Does anyone know of an effective direct e-mail address for the Customer Service department of La Poste ?
Please don’t suggest using their website as I have spent well over an hour there just going around in circles and being directed to click on buttons at the top right, or bottom right, of various pages where those buttons just do not exist !
Basically I need to chase them up about a Lettre Récommandée avec AR that I sent via their website on Sept 11th. I have the Preuve de Dépot, and the Preuve de Contenu from the website, but that’s as far as it goes. Following through the various stages on the website seems to indicate that the letter was printed and sent out for delivery. However, elsewhere on the same webpage it states that the letter was “Retiré” whatever they mean by that.
I really would like to know what on earth has happened and no doubt going to the local post office will simply result in the usual gallic shrug.
So suggestions as to who to write to would be most welcome.
Can you ask at a Post Office for them to tell you where the package is?
My Post Lady reckons the same… (just dropped off a parcel this morning and mentioned this thread…)
Well the lady at the post office reckons that my item was delivered on the 16th (5 days after sending it). After a little persuasion, she did give me a print out from her computer screen, but of course this is not the legally valid proof of delivery that a signed Avis de Reception would be.
An internet search enabled me to find a direct email address for La Poste Customer Service which is instance-recours.laposte@laposte.fr and I have received an automated response to the effect that they will look into the matter and get back to me within 10 working days. Hopefully they will eventually discover what has happened, but that doesn’t help me much regarding the appointment I have with an Avocat on Monday concerning the matter to which the Lettre Recommandée is highly relevant. (A time limited appeal regarding refusal of a Declaration Préalable.)
As something of an aside, I must admit that I am somewhat dismayed that a Lettre Recomandée should take 5 days to be delivered. I thought that this new online system was supposed to be faster (overnight). I reckon that a Lettre Verte would have reached its destination sooner !!
Of course, sending LR with Proof etc etc… doesn’t mean the letter will be accepted and signed for particularly quickly… if there is no-one to sign for it a card will be left in the letterbox… saying “come to the PO and collect your letter… if not collected within 15 days it will be returned to sender marked as undelivered” …
(perhaps not the exact words, but you get my drift)
I think the delivery is “within 3 working days” (?) for an e-courrier completed online before 8pm (something like that…)
but for something which needs a signature… almost all bets are off…
Somehow I doubt that this would be the case at the Direction Regional Affaires Culturel.
As an update, I received a response from Customer Services at La Poste to say that they could not deal with the matter because I had not contacted them via the online portal, and this despite having given them all the relevant information in the email sent to them.
Now in fairness, they did send me a link to the La Poste website with instructions to select the Customer Services link on that page, but as is often the case, that selection simply does not exist !
So I looked around a bit and selected the nearest option I could find. I struck lucky and was actually taken to a page where I was asked to indicate whether I am a business or an individual so that I could be redirected to the appropriate online form to complete.
So I clicked on ‘individual’ and was taken to another page which was not a form at all !!
Swirling my mouse around in angry frustration I happened to land on a weird little icon in the bottom right hand corner, the nature of which was totally unknown to me. Lo and behold, up popped a sort of chat window, and as it was daytime I thought that there might actually be a person to answer it, so I thought “Well nothing to lose so I’ll give it a go”.
Turns out it wasn’t a chat window at all, but rather some annoying AI thing that proceeded to ask me a long series of questions to cause me to enter all the information that they had previously been sent in my email.
Their AI thing isn’t anywhere near as clever as they might link to think as having told it that my letter was sent to a business, it then wanted to know the first name and family name of said business. Of course you have to put something in the box in order to be able to proceed, so I had to tell it that my letter had been sent to Mr Recours Gracieux.
At the end of the process it tells you that you will be sent an e-mail as confirmation of receipt which of course has still not arrived 36 hrs later.
There is of course no way to print out one’s ‘conversation’ with the AI thingy from the website, but a bit of lateral thinking allowed me to highlight said text and then copy and paste it into a Word document from where I could print it.
Today, just to rub salt into the wound, they sent me a ‘survey’ email asking me to rate their performance. The reader may not be surprised to know that I awarded them a big fat 0.
If there ever is an update, I will try to remember to post it here in case anyone has interest.
La Poste is awful. Once I paid them to keep our mail for the month of August. On returning from holiday I skipped along to their office to collect my month’s worth of mail only to be told there hadn’t been any. I told them this was unlikely as, at the very least, there would have been bank statements. I went back several times to inquire but to no avail. Then my bank contacted me to ask if we’d changed address because their statement had been returned. I went back to the post office AGAIN whereupon they finally admitted that instead of keeping the mail, some idiot had returned it all to the senders. No offer to refund me for the post restante service I’d paid for. I promptly switched all bills and bank statements to paperless so now we receive virtually no post.
A couple of weeks ago I had to send off important original documents (including a UK passport) for a first Irish passport application for my newly naturalised husband. I really don’t trust their lettre recommandée avec accusé system so I paid €50 for Chronopost. It arrived in Dublin one day later and I could see the name of the person who had signed for it. So in future if you have something really important to send, maybe bite the bullet and use Chronopost.
M. Barnier’s plans to cut postal services including local post office agencies (like our Mairie) are not great news either…
@Robert_Hodge
From what you are saying… it sounds as if you have not actually visited a POffice and spoken about this with a real person, face to face… ???
Unless your Post Office person is not as helpful as ours… 
@AngelaR
we are very concerned. Our Mairie/commune already provides the premises and pays towards costs etc etc…
we do NOT want our PO to close… but it has been an ongoing battle… which is still raging.
Dealing with a real person works well for many of us…
Yes, some folk do use the on-line service… but from Robert’s story… I’m not tempted to try it…
Robert said
Well the lady at the post office reckons that my item was delivered on the 16th (5 days after sending it). After a little persuasion, she did give me a print out from her computer screen, but of course this is not the legally valid proof of delivery
As @hairbear has already kindly pointed out, I have actually been to our nearest Post Office to discuss the matter. Basically the response was; “You have to make an online ‘reclamation’ from your personal account space”.
When I entered the PO, both counter positions were staffed, but as soon as they realised why I was there, one of the ladies made a beeline for the back office never to be seen again. All in all, not the most helpful of experiences.
Oh and by the way, having lived here 20 years I do speak reasonable French. Certainly more than adequate for such a situation.
sorry @Robert_Hodge … I’ve been using OH’s smartphone and it’s clear that I’ve not scrolled the small screen properly and have missed some of your input… I was horrified to read about your swirling-mouse and that obviously sent me down the wrong chemin…
I agree that a printout from the POLady is not proof… and if you’ve paid for proof, then proof you should have!
why not write a letter to the French equivalent of Post Master General… and send it by normal recorded mail (rather than E-line…)
Sounds like you can show that the E-line is naff at the moment… and the PMG should surely get you your refund… and elsewhere… heads should roll… 
At last I have received a response from La Poste customer service.
They acknowledge that the letter was delivered and that they are unable to provide proof of delivery. Apparently they understand the inconvenience caused and pray that I receive their excuses in the name of La Poste.
Additionally, they are going to give me a refund in the princely sum of 1 euro and 35 cents.
I must try to remember not to spend it all at once.
well, I suppose it’s something…
So glad we still have our local LaPoste and a very helpful lady at the counter…
That’s more than I would expect!