[QUOTE=Tiger Horse;7440071]
Had to find the hat . . . here’s link . . . scroll down
http://en.voltaire-design.com/accessories.html
As for the rest, well, life is too short to get so worked up about a $20 hat . . . JMHO[/QUOTE]
I agree, all this over a $20 (actually $10 since they sent two) hat?
:no:
I like the hat, and I think I am going to order one as well.
Maybe Voltaire will give us a COTH discount?
I’m not saying the French are rude, but I am saying that they have no problem ‘schooling’ you when YOU are being rude. I know because I live in France, am married to a French guy, and I get schooled every day on how to be a civilized person. This aspect could seem rude to Americans as we’re not used to getting called out on our terrible manners. I did show this thread to my DH and he was very offended by the original email. I think he is also offended that I have spent so much time reading this thread The French are actually the least rudest people ever, it’s just there is a high expection for formal niceties and if you don’t meet those expectations, they are very verbal in telling you how to behave even if you are pefect strangers.
For what it’s worth, I don’t wear my hat at the dinner table anymore, I say hello and kiss on the cheek everyone I see (it can be exhausting at a party), I say good-bye to everyone at work when I leave including kisses, and I am currently in training to not drop food on the ground when I eat And of course, ‘vous’ is used more often than ‘tu,’ especially with strangers, my boss, my friends if I am asking them for help at work, etc. If it were not for strangers’ comments on my behavoir I would still be a rude American myself
Also the French really are more sensitive than we are, and much less likely to even know a forum like this exists (technology is more of an invader of our private life and less a tool to connect the world - in this case, I see their point). I’m 99% sure someone emailed this thread to the company and Claude was told to take care of it.
You are not accounting for the EtOH factor.
Probably the First Cup Of Coffee syndrome this morning, but I can’t figure out what the EtOH factor is. 
Is it like OTOH?
I think it is funny too the ‘French people are rude’ comments.
I went to school briefly in France, and the rudest person I ever saw there was an American - a man in a cowboy hat having a tantrum in the airport.
Every French person I met in France was unfailingly polite.
Here is a small example. I arrived in Paris from Greece, and was told by the school that a letter had arrived for me, but had been sent back…
I was homesick, and sad, and missing my family and desperately needed that letter.
I walked to the post office but the postal workers were on strike. I told them what had happened, and they dumped those huge bags of mail on the floor and helped me search for one thin blue airmail letter from my grandmother…
And we found it.
I thanked them and left the post office, reading my letter as I walked down the street.
Suddenly a postal worker was behind me - I had left a package I was carrying at the post office…and he ran down the street to give it to me.
Those darn rude French people…
[QUOTE=MistyBlue;7441010]
Probably the First Cup Of Coffee syndrome this morning, but I can’t figure out what the EtOH factor is. Is it like OTOH?[/QUOTE]
I think it may be an implication that the OP is an angry drunk? (Et = ethyl, OH = alcohol) :lol:
Seriously I cannot imagine blowing up to this extent over every product I ordered that arrived…not to my expectations. That happens pretty often! You return and move on.
[QUOTE=Fred;7441022]
I think it is funny too the ‘French people are rude’ comments.
I went to school briefly in France, and the rudest person I ever saw there was an American - a man in a cowboy hat having a tantrum in the airport.
Every French person I met in France was unfailingly polite.
Here is a small example. I arrived in Paris from Greece, and was told by the school that a letter had arrived for me, but had been sent back…
I was homesick, and sad, and missing my family and desperately needed that letter.
I walked to the post office but the postal workers were on strike. I told them what had happened, and they dumped those huge bags of mail on the floor and helped me search for one thin blue airmail letter from my grandmother…
And we found it.
I thanked them and left the post office, reading my letter as I walked down the street.
Suddenly a postal worker was behind me - I had left a package I was carrying at the post office…and he ran down the street to give it to me.
Those darn rude French people…[/QUOTE]
The perception is NOT that French people are rude, it is that French people do not like Americans. That’s a big difference.
They like polite Americans just fine 
[QUOTE=Dispatcher;7441036]
The perception is NOT that French people are rude, it is that French people do not like Americans. That’s a big difference.[/QUOTE]
^This. My experiences with French people have been wonderful, for the most part. Just like it appears there are stereotypes here about what French people are and aren’t, they have stereotypes about Americans and American culture. There were a few people I met in my academic adventures in France that definitely were wary of me at first, and back then my French was sub-par, at least compared to now. But once they got to know me, there were several interesting exchanges about the cultures, most over lots and lots of wine 
Americans not versed in French mannerisms get confused and offended with their tendency to be very forthcoming. Manners are everything, and they have no qualms about letting you know exactly how you have wronged them.
“All this about 20$”
Really people?
I mean, I understand that certain retailers are not for the economical minded peeps like me (AKA cheap), but ‘only 20$’ is a rather arrogant statement!
The hat did not fit (it looks mighty goofy on the OP).
Maybe she had a really bad day, was looking forward to this cute new apparel…and was crushed…
No doubt, she should have held off on the initial email (but wasn’t there a sort of malfunction in the hat as well, not retaining the size?)
I don’t give a fruitbat where you hail from, as CS rep, you don’t school customers.
Or if you feel the need to, you need to be smarter than the ass you are trying to teach.
Yeah for Claude if all the COTHers so inclined bought the hat in question. The one the OP apparently saw looks kind of cute, the one she modeled? :lol: Not so much…
But - as mentioned above - I am cheap, I won’t buy hats for 20 bucks anytime soon…
(and since by his own admission the chapeau is made in China, the whole shipment probably had no greater production value than 2 bucks…bummer)
I have to say the French people I met while in France were great. I was there for 8 hours on a layover and decided to see a few sights. Took the train into Paris. I don’t speak French and I was worried because people always say that the French hate Americans. I had some trouble figuring out which train to get back on to get back to the airport and a nice gentleman spent several minutes with me helping me figure it out. He did not have to do that. Seems to me that if you have manners, they are willing to help you. Don’t be a steriotypical rude American and all will be well (at least in Paris). I look forward to someday seeing more of France.
There are all kinds of Americans just as there are all kinds of Europeans. I have been over there numerous times and have seen them all, rude, loud (NOT Americans), mean, nice, generous and helpful. They are human, people. They aren’t God’s gift to mankind and perfect just like every American is not rude and arrogant. Get over it.
I have seen plenty of foreigners here in the US be rude and obnoxious. It goes both ways.
[QUOTE=Horse with No Name;7440693]
couldn’t resist posting this, it made me think of anev and Claude’s email exchange …
http://www.tickld.com/x/i-wish-i-worked-with-this-manhes-hilarious[/QUOTE]
:lol: That was worth wading through this thread for. I don’t know if it was real or not, but it produced a great belly laugh and made me feel terrific!
I can understand writing the OP’s original email, and even the one the factory sent back… I write stuff like that all the time. Then I delete it and write something very simple like, the hat is not like the one we saw before so I am returning it.
Same with the response she got. Okay to think it, not so cool to send it. Sending an email like those (on both sides) is bound to get hackles raised when the matter was very simple.
OP’s boyfriend ordered hats. OP didn’t like what arrived. OP wanted to return them. It’s that simple. It’s too exhausting to bring emotion into every transaction.
[QUOTE=MistyBlue;7441010]
Probably the First Cup Of Coffee syndrome this morning, but I can’t figure out what the EtOH factor is. Is it like OTOH?[/QUOTE]
ethanol.
I work in the sales office of a manufacturing company. We occasionally get customer complaints. I didn’t think op’s email was all that rude, I’ve seen way worse. No matter how nasty or rude a customer is, if I were to send a reply like he did I’d probably lose my job. He has every right to feel offended if he wants to, you had every right to not like his hats or the quality thereof. However, his response to a customer’s complaint and observations is way out of line. There is NO excuse to be that rude to a customer…repeatedly. Any business can afford to make mistakes or even sell inferior products sometimes but they will be remembered by how they handle customer relations. A satisfied customer may tell one or two people, a dissatisfied customer will tell everyone. Remember the rule about this digital age, once you send an electronic communication you have no idea where it will end up and how far and wide it will be distributed.
[QUOTE=AlexS;7440917]
.[/QUOTE]
Language barrier aside, I did have to giggle over the idea of a swanky French saddle company accidentally ordering “gangsta” style hats.
Whoa am I late to the party! I’m going to participate anyway…
OP, your reaction was over the top. Seriously.
Story time!
I recently purchased a new saddle. I saved up for months for my new saddle. Months. A new saddle is a HUGE purchase for me. So after several months of scrimping, I placed my order with a well known saddle company (not Voltaire). I waited very impatiently for a couple more weeks for my saddle to arrive. Finally, it came! It was like Christmas morning! I was practically jumping up and down when I opened the box and…it was the wrong saddle. Seriously. The. Wrong. Saddle. They hadn’t made a mistake in the measurements or anything, they had legitimately sent me someone else’s saddle.
Naturally, I was slightly crushed. But, I realize that mistakes happen, so I sent a politely worded e-mail to the company. Basically, “hey a saddle arrived safely, but it doesn’t look like the one I ordered, here are the details, here are the details of what I ordered, what do I do?”
They were apologetic, thanked me for not flying off the handle at them, and rectified the situation. They shipped me a new saddle before the one that arrived had even left my possession, sent a shipping label for that one, and credited my card back a discount on the saddle.
Yeah, it was a bit of a hassle. But they are human. I’m human, too - I make mistakes at work all the time. So do you, I’d wager.
Had I flipped out and sent them a nasty e-mail like the OP? I’d bet they wouldn’t have been half as accommodating and all I would have accomplished would be to ruin someone’s day.
Dispatcher…in regards to your comment "Claude’s an a**hole. And French, to boot. Bleecchh… "…have you ever talked to him? He is far from how you are describing him. He is actually a very nice man. We’ve dealt with him several times and he has never been anything but professional and helpful. He is very fair (obviously) and willing to help and go the extra mile (obviously…I mean, how many small business people do you know who will send an extra item just to be romantic?) I don’t know of any. I’ve said it before, I would not in the past and will not now, after this fiasco, hesitate to recommend this man and/or the product he represents…and again, I don’t have a Voltaire saddle but I did buy another very high end saddle from him and it is in excellent condition and cost much less than any of the others of the same brand (not Voltaire) that we trialed. Not that any of my saddle buying experience matters because it has nothing to do with the original post but unless you’ve ever dealt with Claude and if you are solely going by this train wreck to form an opinion, you are quite wrong about the man in question.
[QUOTE=muffintop;7441200]
Dispatcher…in regards to your comment "Claude’s an a**hole. And French, to boot. Bleecchh… "…have you ever talked to him? He is far from how you are describing him. He is actually a very nice man. We’ve dealt with him several times and he has never been anything but professional and helpful. He is very fair (obviously) and willing to help and go the extra mile (obviously…I mean, how many small business people do you know who will send an extra item just to be romantic?) I don’t know of any. I’ve said it before, I would not in the past and will not now, after this fiasco, hesitate to recommend this man and/or the product he represents…and again, I don’t have a Voltaire saddle but I did buy another very high end saddle from him and it is in excellent condition and cost much less than any of the others of the same brand (not Voltaire) that we trialed. Not that any of my saddle buying experience matters because it has nothing to do with the original post but unless you’ve ever dealt with Claude and if you are solely going by this train wreck to form an opinion, you are quite wrong about the man in question.[/QUOTE]
No, I haven’t talked to him. I retract the statement. It really had no basis.
Thanks Ghazzu! I was trying to figure out what it meant as an acronym, LOL!
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