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Orange: cheaper internet €19,90/month


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Well I'm stumped.    I've checked the cookies situation and they are enabled (in Firefox).

As an additional test I've tried Internet Exploder with the same result.   Danny's original link comes up with the 19.90 stuff,  but as soon as I go down the s'abonner route I'm lost to much more expensive options.

Very very odd (and extremely irritating).

I'll try some numbers from the phone book and see if it's just mine....

Laters - I've FINALLY got a friend's number in a town five miles away to reveal the "decouverte" option!    None of the numbers in our village I've tried do it,  but this friend's number gives "decouverte" under "other options" right at the bottom.

So it would appear that there *is* some reason (valid or not) why my number (and others around) don't appear to allow this cheap option.

I'll give the wretched incompetents a ring when we're back over,  but it's not a good start,  sadly,  as I don't want to dump Alice and find myself in the grip of Orange unless it's a money-saver.

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I suspect you aren't getting the Découverte 8MB s'abonner option revealed because the telephone numbers you are trying for both yourself and the people in your village are being filtered out because you're all too far from the exchange to benefit from the package? 

Your friend who lives five miles away in the town may not be in the same situation as you regarding signal strength.

 

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I wondered that.

Bit unfair of them though if that's the case,   I'd have put up with my usual 350 kbps (it's all the line is capable of) and saved myself some money into the bargain.   Looks as though this avenue of financial rectitude may be closed off to me though.

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Well, it would seem that it has something to do with the line quality but I have no idea why it should be any different to the other offers.

Having tested a number of a line I know that only gets just the minimum ADSL, the option of Decouverte is not shown.

Strange...

Danny

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[quote user="Jane and Danny"]

Well, it would seem that it has something to do with the line quality but I have no idea why it should be any different to the other offers.

Having tested a number of a line I know that only gets just the minimum ADSL, the option of Decouverte is not shown.

Strange...

Danny

[/quote]

It makes sense that Orange are supressing the high speed Découverte ADSL option for people who can't actually benefit from it.  Why pay 19,90€ for the same service as you'd get on a 10€ forfait bas débit option...[;-)]

 

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[quote user="Sunday Driver"][quote user="Jane and Danny"]

Well, it would seem that it has something to do with the line quality but I have no idea why it should be any different to the other offers.

Having tested a number of a line I know that only gets just the minimum ADSL, the option of Decouverte is not shown.

Strange...

Danny

[/quote]

It makes sense that Orange are supressing the high speed Découverte ADSL option for people who can't actually benefit from it.  Why pay 19,90€ for the same service as you'd get on a 10€ forfait bas débit option...[;-)]

 

[/quote]

I don't follow what you mean at all. Martin already has ADSL at the moment by the way, so he can actually benefit from it.

Maybe I wasn't clear but I was suggesting that it seems strange to offer 'up to 20 MB' services 'Net','Net Plus', 'Formule'  etc but not 'Découverte'.

I was not referring to those telephone lines where ADSL is not available. It makes no sense at all to me that they are suppressing this offer but at the same time offering the other (potentially) higher speed offers. If one can have a Net or Formule (even on 512kb) then one can benefit from the Découverte pack as well.

I imagine that it is purely a commercial decision as they would prefer to get as many of their clients on the more expensive packages.

Even a basic 512 or 1 or 2mb service on ADSL is a world of diference compared to dial up.

Danny

 

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[quote user="Martin963"]

Nadine: L'offre

découverte n'est pas disponible pour une souscription en ligne, je vous

invite donc à contacter le service client Orange au 09 69 36 3900 pour

souscrire cette offre.

Vous:
OK, merci Nadine

Bother,  will have to wait until we're over.   Probably just as well.

[/quote]

Martin,

You can contact the English speaking helpdesk from the UK at  +33 (0)9 69 36 39 00

The French commercial helpdesk at +33 (0)800 10 14 XY where XY is the number of the departement you live in.

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I agree .

It might be sensible for them to suppress all ADSL offers for people a long way from the exchange, but it seems perverse to offer the faster options whilst suppressing the slowest offer.

As I said before I did wonder if they had underestimated the demand for the low cost option, and were trying to make it harder to take it up by removing it from their website, but as I said before it's certainly still there in our village.

It might be worth trying Ariase.com to see what happens if Martin tries their comparison service.That certainly offers Decouverte as the first option for us. Incidentally for anyone changing suppliers Ariase are quite useful for if you place your new order through their website, they will pay for your registered letter of cancellation to your old supplier out of their commission, which saves you both aggro and euros!

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I thank you all for your contributions while I was - I'm afraid - having a postprandial snooze.

I've just tried the ariase.com test and indeed it seems to think I'm OK for the "decouverte" offer.

Which does make one wonder whether Orange are "up" to something on their own site.

Anyway,  Alice will be waiting for us when we arrive next month (I hope) but I shall invest in a spare ADSL modem before we come over and do a bit of investigating once we're settled down,   as I have a feeling that I checked the cost of phoning 09 number from England and it came out at an eye-watering 30 p per minute.

I'm very grateful for the further input......

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well, it doesn't work via Ariase (with certain telephone numbers) either - once it redirects to the Orange site, it does not show the option for découverte either...

It was worth a try.

I think it is the same situation as present Orangiens are in. They can change their offer but in order to migrate to the latest Découverte offer, they have been obliged to call up to do it. It has not been available online via their 'espace client' and 'modifier ma formule'.

Maybe some Orangers here can corroborate this by looking at their espace clients for us.

Why make it easy for clients to reduce their costs and still get the same or better service (the 'Découverte' at up to 8MB was 29,90 before) 
Better, if possible to get them on to a more expensive package where they could possibly make more calls or watch more paid for films and TV.

Better for Orange that is, of course. [;-)]

Danny

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[quote user="Jane and Danny"]

Maybe some Orangers here can corroborate this by looking at their espace clients for us.

[/quote]

No need. I confronted Orange with this and they had to confess that their online system is unable to check whether you are actually using Orange TV or not. This service is switched on by default for all users. Even Orange shops are not equipped so see all the relevant information...

They regard returning a satellite- or Ip-tv  box as too complicated for an online service.

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  • 1 month later...
Please excuse my ignorance - but does "no VOIP" mean that you can't use Skype with this offer? My situation is: my "residence secondaire" has a phone line, but I'm not sure whether or not it's live so I can't check my eligibility for this offer. I would like to be able to have phone & internet (not bothered about TV) and would like to be able to switch it off when we're not at the house (which I believe you can do with FT/Orange but not with SFR?). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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VOIP in this case means no 'inclusive' VOIP service from Orange. i.e it does not include any 'free' calls....in your monthly charges.

You can use any other VOIP service, like Skype for example, if you want, assuming the line speed is fast enough.

You say "I would like to be able to have phone & internet" but I am not sure exactly what you mean. If you already have an FT phone line then you will be able (except in cases where the adsl capability is poor) to have the Orange "découverte internet" at 19,90 euros per month. This is a simple ADSL connection. I am not sure whether you will be able to stop and start it - like the phone line - or not. This has been discussed many times without any definitive answers - it seems to depend on which person you speak to chez Orange.

Danny

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Update on my particular case:

I was planning to go and see Orange next time we're in Perigueux (and probably still will),   but interestingly our Alice service has improved beyond belief during our winter absence.

We are actually GETTING a proper 0.5 Mbps almost 24/24,  the phone service audio quality is considerably better and the line is "on" the whole time.    I've been rendered almost speechless,   (which is a fat lot of good when you've got free phone calls!).

Apart from a physical line failure four days after our arrival,   the €34.99 per month for Alice now seems more justifiable.

I don't know if it's Alice that's done something now they're with Neuf,  I suspect it's more likely that additional bandwidth back to civilisation has been installed at our exchange,   as up to now most of the village has suffered a very poor service regardless of who they're with.

But it's a great improvement  (and the people with 18 Mbps,  pachapapa etc, are not to mock those of us with only 0.5 Mbps!!)

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"Maybe some Orangers here can corroborate this by looking at their espace

clients for us."

I changed my Orange "formule" online on sunday, from the 1meg max to the  "Découverte" offer & saved €5 a month.[8-)] I have just checked and the speed showing now is 7663kbps download & 848 kbps upload[:D].

I have been with Orange/Wanadoo for over 8 years. I guess I deserve a discount[:)]

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Thank you for all your valued comments. I will be phoning France Telecom and will request the 19.90 euro per month offer, with "residence secondaire" so that I can switch it off when we're not at the house. I will let you know how I get on!
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I rang the English speaking FT helpline first thing this morning at 8 am (English time - as recommended on previous posts) and after three rings the phone was answered by a very helpful assistant called Paul. He verified that internet was available at my house, he registered it as "residence secondaire" (no other documentation needed), he asked for the name of the previous owner and took my French Bank Account RIB number. He asked when I will be next in France (2 June) and he confirmed that it will be connected by then. He also asked if I had my own router to take, which I have. He confirmed that it's possible to suspend telephone and internet when we come back to England. 55 euros re-connection fee for phone, 16 euros/mth line rental, 19.99 euros/mth for Decouverte Internet Sans Engagement (up to 8MB). Twenty minutes later and all done! I'm a very happy bunny - and am keeping my fingers crossed that it all works when I get there in June! Really grateful for this thread as I wouldn't have known what to ask for. Thanks again.
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[quote user="Sunnysandals"]I rang the English speaking FT helpline first thing this morning at 8 am (English time - as recommended on previous posts) and after three rings the phone was answered by a very helpful assistant called Paul. He verified that internet was available at my house, he registered it as "residence secondaire" (no other documentation needed), he asked for the name of the previous owner and took my French Bank Account RIB number. He asked when I will be next in France (2 June) and he confirmed that it will be connected by then. He also asked if I had my own router to take, which I have. He confirmed that it's possible to suspend telephone and internet when we come back to England. 55 euros re-connection fee for phone, 16 euros/mth line rental, 19.99 euros/mth for Decouverte Internet Sans Engagement (up to 8MB). Twenty minutes later and all done! I'm a very happy bunny - and am keeping my fingers crossed that it all works when I get there in June! Really grateful for this thread as I wouldn't have known what to ask for. Thanks again.[/quote]

Sunnysandals - it appears that you may have acheived the Holy Grail for internet in residence secondaire.  As someone said before what you have described was always possible in theory but not in practice.  At present I have a residence secondaire phone line with dial-up internet.

Can you conform that the internet part of this deal can be started and stopped in exactly the same way as the phone part?  i.e.  by calling FT or through their website for a fee of about 5 Euros each time you stop the service?  Can you have the internet running for say 2 weeks and only pay for 2 weeks use.

The reason I ask these questions is that in the past others have posted of being charged a full month for the internet or even two full months even it it was only "live"say  for the last week of April & 1st week of May.  Others have posted of the need to start/stop the internet service by recorded delivery or registered mail.

I appreciate that you may not be in a position to answer me until you have been to France and back again.  I hope it really is now as simple as it sounds!  Good Luck!

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Hi

We have used this service for the past few years, I can't comment

about

cancelling after two weeks as we leave ours on for three months.

Usually

when we cancel we have done it on the internet or by ringing the

English

helpline, the last time we cancelled we were told we had to send a

recorded

delivery letter so it look like things have changed for the worse,

as usual.

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While I was on the phone to Orange earlier this morning I asked if it was possible to suspend the ADSL service,I was told that it was possible but it had to be done by letter, which in France always means registered letter, and with 15 days notice.

On the other hand reactivation could be done by phone and this would be immediate.

This seems to bear out the experience of the previous poster.

Are we in danger of finally arriving at the true situation?

 

 

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