that I was perfectly civil the whole time so no excuses for her behaviour.

Edited by Driller on Sunday 17th May 11:34

[Driller]

emss said:

Hi,

One could think you seem to attract all morons around like a magnet.

But, one could also think you turn the people you meet into morons, because being so unlucky is hardly conceivable.

Éric

Éric, you're point would be a fair one but following this logic I would have the same problem with everyone in all of the countries I've visited.

However I only see this in France and I'm not the only one.

paulwirral said:

I'm thinking it's time for driller to sell up and come home ?

I would love to Paul but I can't.

Edited by Driller on Sunday 17th May 22:00

[Driller]

paulwirral said:

I'll be down in the dordogne most of July , and back for September into October , your welcome to come over for an English night if your missing it , I'll even bring some English beers for you ! Or beans and sausages on toast if your missing it really badly

That's a very kind offer Paul, next time I'm down that way I'll give you a shout. I'll bring some M&S bacon!

I could live without the food though TBH, it's just people's attitude that gets you down.

[Driller]

emss said:

Hi,

Driller said:

Éric, you're point would be a fair one but following this logic I would have the same problem with everyone in all of the countries I've visited.

There are many valid points in your concerns, but I expect you're not having issues with everyone you meet in France.

Of course not Eric but the issues that I, and apparently others, are having are not the sort of problems you expect to have in decent society especially when it's uncalled for.

Believe it or not I am an extremely polite and considerate person, the trouble is I expect the same from others and if I get abuse or indifference after I've been decent/polite then I am as disagreeable as I can be courteous. It also drives me insane. It's a cliché but I'm a man of principles and I stand by them.

C'est juste non?

emss said:

Driller said:

However I only see this in France and I'm not the only one.

My dulcinea is an english teacher and we're in touch with a British expatriates club in our area, I've heard some rants, but they never reached your virulence.
Maybe they like us and therefore don't want to offend us, that could be an explanation Éric

Your suggestion is that I just "don't like" French people. If you went back through my long post history here (you won't want to waste your time obviously!) you'd see that I often complained about the English's knee-jerk, indoctrinated dislike for the French often coming from people who have never been to France but who just regurgitate the stereotypical crap about not washing and hairy armpits that everyone else does.

If my take seems slightly different or more extreme than other Brits you've spoken to then maybe it's because I'm running a business here and have to deal with all the associated far left crap including ridiculously high charges (for example my obligatory pension charges have just DOUBLED for my non-existent pension) and frustrating, prejudiced employment law. I've certainly felt more hard done by here since I opened my practice a few years ago. These constant difficulties amplify everyday annoyances.

If you've have any experience running a business in France you'll know what I mean. But it is certainly not restricted to this by any means as the thread shows.

Edited by Driller on Saturday 30th May 16:35

[Driller]

Well I've been in Basel for two days for work and it has multiplied by one thousand my desire to leave this grotty, savage backwater.

Over there there is such a positive dynamic, everyone moving in the same direction no-one lagging behind or expecting all the others to carry them, everyone smiling and helpful, no dogst or scrounges in the streets, cleanliness and efficiency and beautiful countryside and great food and weather.

All the time I was there I didn't hear one horn sounded in anger.

I asked them to explain the tax and healthcare systems-so much more reasonable and fair to someone who actually wants to move ahead in life.

Got off the train in Paris to stink and noise and bedlam, aggressive driving with cars pushing in and weaving horns blaring constantly, people shouting and grimacing not smiling. Like this all the way home to banlieu.

[Driller]

Good post Russ

[Driller]

That no 1 is a classic, it drives me crazy too and I speak fluent French. You get French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, Czech, Greek, the flipping lot... except English.

What is all that about?

[Driller]

Fatt McMissile said:

I think that's because the big French retailers don't operate in English speaking countries

Why is that?

[Driller]

MarshPhantom said:

Driller said:

Fatt McMissile said:

I think that's because the big French retailers don't operate in English speaking countries

Why is that?

Easier to transport goods by road than ferry?

Lots of other companies seem to manage it judging by the number of lorries on your average ferry going to Dover.