More orange / livebox woes.

[dave21478]

Not me, but some friends of mine in the next village....

We are non-degroupe around here. I use orange internet with FT landline and it works ok ish. My sister signed up with neuf all-in-one with free calls and it works 101%, but these folk signed up to orange for a livebox and free calls.

I set it up for them and all was well, but since, it has proved to be hopelessly unreliable, cutting out often for days at a time.

Their french isnt great and they are not tech-savvy at all, so muggins here is the one who sorts it for them.

 

2 weeks ago we had a big lightning storm. Since then, their pc hasnt worked (keyboard and mouse dont respond at all) and the phone hasnt worked either. Silence when you pick it up plugged into the livebox, but if plugged into the wall, you get the two-tone signal, but cant dial out, so the line seems fine.

I called te helpline for them from my house, but they wanted me to be there to do the checks they wanted. I took my laptop round, set it up to work on their orange account, and the internet works perfectly, the phone remains dead. I suspect a dead livebox.

Calling the helpline isnt easy though. The only mobile network that works here is Orange, and despite trying three different mobiles, a signal in their house is almost impossible. I could get the minimum to make a call by leaning out a window, but it would randomly cut out with no warning. Despite giving them my number to call me back, they never would. I must have called them half a dozen times, each time waiting in the queue and getting to a different operative and having to start the tests all over again, only for it to cut out again. I gave up in the end. They are unimpressed and want rid of the livebox and go back to their old phone through FT, and not bother with internet for now. Problem is, as far as I am aware, the orange all-in-one offer is a 12 month contract yes? They will still have several months to go. Will they have to buy their way out of the contract, or could they have it cancelled due to the amount of problems they have had from the off? Any other solutions? I suggested taking the livebox to an orange / FT shop and getting it changed, but they want rid altogether. I have had a look at their PC and its completely knackered, I suspect they had a lightning hit, which has caused these problems. They cant afford a new pc right now, and dont use it enough to make it a priority to replace, hence not really wanting to keep the internet going.

Any advice?

 

[mint]

If they have house contents insurance, would the policy not cover a computer knocked senseless by a storm?

[Clair]

On my insurance, electrical damage (lightning) is an add-on.

[dave21478]

No idea, but the computer is not the problem, they hardly ever used it, so are more than happy to do without. The problem is they are paying 30€+ a month for a service that has been very poor and is currently not working at all, and want to get rid of this and go back to a normal FT line.

 

[nectarine]

a friend of mine had similar problems with an unreliable Livebox but couldn't get out of the contract, FT kept telling her to take it back to the shop.  Four Liveboxes later she now has one that works, and continues to work and is incredibly reliable.  On each occasion that she went back to the shop she said there were at least two other irate people holding dead Liveboxes and complaining that they wanted exchanges, so it wasn't just her!!  On the final time, the manager of the shop said that he would give her a Livebox with a different manufacturer (SAGEM) and said that he had many complaints with boxes made by the other manufacturer (sorry, can't remember the name).  She now has a SAGEM box which is fine ... so perhaps there is a batch of dud boxes around?

Can't help with the PC advice though, but I think in the first instance you have to pester FT to agree to give you another box.

Good luck.

[mint]

Or, better still, if your minimal contract period with FT has expired, change your ISP.

[AnOther]

They are non-degroupee and signed up with Orange (= FT) so I don't undrstand why thay cannot just plus a bog standard phone into the socket. Maybe their phone was fried by the storm too, quite possible if it was plugged into the Livebox when it got zapped.

Unless I've misunderstood something absolutely fundamental if you have a non-degroupee FT line you should ALWAYS be able to do this.

"I took my laptop round, set it

up to work on their orange account, and the internet works perfectly,

the phone remains dead. I suspect a dead livebox"

I take this to mean that you took your own Livebox around there and if it worked then there cannot be too much wrong with the line itself. Have you tried another known good phone directly on the line ?

As for getting out of the FT contract, doubtful I'd say, especially if language difficulties present a barrier to arguing with them, it's worth a try I suppose but from what you've said it sounds as if 'muggins' will end up doing the arguing on their behalf.

The road to hell is, as they say, paved with good intentions [:'(]

[dave21478]

The telephone itself is fine. When plugged directly into the wall, it gives a tone, but wont dial out. This is normal as despite non degroupage, they have paid extra to have unlimited calls, which is done via VOIP through the internet. To do this involves disabling the ability to make calls directly through the telephone socket, it HAS to go through the livebox. They have also tried with another telephone, with the same results.

I dont have a livebox myself, when I went round, I ran their setup cd on my laptop and configured it as an additional computer, so their livebox and line are working fine for internet, but not for the telephone. Interestingly, when re-setting the livebox, picking up the handset as it powers up gives a dial tone, but once all the lights stop flashing it is "ready" the handset dies with a little click from the box. t has to be a livebox fault to do with the telephone I reckon.

I just heard this evening that they called again on Thursday from a friends house. The guy testing the line reckoned he couldnt do anything unless they were in the house to switch the box on/off etc. How exactly are we supposed to do this if there is no mobile phone reception here? Ages back, I dusted off my old UK mobile and got it to scan for the strongest signal of any network, but there is NONE that get a signal through here. The guy on the helpline seemingly got quite shirty and told them to use a nearby payphone, and run back and forth to the house. The nearest payphone is 3km away, so a tad inconvenient!

I have told them to take the box to an Orange shop and speak to someone face to face. They are stuck with it though, as to buy out the remaining time on the contract is over 500€. The poor woman seems to have been completely kippered when signing up, as its costing her significantly more than any other provider would charge for the same service. My sister has the same deal through Neuf and pays half what she pays. (plus its been perfectly reliable)

[dave21478]

Im happy to help them out language-wise for the tech stuff and calling FT/orange, and for the technical computer side(although im not that competant, I seem to be the local "expert"!), but Im not willing to get into contract cancellation negotiations on their behalf.

[dave21478]

Well, one of their neighbours also has no phone, so FT said they would send someone round this afternoon to sort it out. My friend asked me to be there to translate.

A knock at the door signaled the arrival of.... not a technician but a courier, who delivered a new livebox, took the old one and left. Did the same for her neighbours too.

Plugged it all in, and still nothing. There was a thing in the instructions that said it may take up to 48 hours for the box to synchronise! Called them up and was told to wait 48 hours and see if it still didnt work, then phone back.

 

FARCE.

 

These clowns are really on my sh1t-list now. Nothing they have anything to do with goes right as far as Im concerned. They cant get this friends telephone working. She has been paying monthly (over the odds too) for 8 months or so and had a working phone and internet for maybe half that time.

My own set-up is through FT too, every time it rains a lot, the line goes down and takes 2 days to be repaired. I have had them out so many times I get discounts on my line rental for their poor performance.

I got a new mobile phone last month from Orange (the only network that gets a signal here, no other choice sadly) which worked fine for about 20 days, then they disconnected it and sent me a bill a third higher that the plan I signed up for. Its still disconnected now, despite me jumping through their hoops. If it isnt working by the end of the week, its getting posted back to them and I will do without.

 

The general attitude I get regarding the landline problems is that its really our own fault for living outside a city.

 

[:@]

[cerise]

I have had orange livebox also (for internet only though, not phone) for almost 2 years now. No major hassles so far, touch wood, but I am sure when I first set it up with them I was told there was no minimum contract. That they couldn't legally enforce that. Was I mis-informed then?