I'm having a 'poor me, I'm ill' day at home today. Not swine flu, no, just a simple common or garden cold. Happily it coincided with the day my new tele was redelivered.
A couple of weeks ago I bought a new tele from Carrouf, special offer, last day only. Of course when I say 'I bought', I mean in the non-literal sense of 'owing money on the purchase of' said LCD pretty big Philips screen. It was delivered last Tuesday morning.
By Tuesday evening I had noticed what looked like a target bottom left. It hadn't shown up on the blue programme search screen but it did on the paler colours of a poisonous lake. In fact, it's all I saw.
Furious, I asked the boys if they had bashed into it or something equally disasterous. Beyond giving it a hug (!) they had not touched it. I didn't really think they had, but if one is to go back to the shop to make a fuss, one has to be standing on firm moral and guilt-free ground.
The next day I went into Carrouf to the Accueil and told the woman there was a problem with the tele. She suggested I bring it back in. "I don't think so," I replied, "it's too big" whereupon she lost interest and told me to see After Sales. It was about 1.40pm. I explained my problem to Mr SAV (service après vente) and he said I'd need to come back at 2.30pm because the tele guy in charge returned then.
Seething only slightly, I went away and came back some time later after 2.30pm only to be told he was actually due back at 4pm. I stayed calm, something of a feat, because Mr SAV was clearly embarrassed and wanted to help out. He sent me to see the tele department and explain my problem.
We live in a connected world of computers and 'labour-saving' technology. Don't we? Well, it took an hour, yes sixty minutes of going through the procedure of producing the paperwork to do a simple swap of my defective tele for a new one.
Then when I got to the till it started all over again because the promotion had ended and there was 100Eur difference between the prices marked on the invoices. I told the guy on the till that if he thought I was going to pay anything he was wrong because it was more than dodgy to sell a defective tele cheap only to slam the customer for the extra when it had to be replaced by the same evening.
He agreed and called his supervisor. By this time all the other customers in line had given up and wandered off. I felt sorry for them but it wasn't my fault that Carrouf has such an incompetent set of procedures. I just wanted a tele without target practice.
I didn't, in fact, have to fight too hard to get the new tele. They put it down to 'faute d'emballage' which I'm sure it was - a packaging issue, or unpacking issue, or something nothing to do with me, or the boys. Apparently it was a pixel or two that had blown and was busily causing short circuits in the surrounding ones thus provoking the rather interesting target practice effect.
You can be sure that when tele 2.0 arrived and was unpacked, I had a VERY good look at all the pixels to make sure none of the little buggers were giving up the ghost. For the moment at least they seem to be holding up.
Unfortunately, although my tele has an integrated TNT (Télévision numérique terrestre) thingy, I am in a shady TNT spot which means I can't receive it. Down the road they've got it, at Carrouf they've got it, but chez moi, I haven't got it. Bugger. Don't worry, said my first tele installer heartily, they've got to cover the whole country by 2010. Unfortunately, said my tele seller, they are very behind and it won't be until 2012 that everyone gets it. Great. I'm stuck with crappy analogique pictures until we move probably.
A couple of weeks ago I bought a new tele from Carrouf, special offer, last day only. Of course when I say 'I bought', I mean in the non-literal sense of 'owing money on the purchase of' said LCD pretty big Philips screen. It was delivered last Tuesday morning.
By Tuesday evening I had noticed what looked like a target bottom left. It hadn't shown up on the blue programme search screen but it did on the paler colours of a poisonous lake. In fact, it's all I saw.
Furious, I asked the boys if they had bashed into it or something equally disasterous. Beyond giving it a hug (!) they had not touched it. I didn't really think they had, but if one is to go back to the shop to make a fuss, one has to be standing on firm moral and guilt-free ground.
The next day I went into Carrouf to the Accueil and told the woman there was a problem with the tele. She suggested I bring it back in. "I don't think so," I replied, "it's too big" whereupon she lost interest and told me to see After Sales. It was about 1.40pm. I explained my problem to Mr SAV (service après vente) and he said I'd need to come back at 2.30pm because the tele guy in charge returned then.
Seething only slightly, I went away and came back some time later after 2.30pm only to be told he was actually due back at 4pm. I stayed calm, something of a feat, because Mr SAV was clearly embarrassed and wanted to help out. He sent me to see the tele department and explain my problem.
We live in a connected world of computers and 'labour-saving' technology. Don't we? Well, it took an hour, yes sixty minutes of going through the procedure of producing the paperwork to do a simple swap of my defective tele for a new one.
Then when I got to the till it started all over again because the promotion had ended and there was 100Eur difference between the prices marked on the invoices. I told the guy on the till that if he thought I was going to pay anything he was wrong because it was more than dodgy to sell a defective tele cheap only to slam the customer for the extra when it had to be replaced by the same evening.
He agreed and called his supervisor. By this time all the other customers in line had given up and wandered off. I felt sorry for them but it wasn't my fault that Carrouf has such an incompetent set of procedures. I just wanted a tele without target practice.
I didn't, in fact, have to fight too hard to get the new tele. They put it down to 'faute d'emballage' which I'm sure it was - a packaging issue, or unpacking issue, or something nothing to do with me, or the boys. Apparently it was a pixel or two that had blown and was busily causing short circuits in the surrounding ones thus provoking the rather interesting target practice effect.
You can be sure that when tele 2.0 arrived and was unpacked, I had a VERY good look at all the pixels to make sure none of the little buggers were giving up the ghost. For the moment at least they seem to be holding up.
Unfortunately, although my tele has an integrated TNT (Télévision numérique terrestre) thingy, I am in a shady TNT spot which means I can't receive it. Down the road they've got it, at Carrouf they've got it, but chez moi, I haven't got it. Bugger. Don't worry, said my first tele installer heartily, they've got to cover the whole country by 2010. Unfortunately, said my tele seller, they are very behind and it won't be until 2012 that everyone gets it. Great. I'm stuck with crappy analogique pictures until we move probably.
As I've said before, thank god for satellite Sky!
Well, ain't you the poncy one then. I'd be jealous except I know that one of those huge Cinemascope tellys would dominate my living room in a way I would not approve of.
ReplyDeleteI might start getting jealous when the tennis season starts up again, though. Imagine actually being able to see the ball!
haha expat, it's not THAT big, and because it's slim it's not as massive as my old tube tele.
ReplyDeleteI must say though, watching films on it is fab, and if I ever buy a blue-ray player they'll be even fabber!
I AM DEFINITELY JEALOUS - EVEN GREEN WITH ENVY!!!!!
ReplyDelete