French equivelant of 1471

[marcel ah so]

Does anybody know if there is a french equivalant of 1471 and if so what is it? Also has anyone got experience of switching from France telecom to onetel?

[leray]

I find 3131 works but only gives last missed call not last number dialling in

elaine

[zeb]

We switched from France telecom to Tele2 which was pretty painless, then 12 months later switched to Cegetel which is marginally cheaper than Tele2. They sorted it out for us - we just sent back the prelevement and RIB.

Don't know onetel.

Word of advice - if you are switching, read the small print in your contracts.

[Ron Avery]

[quote]I find 3131 works but only gives last missed call not last number dialling in elaine[/quote]

There is no equivelant of 1471 in France, however, there is with FT an equivelant of 1571. Messages left,  that is 3103.

  Changing to TELE  2 can be confusing, well it was for us, as there are two ways of doing it, if they phone you up, you can sign up on the spot and start dialling 4 instead of the first 0, this then changes when you are "fully" signed up to not using the 4.

If however you sign up with them manually, they notify FT, ( if you are with FT that is and then FT inform you that all calls with a 0 are now with TELE 2!!  but in the meantime you get cards from TELE 2 telling you to keep using the 4, but when you phone them they tell you to ignore the cards as you are on the full system

 

TELE2 do have a number of english speaking people (FT do not as a rule) which with some of the calls we have had re the above, that has helped ..  and TELE 2 is much much cheaper than FT

[Gyn_Paul]

We used and loved 3103 'Top Message' in our old house from the moment it was available until we changed to ISDN (which claims to work, using a different access number, but I never managed to get it to). I've just signed up a new line in our new house and was told by the FT lady that TM won't work with alternative suppliers "comme Tele-2 ou Cegetel". This must be new, as it worked before with One-Tel.... Something else to worry about! 

[IAN_S]

I started with Tele 2 and changed to Onetel. The latter is different to Tele2 in that you don't need any prefix, just sign their contract and it starts to work in a fairly short time, can't quite remember how long.

I find Onetel service to be exactly the same as FT, just a lot cheaper. I'm not sure how I would get out of their contract if I wanted to, read the damn thing I suppose.

[marcel ah so]

Thanks for the feed back. I tried the numbers given and they work, only problem is they don't respond when you shout down the phone lentement s.v.p.

That aside we have looked at the tele 2 rates compared to FT and the rates are definatly cheaper, however we also checked one tels rates and they seem to be more competitive still. We can change to one tel simply by going on their web site. But;Do we need to contact FT? Do we need to cancel our direct debit to FT? Do we still pay FT for line rental? Will one tel sort all this for us?

Reading contracts is one way of finding out the answers-my french isn't up to much and trying to translate the info is a task that i'd rather not atempt. Still we'll get there in the end (me attempting the french laid back approach).

Thanks all.

[Suninfrance]

We signed up for Tele2 and told the representatives our French wasn't very good - they explained to us in English what would happen and that our calls to England would be 1c per min.  What they didn't tell us after we had our first bill was that they charge a 12c connection fee for every call made.  I rather feel we were exploited because of our lack of understanding of French.

Jan

 

 

[Maddie]

3103 gives you details of any messages and any previous callers and tells you how many times they tried to call.  I've got caller display too which is quite handy if you can't bear the thought of speaking in French but do want to chat to your buddy!

Changing to onetel is easy - just fill out the form and send off an RIB.  Leave your FT RIB active as they will use it to collect line rental and any select services you use.  Onetel will write to FT telling them you are with them and then FT will write to you telling you they're sorry your chose another supplier!

Onetel is good as you can easily see the cost of calls by setting up an online account (useful if you have visitors you need to charge bills to).  If you want to cancel onetel you need to write to them along the lines of...

Date : ……………………..

Référence compte client N°: ……………..

N° de Tel : …  …  …  …  …  …  … … …

 

 Objet : Résiliation du contrat

  

Madame, Monsieur,

 

Je vous prie de résilier notre contrat ainsi que la connexion de ma ligne téléphonique ci-dessous connectée chez vous avec un effet immédiat.

 

En vous remerciant d’avance, je vous prie d’agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l’expression de mes salutations les meilleurs.

 

This was the wording given to us by another phone company when we were considering changing form onetel..

 

 

[Graham & Brenda]

I can't find anything on the FT website about 3103 (equivalent of 1571) What's it called please and is there a charge?

Thanks,

Graham

[Ron Avery]

[quote]I can't find anything on the FT website about 3103 (equivalent of 1571) What's it called please and is there a charge? Thanks, Graham[/quote]

Its called  'Top Message' 3103 , its part of the messagerie.  Its free and you should get it even with the basic line from FT.(which you need whoever you use)  I say should,  as we have just cancelled our Option plus with FT , but still get the messagerie at the moment. 

When changing to Tele 2 or One Tel, make sure that you cancel any upgrades with FT like France Hours or Option Plus , cos FT are sure as hell not going to remind you 

Sun in france, With TELE 2 either dialling 4 or with Pre-selection (where you just dial as if with FT) there is no added connection charge mentioned in the small print, have you asked TEL2 about this?  Ring them up, ask if they have an english speaker if your French is not up to the technical calls.  I have found TELE2 staff very very helpful.

[Suninfrance]

We phoned Tele 2 when we got the bill and managed to get through to an English speaker.  We told them we'd worked out we were being charged too much and they told us about the call connection charge.  We asked why we weren't informed about this when we signed the contract and were told it was standard across all telecom companies in France.

We then tried to cancel the contract but were told we would have to ring to cancel - seemed a bit odd as we were already on the phone, but the person at the other end told us we had to ring again to speak to someone else.  We asked if there was a body in France (like Oftel in England) we could write to, to make a complaint, but apparently there isn't.

Jan

[Ron Avery]

Jan

 Where on your bill are you getting your connection charge from?  I cannot see anything like that on any of my TELE2 bills and a rough check found that all the charges are in line with TELE2's published tariffs,

Are you 100% with TELE2 (ie on preselection)  if you are not and also use other operators, then that may be the cause of the problem.

The total calls on my last bill were TTC 3.10 local: 63.53 intl , total 66.63 and that is what I paid.  All local calls in France at the weekend are free with TELE2. 

One odd thing is that to ring TELE2 you have use a FT number, I got charged for those calls by FT and credited back for them by TELE2

[marcel ah so]

[quote]3103 gives you details of any messages and any previous callers and tells you how many times they tried to call. I've got caller display too which is quite handy if you can't bear the thought of spea...[/quote]

ah....so...that's what you need to do. Thanks very much that's just the information we were looking for.

[LesLauriers]

[quote]Jan Where on your bill are you getting your connection charge from? I cannot see anything like that on any of my TELE2 bills and a rough check found that all the charges are in line with TELE2's pu...[/quote]

Tele2 charge 11.9cts to connect you, details are here http://www.tele2.fr/telephonie/tarifs/index.html . You will find that the 11.9cts is included in the cost of each call.

[Suninfrance]

11.9c is about right.  We were not told about this when we were encouraged to sign the contract.

Thanks for the website address - I'll have a look at it and go from there.

Jan

[nouvelesprit]

Hi

We have changed to ACN in France, and all their rates and charges are explained on their web site, in english and in French.  They also explain about the connection charges, and dont hide anything.  They were also very simple to change to and we didn't need to write to our old supplier as they do everything for you.  They also offer Free calls to people you call on a regular basis in France.  if you would like more information please contact me.

 

Regards

Denise

 

[MikeO]

I'm looking to add the 3103 message service to my FT line. Please could anyone tell me how I go about that.

[BJSLIV]

we were told it was standard across all telecom companies in France.............

That is correct.  A French person would expect to pay like that. Its how France Telecom have always charged. You pay a fixed sum which gives you a small time allowance (Credit temps) and then the normal charging rate kicks in. So I don't think you would get any sympathy for an "OFTEL" complaint.

 It was quite a sensible way of charging in the old days , because the largest part of the cost to FT was from the actual call set-up , when  the switching equipment was in play. Its a bit obsolete in the digital age, but the practice lives on.

It doesn't really make too much difference, unless you make lots of short calls, and Tele2 are pretty cheap anyway. 

Its why the calculators on the comparison site ask how long the calls are that you make.

There are one or two operators who don't charge a Credit Temps , but I can't remember which ones.

I suppose the most extreme case of Credit Temps is  Telesoldes when to ring the USA and some other countries (Not UK) you pay a few cents connection charge and then the rest of the call is free, just like their sister company 1899 in the uk who charge 3p pls 1p per  minute to call France..

[réglisse]

Mike0

Go to your local FT showroom and ask them to activate the Top Message facility on your line.

[Anna]

[quote]Hi We have changed to ACN in France, and all their rates and charges are explained on their web site, in english and in French. They also explain about the connection charges, and dont hide anythin...[/quote]

I believe ACN is Network Marketing. If so are you an agent? If so would this be considered as advertising by Living France?