Shopping in France Part 3: L'Association des consommateurs de France or Making things right!

I met Ellis on the Paris-London bus the other day. Ellis is originally from Ghana but has lived and worked in France for over a decade and so we whiled away the time discussing and comparing my fresh French experience with his seasoned one, and eventually landed on the topic of French "customer service", or the non-service. This is when he clued me in on a little glimmer of hope for millions of dejected consumers in France called: L'Association des consommateurs de France or ASCOF.

Ellis explained his theory to me: French commercial law is extremely complicated and complex (really, like any law), that many large businesses see this as an opportunity to take advantage of consumers. The average French consumer knows very little about his/her rights that s/he just accepts that the annoying, discourteous, arrogant, inhospitable business practices are just the way things are done in France. Enter ASCOF which is an organisation that exists to clarify the rights of consumers and users of public and private services in France. I guess they're like a band of superheroes who comb legislation and commercial contracts in the name of consumptive justice for all...