Cancelling a French ISP contract

[Clair]

The information below is intended as a guide only.

The sample letters must be adapted to your circumstances. The parts in RED are specific to you and your problem.

Whenever you send a letter, you must do so via Recorded Delivery with Proof of

Delivery (Lettre Recommandés avec Accusé de Réception from La Poste). Keep a copy of all correspondence and a list of tel calls made to your ISP. Keep the proof of delivery when you receive it.

You can only cancel a contract in the way described in your Conditions Générales d'Utilisation (CGU) (=T&C). You should have received a copy at the time you subscribed or you can read them on your ISP website. The relevant text is usually found under a heading called "Résiliation".

Cancelling because you have found a better offer elsewhere

You need to send your ISP a lettre de résiliation (sample

letter below). Check you CGU and confirm that:

• you
  have completed the minimum duration of you contract (usually 12
  months). If you have not, you will be liable to pay the subscription
  until the minimum duration has expired.

• you are giving the appropriate notice as stated in your CGU (usually 2 months).
• you are sending the letter to the correct address, as your ISP may have given a specific address in the CGU.

[quote]LRAR

Your

full name

Your

address

postcode

TOWN

ISP

name

ISP

address

postcode

TOWN

Town,

le (date)

Réf. : (your

customer ref : )

Madame, Monsieur,

Par la présente,

je vous prie de noter que je résilie mon contrat de fourniture

d'accès à Internet (specify the

type of suscription: 25 h/mth, unlimited...), à compter

du (date of the end of notice period or)

immédiatement, conformément à l'article

(relevant Art number from their CGU) du

contrat.

(If

you are cancelling during the minimum contract period, write your

reasons here: unsatisfactory service, you're moving... and enclose

copies of the relevant proofs.)

J'avais opté pour

le règlement par (specify payment by

direct debit on your account or bank card). Aussi, je vous

demande de faire le nécessaire afin que mon compte ne soit

plus prélevé à compter du (date

of the end of the notice period).

Conformément aux

dispositions de la loi Informatique et Liberté du 6 janvier

1978 modifiée, et sauf prescription légale contraire,

je vous prie de bien vouloir supprimer de vos fichiers toutes

informations relatives à mes coordonnées postales et

bancaires. Je m'oppose en particulier à toute utilisation, ou

mise à disposition à des organismes extérieurs,

de mes coordonnées personnelles à des fins de

prospection commerciale (article 38 de la loi précitée).

Je vous prie d'agréer,

Madame, Monsieur, l'expression de ma considération distinguée.

(Signature)[/quote]

If you have been paying your subscription by direct debit (prélèvement automatique),

you should also cancel this (sample letter below).

Do make sure you do

not send this too early, as you still need to pay your subscription

during the notice period of your cancellation.

[quote]

Your

full name

Your

address

postcode

TOWN

Bank name

 

Bank address

postcode

TOWN

Town,

le (date)

Madame, Monsieur,

Par la présente, veuillez accuser réception de ma décision de révoquer le prélévement automatique que j'ai accordé à la société (name of ISP) pour débiter mon compte bancaire nº(bank account / bank card number), tenu par votre établissement.

Je ne souhaite plus que cette société ait accès à mon compte bancaire. J'ai par ailleurs précédemment notifié l'établissement créancier de l'annulation du mandat de prélévement. Je tiens à souligner qu'il ne s'agit pas d'une demande d'opposition mais bien d'une révocation de mandat, comme prévue par l'article 2004 du Code Civil.

En vous remerciant de votre efficacité, je vous prie de croire, Madame, Monsieur, en l'expression de mes sentiments les meilleurs.

(Signature)[/quote]

Unsatisfactory service

If

you do not get a satisfactory outcome after first contacting the

customer assistance and technical services, the next step is to send

your ISP a lettre de mise en demeure (sample letter below), which gives

them an ultimatum to establish or re-establish a satisfactory service

within a specific period (usually 15 working days)

This is the last step before taking the matter to court.

[quote]LRAR

Your

full name

Your

address

postcode

TOWN

ISP

name

ISP

address

postcode

TOWN

Town,

le (date)

Réf. : (your

customer ref : )

Madame, Monsieur,

Je me suis abonné

à Internet le (date you subscribed).

Or, à ce jour, je n’ai toujours pas accès au service.

OR

Depuis le (date

the problem started), je n’ai plus accès à

Internet OR au service (specify

which service supplied by your ISP téléphonie,

Internet, télévision, you cannot access) OR le

service (if you have intermittent problem with

téléphonie, internet, télévision supplied

by your ISP) fonctionne mal (explain the

problem).

En dépit de mes

appels à votre hotline, ces problèmes subsistent.

En conséquence, je

vous mets en demeure de procéder, sous quinze jours ouverts à

compter de la réception de la présente, à

l’établissement ou au rétablissement de votre

service, conformément à vos obligations contractuelles.

A défaut, je me

verrai dans l’obligation de résilier mon contrat

d’abonnement, sans avoir à supporter les frais de

résiliation.

Comptant sur votre

diligence,

Veuillez agréer,

Madame, Monsieur, l'expression de ma considération distinguée.

(Signature)[/quote]

Cancelling because of unsatisfactory service

Despite

your numerous contacts with your ISP customer service and technical

service and despite sending them the letter above, the service is still

not operating properly and you want to cancel your contract.

• During the minimum contract period, you can cancel only after the
  specific period indicated in your letter, if you have not obtained
  satisfaction under the steps shown in the "Unsatisfactory service"
  section above. You will not be liable for the outstanding subscription
  payments.
• Beyond the minimum contract period, cancel by following the "Cancelling... better offer" section above.

The ISP is still charging you despite the cancellation

You want the payments to stop and a refund of the sums paid after the cancellation. Send another lettre de mise en demeure.

This is a last step before taking the matter to court.

[quote]LRAR

Your

full name

Your

address

postcode

TOWN

ISP

name

ISP

address

postcode

TOWN

Town,

le (date)

Réf. : (your

customer ref : )

Madame, Monsieur,

Par la lettre du (date

you sent the cancellation letter), je vous ai adressé

ma demande de résiliation de mon abonnement, à compter

du (date of end of notice period). (If

you have received the proof of delivery add the following sentence) Vous avez accusé

réception de cette résiliation en date du (date

shown on proof of delivery).

Or comme l’attestent

les relevés bancaires ci-joint, vous avez poursuivi les

prélèvements (specify how many

debits and the total amount debited).

En conséquence, je

vous mets de demeure de cesser ces prélèvements et je

vous informe que j’ai dû faire opposition auprès de ma

banque.

Je vous demande de me

rembourser, sous huit jours à compter de la réception

de la présente, la somme de (total

amount debited) € et de la somme de (bank

fee for stopping the direct debit) € que j’ai dû

régler à ma banque au titre des frais d’opposition.

Vous trouverez ci-joint les justificatifs de ces sommes (copies

of bank statement showing the bank fee and direct debits).

A défaut, je me

verrai dans l’obligation de saisir le juge de proximité.

Comptant sur votre

diligence,

Je vous prie d'agréer,

Madame, Monsieur, l'expression de ma considération distinguée.

(Signature)[/quote]

[5-element]

Clair, thank you thank you. This is just fab (unfortunately!!!) and I bookmark it.

Orange/FT, don't mess with me now!

[mogs]

Does anyone have a letter purely for cancelling because of a change of address?   If so, one to France Telecom/Orange would be good please, as I can't even find the address to write to.   Having spent 1 1/2 hours in my local France Telecom shop today only to be told "you have to ring this number" and of course, I can't ever seem to be able to get through - it is pretty frustrating.  Many thanks

[Benjamin]

[quote user="mog"]Does anyone have a letter purely for cancelling because of a change of address?   If so, one to France Telecom/Orange would be good please, as I can't even find the address to write to.   Having spent 1 1/2 hours in my local France Telecom shop today only to be told "you have to ring this number" and of course, I can't ever seem to be able to get through - it is pretty frustrating.  Many thanks[/quote]

Don't put up with being fobbed off. [6]

They are customer services. Stand your ground until they give you some proper customer service. [:P]

[Brilec]

It all changes in the middle of this year as a new Loi Chatel has been passed, which as I understand it, requires the ISP to ask your permission to continue the contract.

[Roz]

Clair, thank you so much for providing these letter formats - what a godsend! [kiss]

[JohnM]

If only it was that difficult.

At Christmas I experienced great difficulty with my Wanadoo / Orange broadband. I plucked up the courage to call the help line. In the end, I think I had about 6 phone calls with them. Only on one occasion did I get somebody who was prepared to speak slowly and clearly, but even she couldn't solve it, so she made an apoointment for an expert to call me. Now, considering the difficulty we had had, I'd hoped that they would have found somebody with a bit of English, but no, I think they deliberately picked on the person with the mumbliest voice in all of France. We got nowhere.

So I went to the FT shop to ask if I coule have a dial up number so that I could send an email. So they set up the dial up and set a cancelation date for the broadband. I got back and the haute debit worked. So used it, but of course, next time I went it didn't so had along protracted email conversation with idiots who just kept saying "give us a ring", to which I would reply "No, it's a waste of time, we don't understand each other".

Eventually I got somebody with a brain who said, but it's been cancelled. Like a fool I reinstated it, but the contact isn't as good as the original.

One of teh most frustrating things was that I told them that the error code was one that indicated an error with the line and as I had bought: New adsl filters, New Modem and a new box for the wall - I tended to agree with the error code.