I’m sure you’re right. I’ve got my partner hunting through the various boxes he “tidies things away” into, in the hope that he’ll come up with something. We’ve got crates of cr*p like that in the barn so he may be some time 
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Allegedly. The man on the helpline said that was an urban myth. 
I have my card right here in front of me and it’s definitely true 
Talking of fibre, I just watched this BBC video from the 90s…
It’s funny to see how some of their predictions panned out.
Here’s another update to add to our numerous other ones re the loss of our phone line saga:
Stuart nearly had a heart attack when our invoice showed up on our Orange.fr account! We had been charged for the Fibre connection - 109€
So I phoned the Help Line and explained that we had a written card (as proof) that the Rep who called in to offer us Fibre connection said it would be ‘a free installation’. The lady said someone from the Claims Department would ring this afternoon between 3-4pm to speak with us. No-one called (grrrr!) even though the message on our account said someone had tried to ring us. They hadn’t so when I phoned the Help Line again I told them that. I then waited 25 minutes on hold for the man to come back with an answer. I got fed up with waiting so I hung up and rang again and got through to a gent who said we would get the result of the decision they make regarding the money to be refunded but it would take 3-4 weeks.
The actual invoicing for the fibre/livebox charges are correct but the installation charge needs to be refunded and I will keep my beady eyes out to see if we get this 109€ in our account.
Stuarts words were ‘they’re a shower of sh1t really’ and I don’t think he’s wrong !
So 14th February is booked in our online calendar to make sure we’ve got the money back.
Sounds about right.
Still no sign of fibre chez moi but when it does arrive it won’t be Orange I ask to get it installed.
I can’t remember the amount but it was of similar I think and I duly noted that it would be paid in our monthly payment. But just before the due date I got the normal email which confirmed the amount to be taken and it was exactly the same as every month, no mention of the higher figure.
I didn’t think any of them charged for installation. Mind you, I looked at all of them except Orange as I would never go near them and none of them charged I think. Mind you, in our region the fibre network outside the cities was created and is owned by the municipality and not Orange, so that may be the reason. The network was created and is maintained for the municipality by Émeraude THD who also do the connections.
We received an email this morning to confirm that we WILL be reimbursed the 109€ - which was an error on their part. Well, that’s my view but Stuart says they tried to pull a fast one and charge us.
In fairness, Orange can’t be faulted with regards to the loan of the Airbox and the topping up of (free) 200GB as and when we needed it, but this incident has left a nasty taste in his mouth. It’s not just the odd one or two mistakes he said, - it’s the fact that they’ve made so many just recently. Basically, I’m more easily pleased than Stuart is!
Anyway, we’ll keep watching for the amount to be credited to our bank account.
We want to say though, that the fibre speed is really very good. We’ve had a couple of power cuts recently and Stuart has tested the speed via www.speedtest.net to check if the speed had reduced. Previously with the copper lines, whenever we had a power cut, we would always get a reduced download speed on its return. But it’s all good at the moment.
So this is hopefully the penultimate posting from us regarding this subject.
Was that a pig I’ve just seen flying past our window? 
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Bouygues fibre (Ultim package) cost us €49 for installation which was recouped in 2 weeks by not having to pay for a wired landline anymore as calls to U.K. landlines are free.
The only thing with Bouygues which caused a raised eyebrow was their offering to rent you WiFi extenders/repeaters at €3 each per month which is rather cheeky as a decent N300 one can be purchased outright for €20.
Add to that deceptive practices and you have had a not uncommon experience with Orange.
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Good news is that we’ve got our 109€ refunded by Orange that was incorrectly charged to our account. So we’ve had refunded all they said they were going to - two lots of compensation and this latest amount.
Glad to say that this is the end of this long long saga. Thank goodness.
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Ooh, Ooh I’m positively excited.
Nipped over to arcep.fr as I know there was an update due on the 13th of March - to find that in place of a complete blank where fibre was concerned in the village we are now showing as “programmé”
Whoo-Hoo!! 
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Hope you’re sorted soon, BB.
We’re due to get connected tomorrow… let’s see how Orange’s subcontractor does in meeting my expectations 
I’m not in a rush - t’ missus is over this week and the Frankenbox is working well.
That is the one thing dampening my enthusiasm - getting a rendez-vous sorted when we are not over in France continuously.
Good luck!
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Don’t get too excited. I think that just means it’s being planned. It took nearly 18 months for ours to be available to order after being told it was arriving 
. Hopefully yours will arrive a bit faster than that
Our hamlet has been at the “programmé” stage for 3 years now!
The Maire says he’s been promised the whole commune will be fully fibred by August this year.
I won’t hold my breath!
Exactly but that is better than absolutely no mention at all. Your figure of 18 months is useful - I would have hazarded a guess at 6-12 months.
As I said, I’m not in a rush. Despite my falling out with Orange meaning we have no DSL line at the moment the Frankenbox is holding up well enough to do the usual things - surf, email, TV etc when we are there and the Tesco SIM is completely unlimited (I’m fully expecting that to not last but I can get a French SIM if I need).
I now have almost full coverage of the UK operators, all I need is a MVNO who uses EE and I’ll have the full set
Had a call from Orange’s subcontractor to say he’s running early and could he pop round an hour before the appointment. I was so shocked I nearly dropped the phone!
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