Experts at France Telecom..........yeh right !!

[Miki]

I have just had 3 frustrating days asking at the shop, on the net and calling

1015 (our house phone is a pro line) all to find the answer to what must be a

simple question for a pro company !

Briefly,  I want to transfer calls (transfert d'appel) from my fix

phone to my mobile whilst away in Spain. So, all I needed to know was,

can it be done alright (I knew it should be as I have transfert d'appel,

in my services and use it quite often and would my need for would it be OK for

Spain and  should I put in 00 33 6 and the rest of the number, or

should I simply put in my mobile phone number without prefix

international this 06 etc.

Well in the shop two days ago (on another matter in this instance but

thought I would ask about this requirement) the lady said, "oh no

problems, just put in the normal phone number without prefixing it" Mm

I thought seems a bit too easy.

Yesterday I searched the net with FT and Orange sites, vast sites and

difficult to surf but eventually came up with something close. Costs

etc were as expected and it explained about calle sto Spain and a

French mobile, so I kind of transferred that explanation as to the same

way to transfer a call but I kept thinking of the Int transfert d'appel

(see 1. below)

Then called later that day to confirm that my account was OK to do this

and also to top it up (we have compte mobile, which is just 7€ per

month but guards the pre payement and gives a few other things as we

only rarely phone

out but it is more as a phone, to accept transferred calls from our

commercial phone) and three people in 1015 gave differing answers

1. I would have to pay international transfert D'appel and use then 00 33 prefix

2. I was OK as my account was a pro line and already had transfert dappel and use 00 33 as above.

3. Can't do it as the phone was bloqué (total crap !!) but he would sort it out but as ever he bnever rang back

All I want now is an answer and I am still going for the usual *21*

then the number to transfer to this time with 00 33 in front and finish

with the old hachette (sp) sign.

So, today I hunt around the net again, this time I find there is

actually an international call forwarding (and do I want it !!) and it

is 1€50  a month, no problems there.So armed with that and other

beliefs, I call Orange, Mmm they say (this time it is on their premium

number) 40 minutes later (yep 40 mins) I have again listened to people

who are simply reading it off the same pages I have been trying to make

sense of !

After two more differing choices and 40 mins of premium price to pay, I say thanks but you are totally useless.

I now ring afriend who now lives back in the UK but always had a mobile

for commerce in France and I knew that transferred calls regularly

around Europe from his office to his mobile."Oh I can't remember now

but can't remember it being too difficult"

What's it like from the UK to transfer I ask, "Oh very simple he said,

it's all in B&W and I follow it everytime I go away, takes seconds

to do"

"Don't tell me please", I say, for sure it won't relate to how it is done here"

Now one last chance on the 1015 line, a young chap answers this time,

now he surely knows all the ins and outs of transfers to ones own

mobile abroad......I can hear him tapping the keyboard before my

question is half out, oh no !!. After 10 mins of checking with mon Chef and

others he comes up with , your account has  transfert d'appel and

you must put in 0033 6 etc (missing the 0), so we are back to my hunch

and one that is normally a 50/50 chance of being right...............

This seems stupid but because of all the differing replies (all

believing they are right, no doubt) I am now doubting the net and

even those I think, seem to be right !!

So dear members, what would you do or rather for those that do it, what

do you do  or simply, does anyone know....................PLEASE

[Deimos]

[quote user="Miki"] … and also to top it up (we

have compte mobile, which is just 7€ per month but guards the pre payement and

gives a few other things as we only rarely phone out …

[/quote]

 

I don’t know what your current mobile account provides but

you suggest it might be on Orange.  For

7€ a month there is not a “sans engagement” forfeit called Orange Initial that

is not a pre-payment account.  Seems to

offer most things (unless I’ve totally mis-understood the account).

Just thought that if you are paying 7€ per month, and unless

that gives you any major benefits (as I have no idea about the account/call

costs), then a switch may allow you to run on a billed mode rather than pay as

you go.

Ian

[Miki]

[quote user="Deimos"]

[quote user="Miki"] … and also to top it up (we

have compte mobile, which is just 7€ per month but guards the pre payement and

gives a few other things as we only rarely phone out …

[/quote]

 I don’t know what your current mobile account provides but

you suggest it might be on Orange.  For

7€ a month there is not a “sans engagement” forfeit called Orange Initial that

is not a pre-payment account.  Seems to

offer most things (unless I’ve totally mis-understood the account).

Just thought that if you are paying 7€ per month, and unless

that gives you any major benefits (as I have no idea about the account/call

costs), then a switch may allow you to run on a billed mode rather than pay as

you go.

Ian

[/quote]

We are on an old (since 2000) compte mobile account with Orange, which

more or less allows us to have a few benefits and as I said, when we

top up, the money stay in the account until used, no time limit. The

cost is actually 7€50 cts per month. There is one now called Orange

Initial pretty similar I think  but I am not au fait with how it

works in comparison to our account. 

We certainly do not want a monthly 25€ plus type abonnement because as

I said, we want it for receiving and not calling out with. We pay 90

euros a year and put in I guess around 50€ max a year( around 40cts a

minute call out), literally  calling out for emergencies,

out shopping and may need to call back or just out and need to call

home. It serves our needs brilliantly and after much looking about,

there is seriously nothing about that we raelly could be better off

with, unless anyone know better? Son & Daughter have original 

student 39€ per month but they texts and call all the time, their needs

being somewhat different to ours.

So how about the original question, anyone got a clue or preferably the correct procedure or I chance my hunch !!

Ian, if you look here, then you will see that Orange Initial is similar

to ours and one pays a 7€ abonnement and 45cts a minute for calls out.

I suspect it is pretty much the same as our old Compte Mobile ?

http://www.agence.francetelecom.com/mx/?tp=PHP&code_rubrique=5-213936&type=4&donnee_appel=FTASN&IDCible=1&id=148841140829252

[BJSLIV]

I assume (Big assumption?) that it will work just the same as a UK transfer from fixed to mobile.

You set up the transfer to your mobile on your fixed phone as if it was any other French number (ie without any international code).

So then if anybody calls you, you pay for the forwarding on your fixed line bill.

You can test that this is working while still in France.

So far all the clever bits are being done by the FT exchanges.

You check that your phone is activated for use abroad.

You clear off to Spain and the Orange network knows where you are. So any incoming calls whether they be ordinary calls or your diverted calls are forwarded to you in Spain. (still no intenational code required;Its done by the Orange exchange talking to Telefonica). This is where the costs start to tick up because you, on your mobile, are charged something equivalent to a mobile call from France to Spain for every call you receive. This can get costly, so you need to keep your bank account topped up for when the bill arrives. I guess it could be something like 65 cents a minute to receive calls in Spain.

[LesLauriers]

Miki, I'm with BJSLIV on this - that's how it should work, but then again it is FT!

[Miki]

BJ & Les,

It must work the same as one going to the UK, it's all abroad in the EC according to the French.

We have transferred to the UK to our mobile from our fixed line and

although not certain, I seem to remember putting in 00 44 first BUT

cannot be certainas itwas acouple of years ago now. Normally in the

winter, when we close, I call our fixed phone to listen to any messsages but now calls are coming quite fast and we need to reply there and then.

I tend to agree but no point in testing the normal way of transferring,

as of course  we know simply putting in 06 etc will work as we do

that often.

So of course you probably mean try the 00 33, so now I have just tried

the 00 33 6.... etc and phoned my pro fixed line (after making the

transfert d'appel....of course !!) from our private line and the French

operator butts in and says that the call must be called direct and the

cost will around 0.8€ and offers the number to call as well as an

alternative, so not much use at all really. Two points there, one,

being all in French any non speakers will simply give it the old swerve

and two, the costs will put off any French speakers.

So I guess I now will have no choice but to go along with you two (and

the boss !) who say just put in your normal mobile telephone number

(without Int-prefix) as phones over Europe have personal numbers and

not repeated. I can't say that's true or not to that but, it kind of

makes sense !

We know the calls will be pretty steep but it has to be set against

gaining any lost reservations. The problem with chambre d'hôtes (not so

bad with our cottage) is, that callers will often just call the next

number on their list and even if they decide to call back later (up to

a few days perhaps) and you are still not in, they will certainly look

elsewhere. So I shall just have to teach Tina to talk pretty quick !!

This is the cost to a Spanish mobile BUT as you say, it is a French mobile in Spain....different eh ?

Heures creuses en € TTC par minute**	Heures pleines en € TTC par minute**
Europe Proche et Amérique du Nord	Açores, Allemagne, Andorre, Autriche, Belgique, Canada, Canaries, Danemark, Espagne, États-Unis, Finlande, Gibraltar,Grèce, Guernesey, Irlande, Italie et Vatican, Jersey (île), Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Madère, Monaco, Norvège, Pays-Bas, Portugal, Royaume-Uni, Sant Marin, Suède, Suisse	0,083	0,12	0,22

So after a nice spell looking all over Orange.Fr the clue must be that anyone calling us should :

A l'étranger, vous restez joignable au même numéro qu'en France.

Pour vous faire appeler depuis la France métropolitaine : Votre correspondant compose simplement les 10 chiffres de votre numéro d'appel Orange.

 But of course IF we ring back to France, we have to use the + or 00 33 as we will be using a foreign "server"

Thanks for all help, it so reminds me of our early days here when we

were given so much rubbish advice, we always said........go it alone,

that way you make your own mistakes and learn pretty quick from them

and get it right (in the end !!). Now with this help from a forum

available, people with some experience of how it all actually works are often right at your fingertips, so thanks to all

and will let you know how it works as I supect others will be pretty

pleased to know how it REALLY works as well.

Can you see now, how maddening FT were, those that told me to use 00 33

6... etc and all the other old b******s  would have completely c o

cked it a ll up, the chancing b*****s !

So to end, as BJ rightly says, we pay to send from our phone and of

course Orange will charge to receive, that being the case it will

be  ?

Prix/min

en zone 1

réception d'appels	0,34 EUR
réception d'appels de notification de la messagerie vocale et fax	0,34 EUR

Plus the cost to call a mobile from a fixed phone :

- appels vers

l'international dans et au-delà

du forfait

communications vers les téléphones

mobiles et fixes internationaux et les DOM-TOM (sauf Monaco)

- vers la zone 1...............0,008 EUR/sec soit 0,48 EUR/min

So as you say just over 0.82€ per minute !! And it is 1,00€ a minute to call France from Spain with the French mobile.

Just have to hope we don't get too many of those peeps that go on and on and want to know the ins and outs of a ducks ar*e !

Thanks again et bon weekend