Change suppliers.

[Mr Wiggy]

I have been with orange for ten years and have never been happy with them because the first thing to go wrong was their live box, it was rubbish. When I had problems with the line it wasn’t their fault it was mine. I lost a month of no internet or phone until they repaired the fault which was theirs and not mine. Now the same has happened, three weeks without a phone.

So I’m thinking of changing supplier from orange to sfr.

What are the likely pit falls?

[Quillan]

SFR does not have a dedicated English language helpline should language be a problem.

The line will always belong to Orange. As I mentioned before they promise to give a fix in 24 hours which means Orange users with line problems will always take priority.

As to the kit these companies use, well most of it, regardless of what the box looks like contains sagamcom hardware because it is a French company. So you MAY find the inside of the SFR and Orange (and other brands) boxes are actually the same or similar. It's just the software that is different. As I said before if you plug the old Orange box in then call the Orange helpdesk they will test it remotely and give you a returns number. You can then take it to the shop, present them with the box and returns number and they will give you a replacment over the counter. Your probably get the latest (hardware) model as well. You have to understand you can't just take the box to an Orange shop and demand a replacement without a returns number. Doesn't matter what you say they just won't give you one and I think that may have been your problem all along.

[dave21478]

SFR suck greasy sailors wang down the docks.

1 - There is a mandatory (MANDATORY? really?) 24 hour delay after you report a fault before they can contact Orange to arrange line repairs. Or is it 48 hours? I forget, which is strange as it has happened to me so often you would think the procedure would be etched into my brain by now.

2 - The helpline is always busy. Believe me, I have called the fuckers often enough and its never a quick process.

3 - The helpline drones are utterly incapable of deviating from their diagnosis script. Your box could be on fire but they would still insist on you resetting it and unplugging the telephone etc etc while they do their line test.

4 - The helpline drones are baffled and unable to accept the concept that not everyone has a smartphone, and that people often dont get a mobile signal inside their house. I have to call them and do their stupid diagnostic hoop-jumping exercises while leaning alarmingly out my 1st floor bedroom window in order to get a signal on my portable telephone. If the call drops....go back to GO, do not collect £200....you have to wait in the queue and start again.

5 - while repairs are allegedly underway, they will loan you a web trotter gizmo which is a 3g wifi transmitter allowing you to use internet while your line is down. Depressingly, the internet connection this provides is always significantly faster and more reliable than the bloody fixed line, despite the above-mentioned signal problems indoors here.

6 - You have to pick up the web trotter from a SFR shop. Oh thats 45 minutes drive away? well tough.

7 - If you havent received the confirmation text message allowing you to collect the web trotter, you cant collect it, despite being told verbally you could. 90 minute round trip completely wasted? Tough.

8 - I will stop there, but believe me....I could go on for another ten or so points on how bad their service is.

Basically, if your phone line is unreliable, your telephone line is probably like mine....a shonky lash-up of jointed and re-jointed sections of cables leading back to a series of junction boxes that resembled coloured birds nests rammed full of unlabelled wires scotch-locked together in a crumbling plastic box that is no longer waterproof and quite possibly missing its entire lid and open to the elements. After a few days of rain, once all these joins have become nice and damp my connection speed often drops down to dial-up speeds. I complain, but at best they send out Sedtel or whatever the Orange contractors are calling themselves this week who will pick one random joint and cut it out, replacing it with two more.

Changing to SFR will not remedy this.

It really twists my piss-tube to know that despite the above, I am still forced to pay the same price every month as those who live in a city where the infrastructure is marginally less fucked, allowing connection speeds literally ten times faster than mine.

[EuroTrash]

Am I right in thinking sfr is related to vodafone in the UK?

I rarely get across with utilities suppliers but recently I tried to help a friend who had a problem with his sfr mobile, I ended up resolving it - as best could be - via online chat and it's the first time in my life I've ever been driven to being actually rude to a customer service person, but they were so obstructive and unhelpful and arrogant and generally infuriating that I ended up telling them so.

And if you read the reviews of vodafone on trustpilot, they seem to have exactly the same issues - bouncing customers between the shop and customer services and back, nobody taking responsibility, blaming the problem on the customer and not even pretending they're sorry you have a problem and they would like to help you. On the basis of that one experience I wouldn't touch sfr; maybe the mobile and the landline businesses are separate but it's the worst customer service I ever had in any country.

I'm with free.fr and am reasonably happy but wouldn't particularly recommend them. My freebox is a hideous piece of kit.

[mint]

I must be in a minority of one then as my experience could not be more different to those recounted.

Have been with SFR for over 8 years, in fact, before they were SFR and were then NEUF.  It was our own wonderful Clair who suggested them.  I was living in the Charente Maritime in our old house and the switch from FT was done without a hitch.

When we moved to our present house (in a different region), I called into one of their shops in Angouleme and they telephoned to their HQ for me and reported the change of address.  By the time I'd driven home from Angouleme, everything was live.  I'd only had to plug in the modem and the phones which I had brought from the previous house.

Then a couple of years ago, when I bought my new computer and couldn't get it to work, I rang and asked for help.  They told me a technician would ring back and advise me.  Within half an hour, someone rang back and talked me through the process.  After a couple of hours the same technician rang back to check that all was well.  They never gave me the impression that I was a nuisance and could have got my own computer up and running by myself.  Instead, we had a friendly chat about this and that, my French accent, where I'd learned the language etc much as someone might have a chat with a cashier in the supermarket.

When OH's son came to visit, he couldn't believe how fast my internet was; he said it was faster than in London and in Hampshire where he spends weekends.

[Judith]

Our orange livebox was also 10 yrs old - been very problematic for 6mth or more, lost lines after poor weather (fixed) livebox still bad.  Eventually they offered a new livebox, we had bought ours, and had to phone when installing 'cos we got one thing wrong, and found out that they (orange) we replacing it foc as they were no longer supporting the old liveboxes.  That could be a way to go.  Since then, dare I say it, it's been trouble free and seems to pick up signals better and be quicker ...

[Quillan]

The first thing is that the old LiveBox, which always reminded me of a book for some reason, was not very good and many people had problems. I now have a LiveBox 2 which is much better especially with the new 'firmware', it has never been replaced. There is an even newer one now I believe which is black in colour.

Next, the quality of service, as always, varies from one part of France to another regardless of who you use, it shouldn't do but the fact is that it does.

I am an Orange user and very happy I am too but I need an SFR mobile where I live because the Orange coverage is crap. For every person who recommends and ISP be it Orange, Free, SFR etc you will find others that have had a bad experience of them. People like to write and moan but few ever write to say theirs is good. I like Orange because of their tech support which I have never had a problem with. I have been through two of the older LiveBoxes (one replacement was actually biked to me from Montpellier) and a TV decoder that the cat pissed on and didn't cost me a cent to replace which is one of the reasons I prefer to 'rent' the kit because there are no warranty problems. I have a UPS for the LiveBox and phone in case of a power failure and a fall back of call forward to my mobile and it all works for me.

It is not a definitive way of doing it but it gives you an idea of finding who may be the better ISP where you live. If you have a mobile phone that connects via WiFi to the Internet then try walking around your village and see what you can find. Round here everyone seems to use Orange or Free.

The price is really the same when it comes to ISP's. If you are 'clever' and there are things you don't want then because some ISP's who charge more for some services to be inclusive whilst others don't you can save money by excluding these services. However if you add in the ones that are not included in the package to match the offerings of another ISP (in other words doing a like for like comparison) you can find the price is the same or in some cases more.

Hope that helps.

[Mr Wiggy]

I have just had a visit from an Orange Engineer and again the fault is once again the out side wiring into the house.

The engineer then told me that my problems would continue because the cable into the house requires renewing, he could not do this because Orange will not allow the engineers to drill through a wooden or UPVC door or window-frame, instead they are required to feed the cable through the WALL, all 70cms of it.

Fortunately the door in question is shortly going to be replaced with a 1 metre high wall and a window so that will mean a concrete block wall of lesser proportions to the main wall. Only then will they then come and renew the outside cabling.

This has been the same problem that I have had all the time, the fault has never been inside the house and only now am I being told the reason for this problem, that makes me even angrier, the fact that they knew and didn’t say is unbelievable.

I think this is a good enough a reason to terminate my contract but get the wiring replaced first.

[suein56]

Mr Wiggy wrote :

I think this is a good enough a reason to terminate my contract but get the wiring replaced first.

But surely your situation will improve hugely when the wiring is eventually changed ? You could then try your old Livebox once again or swap to a cheaper contract with Orange.

The world could be your oyster instead of a bugbear.

Sue

[Quillan]

[quote user="Mr Wiggy"]I have just had a visit from an Orange Engineer and again the fault is once again the out side wiring into the house. The engineer then told me that my problems would continue because the cable into the house requires renewing, he could not do this because Orange will not allow the engineers to drill through a wooden or UPVC door or window-frame, instead they are required to feed the cable through the WALL, all 70cms of it.[/quote]

I hope I have read this right and if I have then it is NOT their problem. Basically they supply a cable to a box at the periphery of your property or if there is a pole on your property to a box on that. If the cable is in a bunch that goes past your property, like in a town, they normally drop it down out of the bunch and  put a box on the wall for you to connect to It is you that has to install the cable, either personally or via a contractor, from that box in to the house. Orange/FT will test the line to that connection and if that is OK then it is up to you to replace the cable. You can buy the cable from most DIY shops. Normally if you know where the end is inside your house you can attach the new cable to the ols one outside and pull it through using the old cable. You might need an extra person to 'feed' the cable into the tube outside to help pull it through. Other than that get your local electrician to come and do it. Sometimes you get a contractor and not an Orange engineer (who tend to have a white van with Orange written on the side) and they tend to be more helpful.

Alternativly you could drill a hole through the window frame yourself then call the bloke back and tell him to put in a new cable and stuff it through the hole.

[Mr Wiggy]

Quillin,

The box is on an internal wall, slap bang next to the doorframe where the cable comes through. the cable is through the framework of the door.

[Mr Wiggy]

Sue

I shall certainly consider all avenues once the cable is replaced and have for the first time experienced a genuine French broadband connection. because up to now I have not had the full blown connection as it quit often slows or drifts off completely.

[Quillan]

[quote user="Mr Wiggy"]Quillin, The box is on an internal wall, slap bang next to the doorframe where the cable comes through. the cable is through the framework of the door.[/quote]

Then replace it yourself if you feel able or get the local electrician to do it for you.