Customer Service? I don't think so.

Today's French experience:

Last Saturday, I bought two ethernet cables to use in our apartment (since we finally got internet after only 7 short months!). We ended up being able to set up the WiFi, so the cables were not necessary. As the packaging was undisturbed, I had the receipt in tact, and it had only been 3 days since I purchased the products, I assumed the return process would be quick and simple. The ideas "quick" and "simple" do not exist alone in France, let alone conjointly, so I am not sure what I was thinking!

I walked down to the "mall" which holds the store FNAC, a general equivalent to what we know as Best Buy at home. I walk in, looking for your typical customer service desk that handles returns. I approach a counter that ressembles what I know to be a customer service desk, but when I explained to the employee that I wanted to return the items, he told me he does not handle that at his counter. He pointed me to the security guard up front, and told me to tell them I needed to return something, and they would write me a ticket. OK. So I go to the front of the store and the security guard writes me a ticket with my name and the product information on it. THEN, she tells me to take it to a salesperson on the floor. OK. So I go up to a salesperson on the floor and tell him I am trying to return something. He determines that these cables are not in his department and refers me to another salesperson. I wait for a few minutes until this other salesperson returns, and tell her I would like to return something, and she types some stuff into her computer and prints off another ticket. Then she proceeds to tell me that I need to take the ticket to the cashier counter. OK. The cashier counter has a long zig-zag line, kind of like the lines you wait in at amusement parks to go on the really cool rollarcoasters. That's annoying.

As I was waiting in line I pondered striking up a conversation with the young guy in front me who was buying some vampire romance/horror flick--looked like a French "Twilight" if you ask me. Then I saw the man-sac and I just stayed quiet. The French aren't really keen on talking to strangers anyway.

Finally, I got to the register and received my 27.63 euro credit. It only took talking to 5 employees to get!