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Can I suspend my Broadband Internet service?


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Bonjour,

Does anyone know if the Orange Broadband service can be suspended in the same way as a ‘ligne fixe‘?

We have the Orange ’Découverte’ basic internet package with Livebox at €24,00 per month, coming through our residence secondaire fixed line for which we pay a separate rental every two months. We have had the internet service since May this year and it works brilliantly.

However, we shall soon be returning to the UK for the winter and although I can suspend the telephone line, I’m not sure if I can do the same with the internet package.

I asked in the Orange shop in Vendôme if we could suspend the internet service and the lady said yes and gave me an address to write to and the wording of the request. However, when I checked online this seems to be asking for the service to be cancelled, not suspended, in which case I would have to pay the rest of the monthly contract subscriptions anyway and send the Livebox back to Orange on pain of a €100 euro fine. All of which rather defeats the object! I’m keen to save myself €150,00 euros, but I don’t want the faff of having to take out a new subscription all over again next May.

Can anyone give me a steer on this please?

Many Thanks

Matelot
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[quote user="Matelot"]Bonjour,

Does anyone know if the Orange Broadband service can be suspended in the same way as a ‘ligne fixe‘?

We have the Orange ’Découverte’ basic internet package with Livebox at €24,00 per month, coming through our residence secondaire fixed line for which we pay a separate rental every two months. [/quote]

Via Orange you used to be able to suspend your adsl for your holiday home but this was withdrawn last year. Now you do have to do as the helpful Orange lady said and cancel your contract. Note it is very important to return the LiveBox. Then next Spring you take out a new contract.

As Découverte is a cancel-on-demand contract there are no cancellation fees to pay nor (if I have understood my friends correctly) do you have to pay for more months than you have used.

What our friends have done is buy their own Livebox and keep it in their holiday home. This doesn't remove the snag of starting up a new contract nor of returning the Livebox Orange will send out, but it make set-up easier and faster.

Sue

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Be prepared for  hassle .... I have been down the same road you are on with Orange France .  Cancel with FT switch off line .. return Live Box, get receipt and  write to Orange recorded delivery stating I did not wish to continue with a new contract  after the present one ended. I discovered after the end of the contract period even though I did not have a phone line and they had the live box this  all shown on the computer in the Orange shop Their computer automatically  reinstated the broadband contract for another year .... The zombies they appear to employ were unable to do anything about it . The reason .... they had put the matter into the hands of debt collection people as no monies were coming into the account  and after three months that's what they do. They were telling me it was no longer their problem I had to deal with the debt collecting agency !  What a problem that turned out to be .

Orange France ! I hate them .

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Thanks Frederick & Sue. I guessed this would be the case. We had a load of hassle after we took out the internet package last May. We said we did not want the anti-virus and firewall as we had our own. After a week of service, our contract was cancelled because OF took our refusal of the anti-virus, etc, as asking to terminate the entire package. It took a month of being lied to by the so called 'customer services' before they re-instated the broadband service. And they charged me for the month when I had no service. When I queried this, the reply was:"But Monsieur, we have no record of your internet problem! Perhaps next time you should ask for a reference number." Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhh! The only good thing seems to be that the broadband service works very well here - faster than the UK.

Seems like I'll have to bite the bullet and continue paying even when I'm not at the cottage. Hey-ho!

Thanks again for replies.

Matelot
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[quote user="Matelot"]

Seems like I'll have to bite the bullet and continue paying even when I'm not at the cottage. Hey-ho! [/quote]

Give cancellation a go.

Our friends seemed to have no problem cancelling their holiday-home contract of last year and starting a new one this Spring. They have just cancelled their present holiday-home contract as they have returned to their main home a tad earlier than usual.

Sue

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I'll look into it Sue. The only problem may be that they will still charge me for the months remaining on my contract, as it is still my first year. In which case, I might as well leave well alone! Thanks again for your help and info.
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[quote user="Matelot"]I'll look into it Sue. [/quote]

Sorry to seem pedantic but I am having trouble understanding why you feel you should have to pay 'for the remaining months of my contract' when the decouverte offer is - in Orange's own words ... 'Offre sans engagement de durée, ni frais de résiliation' here : http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/forfaits/decouverte.aspx

Is this the abonnement you have ?

Sue

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  • 4 weeks later...

[quote user="Matelot"] Seems like I'll have to bite the bullet and continue paying even when I'm not at the cottage. [/quote]

We're in a similar position with SFR. We're moving house with a delay in-between and (ideally) wanted to suspend the service from 30th November and re-start it at our new address in February, but it just seemed too complicated to return the boxes, plus the recorded delivery letter, and then starting a new contract at the new house, so we decided just to carry on paying the rental. I was worried about the phone line remaining operational at our old address, but SFR say that once we unplug the modem the new owner won't be able to access the phoneline. Hope that's correct!!

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Ignoring the flagrant advertising above, which I hope the mods remove pronto, I have a related question regarding suspension of our Orange Zen internet telephone and broadband service (without FT abonnement), as we are due to move from our current let to another in the near future and will have a gap between the two moves. Maybe someone can help.

The circumstances are that we are leaving our current chalet on 22nd December and our new let starts on 1st January.  The Orange Zen package runs until 7th April minimum but we are happy with it and in theory can port our phone number to the new address.  We are in the UK on holiday for the time in between, but both properties will be occupied by someone else while we are away, so we can't dovetail the transfer of service exactly from one to the other.  I will of course ring the english speaking Orange France helpline to try to sort things out, but I thought I'd be forearmed if possible.  Simplest thing would be to carry on paying as normal but just say that we want to deactivate the service at one address and reactivate it at the new address 9 days later.  From peoples experience is that possible to do with Orange? Any insight most welcome. [:)]

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