When James turned four in March, we were going to give James a "big boy" bike for his birthday. Then the Paris move started looking more and more a reality so we decided against a bike for now, assuming we could get one in Paris. Well we got the bike this past weekend and James loved it! He picked it out himself and was very proud.
Let's get the red one, Daddy. It's super fast!
As you can see in the video, the red bike came home. AND . . . a scooter made it home as well. . . For Mary Martin. Our little girl thinks she can do anything James can do lately and gets very upset when we try and prevent her from following her big brother. At the bike store, she wanted a bike as well and was trying to get on all of them to test them out. I tried to divert her to no avail. We talked her into a scooter instead. Not that she can ride a scooter really, but she can at least try it by herself without me having to push her around on it constantly. It is a mini-scooter with three wheels. Not like the Razors in the States. All of the kids have scooters here.
Saturday afternoon we tried the bike and scooter out and then celebrated with chocolate ice cream. Mostly Mary Martin pushed the scooter around by the handlebars without putting her feet on it at all. At the tail end of the video you can see her in her green dress chasing after the scooter. She had a ball... She refused to stand still for me so I could take her picture on the scooter. The final photo is the best I could get of her playing with her scooter. And yes, we rode the bike and played with the scooter in the Champ du Mars, the park near our house in the shadow of the Effiel Tower.
One final note on customer service in France. The bike shopping trip reminded me of this...
Customer service here in France is completely different than in the States. The French are not rude or ugly, they just aren't overly helpful or customer service driven like in the States. It is more like a "that's not my job" attitude.
Jim and I decided we would go shopping for a bike for James this weekend. There are no Wal-Marts to go look at various brands of bikes. We had to find a bike store to visit. Jim found one via the internet and found its location. We checked to be sure that it was open on Saturday and checked their website to be sure they had children's bikes. Check and check.
So Saturday morning, we loaded up and headed off to a part of town we had never visited just to go to this bike store. After about 15 minutes on the Metro, then a 5 minute walk, we found the bike store. And they had no children's bikes in their store. They only sell them online. Of course...
The owner tried to explain that she is a small store and has a limited inventory, etc. etc. But you have children's bikes on your website, Jim explained. Ah, yez, but not in de store, it iz too small.
Had we been the States, the owner would have then offered to look at her online inventory with Jim and help him pick out the bike he wanted, have it shipped to the store, and call Jim when it arrived. Maybe even have it shipped straight to our apartment. We got none of that. Nothing. She couldn't even tell us the name of another store in Paris that might have children's bikes in stock.
Again, she wasn't rude or ugly. She was just very matter of fact. Another experience illustrated this customer service attiude even more clearly to me than the bike shop experience.
Darty is the name of a chain of electronics stores in France. Think Best Buy but smaller. Jim was able to get all of our appliances there: fridge, oven, microwave, washer and dryer, dishwasher. When Gail (Gee) was here, we visited Darty to return some parts to the washing machine we didn't need. We also were looking for a hairdryer, a crockpot, and a cable we needed for the TV. We did find a crockpot that wasn't too expensive. We had to ask a sales person to get us the crockpot from the back; they only had display models out. Nothing in boxes.
However, when Gail asked the saleslady to get us one from the back, she looked in her computer and told Gail they did not have any in stock.
Gail: Do you know when you will get some more in stock?
Saleslady: Non.
That was the end of the conversation.
If it had been Best Buy or Wal-Mart or Circuit City, the saleslady might have said No, I don't know when I will get more in but let me check another store to see if they have it and that store can hold it for you. Or she might have offered to order it and call us when it arrived in her store. Or she might have offered to order us one online and have it shipped free of charge to our apartment. Any number of options in the States . . . But not in France.
So we went home with the hairdryer and TV cable. Still looking for that crockpot . . .
1 comment:
I miss that sweet little face and watching him and MM play. Miss you all. Love, Gee
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