France in Focus

Most of my shopping here is for fuel and food items. Everything else is mostly bought online, and since Brexit that is limited to EU countries only. For the things I usually need they are either not available here or would waste too much time locating them or end up too expensive in fuel to go and collect. Occastionally when something can only be located from a UK source I have it sent to a friend there to fetch over on their next visit.

Last week I decided to replace my fine-toothed tenon saw and found one on ebay(UK) but the purchase would not go through unless I went through some ridiculous verification of my age. As usual this type of crap requires a smartphone so I had to abort the purchase. I suppose a tenon saw is now considered a potential weapon. What next, banning nail clippers? All while street thugs have no problem getting hold of machetes these days. I noticed that Amazon(France) also had what I wanted but although I don't usually buy from them because of their delivery charges this time I was willing to pay. I was promised delivery on Saturday which was fine. Then got an email on Friday saying the saw had "taken the wrong delivery path" and would not be delivered until the following Wednesday. Then on Monday it turned up! Then on Tuesday I received an email promising a full refund of my postage costs. Is this normal? I might see Amazon in a more favourable light if it is.

I have amazon prime with Amazon France. It's worth the 6 euros a month to me as I moved into this house only 18months ago & have used Amazon for a lot of things, curtains, curtain rails, lights....................

I have found them to be really good, on time with deliverys & returns are simple. However I do live in a town which might make a difference.

Yes, Amazon are very good with customer service.

My wife has Amazon Prime so (almost) all of our deliveries are free. However, if I have a problem with delivery, I can get onto them through their chat (they have English chat if your Amazon is set to English) and they usually give a 5€ voucher onto my account.

They are also very good with faulty items, returns etc.

We too have Prime. I was very sceptical but when our built in oven failed, they had just the model we needed at a discount price, but only available (at any price) with Prime. Delivery 2 days later, which Darty and Boulanger could not match let alone the price.

Since then I have used them a lot for little things, that while not urgent, allow me to get on with jobs that would otherwise go on hold until the next visit to the Rhone Valley. I have had no problems, so cannot comment on the repayment of delivery costs, but they do seemvery efficient and when that efficiency goes wrong, I could well imagine they make amends.

Don't question it. Just take it.

I also use Prime and have found them very easy to deal with and reliable in France and the UK. I used them a lot during covid and have used them a lot more recently when we can’t go out and about as much. Never any problem about returns and useful to have purchases sent to various addresses - family members buy through our account and we all appreciate the excellent value of Prime.

I have long understood the value of Prime for those who buy enough from Amazon to make the monthly fee worthwhile. I have the time to shop around and find that either the items are often too specialised to be offered on Amazon, or the search function on their site is too random or inaccurate to make finding the right item too frustrating. I find the real saving grace of Amazon is as mentioned by many above, Customer Service, which is a rare treat to find here.