Good & Bad
The GOOD the BAD and the utterly STUPID
We have always believed in praising good products and services just as we want to highlight the bad ones.
For example, a few years ago Barbara had such outstanding service on an EasyJet flight and, as a former stewardess herself, she wanted to thank the crew and the airline. A search of the EasyJet website showed that it was only possible to complain or make a claim against the airline but not to praise it. After searching various company registration sits, we found the e-mail address of EasyJets Chief Executive who immediately thanked Barbara for her kind remarks and promised to pass them on to the flight crew.
These days there is a trend, especially among service companies, to continually request feedback on their performance. I tend to avoid these tick box responses especially when it is clear that the survey is being carried out by a third party or agency. Far better to send a thank you e-mail!
So I thought I would try to post our thoughts on the GOOD, BAD and utterly STUPID (avoiding politicians of course), lets see how it goes.
THE GOOD STUFF
THE BAD STUFF
Amazon to the rescue:::::::::::
For some time, we had been in the habit of buying things on-line from the UK, but UK’s divorce from mainland Europe and more correctly Prime Minister Johnson’s ‘get Brexit done at any cost’ deal has, due to the bureaucracy and taxes involved, forced most small businesses to stop selling in the EU altogether. AMAZON has filled the gap by enabling their vast network of partners to sell into Europe. While some items come directly from the UK their network of warehouses has facilitated the distribution of British goods, even English books throughout Europe at reasonable prices. We have to be a little careful with specifications, but have the choice of both the UK and French Amazon sites!
In praise of La Poste
It naturally flows on from shopping on line to the delivery. We would like to praise La Poste here in France. We are happy when Amazon tell us that they have consigned our delivery to them as they often deliver sooner than the senders stated time! If its a large parcel or something requiring a signature, they will let you know if they will try to deliver next day or, in the worst case tell you where and when you can collect your package ‘locally’.
Of course there is a growing army of delivery services ranging from pretty good to really bad. And one of the really bad ones features in the BAD COLUMN opposite.
There appears to be a lot of collaboration between the different delivery companies and we notice that even some of the major international couriers use La Poste for what they refer to as the ‘last mile’ of the delivery.
The French post office La Poste is one of the few public services in France that gets high praise from the public for the quality of its service. It is not just the amiable postman that wins it for them, but the widespread presence of post office counters in most towns and larger villages of the country, largely because it also offers Insurances, Banking and other public services, even Mobile ‘Phones. France has one of the highest number of post-boxes of any country in the world.
Whilst La Poste is currently a state owned service, under EU regulations it is planned that postal services in France will be fully open to competition, at which time the French post office will become a company, with the government remaining as the majority shareholder.
There is concern amongst consumer groups that private enterprise may lead to the closure of uneconomic post offices and, while this risk exists, a public service agreement will be in operation that should protect many smaller rural post offices.
Merci Paris
During the long hot summer months of 2024, we have been dipping in and out of the many TV broadcasts showing the Paris Olympics and then the Paralympics. I know I’m saying this from the comfort of my living room, but what a truly magnificent effort the Parisians put on and how they managed the ceremonies and the events during the adverse weather conditions was amassing. In some ways it actually enhanced the whole thing. Than you Paris, thank you France.
We are old enough to remember when you drove onto a garage forecourt and the attendant came to you, filled your car with petrol, took your cash and often cleaned your windscreen too. Then, as the oil companies, discovered, that self service pumps could bring customers into pay in their newly discovered ‘shops’ and buy all sorts of things that every traveler needs??, the major supermarkets quickly got into fuel retailing.
Clearly this makes economic sense for the supermarkets, as it now seams likely that half of the motor fuel used in the UK and France is sold by them. In France the supermarkets have been investing heavily in new refueling areas. Motorists may benefit from competitive prices, choice and convenience, but there are problems. These filling stations are usually sited in remote parts of the supermarket’s vast parking area and the trend now is to remove the payment kiosks in favour of fully automate pumps. So you are obliged to use a card for payment. Surely there are the security cameras but nobody seams to replenish the gloves and paper towels or clean up spillages. Many times we have slithered about on a build-up of stinking diesel spillage which ends up ingrained in our car mats.
We go along with this new regime, but supermarkets, get you act together, have a regular clean-up and please, please make sure that your card readers are in working order!
Ironically as soon I praised E.LECLERC (I often used them) for reinstating their kiosk ladies they went all-out and close it again, moving bottled gas sales to their pre-ordered collection depot.
MODERN LIFE or LIFE AFTER THE COVID PANDEMIC!!!
The Covid pandemic of the early 2020’s has a lot to answer for. Its not only the tragic loss of life and all the associated medical problems, but the way in which the attitude of governments, businesses and indeed populations in general has dramatically changed. There is no doubt that technology was already changing the every day lives of most ‘developed’ and other nations, to such a extent that some of the economic damage caused by restrictions imposed during the pandemic were limited by access to the internet. Generally we were already shopping, doing our banking and our taxes over the internet, but the whole on-line industry was accelerated by the pandemic.
While some people still had to go to work and some no longer had any work to go to, there were many who were encouraged to work from home. As most schools were closed, parents found that they were juggling their work and home life with educating their children. The prospect of serious illness and even early death, caused many to re-evaluate their life-style. I can not ignore the mental, economic and political uncertainty of this period, but while everyone is getting to grips with the ‘brave new post pandemic world’, it is now universally assumed that each person, man, woman or child has become physically attached to their devices, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week!
Therefore most institutions, governments and businesses, even doctors, now only wish to communicate by text message and e-mail. The good old telephone can be consigned to the recyclers along with the telex and fax machines. If you insist on talking to a person, rather than a bot, you must hang on the line, at your own expense, listening to caned music, interrupted with occasional apologies, until you finally give up and send a rude e-mail.
My real complaint is that it is now expected and actually demanded, that the customer or client dose the all the work themselves. So communications always come in the form of “we need this document, please contact this other department, you can find this on our website, or you need to fill in this on-line form etc. etc.”. I keep thinking that, if I wasn’t retired, I would not have time to do my own job alongside all the work now require by the businesses and institutions for our modern lives.
There must be a lot of, predominately older people, who are not computer literate or indeed have no internet connection anyway. I am so sorry for them, but again, they will have to be tolerated until the grim reaper eventually removes them from the system anyway.