Clairefontaine Reviews 4

Package never arrived, no email response, phone number doesn't exist, scam

Bought 5 crop pants from them they have a shop in dublin and roscommon
They don't answer the phone or emails

Three years after purchasing an "Exactive trolley" case from Clairefontaine-Exacompta France, one of its attached wheels eventually broke, which is quite understandable.
The retailer where I purchased the case got in touch with Exacompta (one of Clairefontaine’s subsidiaries) about the issue, only to be told this very day that the wheels cannot be repaired (and that a new case must therefore be purchased).
Although replacement wheels only costs around €20/$20 in DIY stores and on the internet, the current ones are riveted, making them impossible for a private individual to maintain. After three years this case ($120/€120) is now unusable.
Could one possibly imagine a three-year-old car with worn tires that would have to be replaced? well, I guess so. "Sorry, you'll need to buy a new car, Sir, because one of your tires is worn out".
Pathetic.
In every aspect this looks like planned obsolescence, which is totally unacceptable on the part of a company that proudly bears the « not made in China » banner.
My colleagues and I know where not to turn to for our office equipment in the future.

Trois ans après l’achat d’une mallette à roulettes « Exactive trolley », l’une des roues a rendu l’âme, ce qui peut se comprendre.
Contactée par le revendeur français, la société informe ce jour que les roues ne se réparent pas (et qu’il faut donc acheter une nouvelle mallette).
Les roulettes usées (environ €20 dans les magasins de bricolage et sur internet) sont rivetées, ne permettent pas leur maintenance pour un particulier, et rendent donc cette mallette (€120) inutilisable au bout de trois ans.
Imaginerions-nous une voiture de trois ans, dont les pneus seraient usés, et qu’il faudrait remplacer… eh bien il faut croire que oui. « Il va falloir acheter une nouvelle voiture, Monsieur, car l’un de vos pneus est usé ».
Inacceptable.
Ceci a tout l’air d’une obsolescence programmée, scandaleuse de la part de cette entreprise qui se dit porter fièrement la bannière du « made in France ».
Mes collègues et moi saurons vers qui ne plus se tourner dorénavant pour notre matériel bureautique.

I loved the pastelmat pad No3 when I first bought it about 12 months ago when the outer cover was a dark red but they have changed the surface texture.
I create pictures of animals but now the surface texture is so grainy it's difficult to create fine details such as around eyes. The smaller pad I purchased 6 months ago had a white outer covering and had to be thrown away as totally unsuitable.
Later I placed an order with a supplier who was showing the pads with the red cover on their website but the newer version with the white cover arrived and I returned it to the store for a refund.
After the store and I contacted Claire Fontaine we both received a reply stating there was nothing wrong with the product but a colleague told me that the large group that they are a member of and who all found the same faults as me were told by claire fontaine that there had been a problem and all products were replaced.
Last Christmas I received one of the pads with coloured sheets and recently began using them, the coloured sheets are good but the white sheets still have too grainy a texture and are so unsuitable I will never use pastelmat again.