Orange/France Telecom - International Calls - free or not?

[frexpt]

In a moment of what must have been mid-summer madness, we signed up to a France Telecom/Orange telephone and internet package at home.

We have had to query the amount of our bill every month since July and generally enjoyed nothing but problems with the overall service, both from the English "Helpline" and the French 3900 "Customer Services" (both departments merely existing in name only so far as I can see.)

From the outset, we opted to pay an additonal 7€ per month for "international illimité", but did not actually receive any free calls until October. Two invoices totalling more than 600 Euros have finally been refunded.

However, this month, we find that we have been charged (rather handsomely) for calls to an Indonesian landline. Now, the last time I looked, Indonesia was overseas and we are still being assured by Orange that all overseas calls are free of charge.

Having been fed so much contradictory information in the past 5 months, I find it difficult to take anything they tell me at face value.

I was wondering whether anyone was familiar with this package and might be able to clarify whether any countries are chargeable or should all international calls be free?

Many thanks

PS Excuse me whilst I scream.........just checked our online account and we have just been re-credited another 316€....can't make out why for the life of me, it doesn't appear to relate to our Indonesian calls, but every little helps!

[AnOther]

I had similar following my recent change to FT/Orange.

It was touched upon in another thread but to save you having to reading 4 pages of mostly unrelated stuff this is what I posted there.

"Been on the blower to Orange today re phone charges between them

cutting me off from Telespit and them finally getting my VoIP working,

2 weeks and €70.

Have to say I spoke to a very charming Irish

lady who took ownership of the issue, volunteered her own personal

FT/Orange email address, and told me to contact her immediately the

bill arrived (don't know the precise sum until then) when she would

have the Dec DD stopped so I could pay the proper amount via debit card

instead.

Also when I get a breakdown of Telespit's call charges

incurred because FT cutting my ADSL service with them prematurely, she says

they will pay those too."

As of this moment I haven't received the Dec invoice but I do see from the messengerie that all calls are now correctly being recorded at €00.00 - but I must confess that I have never phoned Indonesia !

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

I doubt if Orange offer free calls to all countries.

Looking at their offer of 'des appels à volonté vers les fixes en France et à l'international ' it actually says

'vos appels en illimité 24 h/24 et 7 j/7, vers les fixes de France, des DOM, d'Europe et vers les fixes et les mobiles d'Amérique du Nord.'

Further down it specifically says that calls to Asia, apart from Oz & NZ cost 91c a minute.

http://boutique.orange.fr/ESHOP_mx_ft/?tp=F&ref=15341&IDCible=1&donnee_appel=ORESH&id=&type=3

[frexpt]

Further down it specifically says that calls to Asia, apart from Oz & NZ cost 91c a minute.

Thanks for that and I would be in full agreement, other than for the fact that we have told otherwise by the helpline and never been charged for the many calls we have made to Australia!  Seems to me that, at best, there are inconsistencies in the system..........such as it is!

[frexpt]

I have no issue with the English helpline staff personally, who have given all the correct assurances, but are obviously labouring under an archaic system.  Having spoken to both French & English, it is obvious that there is very little communication between the two departments as they appear to hold two completely differing sets of facts.  Our (probably) mutual Irish friend has admitted that there  is very little that their side of things can do.  The clear inference is that messages passed on from that side of things to the French side may or may not be actioned, but the English helpline has no power to chase things through.

As an aside, out of choice we would not be calling Indonesia, but we have a daughter backpacking that part of the world.  Having rung her to ask whether she would like us to pay for a flight back to France for Christmas, we were met with an almost-polite refusal.  For some reason, she would prefer to remain in beautiful tropical Bali, but she did suggest that we might like to send her the equivalent amount of the airfare as an additional  Christmas present!

[Quillan]

You need to go look on their website yourself.

I assume you have taken the 1hr free to French mobiles which includes free international? I have taken the countries that you can phone from THIS page on their website and translated them for you using Google so the grammar is a bit off. 'The country fixed' and 'The fixed countries' means fixed lines and not mobiles.

• The country fixed European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Spain (including Canary Islands), Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal (including Azores and Madeira), Czech Republic, Romania, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden.

• The fixed other European countries: Andorra, Croatia, Guernsey, Iceland, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, Russia, San Marino, Switzerland, Turkey, Vatican. The fixed and mobile in North America: Canada, United States (including Hawaii and Alaska) - The fixed countries of Central America and South America: Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Colom, Mexico, Panama, Peru , Puerto Rico, Venezuela.

• The fixed countries in Asia, the Near and Middle East and Oceania: Australia, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand.

• The fixed DOM: Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Reunion and fixed TOM of Mayotte and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

Hope that helps. So if you get any trouble simply refer them to the page on their website that I have given above.

[frexpt]

That's brilliant and the recent invoices make perfect sense, thank you!  Nevertheless, it would be useful if the FT/Orange support staff were made aware of their own terms and conditions!

[Quillan]

I forgot to put the html link in so I have just edited my previous post and included it. Sorry about that. If you can't find it then click on the link below.

http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/options/option-mobile-international-illimite.aspx

 

[frexpt]

Albert.......Oops, didn't read the "apart from" first time round.....

[AnOther]

FT/Orange sales and tech support might as well be on different planets, sales are probably on commission and will tell you what they want.

Below my experience with them when changing over:-

The FT ar*eho*e who took my order (Claude if anybody encounters him in

the future) told me all he needed was my IBAN number to create the A/C

which was BS so basically, despite being told by I don't know how many

different people that my credentials were in the post they weren't

because they hadn't verified the payment details. Funny how it didn't

prevent them sending me the router etc. though

To sum up then.

FT LIE #1 - No we won't cut your line over until you have the new router etc. and are ready to plug it in and go.

TRUTH - FT hijacked my line the next afternoon. Tech support confirmed that this happens all the time.

FT LIE #2 - All we need is your IBAN number to set up your account.

TRUTH - RIB required.

FT LIE #3 - TV is from Astra 28deg, the same as our English clients use to receive Sky (2 sales agents adamant about this)

TRUTH - No it isn't, it's from Hotbird @13 deg.

FT LIE #4 - Your user ID/PW is in the post.

TRUTH - No it isn't.

FT LIE #5 - Your user ID & PW are sent separately form somewhere else. Nothing we can do.

TRUTH - If that is so how come I was given them today over the phone by tech support ?

[frexpt]

For "Lies" also read "Fobbing Off".  The amount of bull we have been fed in an effort to deflect an awkward enquiry beggars belief.  I still can't get over being told that I'd be better putting it in writing and don't worry about the letter being in English.  I did so and our phone and internet were promptly cut off.  We then received a demand for the full remaining amount of the 12 month contract.  To be fair, I did receive an email warning of the disconnection, but rang the Englsh helpine (sales and tech) immediately.  I forwarded the email to one of our aforementioned helpful operatives and was told that the email definitely didn't originate from Orange and was probably from a spammer.  The following day we were disconnected.

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

[quote user="frexpt"]Albert.......Oops, didn't read the "apart from" first time round.....[/quote]

Don't worry, it may not be the right page for your deal anyway. They seem to have a number of similar, but different, 'free international' offers.

And why don't quotes work properly now? Is cos I is IE8?

[frexpt]

[quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"][quote user="frexpt"]Albert.......Oops, didn't read the "apart from" first time round.....[/quote] Don't worry, it may not be the right page for your deal anyway. They seem to have a number of similar, but different, 'free international' offers. And why don't quotes work properly now? Is cos I is IE8?[/quote]

Quite right, it wasn't the right page, but no matter, it pointed me in the right direction!