Bonjour !
When you have a problem at a store but you don’t manage to resolve it like you would have done in your country just because you don’t know what to say. You’re not a twit! It’s just that you don’t know how to speak French fluently!
Result: You stomp out furious and frustrated. And with a problem.
You could chain yourself to the counter until you grab the attention of a customer service executive worth his salt. But, let’s be honest. That not the way things are done.
So to help you deal with the stubborn French salesperson, here are few expressions.
Click to watch « How to solve a problem in a shop… in French! »:
What about you?
Have you ever had a problem in a shop in France
How did you solve it? Did you feel frustrated because you didn’t have these phrases? How did it go?
Tell me in the comments how it went. Share your story so we can discuss in the comment area below the video.
A la prochaine !
Géraldine
Is this page broken? The video looks to be missing.
We’ll look into it. 🙂
Very useful information as always – we have had issues with people responding to emails and/ or phone calls – it has taken 4 months to get 3 items delivered, coming from the UK it is difficult to know whether it is best to try and sort out problems over the phone (with our quite bad French) or by email (using a translation tool)
We have found that some people get very irate with our queries, but as no-one responds to our phone calls/ emails we struggle to know what is ‘contacting the people’ too many times 🙂
dAx
Salut Géraldine, I really liked this video, I somethimes want to stay too polite but I’m glad you said you can use all those sentences. I would just like to add an important word ‘SAV’ or ‘Service après vente’, someone told me to call them when I had a problem with the fridge I’d bought but I didn’t know the word SAV at all…..luckily the lady gave me the number, but it’s good to know they exist. (I don’t know how you’d call SAV in English).
YES Irene! Thanks! You are right. SAV means Service après-vente = customer service.
Bonjour! Ça va Géraldine? I just wanted to let you know that your videos are really enjoyable. Je suis en train d’aprendre le Français, and your videos are helpful. Thanks a lot dear.
Hi Fatima,
You’re welcome! Please tell us if there’s a topic you’d like to see covered. 🙂
Once, my husband and I stopped at a little bakery for a coffee and sweet. I could order everything OK, but my husband wanted sweetener. I tried” “Avez-vous de Canderal (sp?), s’il vous plais? [Sorry, my spelling may be wrong.] I received blank stares. I tried other terms like “sucre,pas vrai” and nothing worked. What did I do wrong.
Merci.
Elaine
Bonjour Elaine!
“Avez-vous du Canderel ?” is perfect, you asked the right question. Some people also use the word “sucrettes” which is a brand of a similar product.
You did nothing wrong. 🙂 Misunderstanding happens. Next time, in case it happens again, try to write it down. (almost) Everybody knows Canderel.
It’s very helpful. Thank you very much. BTW, I know you’ve changed your hair style for quite a while, I still would like to tell you: you look very nice and chic! You are nice, of course.
Merci Jennie!
This is excellent… very handy!
Glad to help, Wendy!