Free.fr

[ChezShells]

After our freebox refused to work I have been trying to get a new box from these for 3 months and i've had enough

I cannot reccommend anyone else other than FT but DO NOT go with Free

I have tried telephoning them, when i'm lucky enough to get through (you pay whether you get through or not) and get put on hold and if you can speak the lingo you will not get a new box, unbeliveable, our french neighbour had a go and got nowhere, i have been on their online help for 3 hours tonight and still they will not send out a box, what is it with these boxes

it is beyond belief

i dont get why they will not send a new box

DO NOT GO WITH THESE?
edited - okay, that was last night after nearly 4 hours trying to get them to sort the problem
all these are probably a nightmare to deal with but maybe there is a chance if you go with FT as they have an english helpline and when i have used that they have been v helpful and not rude at all unlike these shysters

[Chancer]

I was aware that there was a heavy forfait to be paid if the box was damaged (I dropped mine while commissioning it), I have to assume that this would apply to lighning damage also, given that we live in France I doubt that there is little chance of getting the box replaced FOC if it failed after a few months of service.

I assume you meant "even if you speak the lingo you will not get a new box)

Mine can be quite temperamental, have you tried power off rebooting first the Freebox and then the telly one?

What specifically are the problems that you have? Perhaps I can help

Are you degroupage? I thought that calls to Free were "free" when calling from their lines, or is your telephone not working at all?

Some more info would be helpfull.

[ChezShells]

After moving house I was waiting for the box to activate, i heard a pop one day and a smell from the box

i cannot make free calls as the box is broken, i am still with FT for the main phone

I made one more attempt this morning, I bought a 2nd hand box at the weekend and have asked them to activate my account in accordance to the freebox i bought, this time i got someone more helpful and they ask me to allow 48 hours for the box to become active.

We will see, if nothing comes of this one then i'm cancelling and going with someone else, even then I bet free still charge me my monthly fee !!!

good to have a spare as well, i have been using my Netgear router in the meantime.

[Lavie]

My 'Free' experience!

Having had many, many, many (!!) problems with

Alice i've now been with Free for 12 months. I'm pleased to say that on the rare

occasion i had a problem i found their online help of great use. Their telephone

helpline (1044) is charged at a local rate and i wasn't asked to contact the 34c

per minute technical line, perhaps i was just lucky. My (french) neighbour had a problem with his freebox

last month and received a replacement in just 3 days. This was free of charge as his

old one was then proved to have become faulty. I think that for every good

experience with an ISP there is someone else with a bad one, but I do hope you get your

problem quickly resolved.

[Chancer]

Good luck chezshells.

You started by saying that you dont get why they will not send out a new box - after all they are "free"[:D]

Seriously though how long had you had it?

In any case I would expect that you would have to send the box to them in order to get a free or chargeable replacement as above.

Not a lot different to Sky customers in the UK stuck with a faulty Grundig decoder, the only difference perhaps that it is easier to negotiate a new one in lieu of concalling the contract.

I have been very happy with them so far but it is early days, we will see how good they are if I get another line fault mind you it wont be hard for them to beat FT's abysmal record of 2 weeks to repair a fault of their own making which was reported and explained in detail to them at the outset, every different equipe they sent out explained that they had the wrong sort of ladder etc to access the box on the front of my house even when they were dragged up the street and shown the wires (mine) that they had cut on a neighbours box accessible from a stepladder.

Yesterday I received a letter dated 7th September (but postmarked 3 days ago) acknowledging my desire to résilier my abbonnement and confirming that this would be effected on the 7th September and that they would send me a final bill, which they did, and I subsequently paid a month ago!

[ChezShells]

JR.
I had offered to send the box back, offered to buy a new box but the bloke(s) were having none of it.
Had the box about 16 months.

[Chancer]

Well what can I say?

My dear old dad was right "son, there is no such thing as a free........................."

I would change suppliers on principle.