The Boy and I have been having lots of fun over the last 72 hours. One of us (me) had the great idea to change our telephone/internet plan. Instead of paying God-knows-how-much for our phone, and then 35 euros/month for our internet, I suggested we mesh the two and sign up with Neuf Telecom. They have a deal: 29,90 euros/month for high-speed internet and UNLIMITED calls throughout France, Europe, the US, Canada, India and China. World powers, unite!
As almost all of my American friends only have cell phones, it costs me so much money to call anyone I love on the other side of the ocean. Neuf is the only company I know of that not only provides unlimited calls to the States, but also to CELL PHONES in the States.
After spending 143 euros on our phone bill last month (80 euros of which was to cell phones within France - not my phone calls, I would like to point out), The Boy agreed to the change.
So I got online a few weeks ago, signed up, and totally forgot about it.
Meanwhile, we had called France Telecom and asked that they switch our internet connection to our "business" line instead of our private, "home" line (the quotes are there because The Boy's "business" phone sits next to our "private" line on his desk in our living room). We knew that the point at which our home phone switched to Neuf, we ran the risk of losing both our phone and internet for a few days.
Remember: The Boy's company is entirely online. Everything he does, he does online. The internet is his IV, his oxygen tank, his asthma thingamajing. He cannot survive without it. Me? I'm not hooked. No. Not at all. I could be just fine without internet for a few days. Really.
So Friday was really great. On Friday, our phone mysteriously stopped working. Then the internet backed out on us. Frustrated, and thinking maybe it was just a blip in the system, I decided to go to the post office and take care of some things before starting to curse at my computer. I picked up a package and sent off several more (yay, Ebay!). The package I happened to have picked up was the Neuf Telecom modem. Huh, I thought to myself, that came earlier than I thought it was going to.
God Lord, am I slow. I didn't make the your-phone-line-will-get-cut connection until our internet was out for a couple of hours. At this point, The Boy was freaking his shit out. Full on freak festival.
It got even better when he called France Telecom to ask for info concerning the switching of our internet connection to our "business" line. This is the really funny part: they never did it. Yeah. They had no record of our call, no evidence of our request. I would even go so far as to say The Boy had never actually called France Telecom to discuss it with them, if I hadn't been in the room right next to him when he had the conversation a few weeks ago.
I think at this point The Boy really saw himself staring down the barrel of that gun that meant no internet for days on end.
So we called the Neuf Telecom support team. Can I just say something? We had to talk to four different "technicians" before we could get anybody to actually help us. One woman actually got in a fight with The Boy on the phone - the two of them hollering and saying things I am sure were not normally in the employee script book. Funniest part? When they said we wouldn't have internet for 19 days. That was only three days longer than France Telecom's required waiting period of 16.
Eventually, we got it all straightened out. Thank God for that fourth person we talked to at Neuf Telecom. He was actually smart about the whole thing, and he referred us to a superior at one point when he couln't help us. It's amazing how people who don't know what they're talking about are willing to say anything at all - but they're never willing to say they don't know what to do. t the end of our conversation with the only smartypants in the place, our 0,30 euros/minute charge was lifted - we had racked up over 25 euros in techincal support calls. I'm convinced that at least five of those euros were spent yelling at that dumb bitch who actually had the audacity to ask "Are you sure you're using Windows?"
The Boy responded, "I'm a computer programmer, not an idiot."
Anyhow, thus far, I am not so impressed with Neuf's service. But ask me again in a week or so, when I get the green light for my unlimited call bonanza. I am going to go haywire. Look out Friends I Wish I Talked to More Often on the Phone! You're gonna hear from me!
I'll be interested in hearing how it goes....we've almost switched to neuf several times, mostly for the tv channels they offer, but have always backed out because we keep hearing about people having problems with them. FT is more expensive, but you're pretty much guaranteed a connection, and their customer service is pretty good if problems do arise.
Yeah, well, after that little stunt that France T�l�com pulled concerning our switched internet connection, I'm not sure about that "pretty much guaranteed a connection" and "customer service is pretty good" part. Actually, I've had nothing but bad, bad service from FT. We've now made it 48 hours without having to call Neuf, so let's see how long this will hold out, huh?
we just did the degroupage total thing with neuf as well, after having their ADSL for a couple months. When i call the helpline they either treat me as if I'm an idiot who doesn't know how to connect neufbox to computer, or they're really helpful. Not much in between. But so far, I'm happy with neuf, and everything's working well now.
oh, and FT has pulled the "we have no record of your call" thing four or five times already, after charging us for things we never asked for/had already cancelled.
Julie - And what can you answer to that, really? "No, dude, I totally called!" They just won't hear it.
Thus far, no problems with Neuf. Interestingly, when we set up the "business" line, we weren't able to get neuf at first because FT had given us a number that had been previously taken by a Neuf person. I guess they're recycling old numbers now to avoid allowing people to do the degroupage. Weird.
Hi LeeAnn! Good to hear from you again, and congrats on going to gluten-free! I actually hear that Celiac is much more well-known in Europe so there are more products, no? Have you found gluten-free baguettes? I will def. hit you up for restaurant suggestions when I go back to Paris.
When I lived in France I had my own problems with FT. I set up my account (telephone and internet but it was really only for the internet) in the beginning. Then around March it stopped working. I found out that was because my bill wasn't being paid even though I had given them a RIB back in October. They claimed no such thing had ever happened. Then they refused to reconnect me without me paying a downpayment of 160 euro to prove that I would not jip them again in the future. I decided to just cancel the service. Bleh. I hate FT.