Recently returned from 2 weeks in Paris and Provence. Upon arrival in airport purchased SIM card and data. Incredibly easy. 3 days into my trip text from Orange: I needed to top up. Went on website and topped up for 25euros. Day later text from orange telling me I would lose voice credit if I didn’t top up. Another 25 euros. Day 5 as I was about to do a solo bike ride across Provence lost ability to voice call. Spent most of evening and next day trying to get customer service to explain and help me. Briefly got voice back only to lose it again a few days later. Told me to “recharge”. Spent 50 euros on recharge. Didn’t work. Went to Orange store when I returned to Paris. Arrogant and unfriendly tech guy told me he couldn’t help me because I didn’t buy SIM card at HIS store. DO NOT USE ORANGE FRANCE EVER! ITS A SCAM!
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32740 posts
What do you mean by scam?
Posted by
the Middle Coast
292 posts
I'm sorry you had that experience! French cellular providers can be a bit Kafkaesque, to be fair. It sounds like maybe you bought the SIM card from an authorized seller versus an official boutique? I say that because I've had issues before buying from one and trying to get service from the other.
At the same time, it's probably not a scam. You don't mention if you were making calls / texts in between the initial recharges, but if you were, it could be you were in fact using up that credit, especially if you were making international calls. The last one you mentioned seems like where a real problem comes up. If you did in fact get charged for credit you weren't able to use, you could try contacting your credit card company to ask for the charges reversed, although it's hard to say what results you'll get.
If it makes you feel any better, I have on a couple of occasions had to buy upwards of 30 SIM cards for my work, from Orange, in a smallish town with both an official boutique and one that apparently had a different status, and let me tell you, THAT was an adventure in patience and bureaucracy. Weirdly enough, I kind of think of it fondly now.
Posted by
2 posts
I’m so sorry to hear this!! It’s so frustrating when things go awry especially while on vacation! (I know all too well.) However, Holiday Orange has been a lifesaver saver for my husband and I. We bought ours though Amazon and didn’t activate until we got to Poland. (Had data, phone and text) also used in Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia with out issue. Did have to “top off” once. It didn’t work in the Ukraine but we knew it wouldn’t and prepared for that. We would defiantly used Holiday Orange France again. It was helpful in every way.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Nigel: by “scam” I meant I got very little to nothing for my investment of over 100 euros. Might be an overstatement on my part but it sure felt like I was getting screwed. And no one I talked to at Orange gave a damn!
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10188 posts
Orange is our least favorite provider in France. We had many futile interactions trying to get internet at the family house, the cell phone, the TV in a rental. They’d sell us something guaranteed to work, but it was money wasted. One man in line at the Orange Boutique waiting with us to see a tech told us about trying to get their service to work for six months with repeat visits to the Boutique. Our telephone conversations for the TV were unbelievable. What happens after a while is it’s decided it must be your fault if something doesn’t work.
French customer service is very different from American, and Orange is a special case unto itself, having been created with the break up into 3 parts of the old government-owned PT&T, thrown into competitive capitalism and the ensuing shake up.
Scam isn’t an accurate term, but I do avoid Orange if possible. I used to get Bougues sim cards, but now just have a Google phone that works nearly everywhere in the world. But I did have trouble getting a signal on some Provence back roads.
Next time don’t buy at the airport but go into the city to a boutique. It should have been 10€ for ten days of text and phone only. Data will be more. Were you using it for a GPS? Be sure to research options well before your next trip.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Bets: you’re right. I should’ve done some research. I was going on previous experience of trips to Ireland where I picked up SIM card and paid 30 Euros for data in the airport and it worked flawlessly. I was not using this as GPS . Had a separate Garmin for that. I was using it like a phone. My bad!
Posted by
Sioux Falls, SD, USA
3045 posts
Yeah, sympathy here. I bought a Sim card in Greece which supposedly was good continent-wide. I never used it.
Unless you are really dependent on voice, emails can do almost everything you need.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
To complicate matters I was doing a solo bike trip through the Provence region including a climb of Mt Ventoux. At times my Garmin would get lost and it required a voice call to the tour guides - my only source of support - to confirm I was headed in the right direction. You’re right though Paul the rest of my communication could be done by emails or What’s App.