LIDL

At least once a week, I shop at LIDL in Avenue Corps Franc Pommiès, Tarbes. LIDL is a German owned discount supermarket chain with 8000 stores worldwide. LIDL has many promotional priced items at different days of the week which is why I would go into the store often enough. I buy a lot of children's books, toys, art supplies, kitchen utensils and Asian groceries from LIDL. What I like about shopping at LIDL is that they bring in many imported food stuff from different countries - this week, they are featuring groceries from Greece; last week was Italian.

Yesterday I bought a pair of shoes that were on sale for Lucas for 7 euros. What a bargain :) However, the size was not right, and LIDL advertises that if the customer is not fully satisfied with any of its products, the customer can ask for an exchange or reimbursement. I had 7 days to make an exchange if the size was not right. I bought that pair of shoes in the morning and went back in the afternoon to get a bigger size that same afternoon. The cashier was obliging and gave me my exchange.

Unfortunately the shoes were again one size too small for Lucas so this morning I went to LIDL right after sending Lucas to creche. As the bigger sized shoe was out of stock the cashier was going to reimburse me. Imagine my surprise when she re-scanned that pair of shoes and gave me back 3 euros instead of 7 euros. I showed her the price I paid on the receipt. She called for the supervisor who turned out to be a real bitch.

The supervisor accused me of bringing back ANOTHER pair of shoes instead of the one on the receipt.

First of all, any fool would realize that for that extra 4 euros, no one would go through all that trouble. Secondly that pair of shoes are full leather and even a discount store like LIDL would not sell them for a mere 3 euros. Obvious to the cashier and I, there was a problem with the bar code. But this supervisor was so pig headed she refused to listen to my explanation and even shouted at me (in front of customers, no less) that she had "no time for this". She would not listen, so in my agitated state, I would have jumbled up my less than fluent french even more; yet I found that the cashier was nodding her head at me and seemed to get what I was trying to say. I even offered to bring the supervisor to take another pair of the same brand of shoes and scan it to check the pricing - she refused and walked off. The cashier had to call out to her and ask her what to do, she shouted at the poor cashier to "give her whatever she wants" and the cashier had to ask her how to reverse the sale and reimburse me the full sum. All the supervisor had to do was walk towards the cashier counter to key in a few numbers. Instead that bitch stood near the door to her office and talked down at the cashier, talking to her like she was a  5 year old. (what happens when you have already given 3 euros and now you need to give her 7? How much more do you need to pay her? What do you need to do now? You need to give her another 4 euros, correct? Do you know how to add that 4 euros? etc, etc)

After about 5 minutes of talking to the cashier (and she said she had no time...?) she asked the cashier again if she knew what to do, the cashier by now was bright red in the face and looking down at her shoes, shook her head and mumbled "non"; so that supervisor marched over to the cashier, typed in a code and voila! I got my 7 euros back.

I almost ran back to my car, feeling humiliated and inept and really, really upset with that supervisor. Whatever happened to customer service, LIDL? How on earth can this person be hired to be a supervisor? 

I do not think that my french was so bad - if she had taken the time to LISTEN she would have realized what I was trying to explain and could have easily verified my story by scanning another pair of shoes. Instead, because my french was not super fluent, she accused me of trying to pawn off another pair of shoes costing 3 euros with a 7 euro receipt. She said that the receipt is for a different pair of shoes. As a supervisor I am surprised she doesn't even know what she has on the shelves. I am appalled at being shouted at, dismissed with a wave of her hand and accused of trying to scam 4 measly euros.

No wonder this LIDL never has enough cashiers - who would want to work for someone like that? She doesn't hesitate to humiliate her staff nor the customers of the store.

I told Fred what happened when I came back. He is going to bring me back to that store and lodge an official complaint.

For those of you reading this blog and shopping in LIDL, a word of caution - if you are going to do an exchange, make sure you get the item RE-SCANNED and retain your receipt. I hope what happened to me will not happen to another but as long as that woman is working in that branch I will not be shopping there anymore.

12 months and counting...

I was chatting with my sister on Skype and she mentioned that she thinks I seem to have found everything my heart desired since I moved to France because I sound so contented in my blog.

Have I found it then? Here in the South of France? A lot of my friends tell me the same - that I seem so much happier now. Well, I guess I am - even though I gripe about being "stuck" in Hicksville a.k.a Tarbes and I tell my friends back home that I live in a "kampung"  (malay for village) Tarbes is actually not a bad place to be as I've come to realize.

When Fred first told me that he would NEVER live in a city again after Kuala Lumpur, I was devastated. I was a through and through city girl, I even loved being stuck in traffic in KL, listening to music and taking a slow drive home after work.

Moving to "rural" France was a big change for me - I was never going to get stuck in massive traffic jams on a daily basis, there was no need to spend hours waiting for administrative work in goverment offices, I no longer need to allocate extra time to get from point A to point B, no need to rush anywhere or drive like a maniac (though I sometimes still do fall back into that nasty KL driving habit...). On top of that there is that pesky language barrier.

12 months on, I have to say that I love the fact that Tarbes is so close to the Pyrenees mountains and the pretty villages in between and Tarbes is also close to the sea which I love! There are so many places to explore, all within an hour's drive from here.

When we were exploring the idea of moving to Auch or Agen (Fred was going to go into partnership with a friend to open his own hairdressing salon in either of these 2 towns) I was happy at the thought of leaving Tarbes as both Auch & Agen are closer to Toulouse. But as the moving date came closer and we were told that Agen was likely going to be our new home, we began to look at Agen more closely and found that we didn't like Agen at all. Smaller than Tarbes and hours away from the sea and mountains - though it is only an hour from Toulouse; but how often would I be visiting Toulouse, unless I get a job there?

After much prayers it seems that we are destined to stay in Tarbes. Fred's project with Eric may take a longer time as they explore places nearby Tarbes. Furthermore, in and around Tarbes & Pau, Fred will be able to keep busy with his coifure domicile business as there are many people here looking for english speaking hairdressers.

So, come July, we will enrol Lucas into a maternelle here in Tarbes and we are currently searching for a new home. On my part I am checking the pole emploi website periodically, looking for a part time job ( I won't start working full time until Lucas goes to school full time; probably in a couple of years) to keep me in style and to get me out of the home without Lucas.

12 months on, I realize that I have truly given up my life and career back in Malaysia for a better life here in France. My son is going to grow up French, although he will not forget his chinese roots as we will be keeping with my chinese traditions. Lucas will be bi-lingual for now, and I will start him on the chinese language next year.

12 months on, I have built another life for myself in my newly adopted country, made new friends and have learnt how to get by watching American TV series dubbed in French (with french subtitles to boot!).

Foodwise the jury is still out on pate, haricot Tarbais, rillette and saucisson but I love ratatouille and the occassional magret de canard (funny how I hardly eat any duck except for peking duck in KL and I am eating duck here now...). I still miss a lot of Malaysian food but thank God for my parents and friends who send me Malaysian food!

12 months on, being in France in the midst of an economy crisis (Malaysia is too sheltered that its people are wearing blinders) I have learnt to be thankful and not take things like food, work, transportation and shelter for granted. Being exposed to refugees who have fled their countries and the others who have come to France to look for a better life made me realize how much we had when we were in Malaysia and how much I took for granted what we have here in France.

These 12 months I spent with Lucas as a SAHM is priceless. Sure there were some sacrifices to be made but I was here for every milestone, for every tear, for every new word, for every hug, for every new taste, for every tantrum and for every laugh.

Everyday spent with Lucas fills me with undescribable joy, even when he's being naughty. None of this would have been possible had we stayed back in Malaysia