Swapping from Teleconnect to orange......help please!

[tuppence]

Hi,

After many months of hand wringing and hair pulling, I am seriously considering moving my ISP to orange and giving Teleconnect the big E. All this weekend my modem has been switching itself on and off at will and I am sick of it[:@]. So anyone who can help me with what I have to do to change is welcome to do so. I need to know how long my service will be down, what to do with Teleconnect modem, how to cancel TC, and other stuff relevant. I also need unlimited calls to the UK and France as that is what I have had since I subscribed to TC, and good reports re: Orange are essential. Don't really want people to tell me the bad things of others ISP's. My area is OK for Orange (done the degrouptest thing). And I have never used wi-fi (not even sure what it is) so would prefer ordinary modem.

So folks let me have your thoughts please. Orange website seems to offer everything except what I have mentioned above.

Thanks in advance,

tuppence  (senior person , female, non-techie)

[Chancer]

I am happy with Free.fr and have never had anything to complain about in a couple of years hence have had no need to see how good their customer service is.

It gives you what you want above and if you are in a zone degroupée television as well and continuse to be the cheapest offering.

You can connect up to four computers by ethernet cable (supplied).

Cant advise you of how to cancel with Teleconnect, Free take care of everything for the changeover and they communicate with you at every stage of the way even telling you which day the FT service will end and theirs takes over, except like others FT pulled the plug on me several days before the planned switchover yet continued to bill me for the period, I put it down to sour grapes, I doubt that even the new regime will ever turn them into a commercial company.

[Quillan]

Having read your post properly and understand you want to change to Orange and not another ISP and I may be able to help.

Stopping Teleconnect is not a problem if you do it right, I'll tell you what to do in a minute.

The first thing you need to do is deal with Orange because you need to open an account with them which means sending them paperwork. You can do this online then print it off and send the relevant documents, normal stuff, bill (for proof of address), ID and RIB sort of thing but read it carefully for what to send. Make sure you select the correct package, you have to select the full Monty (Internet, phone and TV) to get the option of free international calls. There may be some special offers on that omit the TV but read them carefully because normally after a certain time period you end up paying the same as those with TV anyway. To get the free international calls you need to take the minimum of 1 hour free calls to French mobiles which is 7 Euros. You can either buy the Livebox or pay rental, I chose to rent which gets over the warranty thing running out after a year, that costs another 3 Euros per month. The TV decoder is free but you have to put a deposit on the card that goes in it which was something like 40 off Euros but it is a one off fee. If you decide to use the decoder for TV it has to be plugged in to the Livebox and if your ADSL speed is not fast you will need a dish as well, I bought my dish from Mr Bricolage (probably spelt that wrong but you know who I mean). I installed it and the cable myself then got a local chap to align it for me. If the decoder is in another room you need to buy (from the Orange website)  two LivePlugs which use the internal electrical cables to send signals round the house. They come in pairs and you plug one it to the same electrical socket as your LiveBox and another into the same socket as your decoder. There are two data cables, one for each LivePlug which connect the decoder and the LiveBox to each LivePlug. Sounds difficult but its not really. If you have to use these you also have to change a small setting on the Livebox which is easy to do and I or somebody else can talk you through this if you need it.

Once you have everything ordered you can deal with Teleconnect.

Use the address on the bill (top right if memory serves) and you can write in English if you want. Use the original box to pack up your old ADSL box then send the whole lot back by registered post. You can get the form from the post office and fill it in at home then in the letter say you have sent the box back by Colissimo and give them the number of the Colissimo package. You can put a copy in with the ADSL box and write the number of the register letter slip on it so both are 'tied' together. You can trace the package online and when its marked as received I suggest you do a screen print of this for your file. I cannot stress strongly enough how important it is to do this with registered post and Colissimo because I have heard so many stories about them claiming not to have received the letter and the box only to 'find' them when threatened.

The other habit Teleconnect have is still taking money from your bank account. A way round this it to set a reasonable date to stop their services which is 30 days. Work out when that date falls and take photocopies of all your documents that you sent and the receipt from the post office to your bank and ask them to stop any further debits, Bank Popular charged me 16 Euros for doing this but that was cheap compared to others I know where Teleconnect have carried on taking money for three months. You stand more chance of finding rocking horse manure outside you front door than you do getting money back from them.

Hope that helps, any questions please ask.

[AnOther]

tuppence, not to gainsay or criticise anything Quillan has said but I think you probably know that I went exactly this route and although I am quite happy with the Orange service the transition was far from painless as THIS thread relates.

In the aftermath the FT tech support techs told me that getting cut off was par for the course so I don't know how you get around that potential problem, maybe if you went for the option to keep your line on rental until you had the Internet service up and running and cancelled it later ?

I think though that you have to proceed on the basis that anything is better than Teleconnect (spit) and bite the bullet.

You will get a Livebox from Orange which has WiFi but you don't have to use that if you don't want to, you can just plug the ethernet cable in as you currently do on the Telespit box.

Do as Quillan says regarding returning Teleconnect's (spit) box, they 'value' it @ €160 which they will try and charge you if you don't send it back. They tried to claim I had another box which I hadn't sent back but when challenged to prove they had ever sent it to me quickly backed down. Send them a recommande letter plus put a copy of it in the box with the modem and also email them a copy demanding an immediate email acknowledgment.

I would also email their managing director luc@budget-telecom.com outlining your complaint and saying that you are cancelling due to their continued non performance of the contract and demanding that your €45 cancellation fee to be wavied, he did it for me and you can quote my ex customer number if you like - 7000529

My bank (CA) had no problem in cancelling the Teleconnect (spit) DD on demand without a fee so do that immediately and when they complain that they haven't been able to collect their money send them a cheque.

Bonne chance, but remember - no gain without pain !

If you need any more help feel free to PM me.

Oh, and by the way, in case there be any doubt, the reason I always say Teleconnect (spit) or Telespit is so people researching them with a view to signing up might land on one of my post's and think twice, I suggest you might think about doing the same [;-)]

[Bugsy]

[quote user="Quillan"]

The other habit Teleconnect have is still taking money from your bank account. A way round this it to set a reasonable date to stop their services which is 30 days. Work out when that date falls and take photocopies of all your documents that you sent and the receipt from the post office to your bank and ask them to stop any further debits, Bank Popular charged me 16 Euros for doing this but that was cheap compared to others I know where Teleconnect have carried on taking money for three months. You stand more chance of finding rocking horse manure outside you front door than you do getting money back from them.

[/quote]

This happened to us when we switched from Phoneexpat to Orange and it took a lot of twoing and froing to get it sorted. Despite following the rules on cancellation we still ended up paying them an additional 20 euros before we finally got shot of them. Make sure you get a letter (email) from them confirming the closing of the account.

Worth it in the end though and we have saved, with the Orange package, over 40 euros a month.

.

[Jay]

[quote user="AnOther"]

Oh, and by the way, in case there be any doubt, the reason I always say Teleconnect (spit) or Telespit is so people researching them with a view to signing up might land on one of my post's and think twice, I suggest you might think about doing the same [;-)]

[/quote]

And here’s me thinking you were just vindictive! I have been wondering how long before you say Orange (spit) seeing how you had a load of problems when you signed up. I can understand you being upset and posting your personal experiences ONCE but get fed up seeing your continuous pathetic attempts at revenge on this and other forums.

[AnOther]

I'm flattered that you follow my trials and tribulations jay but if you have read all my posts on the topic of Telespit you'll know that I was equally praising until they stuck it to me.

Remember this is the ISP who, after 2 years of excellent service, fell into a pit of inefficiency and incompetence, and the ones who had my perfectly good 2mb line downgraded to 512kb [:@]

Some things I will never find it in me to forgive, would you ?

[Jay]

[quote user="AnOther"]

Some things I will never find it in me to forgive, would you ?

[/quote]

I had lots of problems with Alice which I posted on here, I know others who have problems with Neuf and Orange. Yes tell people of your problems so they can make an informed decision but for goodness sake forget it and move on. Don't let it eat away at you.

[AnOther]

Where do you get the idea that its 'eating away at me' ?

Not a bit of it, just doing what little I can to pay them back for what they did to me. If it was just good old poor service I might let it go but downgrading my line was, as I say, unforgivable.

If one single potential customer is dissuaded from signing up with them then I will regard it as mission accomplished [;-)]