I hate....

[YCCMB]

The complexity of doing something as simple as having a mobile phone with a French number, so I now give up.

I started out with Orange. That was back in the days of "use it or lose it" credit on PAYG. I saw no point.

I then swapped to NRG, when they were giving rollover credit bundles. They stopped, so I gave up with them.

I then went to Free, which was great.....until my UK credit card, from which the 2€ a month was debited, expired.

Call me overcautious, but I've learned that, if it can be avoided, I'd rather not hand over my bank details to any French company, due to their seemingly cavalier propensity to simply dip into my account to help themselves to whatever they fancy, whenever they fancy, so I was delighted to be able to buy my Free subscription on my UK credit card, and let them take the money from there. Which worked fine until I realised my credit card was about to expire. Trying to "manage my account" online proved frustrating, as the ONLY (and yes, here I am shouting) option was to give them a RIB (abbreviation), and, frankly, it always feels like other body parts may well follow...so I phoned them up...because despite this being the 21st century, I can only phone, send them a fax (FAX???Who still uses FAX????) or a recorded delivery letter.....which costs a massive six quid and more from the UK.

A nice lady on the phone said "oh, don't worry...when your credit card is refused, we'll send you a reminder and at that point you can enter your new credit card details and all will be tickety-boo". And I believed her. Yes, I am sometimes gullible.

So, life went on, and so did several months, until my credit card finally DID expire, and I heard nothing from Free. 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I now realise that of course, not only do they not let you contact them by e-mail, they don't use it much themselves, either.

It would appear that my December and January payments couldn't be taken from my (long-expired) credit card, so they (probably) wrote me a letter. To my French address. Where I don't live. So of course, I didn't get it. So, eventually, after 2 months of unpaid bills, I have now racked up a massive debt of €4 with Free. At which point, they eventually sent me an e-mail, threatening me with the usual huissier, charges, blah, blah. So I did what the nice lady asked me to do some 4 or 5 months ago, and went online to "manage my account", and paid up. But meantime, they've decided to close down my account, and I've lost my number. As a nice bloke called William has just explained to me when I called them (because I can't mail them and their FAQ section is useless).

The only real reason I have a French mobile number is so that I don't have to activate my landline for a week-long visit, and out of politeness to my friends and neighbours so they don't have to call a foreign mobile if they want to get in touch with me, and to reduce my own mobile costs when I'm in France. It's really not worth the hassle!

[woolybanana]

Great Bobo in a bucket, what a lotta trouble for a fone. Now, if you are as wise as the Woolybanana, you would have a B and You card which can be topped up in shops at will, and only requires one call every blue moon to be kept going.

[YCCMB]

I can't be bothered anymore. In the land of the moving goalposts, it only takes for me to be out of the country for a couple of months and the whole thing changes again. And the few friends who have my French mobile number are running out of space in their address books to write in yet another new one.

[mint]

That's a pity, Betty.

Acting on advice from this very Forum, I now have a Lycamobile PAYG, easier to activate (for me anyway) than B & You, perfect for my occasional use of about once every 2 months, can be topped up on-line using a UK credit card and so, there you go.

The SIM card itself was free.

As you have described, I only have a French mobile to enable people to call me without taking out a small mortgage and to reassure OH (since he fell ill last year) that he could contact me readily (not that he ever does, it's just to calm him down [:)])

Might be worth one more shot?[:)]

PS:  like you, I don't pay anything by prélèvement (except for EDF and that was set up in the days before we came to live in France) and I don't give my bank details to any firm full-stop.

[Frederick]

Me too ..........Lycamobile ..........I  go on line from time to time and top it up  and they give you bonus minutes.. I think I started off with 20 euros and they added 10 such was the deal  then

 

http://www.lycamobile.fr/en/

[Thibault]

We have an Orange Mobicart (sp??) which works well. It is possible to buy top-up vouchers in a variety of places and there is a choice of limits from 10 euros upwards.

[osie]

I dont think now is the time to give up on a mobile phone... I have a B&you( now called simyo).  I was even given a free card in the post (I thnk it might be a lyca ).  No card details, now problems, no validity date....  happy days.

I used my b&you abroad several times and the money still does not seems to get used up...

[AnOther]

I was persuaded to go with Lyca only to discover that the SIM wouldn't work in the UK, I could see the networks but couldn't uses them.

After I got back I complained and twice they told me that they were sending me a replacement SIM - twice they didn't.

When I called them again this time they told me that I had to go into my phone (iPhone) and manually set it for roaming but when I do that it doesn't work in France any more !

I haven't been back to UK since so have no idea at all whether it's going to work when I do. OH is going today and her SIM has never been to the UK at all so it will be interesting to see if that works.

I'd happily dump Lyca but we both have some €20 or so credit which I'm not prepared to just write off.

[YCCMB]

I'm sure B&You, Lycamobile and all the other myriad options are truly wonderful (although, Thibault, Orange mobicarte was my first French mobile option 10 years ago and back then for every €10 of credit I bought, I lost about €8 in unused credit because then it was still a "use or lose" system. I assume it isn't now).

My main gripe is not that I couldn't go out and do it all over again. It's that this would then be my fourth actual phone number in 10 years. I honestly don't see the point.

[Hereford]

Orange seems OK now, but you must top up before the balance runs out.  Admittedly we live here but find a once a year top-up of 100 euros with 50 euros given free as a bonus works well.  We just have a diary note about 11 months three weeks later to make sure we don't forget!

Other smaller amounts work the same way but obviously don't last as long.

We top-up in a "cash machine", I think most of them now have a choice between "retraite" and "telephone", using whichever card debit or credit we want use.

If one will not be in France on the vital date it can be topped up in advance and the "year" starts again. You do not lose the balance.

I was told that European law does not now allow the phone companies to just take the balance but that they can impose rules such as topping up before the expiry date.

[YCCMB]

....and that's another thing. With Free, it almost was. €2 a month, giving me enough minutes/texts etc., for my very limited needs. No need for trips to anywhere to top up, no need to remember anything (except, obviously, to remind Free that my credit card was about to expire, which I did and much good it did me).

Nope, I'm sure you're all very satisfied with your alternative arrangements. As for me, I've just sorted out my bolt-on with my UK provider to reduce the cost of my roaming and call use in France, and that'll do me. At least I can pay them easily, they communicate with me by email and SMS, and they don't want my bank details, shoe size, passport details and last three years' utility bills in order to deal with me.[:D]

[Quillan]

When we first came to France I bought an Orange PAYG phone which seemed to work OK. Problem was I was back in the UK when it ran out (time wise) and when I got back to France they had taken the number. We then went to the UK company in France, Teleconnect it might have been called, I can't remember. The other problem is our location, Orange and just does not seem to work round here. After keeping an eye on guests and what service worked without problems I went with SFR and am now on the Red 2h none contract tariff which works very well for me. Just €4.99 per month for 2 hours of calls, unlimited SMS and now 20M of data that more than satisfies my needs. It might not be the cheapest but I have never had a problem. I looked in to Free but many of my guests that were on Free could not get a signal here. I am sure I read somewhere that Free often use Orange which might explain this. If it were not for the need to have Internet I would go for the SFR €11.99 per month tariff which is unlimited international calls, unlimited SMS and 50M of data.

The only thing that worries me now is this sale of Free possibly to Orange (who are the favorits apparently). Free did so much for the users with their cheap SIMS which resulted in other companies reducing their rates which I don't think would have happened without Free. If Orange takes over Free then I guess that Free users will become Sosh users so they might pay more as I can't imagine Sosh reducing prices to match Free. This in turn could also result in these offers disappearing gradually as well especially as they are none contract and effectively the operators can change their tariffs at will.

[Chancer]

[quote user="AnOther"]I'd happily dump Lyca but we both have some €20 or so credit which I'm not prepared to just write off.
[/quote]

Chances are that like all the other companies that promised credit remaining for life they will find a way to relieve you of the money anyway [:(]

Shame about Free Betty, I am always championing them but even I came unstuck in a similar way, cant recall the details but I must have used my UK debit card to at least get the ball rolling and order the SIM, I ran up a bill of 8cts which was actually calling them to validate something which I should not have needed to do, my UK bank blocked the deduction either thinking it was a first attempt at a fraudulent withdrawal or probably because of the costs of processing such a derisory sum, in any case it was the only time ever I have had to ring Free customer services and the woman was superb, it was such an unFrench experience and like getting the best of UK customer service, she finished by reassuring me "ne vous enquietez pas M. Chancer, I can assure you that we are not about to cut off your line over 8cts".

Later that afternoon thats exactly what they did [:@]

Gnerally their processes for signing up for the TV/internet etc are really streamlined and their communication is excellent, I think French law demands more proof of ID to buy carte sims than the UK where its like buying a newspaper, but even with a forward thinking customer focussed company there is probably still the usual mentality from the administrators and bean counters.

Having like you lost several phone numbers and my credit to the robbing shysters I think the worse thing is the finality of it all, none of the others would even talk to me, I was now an ex customer, they had had me for my money, I had lost a phone number that I had had for several years and had transferred to them and they didnt give a rats, its as if that was their purpose in business. No possibility of getting my number back, that would be a catastrophe for anyone in business, it has just happened to my coiffeuse à domicile and she is practically destitute now.

At least with Free I could still talk to them and the problem was resolved, I did crack and allow them to deduct my bank account thereafter, 9 months out of 12 I remain within my forfait which is completely free of charge for me being a Freenaut and the other months the deductions are less than one Euro, my French bacnk doesnt seem to mind this.

[YCCMB]

Ha! And so, now that it's too late, they start contacting me by e-mail! With this:

Dans le cadre de l'amélioration continue de nos services, Free est à votre écoute.

Afin de nous aider à comprendre comment mieux vous

satisfaire, nous vous proposons de consacrer 2 minutes de votre temps

pour répondre à cette enquête suite au(x) contact(s) avec notre Service

Abonné le 20/03/2014 à 10:08.

Nous vous remercions par avance de votre participation.

It was difficult, but hopefully I managed to express my incredulity at them managing to make a simple issue unduly complicated in "250 characters or less"[:D]

[Chancer]

I wonder why French companies send out those things, they never react to them, maybe some marketting expert told them that they should use them but instead they just bin the results like most incoming communications.

Will Free be any different, will they respond? I would like to think so because they are very different to any other French company that I have dealt with but I wont hold my breath!!!

[Frederick]

Another : wrote ........When I called them again this time they told me that I had to go into my

phone (iPhone) and manually set it for roaming but when I do that it

doesn't work in France any more !

Yes ....I had to do the same to use it in the UK   They talked me through where to go on my old Nokia  settings I use for France and turn the roaming on and set to Lycamobile . I have had no problems switching between France and the UK since .

[AnOther]

OH arrived in UK yesterday and thankfully the instructions Lyca gave me have worked but why the hell should customers be expected to perform these changes ?
In their FAQ's it says:
Roaming services are automated and they should work as soon as you 
travel abroad. In case, you are unable to access the same, kindly 
restart your phone and you should be able to use the services without 
any problem.
The first thing I did when I found it wasn't working was to reboot mine but it made no difference. OH having gone through the procedure it appears that you have to go into the SIM settings and select roaming first after which it actually prompts you to reboot, a reboot on it's own does not work.
It might have been helpful if Lyca had imparted this information either in the paperwork with the SIM card or during one of the several telephone calls I made to them !

[Graham & Brenda]

I haven't tried my Lyca in the UK but it worked automatically last week in Germany & Poland.