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At long last a decent French mobile company


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Several companies have started to launch European-wide mobiles.  I spotted this on an advert a train in Berlin but wasn't sure which company it was.

I have investigated with Orange (France) but the deal is complicated and expensive - something like 120 euros per month, which includes all calls (great) but not all texts (why?).  If anyone knows more, I would be interested to learn.  I have a French and a UK phone and would dearly just like one.

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Give this lot their due, they're quick.  SIM turned up today and lo and behold I now have a signal in the house.  Not that I use the thing here but it is frustrating to never be able to receive calls and texts  unless I go out - annoying if somebody is trying to text me urgently. So far - result!
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Well today I'm not quite so pleased!  I've registered the phone OK and can make calls but am having no luck getting into the personalised bit of their website.  This requires a pin number which they send to you by SMS.  I've tried this twice now and both times it's taken over 4 hours for the pin number to get to me (in spite of having a consistent signal.)  By the time I get it and try to enter the PIN it has expired and now it's telling me my phone isn't registered.  When I try to register again it tells me I've already done that.  [:-))]
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In the interests of fairness I thought I should post to say that finally I got a text to turn up promptly and have now registered so it all works fine.

It's not the first time I've had text messages get lost in the ether - it happened the other day in the UK with T-Mobile.  I won a competition and was informed about it six hours after the text was sent by which time they'd given the prize (a pit visit to Oreca during the 1000ks of Silverstone) to somebody else.[:@]

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I have just got back from a couple of tiring days cycling and my Sim was waiting for me, I think it turned up the next day.

Only in France can the postage for a simcard cost €1.38 [:-))]

I noticed a couple of things that I hadnt picked up or that werent written on their web site, they are not deal breakers and will not put anyone off buying but its best to know, I will post them tomorrow after (hopefully) registering the phone.

Did you two have to send off a copy of your passport with the formulaire or can it be actually be done from the website? I hope you dont have to scan it, my printer is also a scanner/photocopier, I can photocopy but have never tried the scanner.

T.T.F.N

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It would be handy if people could indicate roughly where they are when talking about coverage for mobile phones. I need to get a new one when we move to France but a lot of the comments about coverage are useless as I don't know where you are
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[quote user="Mac"]It would be handy if people could indicate roughly where they are when talking about coverage for mobile phones. I need to get a new one when we move to France but a lot of the comments about coverage are useless as I don't know where you are[/quote]

Ah yes, but conversely, we don't know where you are either [;-)]

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The number of my driving license, input on line, was all that was needed to validate the card (I was pretty peed off when I had to get a French license but now it's come in useful.)  I agree entirely, Pierre, but this happened when I bought my Leclerc SIM also - ie I had to show a passport.  Very French (if I may be so racist!)
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Well I have activated my phone, I got confused, perhaps a senior moment when it said enter your IDS or something code and press envoyer, I thought "what on earth is that" I reluctantly changed the language to English and it was even more confusing (SDIDN code or something) then I realised that the send button was on the screen and that the weird code was in fact my Lebara phone number (talk about calling a spade a long handled gardening implement) and it had already been entered into for the box for me.

If they had just said "click on the send button below" in either language it would have been a lot simpler.

It does say in a couple of places to remember to send off copy of your ID with the formulaire but I reckon that is just t be seen to be complying with the regulations, I will leave that to the ever compliant and obedient French customers, it will beironic if they cut my phone of and truser my prepaid credit after all my praises [:P]

And now for the few things that I discovered only after getting the Simpack.

The "Free credit" of €7.50 that comes on the simcard only lasts 3 months so is not illimité, funny thing is on the website it said that the simcard was free and also the delivery (perhaps it is when you buy it from a Parisien Tabac" so I have paid €10 to get €7.50 of "free credit" , a free simcard and free delivery [8-)]

I read somewhere although cannot find it that the free credit can only be used for France metropolitan calls and not overseas or premium rates, it cannot be used to send or recieve texts outside of France, I need to find this again to check. Once agin this "free credit" is not illimitée

All in all it seems to be a reasonable service and considering what country we are in, - outstanding! [:D]

I seem to have a good signal in my house which is the most imortant thing, I expect it will work as well in my area as the other major networks, that is to say OK in the towns and on main roads, patchy in some villages.

Also please note that any "free cerdit" that is added to a top up (currently €10 on a €30 top up) is also time limited

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  • 3 weeks later...
I got one of these lebara SIM cards as it seemed a good deal. However I have been unable to get it to accept my French debit card on the site for topups. I emailed them to ask why and the response gave me cause for concern, namely the following lines:

Your top up credit is valid for 90 days, if the credit has not been used within that time it will be lost

... top up your credit online by any amount at any time, please make sure it is a French credit card

Their bold not mine.

I had not seen the 90 limit anywhere and I don't have a French credit card.

I just wondered what others feel about the service now it's been around a while. Did you know about the limit (and we're not talking the free credit here) and how do you top up ?

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[quote user="greyman"]I got one of these lebara SIM cards as it seemed a good deal. However I have been unable to get it to accept my French debit card on the site for topups. I emailed them to ask why and the response gave me cause for concern, namely the following lines:

Your top up credit is valid for 90 days, if the credit has not been used within that time it will be lost

... top up your credit online by any amount at any time, please make sure it is a French credit card

Their bold not mine.


I had not seen the 90 limit anywhere and I don't have a French credit card.

I just wondered what others feel about the service now it's been around a while. Did you know about the limit (and we're not talking the free credit here) and how do you top up ?
[/quote]

I posted the following on the 27/09/10 in this thread.....Art: 2.7  suggests that credit only carried forward if if credit purchased within a 90 day period.[:D]

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Thank you JohnFB and pachapapa for your posts. However I do not read 2.7 or any other clauses as saying my credit is only valid for 90 days. I agree that it appears to say I have to make a call at least every 90 days but this isn't the same.

Based on their statement, if I buy 10€ credit today and make 5€ of calls on 30 November but no more after that I will lose 5€ credit 90 days from today.

Based on what I believe 2.7 to say that credit will expire 90 days after 30 November and if I make a call every month or so the remaining credit will last until I use it all.

There is a big difference. Am I still misunderstanding 2.7 or some other clause ?

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I understood it exactly as you explained, one chargeable use every 90 days to maintain existing credit till used up. I tend to loose the will to live reading T&Cs but will go back and read them again on Sunday when we have been promised rain.

jfb

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That is how I understood it and how most fo the UK PAYG mobile contracts work, it is after all a UK company, its also how NRJ trousred my credit, they sneaked it into their terms and conditions.

I make an occasional text message to keep the credit, I have also made a few cheap calls before the novelty of once again having a phone wears off, time will tell if the credit dissapears.

I can see why it has to be a French credit card, I think the debit cards cannot be used for overseas purchases, Lebara being a UK company the transaction takes place there, if you study their rates carefully you will deduce that a call made in France to a French number is actually routed via the UK and yet is still far cheaper than using a French PAYG phone

To date the service seems very good and the price unbeatable.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Any further info on how good, or otherwise, this phone co. is? The reason I ask is that Credit Agricole have written to me asking for my mobile number. It seems if I want to use my CA card to buy stuff off the net they have introduced a security measure whereby they ask for a 4 digit code before payment is made. This code is sent to your mobile phone (free sms) at the time of the online purchase. I doubt they would send a text to the UK mobile I keep for emergency use.

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[quote user="Jay"]Credit Agricole have written to me asking for my mobile number. It seems if I want to use my CA card to buy stuff off the net they have introduced a security measure whereby they ask for a 4 digit code before payment is made. This code is sent to your mobile phone (free sms) at the time of the online purchase. I doubt they would send a text to the UK mobile I keep for emergency use.[/quote]

I would suggest that you try giving them your UK mobile no - including the international code. Other banks in France have similar systems which work with UK mobile tel nos.

Regards

Pickles

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I've now managed to resolve my issues. After an exchange of emails in English with Lebara customer service I can now topup online using my French debit card and they have confirmed that they meant to say I only have to make a chargeable event every 90 days to retain my credit. Happy so far and I've got a UK SIM for when I'm back in Blighty.

One point to note is that they charge in minutes not seconds so maybe this is how they make up some call revenue but frankly for the small number of calls I expect to make it's not an issue. I can also confirm that texting is barred in UK. No idea why !

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Thanks for that Pickles, you live & learn! Unfortunately the signal on my Orange phone is very hit and miss at home as was our Bouygues mobile before I dumped it. I wonder what the banks do if you do not happen to have a mobile?

Seeing as people are giving good reports about this new company I might just get one of their sims and give it a try.

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Very happy so far [:)]

good to hear that they respond to enquiries, I was beginnig to think that they may be a non contact organisation like many others, I know they have multi-lingual advisors but I cant actually find an option on their menu to talk to one, or to top up come to that!

The only numbers I have are 2323 and 2345, is there another for customer services or top ups?

I also want to deactivate the mesagerie which seems to be activated by default and again cannot find an option to do so.

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I have yet to use mine so it's increasinly unlikely that I'll make a call within the required three months, thus the credit is going to disappear unless I give them more money.  I should have looked into this more carefully but at least it wasn't a lot of money and the mistake was mine, not theirs.  Back to Leclerc  which still seems to be about the best available in France for those who just want an emergency phone.
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