BNP Paribas

Worst bank experience I think I have ever had. I thought it would be easiest here as an international student because well it’s a bank located inside of a location for international students, but I was so wrong. The first time I went I was told to wait amongst the large amount of people in the waiting area. There was no queue system at all. You just had to hope the woman running around noticed you or you were able to get her attention. When I got her attention, I asked her if she spoke English (in French) and she said yes and handed me a packet completely in French to fill out. I told her I didn’t know what some of the lines were asking and she told me IN FRENCH what to do so I had no idea what to do, filled it out wrong, and she yelled at me (in French) and made me restart. 3 hours later she told me to come back the next day at 3PM. I came back at 3PM and told her I was told to be here and she made me wait for an hour without even helping me. So I told her I had to come back on Monday. On Monday luckily their was a nicer employee working who actually helped me (still had to wait an hour to get anything but at least she was kind to me and spoke English to me). She gave me my documents and said I would get three documents in the mail, the last telling me I could pick up my bank card. I received that letter (in French and had to translate even though I checked the box saying I wanted to communicate in English on my application) and went to the bank. The bank told me that the letter was wrong and my bank card wasn’t ready and to come back in a few days. So I came back in a few days and they said the same thing. This time they also had me sit down and wait for over an hour to tell me that they could not give me my bank card today but they would email me when it is ready. Never received an email. Over a week went by, and I decided to email them. Since they don’t seem to respect people who speak English, I spent too much time writing an email in French about my bank card. Ten minutes later, I received a reply saying my card would be ready the next day. And it was. Also, they were pretty horrible to my friend who is fluent in French also, so I would really just suggest going somewhere else unless you want to waste days of your life getting nowhere.

This branch is extremely inefficient even at the simplest tasks. It has so far taken me 4 visits, costing hours of my time, and I still haven’t even gotten to the step of signing any papers. To completely set up my account will take at least two more visits from what I was told.
In the first visit, I went into the branch at 1:30 PM, and was told the «advisors» are not available until 2 PM. So I waited. As soon as it turned 2 PM, I went to the waiting area and there was no one yet. A French speaking lady made copies of my documents, and asked me to leave my email address. Since I don’t understand any French, I think she meant that I will receive an email with English version of the bank account related documents.
So I waited for a week, no email for BNP. I went for a second visit to check what’s going on. The bank was overflowing with people waiting to open accounts and I was told by the front desk to wait among the crowd. After over an hour of wait, I walked up to the French speaking lady to explain my situation. She asked for my documents which I didn’t think I would need (since she has already made copies previously), and said I have to come back with them.
So the next day I went in for my third visit. After another hour of wait, the same lady came and made copies of the same documents, again. This time, however, she handed me a business card and told me that I have a rendez-​vous on the next day.
So I came for the rendez-​vous on time, but still waited for 30 minutes to see the person I am supposed to meet. Unfortunately, the computer system broke down while I was there, so after waiting for another 30 minutes, I was told that they cannot produce any documents for me to sign, so I have to come back again to finish the process. And after the next visit, I will need to stop by yet again to collect my card.
That’s a minimum of 6 visits and 6 hours of wait until I can fully set up my account. What’s worse? The staff don’t seem to be apologetic about their ineptness. They are perfectly comfortable about keeping customers waiting for hours and coming back repeatedly to simply open a damn account.
I don’t know if other branches or banks in Paris offer the same disastrous service. I wouldn’t recommend this brand if you have other options. The geographic convenience is completely outweighed by the extreme inefficiency of the staff.