Ian L

Hi Could someone tell me what the equivalent is in France to the British Trading Standards? I have bought something from a french company and it doesnt do what it was advertised to do and they are refusing to give me a refund. I know about the seven day rule but its now outside of the seven days. Thanks for any advice. Ian

Hi, We bought an old house in Aisne in August which has a relatively new De Dietrich 'fioul' boiler in the cellar. It heats around 9 radiators and the hot water system. We are unfamilar with such a heating system and have listened so far to the advice of the previous owners. We stay at the house just two weekends a month and we were told to set the heating to '3' (its minimum setting) when we leave the house in summer and '4' during the winter so the pipes dont freeze. We have followed this advice but we've realised that, particularly recently, that the boiler is using a lot of fuel whilst we are away (around 100 litres a fortnight). All the radiators are on the frost symbol (except a single master radiator that cant be altered) and the boiler is set to 'manual' and therefore not using the room thermostat. I read in the faq entry about anti-freeze for the boiler radiator system. Is this a possibility and if this is present is it OK to turn off the boiler between visits? Any advice would be really appreciated as its costing us a lot more than we expected. Ian 

Thanks for all the advice especially the letters. Im also going to try on the justneuf forums to see if thats gets us anywhere Cheers Ian

Thank you for the replies both of you. Clair your suggested letters look like just what I need but unfortunately the links dont seem to work. Would you mind reposting please? joidevie, Im afraid the line is doing nothing at all because we didnt keep the France Telecom subscription, trying to reduce costs on a line we wont use much, so we cant use an ordinary modem. Im really surprised Neuf doent have a variety of ways of getting help. Im not sure how anyone is meant to get help with their telephone line if all they offer is a telephone number you cant call from a public telephone box. Thanks again.

Hi, Ive signed up for a Neuf ADSL and telephone package for our holiday home in Aisne. The telephone line is "degroupage" so it only works through the ADSL line, we dont have a France Telecom line. The Neuf box arrived and I set it up (I'm a computer programmer so I'm used to doing this) and it didnt work. The error says it cant synchronise with the telephone exchange. So I tried to contact Neuf support. The only way to contact them is by phone but our phone isnt working so we went to the local phone box and tried to ring form there. Didnt work. 0892 numbers cant be called from a phone box. I tried then calling the number from the UK but it never gets through (Ive read that it only responds to French calls). They have a page on their site that you can email them but they responded saying they couldnt offer technical help and giving us no other means of contact. I now dont know what to do. Theyve been billing our account for the last 2 months and we've had no service and no way to let them know. Im considering writing a letter and then unsubscribing. Has anyone else had this problem? Ian