Bonus when changing Orange ADSL formula

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

If anybody wants to switch to Orange's 19.90€/month internet formula, 'Decouverte', it includes the option to buy a cheapo ADSL modem for 1€ during December & January. We changed our formula at the Banque Alimentaire last week but apparently they've run out of the cheap modems so we got a full-scale Livebox 2, complete with WiFi, supplied instead.

It would be worth finding out if this applies in your area.

[mint]

Albert, you've no idea what a timely post yours is as far as I'm concerned.

Here is our situation:  we have bought a new house and, for the sake of convenience, I agreed to take over the previous owneres'  landline.  It is through a company called Expat or something like that.

Anyway, his contract finishes end Feb and I have taken on his contract till then, having written a letter to his company to terminate the contract end Feb.

In my old house, I have SFR.  I get phone and internet for about 35 euros a month and I was thinking of askinge them whether they would supply me with interent in the new place till the end of my existing contract at end of Feb and I could "switch off" the contract in the old house and take everything lock, stock and barrel with me to the new house.

Would I now be better off, giving SFR notice of termination in the new house and approaching Orange?  I am reluctant to do that until I know exactly what I will get as I had a horrendous (and expensive) experience with Orange when we first came to live in France.

[pachapapa]

Phoneexpat or whatever...Ernie had a "road to damascus" event with them.  Orange! you will just get bitten twice, they are the pits.

Danny is up to date on all this ISP stuff, but a cheap modem or router from Orange will not do VOIP telephone AND ORANGE covers less countries than other operators.

If I were you, subject to Dannys advice, I would go for FREE and push for their new FreeBox Revolution, etc.

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

PPP,

Please note. I said that we managed to get a full featured Livebox for 1 Euro. If you take out the Decouverte formula for a month or two (it's sans engagement) and later switch to a fuller service option you'll still have the Livebox, as I understand it.

As for Orange being the pits, I've found them to be no worse than any other ISP I've used either side of the channel. As far as I can see all the ISPs get their share of horror stories on the forums.

[mint]

I must say I'd rather NOT deal with Orange but, if there's a deal in the offing, I'll not cut off my nose to spite my face.

If someone could just spell out to me what I need to do, then I'll just go ahead, cancel SFR (45 euros cancellation) and start up with whoever.

I'm not too worried about "losing" January and February with Expat (or whatever it's called.  In some ways, it was just to make the previous people happy and to have a phone straight off.

Sometimes, it's necessary to take the line of least resistance, if only to keep one's sanity! 

[Gardengirl]

Hello sweet, nice to see you on here again. Hope things have gone well.

My three-pennyworth is to ask how you've done with SFR. This other one sounds good, but most people we know who have SFR are pretty happy with them. If you have to pay €45 to cancel, and have been pretty satisfied it might pay to think long and hard about taking it all with you, lock, stock and barrel. But if the savings are really good, maybe it's worth another go with Orange. We've never been with them, but we never got the same story on charges twice from their people, so didn't end up considering them!

[mint]

Hi, GG

Move was a veritable cauchemar but that's OK.  Got all that we need in the new house but we have come back for the first time to do some cleaning, meet up with the neighbours, etc.

Back on topic:  I don't really want to cancel SFR but, when I rang them to ask about supplying us with internet in the new place, etc. there was so much to take in and I was completely flummoxed by the French and not quite sure what I had to do.

Still, now I'm back at the chateau, I will email them tomorrow and hope to have a sensible answer from them.  All I want is internet plus phone and be able to swap one address to another so shouldn't be too difficult???

Hey, hope your Christmas was good and a Very Happy New Year to you and yours.

Aaagghhh, mustn't linger, else I'll be accused of going off topic or hogging the thread or whatever.  I'm only here for tonight and maybe tomorrow night so please, folks, give me an answer NOW!!!!!!!!!!!![:D]

[AnOther]

[quote user="pachapapa"]Phoneexpat or whatever...Ernie had a "road to damascus" event with them[/quote]Sorry old chap but I've not been to Damascus or anywhere with Phoneexpat, my sorry experience was with Teleconnect (spit) compared to which the Orange service is exemplary.

[Chancer]

I always take the opportunity to plug Free.fr as they are the cheapest at €29.99 you get internet, unlimited free phone calls worldwide and multi-channel television, at the moment during the holiday period all of the premium channels are free to view.

I have had no problems at all since subscribing with them, I have never understood why more people on this and other forums (ex pats) do not use them.

Another good reason to consider them at the moment is that they are not raising the price of their basic €29.99 package when the TVA increase comes in to force whereas I believe all the others are going to, instead they are pushing a slightly more expensive service (around €35 per month) which includes unlimited free calls to mobile phones and the new freeboxes use the mains wiring to carry the signals to the television and computer, I think that they still have wifi functionality.

I also have a feeling that these boxes will become the new standard offering.

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

[quote user="sweet 17"] All I want is internet plus phone and be able to swap one address to another so shouldn't be too difficult???[/quote]

Orange Decouverte doesn't include phone and there's no point forking over 45€ to get a (possibly) free Livebox.

What do you mean by 'swap one address to another '? I don't think you can take an ISP-supplied email address with you when you change provider. This is one reason why I've had my own personal domain names for the last 10 years.

[AnOther]

I think what sweets means by 'swap' is transfer her BB contract from one residential address to another without having to cancel and start over [;-)]

[mint]

Spot on, Erns, that is exactly what I would like.  Still, taking into account what Chance says about Free, I might well go down that route.  Depending on further advice, I am going to cancel SFR, paying the 45 euros [:'(] and get in touch with Free.

Chance if you have a phone number, fax, email address for Free, could you please let me have them?  Thanks

[Chancer]

Have a look through here Sweet17, http://www.free.fr/assistance/en/index.html

I chose the English language option in case others wanted to have a look.

I must say it looks far easier than when I connected up with the English language pages and the videos showing you how everything works and connects up.

I couldnt actually find the phone or fax number, I have support number somewhere but IIRC it is a premium rate line! What I suggest you do is to click on the link for your personal assistant "EVA" and ask her the questions you have, I think she speaks French so it will be interesting to see if you get a response to questions posed in English and it will be a measure of the support that would be available in English, I have never had any need of support.

I should also point out that to take full advantage of their services you really need to be in a degroupée area, if not I think, and stand to be corrected, that you will still need to maintain a FT line and cannot recieve the television service although phone calls are still free, not such an attractive offer, I repeat I think, you will need to confirm.

I had a look earlier at the new Freebox, it really does seem to be a stonker, it has a Blueray wotsit (I have no idea what one is but then I have yet to even buy a CD player!) and can connect to up to 8 dect phones without the base station, once again "I think"!

[pachapapa]

Funny didnt know you were with SFR. I was in the SFR shop in the Leclerc shopping aisle today on query from a friend about checking the line. It may be best for you to stay with SFR saving the €45 and the cost of setting up with a new FAI. There will be almost certainly a system for migrating from one address to another without a continuous contract. The phone number could also go with you assuming it is an SFR number and not an old France Telecom number starting with 05, I think SFR have 09 numbers. I'll do a bit of quick research.

[pachapapa]

The Ariase web gives resumé of change of residence and ADSL connection for the different FAIs.

For SFR:

Le déménagement de votre ligne Neufbox de SFR est pris en charge par SFR sans frais supplémentaire et s'effectue via votre compte client ou via le 1077. Vous pouvez soit planifier le déménagement de votre ligne jusqu'à 3 semaines, soit réaliser le déménagement de votre ligne si vous avez déjà déménagé, ce qui entraînera immédiatement la résiliation de la ligne de votre ancien domicile. Si votre nouveau logement n'a pas de ligne active, SFR peut créer une ligne à votre place.

http://www.ariase.com/demenagement/guides/demenagement-internet.html

Have you got an SFR boutique near either of your chateaus?

General Introduction  from same web; its quite normal frogs are doing it all over france, so there.

Vous allez déménager et vous souhaitez transférer votre accès Internet avec ses services de votre ancien domicile vers votre nouvelle adresse ? Dans l'hypothèse où votre nouveau logement est éligible et que votre fournisseur d'accès (FAI) peut techniquement procéder au transfert, il est nécessaire de contacter votre opérateur Internet pour l'informer de votre situation. Chaque FAI dispose d'une procédure particulière pour traiter le changement de domicile d'un abonné.

 

[pachapapa]

New post new website. The link below gives the "déménagement" page on the official SFR website. I have not read it yet.[:)]

http://www.sfr.fr/demenagement/

But I have bookmarked it.

[Chancer]

Looks like the simplest solution in the short term.

I was mistaken regarding Free not passing on the VAT increase, they have caved in [:(]

http://www.latribune.fr/technos-medias/telecoms/20101229trib000587256/free-renonce-a-son-forfait-triple-play-a-2990-euros.html

It makes their new offer with the whizzbang box and free calls to mobiles even more appealing.

[Quillan]

Free does look interesting and inparticular their new Evolution box. Unfortunately for us I have gone through their 'registration and testing' procedure on their website and I can't have the box and I can't have TV either so they say they can't give us a contract. Strange because we have all this (excluding any media centre) with Orange and it works fine. Like Another I have had no problems with their service either and have been a Wanadoo/Orange (very) satisfied customer for nearly 11 years now.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Quillan"]Free does look interesting and inparticular their new Evolution box. Unfortunately for us I have gone through their 'registration and testing' procedure on their website and I can't have the box and I can't have TV either so they say they can't give us a contract. Strange because we have all this (excluding any media centre) with Orange and it works fine. Like Another I have had no problems with their service either and have been a Wanadoo/Orange (very) satisfied customer for nearly 11 years now.[/quote]

Before you confuse ME AND ME ALONE any further I would add that the Free Box is called a REVOLUTION box; whilst the SFR Box is called an EVOLUTION box; just a little "r" makes all the difference.

[mint]

Thanks, everybody and special thanks to Pacha.

To be honest, I don't know whether there is an SFR "shop" near either address but I will investigate.  Certainly the links you have provided, Pacha, should get me up and running.

BTW, so as not to take over poor Albert's thread completely, I am starting a new one about reception of the signal so please look at it and advise further.

[pachapapa]

SFR Boutiques Dept 16:

ANGOULEME (16000)18 PLACE MARENGO

Tél : 05 45 22 81 21

LA COURONNE (16400)C CIAL AUCHAN

Tél : 05 45 96 83 26

CHAMPNIERS (16430)C CIAL GEANT ANGOULEME NORD

Tél : 05 45 37 47 47

COGNAC (16100)24 RUE D'ANGOULEME

Tél : 05 45 35 58 88

 

Dept 24 SFR Boutiques:

TRELISSAC (24750)C CIAL LA FEUILLERAIE

Tél : 05 53 03 55 89

MARSAC SUR L ISLE (24430)ZAC SALTGOURDE AV LOUIS SUDER

Tél : 05 53 02 88 88

BERGERAC (24100)27 RUE DE LA RESISTANCE

Tél : 05 53 23 50 40

BERGERAC (24100)C CIAL LECLERC

Tél : 05 53 27 45 51

SARLAT LA CANEDA (24200)20 PLACE DE LA PETITE RIGAUDIE

Tél : 05 53 30 33 47

[pachapapa]

The reason I mention the boutiques is that if you have any queries regarding your on-line internet déménagement, they may be able to help.

The physical line situation of the existing FT phone line at chateau 24 may be doubtful. Reading the Phonexpat web site and checking Paragraph 9 of the Contract T&C for the previous chatelain/chatelaine:

9-DUREE
Le Contrat de Service est conclu pour une durée d’un an et est résiliable moyennant un préavis de trois mois :
-par Stragex : à compter de l’envoi au Client d’une lettre recommandée avec avis de réception à effet immédiat si l’une des conditions générales ou spécifiques n’a pas été respectée par le client.
-par le Client : moyennant l’envoi au service client Stragex d’une lettre de résiliation recommandée avec avis de réception en respectant la durée de l’engagement du service souscrit. La résiliation sera effective dans un délai maximum de 7 sept jours ouvrés à compter de la fin du préavis de trois mois.

I presume that all has been done well...it would seem that the existing telephone number is an O5 XX XX XX XX geographical  FT number which should lapse at the end of the Phonexpat contract to remain dormant for a period of 2 years before being reassigned for use in the area by FT, the usual practice.

In that case it would appear that the SFR déménagement would include you retaining your existing SFR number. However the bad news is that there will be technically an "ouverture de ligne" by FT for the commencement of the SFR service and that will cost you eventually € 20.

But you keep and carry with your SFR Box and all the connections...just leave the T socket in the wall.

As I read it you dont have your own line in 24, just using the previous subscriber end of contract period..so dont put that number down in the on-line box formula.

Remember you always have the 1077 number, not free and the minutes add up; boutique free!

Good luck!

[mint]

Thanks for the advice, Pacha.

What happened was, the previous owner asked me whether I wanted their phone line.  I didn't "want" it as such but I agreed with him and with Expat that I'd keep it on till the end of the contract at the end of February.  The phone people agreed and requested a letter of cancellation to be named end of Feb as the date of termination at the same time as having the contract made out to my name.  This was duly done.  It was partly to help out the previous owner and partly because I had enough on my plate at that time to argue the toss with anybody.  I did wrest some concessions from Expat:  no prélèvement and only the basic line without ability to ring the UK or anywhere else for free.

So, I will go to Angoulême as I'd like to know how to get there from Chateau 24 (as you have dubbed it!)  I suppose Chateau Vingt-quatre has a certain (ring) je ne sais quoi to it?[:D][:P]

[NormanH]

[quote user="Chancer"]

I always take the opportunity to plug Free.fr as they are the cheapest at €29.99 you get internet, unlimited free phone calls worldwide and multi-channel television, at the moment during the holiday period all of the premium channels are free to view.

I have had no problems at all since subscribing with them, I have never understood why more people on this and other forums (ex pats) do not use them.

Another good reason to consider them at the moment is that they are not raising the price of their basic €29.99 package when the TVA increase comes in to force whereas I believe all the others are going to, instead they are pushing a slightly more expensive service (around €35 per month) which includes unlimited free calls to mobile phones and the new freeboxes use the mains wiring to carry the signals to the television and computer, I think that they still have wifi functionality.

I also have a feeling that these boxes will become the new standard offering.

[/quote]

Yes they are:

The TV is becoming an optional extra

http://www.lefigaro.fr/hightech/2010/12/29/01007-20101229ARTFIG00291-hausse-de-la-tva-free-casse-son-forfait-triple-play.php

[Chancer]

I beat you to it [:P] see my posting of 23.00 last night [:)]

Just after that a banner message came up on the Free website saying the contract had evoloué and to see the terms and conditions, all 31 pâges of them [:-))] I could not find any reference to the increase only a refernce to another part of the site for the current prices which is still showing €29.99, well I guess it is current [:)]

From what I gather it is going up €2 or the same price but lose the television, I like Free in that in general they do not act like other French companies but in this case they have reverted to type, its not as if they had unfair conditions for resiliation that would be made null and void by the tariff change like the others, why not just inform their customers instead of hiding it away?