Getting Connected

[User no longer member.]

Have just found out that the previous owners of our house have taken the telephone number with them and, according to our estate agent we can't organise a new number until we actually own the house (2 days before we move in).  My question is that has anyone else faced this problem and how long will it (usually) take for France Telecom to connect me and give me a new number?  I can't see that I'll be able to organise broadband connection either until I have a number - I know there is broadband in the village.

We move 2nd week in January.  Many thanks.

[cooperlola]

I did this for friends and it took 10 days,but I'm sure it's a piece of string thing and depends on the area you're in.  Why not contact FT and book the visit in advance? It only takes an hour or so to do the actual work once they're on site.

[Panda]

Hello

As I understand it numbers are never transferred between old and new owners regardless of whether the old owner wants to keep the number.  This happened when we last moved, we were movng to a different area but the new owners were still not able to have our old number, I arranged for a new number to be allocated to them and it was live on day one.  I think if you have all the info, old owners name, old number etc. you will be able to set it all up now and have it actioned on the day of the move.  They will even give you the new number when you call so that you are all set, as for broadband they may need to visit the house but again you can take an appointement now as Cooperlola suggested and have it done on say day two!

Good luck with it!

Panda

[Benjamin]

I'm not disagreeing with what you say Panda but we had a slightly different experience when we moved in.

The people we bought from did not have a telephone but we found out from the Estate Agent the name of the previous (first) owner. We then visited FT who were quite happy to allocate that number to us so we had a telephone line from day one.

ADSL took two days.

[User no longer member.]

Thanks for all replies - I'll get onto FT and start the ball rolling!  Here's hoping.

[Gyn_Paul]

When we bought this house in Dept 23 a few years aggo the previous owner was moving much further up the country so any possibility of a number transfer was out of the question, but we still ended up with a different number to the one she had had.

When we arrived the phone had a dial tone, but when we tried to dial out we were transferred to a lovely FT operator who took all our bank details (she knew from the data on her screen physically where the house was), offered us a choice of numbers to pick from, and that was it. The phone was live within half an hour.

hope it works as smoothly for you.

p

[tribalecho]

Other posters here have commented on FT's slowness to respond, particularly via FT's english helpline.

My experience was very different.  I rang the english speaking helpline (my spoken French isn't up to phone conversations), and the chap gave me his email address.The house hadn't had an active connection for several years, but the sockets were there.  They wouldn't allocate me a number etc until the house was mine, but I emailed him on the morning that the sale completed, and heard nothing more.  The next morning, an FT van turned up unannounced, connected me and gave me my number.

Whilst on the phone, the helpful FT man also explained about their ADSL service for "maison secondaires".  If I let him know when I'm going to be there, he'll activate the ADSL line, at a cost of 24.99 euros for that month.  I only pay for each month that I'm there.  I haven't tried that yet, having only bought the house last month.  :-)

Good luck