One of the first things we had to do upon moving to Paris was sign up for mobile phone service. This was not something I was looking forward to -- sorting out all of the options, communicating what I want, etc. in French -- but I selected Orange as our service provider and got our phones set up without too much hassle.
Everything actually worked well. For two weeks. I then received a message that my dossier was "incomplete" and that I risked a "restriction on calls". Since the service was working fine, I didn't pay much attention to the message. A week or so later, however, my phone stopped working.
At about the same time, we had some mail delivered from Orange that indicated that something was wrong with Erin's account and that we needed to mail in a variety of information -- a passport photo, an application, our RIB (Relevé d'Identité Bancaire - a very commonly used form that has information about our bank account for direct debit purposes), etc. -- to address the problem. We did that and I also did it for my account in case that was the problem. At that stage, mail delivery was hit and miss for us as we didn't have our address quite right -- essentially missing the apartment number -- and I knew that I'd set up the address incorrectly with Orange. So, I figured that perhaps they had mailed me something similar to what they sent Erin but that it just hadn't been delivered. It seemed to be a reasonable explanation.
I also went online to fix our address at Orange so if they attempted to deliver something again, I'd get it. I then waited. And waited. A couple of weeks passed and my service was still off.
I decided to head to the store where I signed up for the service and see if they could help me with the problem. They couldn't, but advised me to call an English-speaking customer service number. That sounded reasonable so I went back home to try it.
With hopes high, I called the number. When the automated system answered, I was a little concerned that the recorded message was in French, not English, but I still held out some hope that I would be able to reach an English-speaking representative. Alas, when the representative did answer, she only spoke French.
The bright spot of the conversation was that it was by far my best conversation yet (and probably still to this day) in French. I asked about the English-speaking customer care, she confirmed they no longer had that. I communicated my problem, she looked up my account and confirmed a problem. And, ultimately, when it came down to next steps, she communicated two options -- this ou that. The challenge was I didn't have the vocabulary to understand either option. She tried two or three times, coming from different angles and using different words but it always came back to the same two options -- this ou that. Unable to understand her -- other than that the second option involved money -- I finally gave up trying to solve it on the call.
Sharing this with a friend, she advised that I visit the large Orange store on the Champs-Élysées. She said they speak English there and advised that I go in just speaking English, as if I didn't know a lick of French. That's what she did and they took care of things for her. A good lead.
So to the "Champs" I went. There, against my friend's advice, I used French to ask for an English-speaking representative. I was sent to one and explained my problem to him. He, though, said they couldn't help me there, that I had to go back to the store where I initiated the service. When I said that I already had and they sent me to a French-speaking English-speaking customer care line, he just shook his head and said I had to go there.
You have to realize too that I have an expensive, feature-rich iPhone 4S. An iPhone 4S without phone service is basically a camera (okay, more accurately a wifi-dependent iPod Touch, but still...). It had now been about a month without service and I really needed to get it working. I had also received a bill from Orange so they were happy to charge me without providing service. I didn't have the option to just head to another mobile operator and start fresh.
Back at the original store, I again explained the problem and they again directed me to a different English-speaking customer care number. This one, they said, would work.
So, back home and on the phone again. This time, much to my surprise, they did speak English. Progress! But, after describing my problem, the representative clarified that they only provided customer service for their home phone and Internet service, not their mobile phone service.
He was kind enough to send me to a representative on the mobile side that spoke a little English. She said that since I already had a plan in France in the past, I now needed to pay a fee to reactivate my service. Hmmm, that part about "already had a plan in France in the past" was a bit interesting. Especially since I'd lived my entire 44 years in the States and had only been in France for two months. Unfortunately, while her English wasn't bad, her confidence was lacking. When I pressed about this incorrect information, she essentially bailed on communicating in English, went back to French, and said I had to pay the fee. I couldn't get any further so that call was done.
At this point, I was willing to pay the fee to get this mess behind me and the only option I could see was to go back to the store. There I explained, in my best French, that I had called customer care and they said that I had to pay a fee. I also explained that I had just moved to France so didn't understand why I had to pay it. They still couldn't help me but I fortunately found a person willing to call customer care on my behalf to sort things out.
She clarified that, no, I didn't have to pay a fee but that it appeared that the problem was that something was incorrect or missing in my file -- ah, back to my dossier being "incomplete"! That sounded right. She advised that I resend all of my account information -- passport, RIB, contract -- and that after a day or two things would be fixed.
That sounded reasonable but since I'd already done that once, I didn't trust that it would work this time. So, I asked whether they would fax it to the right person who could make the necessary changes and establish my service again. She said they could so I ran home, grabbed my info, made copies of everything, and brought them back to the store to be faxed.
I then waited for a couple of days, and a couple more days, and still no service.
I still had an address -- the one we used when sending Erin's information back in -- so thought perhaps I should send my info to that address. I did and waited another week. Still no luck.
So, once again I went back to the store and explained the situation. This time they gave me a different address. Living out the definition of insanity -- doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results -- I again sent in my collection of information.
A then waited another week or two and, almost two months later, lo and behold, my service began to work. Ah, the relief to have passed that set of obstacles and challenges.
About a week later, Erin received a message that Orange couldn't deliver something to our address and to call them right away with our "new" address. Ugh. We only hope that this isn't the start of a new mobile communications challenge.
Everything actually worked well. For two weeks. I then received a message that my dossier was "incomplete" and that I risked a "restriction on calls". Since the service was working fine, I didn't pay much attention to the message. A week or so later, however, my phone stopped working.
At about the same time, we had some mail delivered from Orange that indicated that something was wrong with Erin's account and that we needed to mail in a variety of information -- a passport photo, an application, our RIB (Relevé d'Identité Bancaire - a very commonly used form that has information about our bank account for direct debit purposes), etc. -- to address the problem. We did that and I also did it for my account in case that was the problem. At that stage, mail delivery was hit and miss for us as we didn't have our address quite right -- essentially missing the apartment number -- and I knew that I'd set up the address incorrectly with Orange. So, I figured that perhaps they had mailed me something similar to what they sent Erin but that it just hadn't been delivered. It seemed to be a reasonable explanation.
I also went online to fix our address at Orange so if they attempted to deliver something again, I'd get it. I then waited. And waited. A couple of weeks passed and my service was still off.
I decided to head to the store where I signed up for the service and see if they could help me with the problem. They couldn't, but advised me to call an English-speaking customer service number. That sounded reasonable so I went back home to try it.
With hopes high, I called the number. When the automated system answered, I was a little concerned that the recorded message was in French, not English, but I still held out some hope that I would be able to reach an English-speaking representative. Alas, when the representative did answer, she only spoke French.
The bright spot of the conversation was that it was by far my best conversation yet (and probably still to this day) in French. I asked about the English-speaking customer care, she confirmed they no longer had that. I communicated my problem, she looked up my account and confirmed a problem. And, ultimately, when it came down to next steps, she communicated two options -- this ou that. The challenge was I didn't have the vocabulary to understand either option. She tried two or three times, coming from different angles and using different words but it always came back to the same two options -- this ou that. Unable to understand her -- other than that the second option involved money -- I finally gave up trying to solve it on the call.
Sharing this with a friend, she advised that I visit the large Orange store on the Champs-Élysées. She said they speak English there and advised that I go in just speaking English, as if I didn't know a lick of French. That's what she did and they took care of things for her. A good lead.
So to the "Champs" I went. There, against my friend's advice, I used French to ask for an English-speaking representative. I was sent to one and explained my problem to him. He, though, said they couldn't help me there, that I had to go back to the store where I initiated the service. When I said that I already had and they sent me to a French-speaking English-speaking customer care line, he just shook his head and said I had to go there.
You have to realize too that I have an expensive, feature-rich iPhone 4S. An iPhone 4S without phone service is basically a camera (okay, more accurately a wifi-dependent iPod Touch, but still...). It had now been about a month without service and I really needed to get it working. I had also received a bill from Orange so they were happy to charge me without providing service. I didn't have the option to just head to another mobile operator and start fresh.
Back at the original store, I again explained the problem and they again directed me to a different English-speaking customer care number. This one, they said, would work.
So, back home and on the phone again. This time, much to my surprise, they did speak English. Progress! But, after describing my problem, the representative clarified that they only provided customer service for their home phone and Internet service, not their mobile phone service.
He was kind enough to send me to a representative on the mobile side that spoke a little English. She said that since I already had a plan in France in the past, I now needed to pay a fee to reactivate my service. Hmmm, that part about "already had a plan in France in the past" was a bit interesting. Especially since I'd lived my entire 44 years in the States and had only been in France for two months. Unfortunately, while her English wasn't bad, her confidence was lacking. When I pressed about this incorrect information, she essentially bailed on communicating in English, went back to French, and said I had to pay the fee. I couldn't get any further so that call was done.
At this point, I was willing to pay the fee to get this mess behind me and the only option I could see was to go back to the store. There I explained, in my best French, that I had called customer care and they said that I had to pay a fee. I also explained that I had just moved to France so didn't understand why I had to pay it. They still couldn't help me but I fortunately found a person willing to call customer care on my behalf to sort things out.
She clarified that, no, I didn't have to pay a fee but that it appeared that the problem was that something was incorrect or missing in my file -- ah, back to my dossier being "incomplete"! That sounded right. She advised that I resend all of my account information -- passport, RIB, contract -- and that after a day or two things would be fixed.
That sounded reasonable but since I'd already done that once, I didn't trust that it would work this time. So, I asked whether they would fax it to the right person who could make the necessary changes and establish my service again. She said they could so I ran home, grabbed my info, made copies of everything, and brought them back to the store to be faxed.
I then waited for a couple of days, and a couple more days, and still no service.
I still had an address -- the one we used when sending Erin's information back in -- so thought perhaps I should send my info to that address. I did and waited another week. Still no luck.
So, once again I went back to the store and explained the situation. This time they gave me a different address. Living out the definition of insanity -- doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results -- I again sent in my collection of information.
A then waited another week or two and, almost two months later, lo and behold, my service began to work. Ah, the relief to have passed that set of obstacles and challenges.
About a week later, Erin received a message that Orange couldn't deliver something to our address and to call them right away with our "new" address. Ugh. We only hope that this isn't the start of a new mobile communications challenge.
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