Day: September 1, 2015

I’ve mentioned on several previous occasions that whatever you want to buy in France, things rarely, if ever, run smoothly and that was proven again yesterday. The French are not the most organised of races, as evidenced by their fondness for excessive paperwork and over-bureaucracy, and this is probably why they’ve not really been successful in embracing new technology, especially the internet.

This shows in all sorts of ways. In the UK and most of Northern Europe where things are much more organised, we think nothing of purchasing almost anything and everything on the internet, including many high value items. But it’s still not possible to do that for the most part in France mainly because lots of even quite large companies do not have e-commerce web sites and just use the sites they do have to display their wares, expecting interested purchasers to phone for prices and further details. That may have been OK back in the 90’s, but companies doing that in the UK nowadays would soon be dead in the water.

And many even that run web sites in France and look as though they’re set up to sell directly, aren’t. For example, I have come across several car insurance companies whose web sites lead you through the tedious process of finding out about your vehicle and driving experience, offering you the cover that you are seeking and even quoting a price, but whose final step is for you to click a button to get one of their salespersons to call you on the phone. So don’t hold your breath if you’re looking for immediate cover!

In a smaller but no less annoying way, I found a similar example yesterday. While I was cutting the grass on the runway at Galinat on Thursday, my new (to me) Jonsered ride-on mower stopped mowing. I assumed from the smoke that it emitted at the time (which I’d seen before with the original old ride-on that I acquired several months ago) that the cutting belt had gone so got straight onto the internet when I arrived home and ordered a new one and a second to keep as a spare. After all, what could go wrong – my ride-on is a late model from a well-known maker, so all I had to do was go onto a belt supplier’s web site, find my model in the manufacturer’s list, get the part number and place the order. Voilà! Oh, what an optimistic fool, this is France!

Luckily, when I had purchased some new ramps for loading the ride-on onto my new trailer, I’d also bought a device for raising the mower so you can work on it. I’d not expected to be using it quite so soon, but anyway, when the new belts arrived yesterday I could get cracking straight away and fit one of them. Or so I thought. In fact, after I’d removed the cutting deck side panels and could see what was what, it became clear that although the old belt was worn and well-used, it hadn’t actually snapped. But what had gone wrong was that the two belt tensioner pulleys were loose and hanging in a strange way, so off the whole deck would have to come to find out what had happened.

It soon became clear that the long bolt that is all that attaches the pulley assembly to the deck itself had lost its securing nut and from the look of it, had been working its way loose for some time. But what was slightly ominous was that it appeared from the way some small parts were missing (eg a retaining circlip for a rod that was no longer secured and had dropped loose) someone had at some time done a very poor repair in the area. But this should not have come as a surprise and it wasn’t worth dwelling on because to the average Frenchman, anything to do with engineering is a complete mystery and they’d sooner sell something that’s damaged and buy a new one rather than repair it. So I only had to do a proper repair, which I soon did using a locking nut and washer from the increasing stock that I’m now building up of old ULM bits, before fitting a new belt and refitting the cutting deck.

As the old belt was still in one piece, I was able to compare it to one of the new ones and it was obvious that the latter was considerably shorter. I went back and checked the delivery note, the part number and my order and all tallied, so what could have gone wrong? I had noticed that when ordering the belts, the supplier’s description of my mower said that it had a cutting width of 92cm when I knew that mine’s was 97cm but assumed that that was an error and that as the belts were to fit a Jonsered 2114, which is what mine is, that they would do so. But there was no way that they were going to, as I found out when I offered the deck up with a new belt on it, so clearly the supplier’s web site could not be trusted and more investigation was required.

This time I did a search in English for a Jonsered 2114 with a 38″ cut and immediately some new results came up with different part numbers including one for a longer belt that tallied with the old one. I then cross-checked with the supplier’s web site and it wasn’t listed – or didn’t appear to be. I then checked for the Jonsered part number, and there it was, but looking down the list of models for which the belt was supposed to be suitable, a Jonsered was nowhere to be seen. So the web site was wrong as I knew that it was the right belt and went ahead and ordered it – just one this time.

So I now have to wait for a return number so I can send back the belts that were incorrectly supplied and also in the meantime, my new mower is standing outside in bits while I wait another three days for another new one, hopefully correct this time, to be delivered. Like I said at the beginning, when you try to buy almost anything in France, it never seems to run smoothly – especially if the internet is involved 😐