Anyone used to good customer service will, one day, be shocked by the lack of it in France.

When I had a problem with a MacDonald’s order, a young French friend who had worked for the company told me what I should do. ‘Go in and shout at the servers, then they will fetch the manager. Shout at the manager and then you will get what you want.’

Children at the age of two or three have tantrums to try to get what they want, so it came as a shock to hear someone suggesting that I would need to regress considerably to get good customer service in France.

Our first experience of terrible customer service, was when my husband ordered a ‘bombe surprise’ in a Brittany restaurant. The frozen dessert did indeed contain a surprise for embedded into the centre was the end of a blue rubber glove! We called over the waiter and showed it to him. He shrugged his shoulders and after serving several other people, went to have a word with the boss. She too shrugged her shoulders and continued with her work. A while later the waiter came over to tell us the verdict. ‘It wasn’t made by us.’ No attempt to remove it, replace it or even apologise.

If I remember correctly we did get a little recompense – we were not charged for one of the cups of coffee. Starbucks is rapidly expanding though the world. There is now even one in Reims! Their customer care team has said, “We’re in the people business serving coffee, not in the coffee business serving people”. With that motto it’s hardly surprising that they are doing so well.