scampicat

I'm fed up today with not being able to get anything we want.

We went to Leroy Merlin (1.5 hours drive) for a blade for a circular saw. Did they have any? 'Nada'. (But they do sell the complete saws!). Couldn't get one from local Ferreterias either. Our son is having to bring one from England.

We went to Leroy Merlin for rubble bags after failing to get any locally. They don't sell them and don't know where we can get any from.

We saw a tool that my husband wanted in a shop in Motril. (1.5 hours in the other direction). We couldn't buy it because they didn't know how much it was and couldn't be ar$ed to find out.

We went today to change our orange gas bottles for silver ones after being told a month ago by the local 'silver' man that all we had to do was take them to his shop and he would exchange them. No....we have to pay through the nose for another contract.

We did manage to buy a glass cutter from Leroy Merllin. None of the local Ferreterias stocked them and looked at us as though we'd asked them to sell us a cruise missile when we asked for one.

This lack of customer service and the endless bureaucracy are the two things I hate most about Spain.

jdr

I bought a B and D strimmer, after about four months the drive went on it so took it back to Aki`s.
They said it will have to go to service man and gave me a number to phone.
Courier picked it up from my house and delivered a brand new one about a week later.
Also had a Plasma TV replaced after about twenty months use with a brand new one with another two years warrenty.
I don`t think you would get that in the UK ?
Not everything is bad in Spain. ;-))

Mitzyboy

Must vary from area to area .... always found customer service here excellent, goods bought in shops delivered following day, phone call before delivery

Have you got an Ardy or Bricoman in your area?

spain

cant you order them online from somewhere ?


what about those soft plastic bucket type things (capathas I think they are called), cant you use those ? and you can get them from the ferrateria for a few euros

we had a similar thing in our local place, on a few occasions they have stuff in the window but are unsure of the price




come on its not all bad and the sun is shining (well it is/was here anyway) - keep your chin up

scampicat

Sun isn't shining here, even.

We have had good customer service as regards delivery from the local builder and electrodomesticos. And our neighbours are very friendly and the village is pretty and has eight friendluy bars!.

Some friends of ours ordered some really expensive aluminium double glazed patio doors. The bloke brought them, realised they lived down a track and just left them by the supermercado, didn't phone them or anything, even though they had given him their number. They were there for a day and a night.

Just fed up with it today and want to go back to England where B & Q is ten minutes away and the gas comes through the pipes!

scampicat

We have nothing in our area - the nearest large places really are Adra, Roquetas or Motril. The nearest, Adra, is an hour's drive away. Although we don't really expect to get things here in the sticks, you do expect it in the larger places. Or I do anyway.

lee8

Many Expats don`t grasp the fact that Andulucia is far different from the rest of Spain in fact Spain differs region by region.

I have to go back now in a week and carry bottles of bloody butano up to the apt, I hate that, they hurt.

If you think those are irritating you should try working for a company down there.

Simple things can be horrendously difficult to achieve.

My OH finds it irritating.And if you don`t know she`s Spanish

jimmbo

It's just as difficult in the Uk to get a circ saw blade, as I found out that they differ in thickness so you buy the correct tooth/dia then find you can't tighten the bloody thing up. Anyway do Screwfix deliver to Spain? They have a web site.

scampicat

Thanks - someone who understands!

Spaniards from other parts of Spain call the locals here 'The Flintstones'.

They are lovely, they are friendly and welcoming.....but on the whole they have no idea or couldn't give a %$£& about their customers. Customers have to fit in with them, not them with their customers.

For example, we took our chain saw to a local guy to be sharpened . The bloke said come back in the afternoon. For various reasons, we couldn't get there until a week later.....the chain saw hadn't even moved from where my husband had left it. So the guy told us to come back in half an hour....we came back in 45 minutes and he reluctantly picked it up and sharpened it. But he only charged us four euros. And it was fine. And if we hadn't have had four euros he'd have let us pay him when we could.

They just want to do things as they have always done them when no-one ever left their village.

And I suppose that is why we're here really. Perhaps we shouldn't expect any different.

Thanks for letting me rant.

lee8

I live in Axarquia, so i`m not too far from you.

I`ve heard them called worse.

I`ve been in a queue in BBVA behind a women from Madrid, tutting and huffing at the pace of the queue, there were two behind the counter and two queues.

Then one of the women closed the till and went to Breakfast.

You should have heard the arguement this women from Madrid created.

The locals didn`t bat an eye, thats how its always been, 10.30 is breakfast time and no matter how busy you are, they are going dead at 10.30.


Yes, when i got out of the queue, I went to the bar and had a beer, the Bank cashier just left the bar after finishing her breakfast.

You have to learn to live with them, and never get anything done.

Problem though, I like to earn enough money to holiday away from the village.

scampicat

Yes, usually we do live with it - this week I have found it difficult.

Two other instances: a German expat here took her car into the Renault dealer to be repaired after an accident. He had it for NINE months!

In our village we have a little museum of photographs taken in the 1950s and 1960s of people in the village. It is supposed to be open to the public.

However, only the villagers know who has the key! They can't be ar$ed to put a sign on the door saying where to go for the key. Consequently no-one else ever gets to see it.

We saw it once when there was a fiesta de musica in the area and they actually opened the museum.


I think I'll have to go and live in Madrid

lee8

Thats why the booze is cheap.

I`ve known a washing machine to be repaired by 7 Engineers and still be faulty after 6 months, every time a guy went to fix it, he`d tell the client it didn`t need that part, it needed another.



No the beer is more expensive.

scampicat

Ah yes! Coffee and tostadas for two ......three euros 20c.

A night's drinking brandy and anis....15 euros.

This is the good side of living in Flintstone land!

lee8

Lets hope the penny has a long way further to travel, the day they learn maths will be a very sad day.