I don't know who your friend saw at the shop.
Becasue there is only 2 people there that can
sell cels. If those person are not there, good
luck...

> She almost STILL could not wrench the cels out
> of their hands. The cels were sitting right
> there and the people had NO INTENTION to sell
>to her,

I realy have doubt about that. I am pretty sure
that it's not the whole story...
Probably, the person that handle the cels was
not here... (and the other person can't sell
cels because they don't know where they are,
what are the prices and which ones are reserved)

> overly insistant to even get a couple of the 
> cels she wanted, they wouldn't show her more
> cels she wanted to see

It's there problem, no ? That happen all the
time in japanese shops... whining about it
isn't especialy useful.

> prefer. I don't even mind waiting a week or so 
> for a reply from a store

I know many stores where you have to wait much
longer... and they are definitively not in France.

> France that has any kind of customer service
> when dealing in mail order.

As I said, they don't realy do mail order except
in France.

If you want to buy something my mail order from
them, get their mail order catalog. Only items
in it are normaly sold that way.

I am not trying to take their defence. It's pretty
frustrating to know they may have something you
want but they aren't selling it currently. Or
that they haven't it at the shop when you go.
(happen nearly always). But then, they are not
a sell shop and they probably don't have time
to waste on such things as soon as it becomes
a little complicated.
Usualy, you order from their catalog or go to
the shop and if they have the cels, you are
lucky. But trying to set an appointment is
pretty useless as nobody there will have the
time for it.

If you want to buy cels from their site, you
can try. But don't complain that they don't
have the cels : they never said the site was
up to date. And to get answer may take a lot
of time... (and yes, emailing people every
2 days is only going to annoy them).
IMHO, if you realy want to buy something, try
to email. Either you get an answer or you
don't... if you don't, just forget about it.