Free really is

[Chancer]

I have recently changed to Free.fr for phone, internet and telly. I am saving I think 17 euros per month against my previous abonnements plus any telephone savings.

I was using Telerabais before to call overseas which was in turn itemised and billed on my FT facture, on average I was spending 20 euros per month on calls (not including the abonnement) as oposed to over 50 euros before using the Telerabais access numbers.

But now - 1euro 53 centimes this month! which was to make one call to a UK mobile and two to French one, the other 50 were as it says on the box - FREE!

And the icing on the cake is the television with more channels than I can choose from, for those that are put off by French TV all I can say is that the additional channels should not be judged by the content of the 6 terrestrial channels (although I love ch5 and arte) they are really enjoyable plus you can watch many films and documentaries in VO with an English soundtrack.

My only initial reservation was that I could no longer access the UK 0845 and 0800 etc no's which there was a premium telerabais acesss code for, to be fair I could not either get them from FT but then I remembered the "say no to 0870" website which gave me all the UK direct dial numbers that I have needed so far and of course now they too are free.

[mint]

JR

Please describe IN DETAIL how you get on to this marvellous service.  I have just about had my guts full of FT and I will be shot of them come next May.  Granted, we did not get our line till August, but we signed the contract in May and I have described on another thread how they have been taking "prelevements" from our bank account since June.

I suppose we needed them to begin with because we needed a post putting up and the line leading from the post to the house.  Now that is done (for which we paid what seemed like megabucks), I shall be finished with them ASAP.

So, JR, tell me how?

[Maricopa]

Don't know about free, but all the OP comments apply to neuf as well [:D](though we don't use the TV service, but it is available) in my opinion.  When we set up the service with them after paying FT/Orange a fortune, everything that neuf said would happen, did, and now we only pay what neuf said we would pay.......just remember not to call mobiles!  Incidentally, despite what some other people say, if you follow all the correct procedures when cancelling contracts (as long as you are entitled to), there isn't any quibbling.

I have also heard good reports about alice....................

There are several sites that compare the services available in your area, you just have to input your phone number usually.

The one down side of any of these companies services is that to benifit fully financially, you have to cancel your FT line, otherwise you still pay them an abonnement, so in the event of a power cut, you won't have a phone service (but if you also have a mobile........)

[Chancer]

Sweet17

The only things that I can add to what has been said is that I live close enough to a major town that is degroupeé to get all the benefit of not having a FT line.

Personally after my experiences of their responses when they cut my line while connecting a neighbouring house I am not too worried about not dealing direct with them, in fact that is where the bulk of the saving is to be made.

It is all done from their website free.fr and is quite easy, you can input your phone number to see if you can use the degroupeé service or click on your region to see which towns are, the monthly fee is 29.99 whether or not you can do away with the FT line, some people choose to keep it for security but have to pay the monthly line rental for the privilege.

The cancellation of the FT line is done by Free so you have no worries there but you should first send a letter of resiliation to your internet supplier (I can give you a copy) they should write to you and tell you when the service will end, but in my case Wanadoo just cut me off straight away and kept the money, FT wrote and confirmed 2 months after cutting the line and me paying heir last bill! But thankfully Free sent me regular e-mail updates at every stage so I knew what was happening and when.

I was even able to change the delivery address of the freebox to my neighbour as I was in England at the time.

Setting up the freebox for telephone was instant and without problem, the television likewise if you are like me you may want some handholding to set up the computer.

The signal to the television is wireless so you can now place it where you want, the computer likewise although it (or up to 4) can be hardwired with the ethernet cable supplied, if I had done this I would not have needed handholding as my very small problems came from the switch to wireless.

My advice is go for it but have a mobile as you could be without telephone service for a few days and also don't use your existing messagerie (as it will get cut off during the process) but a hot mail account or something that you can access from another computer.

[mint]

JR

Thank you for your prompt reply.  Have understood all.  In fact, a French friend down the road have them (I could see this from his email).

I'm not too worried about the setting up stuff; will just get my friendly computer buff in to do the deed.  He's very good and doesn't charge anything like what you'd expect to pay.

Will do my homework and will heave a sigh of relief when I am done with FT!

 

[lacote0_0]

Whatever you do, don't take the option of cancelling the FT line. We were without any telephone or internet for 3 weeks when the Free service failed.

[Chancer]

About the time that I was out of service when FT cut my phone cable when connecting a neighbours house, despite my French being good and me telling them exactly where the fault was, and that they had already reinstated my other neighbours line in the same junction box, they sent out equipe after equipe to "verify" that the fault was not in my house or the junction box on the front.

So the first team turned up, checked the master socket and said the problem was outside, "thank you for confirming that" said I sarcastically, "now I will take you to show you where the wires are cut" but of course they were the inside team, not the outside team.

More calls to FT (running out my mobile credit) resulted in another equipe coming to verify the box on the front of my house, but their ladder wasnt long enough and they wouldnt use mine, or let me go up to prove to them the fault was down the road, or take them there to show them.

Then another equipe to verify that the line was live in the cabinet on the street corner upstream of the cut cable (which was all the time visible from street level), but of course they cant work on junction boxes on buildings.

At this stage they were forced to admit that the fault was in all probability where I had said, where FT had promptly repaired my neighbours line, and where of course their guy had cut us both off while connecting the 3rd neighbour, we are the last 3 houses on the street so it isnt rocket science. Mind you I got the impression that they would rather have dug up the road to check the cable than repair the actual fault.

Finally an equipe with cherry picker turned up, "quelle surprise" no fault in the boite de derivation on my house, he did at least let me show him where the fault was, he couldnt be arsed to move the cherry picker and was happy to use my stepladder to do the 30 second repair.

Under normal circumstances I would have repaired the fault myself rather than blow gaskets but I had just left hospital after the second eye operation and was not allowed to do anything, the retina had already redetached after the first operation without having made any efforts.

I did laugh though as it reminded me of the Post Office telephone service 30 years ago, until then I had said I love France because it is like the England that I remember of 30 years ago!