Thinking Inside the Box (Free, SFR, Darty, Orange, etc.)

When I was traveling through Israel, I took my handy iPhone 4 and did what I was instructed to turn off the data roaming so that I would not incur expensive and unnecessary usage charges. To be certain it was properly disabled, I had several other technologically adept people (like my daughter) verify it had been done correctly. Still, I worried about what was really happening in the background that might be a big surprise.

When I returned to Paris, I called my provider of about 15 years, SFR, who was polite but sais that it was impossible to check the current usage and I’d have to wait until the invoice was complete and issued. With nervousness I waited, but when that fateful day came, the shock was overwhelming to discover more than 600€ worth of “WAP sessions” that were not of my doing!

I phoned again and pleaded my case for some sort of credit. Again they were polite and said they would review the case and send me an email with a decision. No email or letter came after about 10 days, so I called again and got the same response. A week went by and I called again, this time encountering a rude employee who definitively said they would do nothing to credit the account because it had happened one time before (years ago, with another telephone) and therefore I should have known better. When asking how to cancel their service, I was informed that my contract called for more than 1,200€ to close it. Ugh!

Six hundred euros was a little too much from which to simply walk away, so I penned a letter explaining the situation in great detail and researched to whom I’d send it. With the brilliant editing assistance of a seasoned business professional friend (Al Stewart of http://business-mentors.com/) and registered mail, the letter asking for consideration went to the CEO, the customer service representatives and their 10 executive vice presidents on Monday!

If you have ever rented an apartment in Paris or elsewhere in France, then you may have been surprised by the communication system in which almost all homes in France are equipped that incorporates unlimited high speed Internet with WiFi, satellite or cable TV that offers hundreds of channels and voIP phone for free international dialing service to dozens of countries…all for about 30€ per month (plus tax). I don’t know of any systems in the U.S. that can beat this deal.

Several companies offer it, more or less with the same deal. It’s possible in zones in which the phone lines are no longer owned by France Télécom (“unbundled” lines) provided by. SFR is one of them, marketing the service under “Neufbox”:

* Neufbox by SFR.fr
* Freebox by Free.fr
* Dartybox.com
* Orange.fr
* Numericable.fr

You will read lots of consumer complaints about all of them. They are both the answer to our prayers and the bane of our existence. While on one hand, they easily and inexpensively provide us with a full range of communications options saving tons of money, on the other hand they are all riddled with technical problems and customer service irresponsibility. We have learned to live with both in the interest of cheap utilities bills.

Our rental manager prefers Numericable — the cable company — over the others because of their physical installation of the cable system and general customer service responsiveness to install the system quickly and maintain it. It is British-American-Luxembourgian owned that merged with Noos and UPC France in 2006. I subscribed to Noos when it was the first and only system of this kind about 12 years ago.

Personally, I’ve had good experience with Freebox which is set up in all of my personally owned apartments, but their equipment can burn out and take weeks to replace. Free was the first company to offer the “triple play” service in France and invented the “box” marketing concept. It quickly became the leading provider.

Orange is the brand used by France Télécom and is the fifth largest telecom operator in the world. According to everyone we know who has used Orange, is the worst one with which to equip your home for lack of good service.

Dartybox is offered by the Darty appliance stores famous for their prompt and courteous customer service. Don’t expect their good reputation for service to translate over to their Dartybox system, however.

When you set out to install any of these systems, allow several weeks advance time to investigate each and schedule the installation. While Numericable will come and actually install the equipment, Freebox will simply mail theirs to your home and you’re on your own to set it up. Getting any of them set up and working correctly can be an arduous task for even the savviest of techies.

One of the second benefits of such systems is that as a customer, you will have access to their free WiFi service all over the country. FreeWifi has over 3 million hotspots in France and all you need is a username and password to login and take advantage of it. SFR also claims to have over 3 million hotspots. This particularly convenient when traveling.

Earlier today, I had an email from SFR customer service. They reviewed my case and will be crediting almost all of the 600€ of WAP sessions because…and I quote: “exceptionally because you are a faithful customer of SFR and because you said that you tried to deactivate your phone during your trip.”

SFR has won me back. Perhaps we shouldn’t complain so much about lack of customer service, but then again, it definitely paid to complain.

A bientôt,
Adrian Leeds
Editor, French Property Insider
Email: [email protected]

P.S. Our Property Search Consultant in Nice says that 190,000€ cash will be accepted by the seller of rue Dalpozzo apartment mentioned in last week’s FPI:

Rue Dalpozzo #1 in the Carré d’Or:

Two rooms entirely renovated on the last floor with an elevator, cellar and pleasant views. 36m2. Individual gas heat.
Asking Price: 210,000€ + 3% Finder’s Fee.

If you are interested, you must act immediately. Please email me at mailto:[email protected]>