I am being bullied by a firm of builders to whom I refuse to pay money, before they finish building a garden wall satisfactorily.
Wednesday 5th April
Today , the debt collector came
11-10 am. A noisy white car comes down lane at back of house, a fat man sitting inside, is looking at a piece of white paper .
He then reverses back up lane , I am thinking this is it 'the debt collector '.
I was right, the next thing I see the same man is walking down the path at the front of the house, carrying a brief case.
About 5 -10 in height, probable age mid fifties , he introduced himself as an avocat from A debt collecting company. Yeah sure ,I thought.
The very same company which has been sending the threatening letters.
I take him & show him the faults with the disputed wall.
He is not interested in looking at it, & just keeps saying in French of course, 'you cannot retain the full amount that is due', all he wants is half the money owed.
I invited him in to discuss & show him the photos I took throughout the build, showing clearly all the problems, except that of the racial taunts I suffered.
Whilst he scours them I take a close look at him, scruffy, ill fitting [strange greeny coloured ] suit, [ although that is the norm here,you only have to look at prime minister De Villepin to see that , the shoulders of his suit are way down his arms ] , dyed thinning dark brown hair. his battered briefcase fake leather, old & shabby. Cheap gilt jewellery.
His whole appearance rather unsavory.
He tells me, I must pay 1,600 euros [ total owing 3,600] he is getting very aggitated, when i say no, he jumps up threatening me, waving his arms shouting, I would be taken to a tribunal . .
I say OK.
He looks a bit stunned, still sitting I say I would pay for the Monocouche, [ a type of coating on garden side of wall , which in fact has already started to peel away from the block work,] this payment would be a part of his 1,600 euros, but on the condition the builders return & finish the work on the bad side of the wall.
He says yes, there was no problem with that.
I then asked him to put it in writing.
Encouraged by this he began to do a simple sum adding 874 -50 + 50, this took him minutes to do & 3 times before he had the correct figure.
Not a good performance for a debt collector !!!
Would a reputable company send someone without ID to collect money ? was this intimidation ? would anyong give money to this total stranger. ? l Was this man genuine. ?
It occurs to me to ask for ID, he reached into his inside pocket & took out a plain white card with no name other than the company name. No explanation as to what they did or were.
No further ID was offered.
He started to wave a letter he was holding, addressed to the Tribunal St Malo, with the date of 6 / 8 / 05, 8 months earlier.
In it was listed all the reasons they were taking me to court, mostly inaccurate & even the fact I had taken photos throught out the build was fact number 6.
Whilst I read this document, he was getting impatient & tried to hurry me, kept looking at his watch, he demanded yet again , you have to pay the first figure mentioned .
My French is becoming almost fluent in my anger, I repeat that the builder had never tried to talk to me , was only once on site during the build, how silly this was, when all down the line
I had said if the builder just came to discuss the situation, we could come to an agreement of some kind, but it seems he would rather go to court.
This is how things were left when the aggressor departed.
No doubt he will be back. !
Feeling bemused by this meeting I am wondering what their next step will be & why I have encountered this bullying a number of times whilst living here.
Are the French ever going to learn that getting work means responsibility not just money.
They really seem to think the quote [ devis] is only for their protection not for the customer.
I will not be moved. !!!
Does anyone like my wall ?
