http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/06/work.death/index.html
is a link to the news story regarding the number of France Telecom suicides since the start of 2008...I think the number is 24 currently. Bar the windows, disarm the employees and the bosses (too many of those!), only bike to work and ban all pills and poisons. That ought to do it, at least it'll reduce the skipping out/malingering/striking dead for s while til they find another way to end it all.
Inside a France Telecom Office:
Ringggg! goes a phone...Rinnnnggg! Rinnngnnngg!
Employee: Alo!
the other end: Anyone alive there? Been calling for 2 days!
Employee: Call 0678100100 to complain.
the other end: I WORK for France Telecom!
Employee: Too Bad...next sound "BANG"
the other end: Alo? Anyone there?
Thats NORMAL these days! Who in their right mind would want to work for such a failed
company? My God, why? So many employees and noone capable of doing anything useful...who is hiring these folks anyway...shoot him or them (likely a committee!) as soon as you can find him/her/them. I have watched oh so many times the looks of fear, frustration, disbelief on the faces of both a paying customer AND the employee that I'm used to the comedy by now. So many arguments about bills, service, contracts, missed calls, bad equipment, Orange(!), DSL, Dial-up (yes..these days the still sell it at $20 Euros a month no less!), missed appointments et al. It's a company without a head, the buck...no...Euro stops nowhere! Even the billing doesn't stop after THEY turn you off! Amazing! While at the same time employees AND their management walk the streets in protest to "working conditions". I guess so. So no one is inside doing anything for the poor wo-be-gone customer who needs help. Tough life.
Showing posts with label France Telecom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France Telecom. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Thursday, April 09, 2009
The Blessing
well here i am typing on an asus pceee netbook being held in one hand while i peck away with the other on the &��&'( French keyboord, so fun. How did we get to this point, you might ask. Well France Telecom cut us off boopie, cold of them, no? I thought so too but given we ran out of money in our account that they draw their payment from, no wonder. The problem was less that they cancelled us exactly 10 days after the 10 day warning but that they told us that we could not even apply to have new service for 2 to 3 weeks! What? And poopsie, 96 Euros had to change hands before that would happen. They wouldn't let us pay right then even. So that was that. We paid up our past due amount and accepted our lowly status as France Telecom deadbeats and thought of that far off day when we could get connected again to the universe.
A day or two later upon going to our friends A&R,s place, A asked if I knew anything about the telephoney dongle things. Huh? Nope...what is it? She gave me a quick rundown and my mind, busy with the recent France Telecom debacle, perked right up! We vowed to sort this out for ourselves and find out what else might be possible in the line of broadband connections in our dear France.
The next day we were off to Bourges to shop the dongle department in good, ol' Darty. The salesman, techie showed us the 3G SFR and Orange dongles for using cell phone suppliers signals as broadband access. We were stoked! How much? Well... at first the deals sounded poorly, any more than what we had paid at FT was deemed to be too much but soon the figure of 50 Euros a month unlimitted came to light and Ted said he'd cover it! That seemed overly generous so we told him we'd split it with him. Then an astounding announcement came from the salesman, it was a package deal with an ASUS PC Eee netbook thrown in the deal for an additional 130 Euros! Further, it was with SFR, another carrier and the monthly unlimitted deal was only 32 Euros! Wow! After a visit to the nice lady who wrote everything down on her computer and we were delivered the tiny laptop that isn't we were off to home, dinner and a session on the internet as fast as I could unwrap the dongle from it's impossible packaging, plug it in and do the first timers dance with technology that we all go thru time and time again. This was particularly EASY, as the software was contained in the dongle itself and soon it began to blink in good dongle fashion
and l'viola! we were ON! Amazing...and s-l-o-w as molasses in January but at least we can get our emails, surf the net and decide on some other way to watch movies or tv shows as this speed will not allow those activities. It is hardly BROADBAND, more like NARROWBAND-AID but at least it's NOT France @#$#@#@! Telecom the bane of our existance online and of our bank account! A Blessing indeed!
A day or two later upon going to our friends A&R,s place, A asked if I knew anything about the telephoney dongle things. Huh? Nope...what is it? She gave me a quick rundown and my mind, busy with the recent France Telecom debacle, perked right up! We vowed to sort this out for ourselves and find out what else might be possible in the line of broadband connections in our dear France.
The next day we were off to Bourges to shop the dongle department in good, ol' Darty. The salesman, techie showed us the 3G SFR and Orange dongles for using cell phone suppliers signals as broadband access. We were stoked! How much? Well... at first the deals sounded poorly, any more than what we had paid at FT was deemed to be too much but soon the figure of 50 Euros a month unlimitted came to light and Ted said he'd cover it! That seemed overly generous so we told him we'd split it with him. Then an astounding announcement came from the salesman, it was a package deal with an ASUS PC Eee netbook thrown in the deal for an additional 130 Euros! Further, it was with SFR, another carrier and the monthly unlimitted deal was only 32 Euros! Wow! After a visit to the nice lady who wrote everything down on her computer and we were delivered the tiny laptop that isn't we were off to home, dinner and a session on the internet as fast as I could unwrap the dongle from it's impossible packaging, plug it in and do the first timers dance with technology that we all go thru time and time again. This was particularly EASY, as the software was contained in the dongle itself and soon it began to blink in good dongle fashion
and l'viola! we were ON! Amazing...and s-l-o-w as molasses in January but at least we can get our emails, surf the net and decide on some other way to watch movies or tv shows as this speed will not allow those activities. It is hardly BROADBAND, more like NARROWBAND-AID but at least it's NOT France @#$#@#@! Telecom the bane of our existance online and of our bank account! A Blessing indeed!
Friday, May 02, 2008
Tourist Office to the rescue
log Entry Saturday April 26th, 2008
Well I might as well break the silence on my “little(BIG) problem”. I STILL have no Internet, the DSL indicator on my LiveBox (HA!) is just blinking away, resetting it does nothing. Yesterday I went BACK to my dearest friends at the Tourist Office and asked their help ONCE AGAIN in contacting France Telecom about “Our Little Problem”, which CM promptly did. After much re-dialing and correct-number-getting, she reached a FT person who told her that the “Problem” was one of IDENTITY! It seems Mr. Theodore Berry is named on the telephone line's account as it's owner and the application for DSL indicates one Kelly Lute. So in the infinite wisdom of FT instead of telling us that problem via a letter or perhaps a smoke signal, they just put the application on HOLD. Ah! So after some quick clarifications by CM via my dearest Kelly about who was who on the account and how it got that way (?!) it has, apparently, been ironed out...that wrinkle, whether it results in an actual DSL connection is yet to be determined (supposedly Tuesday or Wednesday next week). So there is some hope I hope. This morning it blinks.
The sun is shining thru the cloud layer over our little village in the heart of France! Yippee! Life here is soooo very much easier with a bit of dryness, warmth and sunshine. Indeed!
Well I might as well break the silence on my “little(BIG) problem”. I STILL have no Internet, the DSL indicator on my LiveBox (HA!) is just blinking away, resetting it does nothing. Yesterday I went BACK to my dearest friends at the Tourist Office and asked their help ONCE AGAIN in contacting France Telecom about “Our Little Problem”, which CM promptly did. After much re-dialing and correct-number-getting, she reached a FT person who told her that the “Problem” was one of IDENTITY! It seems Mr. Theodore Berry is named on the telephone line's account as it's owner and the application for DSL indicates one Kelly Lute. So in the infinite wisdom of FT instead of telling us that problem via a letter or perhaps a smoke signal, they just put the application on HOLD. Ah! So after some quick clarifications by CM via my dearest Kelly about who was who on the account and how it got that way (?!) it has, apparently, been ironed out...that wrinkle, whether it results in an actual DSL connection is yet to be determined (supposedly Tuesday or Wednesday next week). So there is some hope I hope. This morning it blinks.
The sun is shining thru the cloud layer over our little village in the heart of France! Yippee! Life here is soooo very much easier with a bit of dryness, warmth and sunshine. Indeed!
Tele Repaired! Whoopee!
Blog Entry_04-09-08
Well sure as heck France Telecom came and went today at about 9am as scheduled. They found a bad connection OUTSIDE on the side of the house...huh? How's that got anything to do with anything? Let me review this telephone problem as I have lived it.
1.Inet and Telephone worked fine on the day we arrived. That was the 21st of March as I remember.
2.10 days later it all went away. 4/1 came and all was inert, dead, mort, fini etc.
3.On the 4th we got a letter telling us they cut off our Inet and Telephone for non-payment.
4.We paid the balance in arrears and were told we would have our phone back last Wednesday or Thursday.
5.That didn't happen so we went to the Tourist Board, they called for us, found out that they had turned the tele back on and were surprised we had no phone and got a crew to come out today and check our connection.
6.They came, they fixed it.
7.Huh?
So now we have a telephone with the promise of an actual internet connection sometime in the next week. Good luck to us. Kelly called Jane.
The dining room is shaping up, we worked on it all bloody day, cloth is hung on all the walls and Kelly produced the curtains as well. A full day. I prepped the beef marinade for the oyster sauce beef dish and made the ice cream mix as well. Tomorrow will be a cooking day as well as cleanup of the dining room to make it ready for our guests, now all 4 of them.
Well sure as heck France Telecom came and went today at about 9am as scheduled. They found a bad connection OUTSIDE on the side of the house...huh? How's that got anything to do with anything? Let me review this telephone problem as I have lived it.
1.Inet and Telephone worked fine on the day we arrived. That was the 21st of March as I remember.
2.10 days later it all went away. 4/1 came and all was inert, dead, mort, fini etc.
3.On the 4th we got a letter telling us they cut off our Inet and Telephone for non-payment.
4.We paid the balance in arrears and were told we would have our phone back last Wednesday or Thursday.
5.That didn't happen so we went to the Tourist Board, they called for us, found out that they had turned the tele back on and were surprised we had no phone and got a crew to come out today and check our connection.
6.They came, they fixed it.
7.Huh?
So now we have a telephone with the promise of an actual internet connection sometime in the next week. Good luck to us. Kelly called Jane.
The dining room is shaping up, we worked on it all bloody day, cloth is hung on all the walls and Kelly produced the curtains as well. A full day. I prepped the beef marinade for the oyster sauce beef dish and made the ice cream mix as well. Tomorrow will be a cooking day as well as cleanup of the dining room to make it ready for our guests, now all 4 of them.
What Else Is New?
Blog 4-08-08 A Monday
Ok, It's now Monday night, no...I don't have a telephone and with that said...I have no Internet as well. We went to the Tourist Office this morning to consult with our resident French Cultural and Technology Specialists E and MC, MC was caught up in another major operation regarding a new computer being installed in the office for use by patrons...like us. E called the lovely folks at France Telecom for an explanation of why did we receive a notice this morning of some billing issue re the NEW phone number when there is NO DIAL TONE on the aforesaid telephone line. They referred her to the technical office who is sending out a techie tomorrow morning...er ah by 1pm that is to check our line and find out why they think our line is GOOD and we have no telephone instead. When we disengaged ourselves from the office I came home and checked the telephone in another socket, no hope, doesn't work. Oh well, someone who really KNOWS how this system works will be here tomorrow with luck and maybe oh maybe we will get connected. What a bore this is.
We have a dinner planned with friends Thursday evening. Thai food promised, but what they will get is my interpretation of Thai food using French ingredients and my addled memory of the recipes of my books in California as I have none of those here. So yes, I'm faking it a bit but I understand the differences between Thai and Chinese and Vietnamese and their similarities as well so it'll be a good fake I hope. A soup with lemongrass and ginger, nems with pork and spring vegetables, Oyster Sauce Beef with red peppers and snow peas, Thai Shrimp Curry over rice, apple/ginger tart al a mode. Wish me luck.
So today we worked on the walls of the dining room, YES THE Dining Room we will be using night after next for the Thai dinner. Hanging cloth by the yards, quite a process, nailing up the wood strips to hold the cloth on all sides, hanging the cloth with installed battens at the top edge of heavy paper after placing the fuzzy stuff over the area that the cloth will cover. It looks great though and we are almost through with the 3rd of the 4 walls with only the window wall left to complete. I doubt we will get that part done before the dinner but we will see.
Kelly went to the doctor that speaks english today, first this morning to find the office open, warm and empty with a notice saying the first patients will be seen at 2pm. So she returned home to continue the wall project, it's a three block walk more or less so not a lot of time was wasted. At 2pm she went back to see 9 patients sitting in the room and decided that was a bit too much of a wait for her sensibilities today so she came home again. Maybe tomorrow.
Ok, It's now Monday night, no...I don't have a telephone and with that said...I have no Internet as well. We went to the Tourist Office this morning to consult with our resident French Cultural and Technology Specialists E and MC, MC was caught up in another major operation regarding a new computer being installed in the office for use by patrons...like us. E called the lovely folks at France Telecom for an explanation of why did we receive a notice this morning of some billing issue re the NEW phone number when there is NO DIAL TONE on the aforesaid telephone line. They referred her to the technical office who is sending out a techie tomorrow morning...er ah by 1pm that is to check our line and find out why they think our line is GOOD and we have no telephone instead. When we disengaged ourselves from the office I came home and checked the telephone in another socket, no hope, doesn't work. Oh well, someone who really KNOWS how this system works will be here tomorrow with luck and maybe oh maybe we will get connected. What a bore this is.
We have a dinner planned with friends Thursday evening. Thai food promised, but what they will get is my interpretation of Thai food using French ingredients and my addled memory of the recipes of my books in California as I have none of those here. So yes, I'm faking it a bit but I understand the differences between Thai and Chinese and Vietnamese and their similarities as well so it'll be a good fake I hope. A soup with lemongrass and ginger, nems with pork and spring vegetables, Oyster Sauce Beef with red peppers and snow peas, Thai Shrimp Curry over rice, apple/ginger tart al a mode. Wish me luck.
So today we worked on the walls of the dining room, YES THE Dining Room we will be using night after next for the Thai dinner. Hanging cloth by the yards, quite a process, nailing up the wood strips to hold the cloth on all sides, hanging the cloth with installed battens at the top edge of heavy paper after placing the fuzzy stuff over the area that the cloth will cover. It looks great though and we are almost through with the 3rd of the 4 walls with only the window wall left to complete. I doubt we will get that part done before the dinner but we will see.
Kelly went to the doctor that speaks english today, first this morning to find the office open, warm and empty with a notice saying the first patients will be seen at 2pm. So she returned home to continue the wall project, it's a three block walk more or less so not a lot of time was wasted. At 2pm she went back to see 9 patients sitting in the room and decided that was a bit too much of a wait for her sensibilities today so she came home again. Maybe tomorrow.
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