C.E.R Caulaincourt Paris
You know you have been in a place for too long, when you expect to be abused and treated like shit and even the most remote possibility of being treated with a semblance of courtesy seems like a far fetched fairy tale. Well, it happened again to a very close friend of mine in my company, when we went to a driving school in Paris, specifically a place called C.E.R Caulincourt.
Now I will not cite the company as a whole as they are an independently run franchise thus my specific distinction. I am not sure they are all run as poorly or give the kind of treatment one might expect from a prison guard when requesting a glass of water.
My friend had called a week earlier to ask for their 70 euro deposit back, as they did not embark on the course with this school, even though they did dispense with 50 euros which was a drivers assessment test that deals with reaction time, vision, hearing etc. That is a non-refundable one time fee.
On entering the school, we were greeted by an extremely unfriendly sort of person, who made zero eye contact and waited impatiently for the query. Upon explaining why they were there, the person said again without making any eye contact and with a frown, “the dossier looks used”, even though it was quite pristine and none of the instruction books within the box had ever been read or opened. Now to add insult to injury, when my friend had called about a week before, he was told that the deposit check would not be returned immediately as it was with their head office.
She implied that under the conditions that due to the state of the box that contained the driver’s manuals that the deposit check may not be returned. Upon hearing that and due to her rather unfriendly demeanor, a rather loud verbal altercation ensued, where the woman said, “this is what service is like in France, this is not Canada…” where I want on to say that if you were in North America, your business would go bankrupt in a week. Conveniently, her hand went in to a drawer and miraculously the €70 deposit check appeared. I thought, what a lying sack of “sh-t!” The check was supposed to be at the head office and would not be available immediately. The driving school mafia of France had spoken and loudly indeed.
What amazes me is that they can get away with this kind of behavior, because in order to get your drivers license in France you MUST go through their system. The cost generally is around €1300 per person to get a permit regardless of how well you can or cannot drive!
Anyhow, I was aghast again by how poorly one can be treated in France by commercial enterprises because the French public don’t know any better. Cruelty and a demeaning attitude towards clientele is the norm and not the rule. So if you are living in France and are in the process of getting your drivers permit, avoid C.E.R Caulaincourt at all costs.
So, if you want to know the definition of bad service, look no further, it would have to be the above…
