It would be fair to say that the French telephone system has a certain je ne sais quoi – which might normally translate as a certain something special but in this case should be literally translated as “I don’t know what”. As in – I don’t know what they’re doing most of the time and nor do they!
In fact the quality of the French telephone system, and internet in France, will depend very much on where you live. In Paris or other big cities and towns you’ll usually find it efficient, with French broadband (called ADSL over here) as fast or faster than most other countries.
If you live in rural France, like we do, your best bet is crossed fingers, prayer, a rabbit’s foot or whatever else you can call on for good luck – because trusting to the technology isn’t going to do it!
You might be wondering why the moderate rant here. It’s because I’m a bit fed up with it to be honest, and where better to vent my spleen than on my own blog?
The trouble is, in four plus years I have yet to find a decent solution. For the first two years in France we didn’t have a fast internet connection at all – just too far from civilization. Then it arrived – joy of joys – yea… kind of.
At first I used an English-language service – part of a French parent company. I know I tell everyone they should learn to speak French, and you should, but sometimes it’s easier to deal with things which are unfamiliar, in a language you know. They also had cheap calls to the UK and US – which I do quite a lot.
So said French telephone company send me a nice shiny new modem and everything was fine. Not lightening fast but workable. It was saving me a small fortune because previously I was having to post CDs all over the planet – now I could email or ftp them.
Then they “upgraded” their service. That’s French for cocking it up completely!
I won’t bore you with the number of phone calls, the excuses, the blaming someone else… after a month of abysmal service I gave up and changed. But I should have read the small print more carefully – shouldn’t we always…
The new company – an entirely French telephone company speaking no English at all (why should they) were delighted to take over my subscription (abonnement). This they duly did and the next day my phone was back to normal. Unfortunately I then discover that they can’t send me my new modem for a month – and my old one doesn’t work with their system… AAARRRGGGH!!!!
After much pleading and begging the new modem arrived in two weeks. Two weeks with just French dial up service is not fun. Never mind. New modem, complete with array of blinking lights is duly installed and works fine…
…then they decided to “upgrade”… Nooooooooooooooo!
It’s been six weeks. I’ve ranted and yelled down the phone at them (sometimes certain French people try to bully you but not if you’ve got the language skills to fight back). I’ve sometimes had no service, frequently just a couple of hours a day and what’s worse, nobody can give you a sensible answer. The call centre staff are the same as call centre staff the world over – they know how to answer a telephone but not how to fix the damn things!
Even after a France Telecom (the state service) engineer turned up the problems persisted. Then to cap it all I received a bill – not just for additional calls (re-routed due to my phone operators fault) but also for calls to the “free” customer support number!
Hence the rant. Thanks for listening, I fell better now 
I’ve also just sent about as strongly worded a French letter as I can manage, letting them know how I feel.
So why don’t I change again, you might ask? After all, there are plenty of French telephone companies and internet service providers.
I’m quite tempted to go with France Telecom, but they don’t do an all-inclusive calls service to countries outside France so my bills would just about double. There are other services but then there’s the fear factor – the potential of another month without a fast internet connection.
You’ll note I haven’t actually mentioned the names of the two French phone and internet companies that I’ve had problems with. Primarily that’s because I don’t want to end up with any legal hassle. I’m also hoping my current supplier will get their act together – and perhaps send me a nice refund!
I’ll let you know.
.jpg)