getting in touch with orange

[heather]

Does anyone have an e-mail address for customer services at orange? I've trawled all through their site and can't find it!

I've just subscribed to their internet service with the unlimited telephone option. The entire village lost all things orange last Thursday - internet, mobile phones, the lot. Although the internet and the phones came back on the next day, I've had telephone "non disponible" since. The English speaking line of france telecom can't/won't help and my french really isn't up to complicated phone calls yet. I can take my time over composing an e-mail if I could only find that address. 

[tel]

Hi Heather,

I don't think you have had any replies because the information you require is not available.  I have trawled both the French and UK Orange websites and it is almost impossible to contact them by email.  They are quite happy to list the telephone numbers (National rate or Premium rate) but are coy about their email contact.

Sorry

 

 

[fulcrum]

Heather

I think the best way to deal with your problem is by visit to the France Telecom office for your department. They may have someone who can speak English and if you talk to them nicely I'm sure they will be willing to help.

Just take all relevant invoices so that they can identify you on their system.

[thunderhorse]

Until a few weeks ago I was using [email protected]. It may be worth trying that and [email protected].

I'll see if I can dig out another.

[heather]

Thanks for your replies. I did eventually dig up an e-mail address via the e-mail they sent to me when I ordered the service. For anyone else who may need it - [email protected]

They sent a tip in reply - when the connection to the phone line disappears, unplug the Livebox then plug it in again. It seems to work!

By the way, I've connected to first the telephone and now the internet via france telecom's english speakers line - 0800 36 47 75. Pretty much problem free. The only hiccup was the line wouldn't come on at first and I'd to wait a week for an engineer to come out and replace a wall socket. We are pretty remote here though.

All the best       

Heather

[thunderhorse]

I discovered that - pull the plug when the connection drops, give it a few seconds, and plug it back in again.

Interestingly, it only happened under Windows XP. Now that I'm using Linux and a network card (not USB), it hasn't happened at all in the past month.

[fulcrum]

[quote user="thunderhorse"]I discovered that - pull the plug when the connection drops, give it a few seconds, and plug it back in again.

Interestingly, it only happened under Windows XP. Now that I'm using Linux and a network card (not USB), it hasn't happened at all in the past month.

[/quote]

USB can sometimes be problematic for ADSL. This is because some PC manufacturers implementation of USB is flakey and especially noticeable when used for ADSL connections. It is ALWAYS better to use ethernet with ADSL. It can be slightly more complicated to set up but well worth the extra fiddling..

[Deimos]

I have written several e-mails to Wanadoo over time and they have all been totally ignored. Do e-mail them if you want but do not expect anything to happen nor expect any response. You may be lucky, but my experience is "send it and forget it".

The France Telecom shop suggestion above is the best way to make things happen (again, my experience)

Ian.

[MichaelH]

We have found that the ADSL connection speed has been dropping like a stone over the last two months or so. We have supposedly a 512K connection but yesterday the download speed was down to 344 bps (yes bps not kbps} and the delay between data packets more than 150000ms.

I have found that all other Wanadoo customers in our villages using the one exchange (Luchapt Dept 86) seem to be experiencing the same problems, so it seems that Wanadoo have oversold the capacity of the system.

Like the other contributors I have tried to find a contact other than the 34 cents a minute phone line without success. My neighbour spent two hours on this premium rate line but the advisor was totally unprepared to consider there was a fault on the line and was trying to imply at all times that there was a fault with either his hardware or software which was certainly not the case.

I have been to our "Local" France Telecom/Orange office in Poitiers 70 km away three times asking for help and failing that, threatening to cancel the contract. On the Orange assistance pages there is a DSL line speed test but frequently the speed of connection is so slow that we cannot download the test before the system times out. When I have got it to work it always says quality of line "Insatisfaisant". I have taken these tests as well as speed tests from the www.internetfrog.com site which are very good and quick, over a week ago but I have had no contact at all from either France Telecom or Orange. I am thinking of cancelling my direct debit to Orange but it is not as simple as it is in England and I am concerned about it. French banks are often less than helpful.

Any suggestions or information that may help us in our village would be most appreciated, but my advice to anyone reading this post is very simply----------If you are considering entering into a contract with Orange/Wanadoo for internet services

DON'T!!!   DON'T!!!   DON'T!!!

and what else? oh yes DON'T!!!

Regards,

Michael

[Ron Avery]

You obviously don't know much about the advent of ADSL in France or you would not be advising people not to use Orange/Wanadoo.  In many rural areas where degroupage does not exist there is no choice Orange or nowt, or we could go back to dial up.

There have been lots of storms recently and that has had an effect on both home equipment and the internet system although Orange will not admit that unless pressed, our connection was awful for about a week after a storm but got better day by day.  Storms can knock out the ADSL filters and modems if they are left plugged in, ask FT to change the filters and see if that has an effect.  However, if your speeds are that low all the time I would agree with Orange the problem may well at your end, if the problem is demand then it would surely fluctuate throughout the day, have you tried a diagonostic test on your modem? The FT shop can dial in to your connection, have you tried asking them to do that?

I think you will find the FT/Orange help line on 3900 is actually free if you are calling about your own phone line from your own phone, or that is what I think it says at the start of the message.

[MichaelH]

Thank you Ron,

In respect of the points you have nade.

I am well aware of potential storm damage but this problem has not been coincident with the storms but has been a gradual deterioration over a period of months. There is certainly a daily variation in speed so I often get up a 5 am to download emails when the speed is better.

My neighbour has two computers, as have I and combined with many other users routed through the same exchange the system test results are the same or very similar.

The DSL test, supplied and downloaded directly from the Orange Assistance site which tests the broadband speed of the line, (if you have enough speed to download it), gives the same result that the line is "Insatisfaisant", unsatisfactory.

I have dialled the 3900 number many times and gone through the various pre-recorded options usually ending in the engaged tone, then after a lot of attempts I got to speak to someone who gave me a different number to phone and guess what, it was engaged too.

I use a relatively small service provider in Britain to host my website and emails and I have their address, email addresses for technical and accounts support, any query being dealt with within one weekday. But where is the address for Orange or an email address for support, and why should the contact number be at the cost of 34 cents a minute when the advisor is not prepared to accept that there may be a fault with the line? Why not send a technician to test it physically? Surely a company this size should be able to provide adequate support.

In the U.K. I understand that there are many instances where there have been similar occurrences of exchanges being unable to cope with the demand for broadband and the eventual average speed being drastically affected.

You would not like to go back to dial-up, well I think that I should have the option on my account page to revert to dial-up, because it was far faster and more reliable than what I have now and given the chance I would jump at it.

But the bottom line is that there is a company taking money from the account every month, not supplying the service they are contracted to do and you cannot write them a letter or send them an email or easily telephone them and the personnel in the shops are just not interested, they just want you to get out of their shop as quick as possible so they can sell some more unsupported wares to more unsuspecting members of the public.

Funny thing is that Orange recently sent me an email offering to put me on 1GB broadband at no extra cost when France Telecoms own figures clearly state that even in optimum condition the absolute maximum speed for our line is only 481k (if only!)

Regards,

Michael.

[BJSLIV]

I think you will find that all the providers are equally patchy, though the general opinion seems to be  that Wanadoo / Orange is perhaps slightly less bad than the rest.

We signed up with NeufTelecom, as their 512 service seemed to be the cheapest available, outside the degroupee areas. For the first 5 months it ticked over at 350k during the day, and would drop to 50 to 200 bits after 5.00pm until about midnight.. Friends locally on the 2mg service reported the same problems, and the chat sites showed  similar problems throughout France.

We had a few weeks back in the UK, and on returning our service seems to tick over at about 490k, 24/7.

I think the problem is that in trying to meet the promises made to provide ADSL to the majority of people, resources both equipment and people are being spread very thin.I also think that they are pushing the limits of the technology more aggresively than in the UK.

Keep your fingers crossed and the blackspot analysis may sort your problems out in the months to come.