We arranged to have fibre installed at our second home in France back in October. (Took out a mobile phone contract to facilitate this too.) Did the 16 hour round trip for the appointment. No one turned up. Re-arranged for a few weeks later. Same thing happened. It’s now the middle of January and we have had five failed attempts (a neighbour has stood in for us) - all no shows, no phone call until after the end of the day, and then barely an apology. Various excuses have been given, including claims that there was no one there, sometimes two contradictory ones for the same appointment. It has been suggested that the (contracted) engineers don’t like going to English properties because of language problems… Talking to Orange people in English or French is getting us no where. It’s never the same person and they seem powerless to do anything. How do we escalate this? They are taking money on a monthly basis for a service we don’t have as well as all the initial outlay for equipment and installation. It’s very stressful, upsetting - and expensive. I feel a little impotent too. If this were England I would have a better idea of what to do. And of course a better command of the relevant language. (I have decent French but am not fluent.)
I realize that the fault lies with the engineers, whom Orange seems to have no control over, but ultimately Orange has some sort of duty of care/obligation to fulfil the contract we took out with them.
I feel your pain as I had exactly the same issues with Orange and my faulty VDSL line. In the end I cancelled the contract and wrote a letter of complaint - which was completely ignored
All I can suggest is that you look at what alternatives exist. Either another fibre supplier or 4/5G or (and it really pains me to suggest this) Starlink.
Get an airbox. Cables were down in the village for a couple of months because of ongoing works and Orange sent me one as a free replacement, it was fabulous.
Welcome @Remf33 but I am sorry that I cannot help you specifically because I have had nothing but excellent service from Orange since taking them on 25 years ago (under their former name of France Telecom) for landline and internet… My recent change to fibre was without problems and the, Tunisian, engineer was friendly, helpful and efficient. We even chatted about the advantages and disadvantages of France, being brother immigrants. 
So if this experience gives you any comfort in that it demonstrates things can only get better, then I am pleased. Bon courage. 
If you have a good signal and don’t mind the fact that speed will vary depending how many people are active on the base station then 4/5G can certainly be a viable solution - I’m using my DIY set-up that is working well enough though does have a couple of downsides compared with an integrated solution from one of the service providers.
Which in the era of mobile phones and Google translate with voice recognition is ridiculous.
The other wonderful thing about the airbox is it was happy everywhere in the house, currently WiFi doesn’t go everywhere even with repeaters because my house is too long and the box is in the kitchen at one end and there are too many thick stone walls - but you just plug in the airbox anywhere you like and voilà.
Thanks all for your replies. But I do need to try to get my money back! They’ve had hundreds out of us, excluding the costs of going over there, and staying in a hotel in Calais to set the thing up, initially. So complaining is essential. But would be nice to actually have fibre. We are in a rural location with next to no signal.
Our current set up is a satellite ADSL but it’s incredibly expensive to get as much data as we would like to be able to occasionally work from home there (streaming would be nice too, and the ability to upload photos etc!) - and you can’t switch it off when you are not there. I realize also true of fibre, but fibre is at least less expensive than what we are paying for our paltry 30GB of data a month, with unreliable service (often doesn’t work at all) and very variable download speed.
If we can cancel and get some money back I am concerned that an alternative provider of fibre might be using the same engineers anyway.
I have considered Starlink but Musk issues aside, I am worried it won’t work well - it’s a big outlay. (Especially if we don’t get any money back from Orange.) But that is the route we are now considering. One issue with our current satellite dish is that it periodically needs adjusting (usually seems to involve going out in the rain with a ladder - but at least it’s not on the roof!) This has really put us off satellite ADSL.
re the language issue, I fear this is partly xenophobia. They don’t know what my language skills are and the neighbour, who is English but full time in France, fully integrated in the local community - she sits on the local council - and is fluent in French. I think they just see that the names are English and make assumptions. I set up the whole thing in French in person at the office in Calais, initially.
Probably nothing to do with you being English. I think they’re indiscriminately crap.
I fully concur where it comes to Musk but Starlink uses satellites in low earth orbit not geostationary orbits (like TV and older satellite internet systems) so the satellites are dynamically tracked anyway - there should be no need to constantly adjust the receiver.
I can empathise with you. Orange - or rather their subcontractors - were frustrating to work with when we upgraded to fibre. Once installed and working, it’s been fabulous but it was painful getting to that stage as we also had missed appointments, they disconnected the ADSL line before realising they couldn’t connect the fibre, etc…
You’ll need to make sure you’ve followed the right process to cancel your subscription and claim back any monies you’ve paid. I suspect they may also try to argue that although they’ve failed to install fibre your mobile line that you took out would have worked, and they may not want to reimburse you for that.
First things first, file a complaint online via the Espace Client or using the Orange et Moi app…
https://espace-client.orange.fr/contrat/deposer-une-reclamation
Yes, that does make 4G/5G difficult. Before you quite give up the situation might be rescueable with an external, high gain, directional 5G antenna.
Check out Cellmapper and Zoneadsl to check exactly where your nearest cell tower is located.
Write to the CEO of Orange.
Maybe escalate to Christel Heydemann - CEO of Orange France??
Rocketreach has her email address as: christel.heydemann@orange.com
plus other possible alternatives:
christel.heydemann@orange.fr
christel.heydemann@gmail.com
Starlink is space pollution, but that’s a discussion for another time.
I hope you get your Orange issues sorted @Remf33 - they remind me of the utterly incompetent Everest Windows double-glazing installers I had the (dis)pleasure of dealing with a few years ago…
No disagreement from me on that point.
Thanks again.
Will have be having a final conversation with Orange people very soon. I was wondering if there was some equivalent of Ofcom etc. But will take it higher with Orange first.
Yes, there is a higher appeals body.
First you have to file a complaint through Orange’s customer service.
If that fails, you must write to the Service Recours Consommateurs Orange.
Only after that can you refer the matter to the Ombudsman (Médiateur).
There are clear time frames that must be complied with at each stage.
Good luck.
If you do this, you must send the letter ‘lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception’ which is a signed for registered post which can be used as legal proof of delivery if required.
Absolutely.
And get a nice literate French person to revise the wording of your complaint. Otherwise you’ll probably sound like a nutter.
I’ve been reduced to a blithering idiot myself by my latest exchanges with France Titres. Does no one do their job properly anymore? Has hours of staring at Instagram rendered younger staff incapable of grasping the slightest complexity? Think I need a stiff vodka with my All Bran this morning.