TBH Brian I specialise in something a bit similar in the UK so it’s all more of a learning experience for me in France. I’m fascinated with the apparent ease with which large companies mistreat consumers in France based on my experience with 2 or 3 out of 5 or so telecom in earlier years and this year 2 big retailers and am eager to try to understand this as I feel it must be me out of sync not them.
The attempts with 2 retailers to receive decent consumer treatment I’m working on currently are a bit of a game to see where they will lead but there’s an edge added with my longstanding dental issues ongoing. I do think it is me who will end up converging with the French attitude to these things in the end - as it seems the prevailing culture has differences to Anglo expectations.
Oh… I have experience of GLS. You have my sympathy.
We used them once, back when we were still loving in the UK. Or rather, we shipped a parcel via a UK company who then subcontracted out the delivery in France to GLS.
The parcel went missing. We tried dealing with the UK company, as that’s who our contract was with. They tried to blame GLS and said we needed to raise the issue with them. I wasn’t having any of it… after all, it wasn’t my decision to use GLS to handle the delivery.
We did speak to GLS about it, but they were shockingly uninterested… they really couldn’t have cared less. It was at that point I saw their reviews on Google, Trust Pilot, etc… and realised this was very common.
The parcel was finally found, and we managed to arrange to get it collected. It had gone from the UK to France via random countries like Belgium, Denmark and Turkey. I seem to remember we were compensated but not by much. I’ve avoided them every since.
I spoke to Orange yesterday after they failed to reconnect us as promised on the 18th.
I was assured that service would be back by lunchtime with a further promise of a phone call between 1 and 2 to discuss compensation.
Got the phone call but still no service meaning compensation could not be discussed as no finite date for length of no service!
Latest update for reconnection is now in 8 days time!!
When we first lost connection on 15th August we were given exrra megabytes on our mobile for hot spotting but as we have a very weak signal this was useless. Orange said they would normally offer an air box bht as we had a bad signal it would be no better than our phone.
We can hotspot from a point in the garden some 100 metres from the house which is where our open air office has been for last 5 weeks and thankfully the weather has been good.
Yesterday Orange offered us an airbox which they had previously declined to do and not having the will to refer back to that decision we took them up on the offer, nothing ventured nothing gained.
After a 100km round trip to collect the gizmo from our nearest Orange shop I gave the box a try.
Hung it in every downstairs window but no signal then tried higher up.
The following photo is looking out of a bedroom window from where the airbox is now.
The airbox must be better at finding a signal as our phone in the same position has none.
At last after 5 weeks we have WIFI again courtesy of this amazing little box that is transmitting a signal to all our devices albeit not super fast it is working.
So now we wait until sometime in the future when normal landline connections are restored so that we can discuss compensation and some for the charges made via direct debit for the service Orange have not provided.
Great you finally got the mifi unit, as at least that gives you some connection. A little scary how we now all depend so much on the internet during our daily lives, but I guess it does bring a whole raft of benefits that would now be rather difficult to live without. Doesn’t seem all that long ago that we had dial up and the monotonous wait as site uploaded oh my how expectations have now changed
Generally I haven’t had many problems with Orange over the years. We contacted them and were told fibre optic was ready and we could install it, so we collected the necessary box from the shop, and a week later an engineer came out to us (1 hour drive from the city) - within 2 minutes he was on his way, as apparently whatever box that sits within the hamlet isn’t functioning and he can’t do anything. We were promised a call from Orange, but never got it.
A few days later a storm arrived with major hail. I unplugged everything, but the internet would not connect afterwards (undoubtedly storm damage). I went on the website and entered my phone number, but it said they were aware of a problem from September 7th, due to be fixed on the 24th September. This had nothing to do with my problem, as the internet had been working fine until the storm a few days ago.
Popped into the Orange shop in town, and got an airbox. I don’t have a great reception, but I found one window I could rest it against, that does give me just enough to continue with the internet. Not ideal, but I’m grateful as I require it for work… Just hoping now they will sort out the problems this weekend, but to be honest, I’d skeptical.
Spoiler alert : they’ll refuse any extra costs in picking up your mifi, and will only pay the strict legal minimum in compensation. I’m not even sure you’ll get the full rent back for the nonfunctioning line.
The last notification for reconnection was the 24th September which has now morphed to the 28th.
I have every confidence that Orange will move the date to October before the 28th arrives.
We continue to survive using the air box supplied by orange however downloading is ridiculously slow to impossible.
I’d check how much data you have left on the mifi unit as that could be a reason you’re experiencing poor performance. I remember when they gave me one I had to call them to recharge it👍
The problem is the fibre network is owned by various “companies”. Most set up to serve a department or area. These do link back to existing infrastructure - normally belonging to Orange.
The various operators then stick some boxes onto the system so they can supply fibre broadband
You then call an operator who agrees to install fibre …except they then call the companies who install and your then at the mercy of lowest bid contracts…
…This is why I suggest calling them. Whatever Orange says, SevCo or its eventual subsubsubcontractor is far more likely to be able to tell you when no one is available to fix it than Orange will.
2.30-3pm is likely to be an amenable period after lunch, and before any working
mothers must hurry from their work to meet children from school. So you just might be able to find out when the repair is ‘not’ happening, even if they mightn’t be sure yet, when it is going to happen.
I have this rubbish with delivery companies all the time. I’ve found the only way to know what’s going on is to ask the subcontractor.
Many thanks for your advice.
A search to find the elusive Sevco has proved fruitless. All searches seem to recognise my phone and signal and bring me back to my espace Orange, literally going around in circles.
So it seems I will have to wait untill tomorrow when they say we will be reconnected but of course as we all know, Tomorrow never comes!
I think the term is Mañana. I remember that feeling very well when I was dealing with Orange, but persistence was very necessary. Did you write to the CEO as suggested previously?
When I worked in Egypt for a spell, the word ‘inshalla’ always used to send a shiver, as I knew that meant it was anyones guess if something got done or not!
My neighbour uses that. He knows I know exactly what it means in a certain context and so we have a laugh about it. He is really laid back though as am I.
oh my how expectations have now changed 
