Scandalous

[Russwhitehouse]

Here are a couple to wet your appetite.
Went to get the carte grise for the Merc ML the other day. 2010 model, all blue efficiency and green credentials in place. Have a guess how much?
A snip at 1350 euros!!
Let me run that number by you again because it's a little baffling at first to the mere layman.
1350 euros!!!
800 euros of which was "Eco tax" despite the fact that the Merc is a super clean high tech diesel that generates far less nasties than most of the sheds you see on French roads!
500 euros was for the carte grise itself which is nothing more than a silly bit of paper, then
Various random bks taxes on top of that!
On to the internet!
We are changing from Free ( who are utter st) to Orange, who we are hoping are, at best, slightly less st. Today we suddenly lost all Internet and phone, unannounced and unexpectedly. A phone call to Free established it was nothing they had done. A phone call to Orange revealed it was them hijacking the line a full ten days ahead of schedule with no warning! They told us it would be anything from 48 hrs to 10 days! Before we were reconnected!
A stern word in their ear proved on the face of it to be futile and they saw absolutely nothing wrong with the situation they had placed us in without any prior consultation. A major rant from me ensued and hey presto, two hours later all was restored. It does however beg the question, that had one not been in a position to "rant" effectively, how long one would have been cut off from the outside world as a result! French not in the least bothered.
More ammo for you Driller dear boy, and another reinforcement of my opinion.
That is all.

Edited by Russwhitehouse on Wednesday 19th November 21:51

Edited by Russwhitehouse on Wednesday 19th November 21:53

[trunnie]

But on the other hand there is no annual vehicle tax here.

I agree that customer service is pretty often something best remembered from the 70s in Britain - but then I was also reminded of that by dealing with Capita in the UK for council tax where they were terrible. I also just dealt with HSBC in the UK and in France by phone about similar problems. Guess which one bounced me around departments without anyone taking ownership of my problem - clue, it wasn't France.

There are negatives in living here, they are in my personal view beaten by the positives.

[Russwhitehouse]

There was a time when I would have agreed with you. That time passed several years ago.

[Cloggie]

trunnie said:

But on the other hand there is no annual vehicle tax here.

I agree that customer service is pretty often something best remembered from the 70s in Britain - but then I was also reminded of that by dealing with Capita in the UK for council tax where they were terrible. I also just dealt with HSBC in the UK and in France by phone about similar problems. Guess which one bounced me around departments without anyone taking ownership of my problem - clue, it wasn't France.

There are negatives in living here, they are in my personal view beaten by the positives.

Yearly tax in place as well now, €160 per year

Try to import a newish Defender now and you'll be paying thousands in extra tax.

Have a look here:

http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F1...

Tax offices also seem to have installed a bonus system for their employees as they really are trying hard with most of the small businesses in my area. Almost mafia type practices.

For anyone wanting to start a new SARL, try to make sure no-one has more than 50% of the shares. If more than 50%, you are left to RSI and the likes for social taxes. They WILL plunder your bank account at sometime and will take months to give your money back, if at all.