Orange Hell: Part III

Here’s the third and final part of my very shaggy dog story comparing my delightful experience with Apple versus that with Orange!

It wasn’t fourth time lucky, quite possibly surprising me least of all. However, the woman who had promised, nay guaranteed me a connection, had also set up a call with her direct supervisor for the same afternoon between 15:00-16:00. Just before the deadline, someone called from Technical Services and promised they were working on my reconnection. They were firefighting at Orange and no one could guarantee anything.

I thanked him for his honesty and he said I might be reconnected on Friday, but then again I might not. He agreed to call me between 11-13:00 on Friday.

I waited in on Friday for “the call” but it never came. Instead, I received a message rescheduling it for 12 – 13:00 the following day, without first checking with me whether or not it was convenient. It wasn’t so I had to cancel lunch out in Valbonne. Orange might not be giving my issue priority but I most definitely was.

Despite waiting in, no one rang. Instead I rang them and was advised that I *would* be called, I just had to be patient. I muttered something pithy under my breath and continued to wait. No one rang and this time the call wasn’t rescheduled. Wearily late afternoon, I rang Orange’s Technical Services once more. It took three calls before I chanced upon someone helpful, their service is such a lottery but without anyone being a big winner!

This lady promised to follow through with my case, her boss even rang me back an hour later to confirm that a technician would ring me on Wednesday between 15 – 16:00. At least I now knew that nothing would happen for 96 hours! Clearly, I had tumbled down the levels. Was I now at 4 or 5?

With the prospect of three « free » days, I kind of relaxed. The Airbox meant we could now work from home albeit only in the same room, not ideal. Plus, it wasn’t a very strong signal, a sort of weak broadband which switched itself off every so often, but it was better than nothing.

Wednesday dawned, would our WiFi service be reconnected or not by the witching hour? It wasn’t but the lady I’d spoken to on Saturday did ring and tell me that they were still working on my case and she’d ring me the same time tomorrow. Was this progress? Frankly I had no way of knowing. I’d at long last found someone helpful; she could contact me, but I couldn’t contact her.

Luckily, if all else failed, I still had something up my sleeve; Parnasse, Orange’s VIP service. Not that we’re VIP clients, way too small, but they were the people who sorted out how to extend WiFi throughout the apartment, set up the Fibre service (when Orange couldn’t) and our internet security two years ago.

I had gotten in touch with them on an unrelated matter and took the opportunity to bring them up to speed. They then confirmed that my reconnection had been scheduled, they were monitoring it and putting pressure on the Technical Services to get it sorted. They promised to keep me up to date. Finally, someone I knew I could rely on, a rarety chez Orange.

Parnasse rang me Tuesday evening promising that if I wasn’t connected the following day, they had a Plan B they would run with. I was rather hoping to be up and running no later than Friday so I could watch the MotoGP from Sachsenring. I’d already missed two MotoGP races, I did not want to miss a third!

I wasn’t reconnected on Wednesday so Parnasse executed Plan B on Thursday evening which effectively reprogrammed my reconnection as a move. Sadly the earliest date was 28th June, meaning I’d miss another two MotoGP races (Sachsenring and Assen) and, if I have to wait until then, I will have been without WiFi for 34 days!

The last lady I spoke to at Orange Pro rang me to confirm the appointment for 28th as did her boss, plus I received plenty of confirmatory paperwork. My days of calling the 3901 number and hanging around the Livebox, just in case…..were over, for the time being.

Finally, the 28th arrived. I’d had numerous calls checking and rechecking we’d be in when the technician called. We were run through the company’s Covid protocol which was nowhere as rigorous as mine.

Just 10 minutes after their scheduled appointment, I was back up and running sort of. They declined/were unable to reconnect my extenders so we had a limited WIFi service, essentially just the lounge, until the cavalry (Parnasse) arrived and reconnected everything.

To be fair the helpful lady with whom I had most recently been in touch did follow through and organised a rather handsome recompense but it really should not have been necessary.

Fortunately for my beloved (and our company) when disaster first struck internet help was at hand, until we got the Airbox. He decamped to our former holiday apartment, now owned by my sister, which has WiFi. He worked there undisturbed although he wasn’t happy since he didn’t have me waiting on him hand and foot all the time. To be fair, I did organise refreshments and lunch every day while I kept scrubbing floors and badgering/talking to Orange. I even organised a fall back with a friend who kindly offered us a desk in his office.

There was a silver lining or two to the whole sorry affair. I got some much-appreciated peace and quiet which allowed me to continue with the postponed spring clean and my beloved had a change of location – as good as a rest. Just don’t tell Orange, they might reduce my compensation!

Clearly Orange are nowhere near as good as Apple however they’re still better than most of the other French telecoms providers.