The story of the bike rack

The task was simple: buy a device to transport bikes up to Monetier. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a three day epic, thanks to Norauto. The first rack, which was dutifully looked up for compatibility with our car by a helpful salesman, turned out to be about 7 inches (18 cm) too short for the Civic, and could also potentially shatter the glass on the tailgate. The second solution offered (and again confirmed for compatibility) was a set of rooftop rails, which turned out to have bindings that were not wide enough to mount on our roof bars. Strike two. The final solution turned out to work, but was very expensive (top of the line rooftop rails). They also only credited me for the return of only one of the two rails from yesterday. Clearly, none of the salespeople, from junior clerks to supervisor had any idea what they were doing. It was a bit disheartening, since I was hoping that the general level of aptitude would be higher in France than the states, but it seems about the same. The only differences are: nicer uniforms and more polite salespeople in France. Oh, and 1.5 fold higher prices.