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I have a phone line with France Telecom, and a 2mb ADSL service with Orange - Wanadoo that was, I would like to take up one of the total packages offered by the likes of Neuf and Free, but I struggle a bit with the language.  What would be the most straightforward way to shift my accounts?  Do I need to inform FT and Orange myself if I subscribe online to a new ISP, or will the new company do that for me?  Any pointers as to which ISP to go for would be welcome, I am looking for an unlimited ADSL service and free calls to the UK as a minimum.

Regards

Simon

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I have not had to do this myself as we are not in a location where we can opt for dégroupage yet, i.e. we have to stick with FT for our adsl line for now.  However, I know that Free.fr (our ISP) say they handle the changeover of the phone line from FT for you if you are in a dégroupage eligible area; there is supposed to be no interruption in service and you keep your old FT number.  No need to deal with FT yourself.  I imagine that the other ISPs offer the same service.

Do you know if you are dégroupage eligible?  If not, you can check with these sites:

DegroupTest.com

ADSL eligibility

However, you should check your Orange ISP contract to see what period of notice is required to ditch your current ISP contract with them.  This is a separate matter from the phone line.

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I have just migrated from France Telecom with Tiscali dial-up to Neuf.

I am not in a zone dégroupée and I now have ADSL with unlimited tel calls to landlines through Neuf.

I called their freephone 0800 737 430 and signed up by phone after several lenghty conversations (in French)... It won't cost you to ask if they speak English though...

They handle the switch from France Telecom themselves, except any special FT service you may have subscribed to (forfait or diversion calls for instance).

As previously mentioned, you must give your current ISP (Orange) the required notice (usually 2 months, but do check your Conditions Générales) and do make sure you send your letter Registered Post with proof of signature (LR+AR) to the correct address, as some ISP have been known to make it difficult for clients to leave by having a specific address for résiliations.

The timeline:

  • I signed up by phone with Neuf on 2 Sept
  • they sent me the router and paperwork within 10 days (but not the wifi card I had requested)

  • I kept my FT line until 30 Sept and was able to call and connect as before
  • I lost all for 5 days (Neuf says 2 days!)
  • everything was working yesterday 6 Oct (Neuf says 2 Oct!)
The basics:

  • I kept my tel number
  • The monthly cost is €34.95 and that is only €10 more per month than I was paying with FT+Tiscali before making any tel calls

  • They do not require any commitment but have  €45 exit fee and 1 month notice.
  • The wifi card is optional and costs €25.
  • They offer a Norton Security pack: free for 2 months than €5/mth, but you have to remember to cancel it or it's automatically added to your bill.

So far so good. I just hope I don't have to call their helpline as calls cost €0.34/mn...[blink]

Hope this helps...

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One thing you need to watch is the services offered by different ISPs with regard to ADSL speeds and your location. I am a bit rural (1km to nearest village, 3 or 4 Km from and ADSL exchange) and all the tests, France Telecom, everybody says I'm fine with 8MB ADSL (though they do say I would probably only achieve 5MB in practice). So unwisely I said to Wanadoo/Orange I would upgrade - and my ADSL stopped working next day. Occasionally I might get some sync for a few minutes (maybe even get the occasional e-mail) but most of the time no sync.

Despite the fact that it took them less than a day to upgrade me, it took them over a months to "downgrade" back to the previous state. Despite calling every couple of days it was totally impossible. Engineers checked the line etc. and could not understand. Once it was restored it worked fine. It was just too much for the cable quality.

I have since looked at other ISPs though none can offer the service that works for me - they all only offer the higher speeds that I already know do not work.

A friend who already had AOL ADSL recently decided to upgrade her package to include the AOL box/telephone thing. As she does not get that many calls it was over 2 weeks before she realised none of her phones were working properly for incoming calls.

If you are rural and have something that works, how much better are the alternatives with respect to the risk of losing everything for a period.

Ian
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I agree with Ian, better the devil you know and all that... and I did hesitate a long long time before jumping ship, but the poor quality of service and after-care I was receiving from both FT ("as long as your phone works, it's not our problem") and Tiscali ("your tel line must be faulty as no-one else is reporting any server problem in your area"; "it's your modem, it's not coping with the data flow") made it impossible to carry on.

I live in one of the most rural part of France and I do know that even if I am not getting the max speed, it's a damned sight better than having to wait 20mn to load an incomplete page or being cut-off every few seconds during a mail download!

The way I look at it after the last few months of tearing my hair out is that I only have one company to complain to if anything goes wrong, no more being bounced between FT and Tiscali, and that alone makes it worth changing... but I DID have a good reason to look elsewhere...

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Thanks all, that is very helpful.  It looks as if 6mb is max for my area, but that is ok and more than the 2mb I get presently.  I see from the Orange.fr site that you have to ring their €0.34/ minute number to find out how to cancel.  Anyone done this and have the address to write too?

Simon

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Hi Simon

Have you tried looking on their website for their "Conditions Générales d'Utilisation" also sometimes marked as CGU.

They are usually available for potential users to read before they commit themselves and as you already are with them, just log on and do a search for it.

Within that file, look for the "Résiliation" section.

I'm sure someone will come up with the info soon...

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If you check Club Internet's broadband resiliation terms, for example, you'll find that if you are in the first year of the contract you are stuck with them even if the service is appalling; you can only get out of it if:

  1. one of their engineers writes to you admitting they have not provided a proper service (fat chance)
  2. you move to an area where they do not provide a service
  3. you die
I imagine most others are the same.

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[quote user="Cassis"]If you check Club Internet's broadband resiliation terms, for example, you'll find that if you are in the first year of the contract you are stuck with them even if the service is appalling; you can only get out of it if:

  1. one of their engineers writes to you admitting they have not provided a proper service (fat chance)
  2. you move to an area where they do not provide a service
  3. you die
I imagine most others are the same.

[/quote]

no 12 month minimum contract with Neuf, as they allow you to leave with a €45 fee and 1 month notice.

Of course you also have to call them at €0.34/mn to get a special code to put outside the box in which you'll be returning their router... at your expense...!

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  • 5 months later...
I ordered it at the time I signed on with them.

It was not in the pack and I asked for one whn I called them on another matter.

It arrivd within 5 days but I cannot make it work! As they never invoiced me for it(€25 ) I can't be bothered to go through it again...!

You should be able to order it through your Neuf account (change package or similar) but last time I checked (about 1 month or so ago) they i not have any in stock.

They do have a new box (Neufbox 4?) which you can purchase and already has the wifi biult-in I think. I have not looked into it in detail yet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Clair,

Bought the box of the shelf in local hypermarket so no wifi adapter - will look on the site when they send me the password! - In the meantime they seem to have cut of the phone - after 5 days all incoming callers get engaged tone - anyone else have that problem?

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Have you signed up for 100% Neuf (IE No rental to FT). If you have signed, have you transferred you old number to Neuf or  gone for their allocated number.

With both options your old phone socket will stop working and your calls will be through the phone plugged into the Neufbox.

 

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I have just switched from Wanadoo/Orange to the new Teleconnect server. After suffering for 14 months with Wan/Or, I cancelled, giving two months notice with a letter of resiliation which I downloaded from the Internet. You then send it to Wanadoo by registered post( Recomonder) . You must have served your sentence of 12 months hard labour, before you can cancel!

Then I emailed Teleconnect to make sure they could give me the service. I was connected within two weeks of sending the application form, with modem etc. The connection actually took me only 5 minutes!  This is the plus point. ALL INSTRUCTIONS ARE IN ENGLISH AND ANY PHONE CALLS TO THE HELP LINE ARE DITTO!  You are allowed to cancel at any time with them without giving notice!

The service is faultless and Wan/Or, could only give me 512k I am now getting plus 2MB. (I am some distance from the exchange!) I cannot  give them enough plaudits!

If you wish to  know the address of Wanadoo, which is in Marseilles I will look it up and let you have it. You will not find it on any of their web sites, for obvious reasons. No doubt some other poster will mention the web site for the template of the resiliation letter.

I  am not connected with Teleconnect in any way.(except through the Internet!) but if they feel like giving me a free month, I will not turn it down. (Some hopes!)

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I have just switched from Wanadoo/Orange to the new Teleconnect server. After suffering for 14 months with Wan/Or, I cancelled, giving two months notice with a letter of resiliation which I downloaded from the Internet. You then send it to Wanadoo by registered post( Recomonder) . You must have served your sentence of 12 months hard labour, before you can cancel!

Then I emailed Teleconnect to make sure they could give me the service. I was connected within two weeks of sending the application form, with modem etc. The connection actually took me only 5 minutes!  This is the plus point. ALL INSTRUCTIONS ARE IN ENGLISH AND ANY PHONE CALLS TO THE HELP LINE ARE DITTO!  You are allowed to cancel at any time with them without giving notice!

The service is faultless and Wan/Or, could only give me 512k I am now getting plus 2MB. (I am some distance from the exchange!) I cannot  give them enough plaudits!

If you wish to  know the address of Wanadoo, it is;-

Wanadoo service Client,

Pole 27 33734,

Bordeaux Cedex 9

You will not find it on any of their web sites, for obvious reasons. No doubt some other poster will mention the web site for the template of the resiliation letter.

I  am not connected with Teleconnect in any way.(except through the Internet!) but if they feel like giving me a free month, I will not turn it down. (Some hopes!)

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I don't know why you suffered for 14 months, I have been with them for over 2 years without any problem. I am also suprised that they could only give you 512k when their parent company France Telecom puts the lines in. Could it be that Teleconnect have installed a new line that is capable of 2 MB without telling FT?

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