Danny Posted June 28, 2007 Share Posted June 28, 2007 Finally, we have changed adsl ISP. We spent a year with Club Internet and the service got pretty crap and now have just signed up with Alice.I have spent loads of time going through all the terms and conditions of all the operaters and now feel that I know all their offers very well - Sad or what! at least it is good for my French if nothing else.I was tempted to give up the FT line and save 180 euros a year but decided to keep it (thanks to club internet) after having a week without service recently. If we had gone for ADSL nu (no ft line) all our telephone calls would be via the modem. That would mean no way to call and no way for clients and friends/family to call us if the modem goes wonky or the adsl service cuts out.Most of the operaters offer unlimited VOIP calls via the modem to Europe, US and other countries. I nearly went with Neuf.fr but only realised at the last minute that if you choose to keep the FT line, you do not get unlimited calls abroad - only in France. A bit cheeky really, considering all their competitors offer calls abroad. So... then I was going to go with Free.fr but had a question about whether I should subscribe to the new provider before or after the current one expires. I sent an email to Free to ask and they replied after two days saying call up the (paying) number and ask them. So I called and after a few minutes, a message said try online for info or email us...mmm. Called 4 or 5 times to no avail. There was no one available to answer the query. Not a great way to get clients...Next step, try Alice.fr . There is a pop up on their website which asks if you would like a counseller to help. Put your number in and they call you up immediately. 2 seconds later the phone starts ringing and I am on hold for 30 seconds when a very helpful person answers my questions. Plus point for Alice is that the calls to customer service and Tech help are free - assuming they answer of course (Neuf were also very helpful on the phone by the way) Having spent about 20 euros lately calling up Club Internet tech help, the free calls are quite a draw... what a pain it is calling up to find out why the adsl is not working, only to be on hold for however long and paying to listen to their jingles...Alice have 3 months free if you sign up at the moment - saves a bit of cash, assuming the service is good. It is a 12 month subscription so I am tied for year.Everyone advised to sign up before the current supply finishes to avoid (probably) a couple of weeks of no service at all.We shall see how it goes.Danny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted June 28, 2007 Share Posted June 28, 2007 Fingers crossed for you then, and you were so sure you we're going with Free....[;-)]I'd send Neuf an email telling them exactly why you chose not to sign up with them.Incidentally, how long did the transfer take ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Posted June 28, 2007 Author Share Posted June 28, 2007 its not done yet, I only signed up the day before yesterday and the Club Internet subscription will finish in about three weeks timeThe ball has started rolling - Alice promise it will be set up within two weeks - let the saga commence..Danny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted June 28, 2007 Share Posted June 28, 2007 Ah, fingers AND toes crossed then [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemini_man Posted June 28, 2007 Share Posted June 28, 2007 I can understand you being less than impressed with Free if they don't offer a proper help service - it hasn't happened to me as we have always managed to sort out our problems ourselves or via the Free forums which are very useful.Do keep us informed as to how things go with Alice - as with all ISP's you hear good and bad about them! Right now we have no problems with Free other than brief disconnects and the Freebox resetting itself frequently on the hour which is annoying but only lasts a minute or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxine Posted June 30, 2007 Share Posted June 30, 2007 I have tried Tiscali, Orange and found them wanting. Switched to Teleconnect and my troubles are over. No contract, cancel when you wish! Helpline and instructions all in English. 'Free' calls to UK and others for 5 euros.pm.There is no contest! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemini_man Posted June 30, 2007 Share Posted June 30, 2007 [quote user="Maxine"]I have tried Tiscali, Orange and found them wanting. Switched to Teleconnect and my troubles are over. No contract, cancel when you wish! Helpline and instructions all in English. 'Free' calls to UK and others for 5 euros.pm.There is no contest![/quote]I looked carefully at Teleconnect before deciding on Free - agreed about the help line being in english etc but i was a bit concerned about a) they only guarantee 94% or 96% connection time to adsl (but i expect that's perhaps normal) and b) i was rather put off by their terms and conditions which are here but in larger type than they give:Price list effective 08/02/2007ADSL Subscription €29,90/monthRental of Wi-Fi modem FREEUK2U virtual number in UK FREEAdditional phone line FREE2 hours/month calls to Anglo zone* FREE2 hours/month call plan covering 40 countries** €3/monthUnlimited calls to Anglo zone* €5/monthUnlimited local and national calling*** €5/monthActivation Fee €30Exchange of modem for upgrade model €45Non-return modem in good working order €160Service cancellation €45Reactivation after line cut €45Reactivation after suspension €25Transfer of subscription to another line €45Surcharge for service without preselection €5/monthRejection by bank of direct debit €15Receive invoice by mail €2,50/invoice*fixed lines in UK, Ireland, Australia and fixed and mobile lines in USA and Canada.**Call plan applies to fixed lines in: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile,China, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Rep., Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, HongKong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, NewZealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, South Korea,Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela***geographic numbers in France (01,02,03,04,05), but excluding calls to 017 numbers forcomputer servers, calling platforms, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UlsterRugby1999 Posted July 1, 2007 Share Posted July 1, 2007 I have just completed an application for a friend, this morning, to Orange. For 39,90€ per month he has got ADSL 24/7, their Livebox and calls to UK/Ireland/USA etc at no additional cost, although the cost for this is 7€ per month included in the 39,90€ monthly rate. Also included in the monthly rate is 3€ rental for the Livebox. I am with Alice. They give me the calls package via VoIP to Ireland/UK/US/ etc, their Alicebox and 24/7 ADSL unlimited connection. If something goes wrong, their helpline (as was pointed out previously) is free to call. This costs 29,95€ per month. As for Teleconnect - I have a client who has signed up to their service. He was won over by the English speaking service and the no contract aspect to things. He regrets this as his ADSL connection drops regularly. I have been with Alice for 2 1/2 years and I can honestly say that I have never had a problem. During a recent thread I started regarding free VoIP packages, some mention was made of FREE. I sent an email to FREE to ask them about switching from Alice to FREE. At the same time I sent an email to ALICE asking for confirmation of the package I had with them. Within an hour I had an autoresponder from both. Within 24 hours I received a personal and in depth response from an ALICE advisor which went to great lenths to explain my package and how to configure each aspect of the package. I have yet to receive a response (other than the autoresponder) from FREE.To me its the ability to maintain a service and also to deal with problems promptly that is as important as the price. I reckon that I have achieved all of this through Alice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billy10 Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Hi Jane and Danny, Thanks for the info you gave from my recent mail, let me know please how you get on with Alice as I think I will probably go for it myself, did you set it up online or do you have to ring Alice as I am not sure how to go about actually getting the service up and running, in the UK it is very easy but that is because I speak english , not to clever at the French yet so will need my hand held in the initial stages.regardsBilly10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Posted July 27, 2007 Author Share Posted July 27, 2007 Billy,So far, very good. I did it on the phone as I had a specific question I couldn't find the answer to on line. It should be easy to do online even if your French is not great. There are just some forms to fill in. Name, address, choose email and password etc. Then 2 weeks later, you should be connected... allegedly. If not, they say you will not be charged for the first month. The 3 month free promotion goes to the 21st Aug so I don't know if you will have time to do that. Are you moving completely or do you have a phone line there already?If you want to have an FT line you will have to do that first. You may also be able to get Alice to open the line for you but then you would have no traditional phone line and all your calls and would be via the modem. See this page for more details. For general info on what is available see this page but you will need a phone number to find out what is specifically offered at your new house. For general Alice info see this pageIf you need some more help, just ask. Get the big English/French dictionary out, it will become a very good friend! - the more you try, the quicker you will learn the lingo.Danny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billy10 Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 Thanks for the response Danny, I do already have an FT line at the house which for the last two years or so we have oipened and suspended everytime we visit , we have found this to be a good arrangement , I will just miss the 21st August as I dont actually get to France ( as an early retiree) until Sunday 26th, so looks like I will miss the deadline , I wonder if I can do it from the UK online say 7 days before departure or thinking about it I will probably have to be there because does'nt it involve fitting a box of some sort in tyhe house ??. Regards Billy10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Posted July 27, 2007 Author Share Posted July 27, 2007 In that case, there should be no problem. (!!!) Don't quote me on that one!!!You can do it online and you don't have to be there to sign up. You will get sent the modem(box) about a week or so after signing up and you will need to be there to collect it. If I remember right you have to sign for the parcel but I suppose it will wait for you at the Post office. The line will be activated for you, you don't have to be there and you will be sent a letter with all the necessary details. When you get there, you can connect it all up and follow the instructions and start surfing and phoning...Don't hesitate to ask if you don't understand somethingDanny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billy10 Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 thanks Jane and Danny, I will do it maybe 4 or five days before we leave around about the 21st and take pot luck as to when the box arrives , just had a thought I wont be able to use babel fish to translate as i wont have any internet so you are right the French Dictionary will have to come out,my wife Sally is brilliant at finding the most obtuse words in our book so should be able to sign on , mind you it could end up with not speaking to one another for an hour or two because I am always right you see you know being a bloke and all that,(ha ha )RegardsBilly10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Posted August 13, 2007 Author Share Posted August 13, 2007 a little update for anyone who may be interested:Subscription to Alice went very smoothly. All has been fine until last week when we started having a bit of a problem with the adsl... the speed is a bit erratic. Normally, we get about 2 megas and downloads and surfing etc is fine but the upload speed is incredibly slow. It takes eons to send an email with a 100 kb attachment for example. I have called Alice tech support (thankfully free) 5 times now and have had mixed responses. It is now being looked into as a case but that is after one person told me to call Microsoft for help as it must be an outlook express problem (Not)...another who said you have spyware etc, as there is no problem with the adsl and another who told that she could not understand a word I was saying! I don't think my French is that bad. 5 out of 10 for actual technical help. The last person was very helpful and has promised to get back to me (mmm...)I am 99 % sure the computer is OK but the only other test I can think of (apart from formatting and reinstalling Windows in case I have picked up something) is to attach another computer to the modem and see if it is any better. Time will tell.On the whole, Alice have so far been pretty good. I get the feeling that they have taken on a lot of new customers with their 3 month free offer and are trying to deal with the increased load. The ( free) customer support number has been answered in less than a minute each time I have called.That is pretty impressive considering they must get oodles of calls with ridiculous questions. The inclusive VOIP calls have so far been excellent. No complaints there. Lots of calls made over the last month to the UK and Canada and HollandDanny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 Danny (and Jane) - good to have you back amongst us. I was just beginning to get worried about you and thinking about calling you. (see another thread in this forum)Glad you are - at least largely - sorted!Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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