Update: Number change for France Telecom’s English language helpline
GETTING a phone installed in your French property will be high on your to-do list.
But help is at hand with France Telecom’s English language service that allows you to call, toll-free, for advice and assistance.
The number 0800 364 775 is available for people throughout France, and is open from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
If you have a mobile phone then you can call straight away, but if not or you have no signal, then you may have to call upon a neighbour.
But the fact that it is a freephone number will take some of the embarrassment away.
If you are calling from the UK then dial 0033 800 364 775.
Most local towns will have France Telecom offices that will be able to set-up your account directly, a directory of offices is available here.
You can also find out how to install a telephone line in France so that you can stay in touch with friends and family.
And for questions about electricity you can call EDF’s Englsih language helpline where staff can offer advice and answer questions about your bill and energy use.
Comments
52 responses to “France Telecom in English”
Thank you for the information thisfrenchlife. I do speak French (after a fashion!)having lived here for 4 years, but dealing with technical matters is always a nightmare. Do you know if this service also deals with queries about Wanadoo?
Hi.
Unfortunately I’m not sure if they are able to help with regards Wanadoo. I’d just give them a call. If it is something internet based I may be able to help, just add another comment.
Regards
Craig
I have a telephone connection in Frane(04-93-77-82-78).In February 05, I got Wanadoo connection for three months. I asked for disconnecting Wanadoo in April 05. By mistake they disconnected my telephone number as well. I have had that number for 30 years. Please request them to reconnect that number and inform me. I am currently in Canada. Cheers. Som
Hi,
Thanks so much for posting France Telecoms number. Terrific help. I used it to order ADSL. It should be fitted in one week. We’ll see.
The reason I am sceptical is because in December 2005 I ordered through Cegetel and for the last two months they just kept promising it would be available in two weeks. Then it wasn’t – and this was repeated every two weeks for two months! That’s why I took the plunge and found your site.
Thanks again – great site.
Incidentally, the operator I spoke to yesterday at France Telecom said in two to three months ALL calls to the UK will be free. It’s part of the 34Euro subscription package for phone and broadband I’ve just taken.
we have been reconnected to electricity afte 4 days power cut since then every time I answer the phone it cuts me off the internet france telecom tells me the phone line is o.k but I think my internet line needs checking can you assist please
Hi Pamela, bit of a touch one to crack from afar. It sounds as though there may be a problem with your modem, especially if your telephone is working. Think you may have to get someone to take a look at your computer.
Thanks for posting the free call number. Even though I speak French fairly well, I’ve had endless problems getting my pay TV (via the phone line) sorted out.
I rang the English language support today and they changed my subscription from TPS to Canalsat without any problems at all. Thanks again.
Hi Andrea, glad to hear you were able to sort out your France Telecom problems, Craig.
I have been very relieved in being able to use english speaking french telecom ..but do you know if they are planning a tech problem line? I have added the phone to my livebox and all is well but now have a problem with my wifi connection i am told that i need to contact admin to be allowed on the list of authorized computers for my connection ..anyone have an answer ? I have a macthanks in advance
Gill
Hi Gill, I’m afraid I’ve not heard of an English language service for IT questions relating to the LiveBox. Looks as though you might need to call on the services of a computer specialist.
Sorry I can’t be of any more help, Craig.
Hi,
Is there a France Telecom number that works when dialling from the UK?
Adam
Hi Adam, you can contact France Telecom from the UK, please see:
http://www.thisfrenchlife.com/thisfrenchlife/2006/08/contacting_fran.html
I have recentlybought a housein Cerbere. It has atelephonepoint,how can I find out if I am able to get broadband. I am currently living in Belgium but can work from the house if I can get broadband.
Hi Sue, I have written a piece on how to find broadband in France, please see:
http://www.thisfrenchlife.com/thisfrenchlife/2005/01/broadband_acces.html
Hope this helps
Craig
Has anyone been able to get through on the France Telecom English speaking line??! I have been trying on and off for 2 weeks ~ no success. Does anyone have even a French speaking number that can be reached from UK? I paid our french phone bill when last in FRance (shown as a debit from our French bank account etc)but have another letter saying we will be cut off if not paid in next 10 days….Can’t get through to anyone! Help!
Be warned… the English-speaking France Telecom number is no use when it comes to trying to arrange for an engineer to fix a faulty line. When our internet service failed recently we contacted our ISP – Wanadoo – but found their helpline service undecipherable. We tried the English-speaking FT service, but were told “sorry we do not deal with faulty lines”. The only way that FT will deal with line faults is via their French-speaking service. What’s more this is one of those annoying “Press 1 for this, Press 2 for that” answerphone services… spoken at such high speed that unless you are uber-brilliant at understanding the language, you will not stand a chance! (Our French is passable, but not yet fluent). Deciding that a week without internet was unacceptable we spoke to our phone call provider, Phonexpat (who provide an English-speaking service). With their help we were able to organise an engineer to fix the ADSL problem – and also took advantage to switching our ISP from Wanadoo to Phonexpat… so no more lingo hassles!
Hi all, just a note to say that I do have a contact within France Telecom but with holidays and similar answers to the questions posed here may take a wee while to draw together.
All the best, Craig
Having trouble getting a reply from the 0800number and as my offspring are there and incommunicado is there another contact number from the u.k? Desperate!
Hi, I can also not get in contact with the english speaking france telekom helpdesk. Does anyone have another number or e-mail adress on how to reach them?
I notice there are posts on this site extolling France Telecom’s freephone number,BUT does anyone know how one can contact them in the UK without it costing money to use a premium line?
Since they took over Freeserve in UK, we have had a dreadful service, and their arrogance is such that if you go on the website there is NO contact address – only the premium line. I am a journalist so tried to phone their press office – they only supply a premium rate line (only other company doing this is Ryanair, because they assume journalists won’t write anything nice). I even sent a Recorded Delivery letter to the CEO Eric Abensur, and he hasn’t even acknowledged it.
In UK we are used to Ben Verwayen CEO of British Telecom, answering straight away – so can’t understand France Telecom’s attitude.
Help would be greatly appreciated as I am tied in to using them.
Adela Stanley
I have been trying to call France Telecom in English with the given number: 33 155 786 056 without any response, please, is this number working or is there any alternative number?
Although in French (but babel fish works a treat with it), the following website can be used to report faults, I have used twice with success, but I say it again you must report the fault in French.
http://www.1013.fr
Hi Steve, many thanks for that it looks as though it could prove useful to people.
All the best, Craig
Hello there,
Having just read the forum comments,I can identify with most of it, having been disconnected from Orange broadband for the past three days!(8th, 9th 10th Jan 2008). After waiting on the phone for almost 1 hour to report the prob, France Telecom helpline desk (0800 364 775) informed me that they did not deal in broadband problems, and it was upto me to contact 3900 for tech support. After numerous calls I was finally connected, and in my broken French I managed to get the problem across to them. No-one there spoke any English whatsoever,( but why should they, even though they take our money for the service every month?,) and they spoke at a speed faster than the Bluebird went.
They confirmed the fault was at their end and it wouldn’t take any longer than 48 hrs!!!! to let us know what they were going to do to resolve the prob. Cheers!!
It took another day before connection, and further numerous phone calls to them to find out what progress they were making. Never found out what the prob was!
I am currently back on line, but for how long, who knows!!
I phoned ‘Phone expat’ who are my call provider, and a polite lady there informed me that she could not help at all with the problem & the language barrier, and that I would have to sort it out myself! Nice one……
I apologise if this sounds abit disjointed but my brain is still reeling from the complications it’s had to cope with, and I am in a hurry to post this before my connection goes down again…….
Hi Shirley
Hope your internet connection is still up and running!
One of the constant problems faced by people using the internet is a flaky connection.
As an aside, it makes you wonder how much time is lost amongst businesses in France due to downtime of their internet and email service.
All the best
Craig
Hi Craig….
Well,we did quite well, the connection lasted 6 hours, WOW, & then went down again!!!! I am now back up again (Sunday), for the time being anyway. My hubby and I were saying exactly the same thing about loss of business hours. I was speaking to our Mayor yesterday and he said not to take it personally as they have just as much trouble trying to get their internet problems solved, and if a Mayor has trouble, what chance do we the common mortals have!!
My telephone in France has not worked since December last year. I have tried to contact france telecom for help but none has been forthcoming. Please help me as I am back in France on Easter Saturday for one week.
regards
Peter
Peter,
Have you tried http://www.1013.fr it has worked for me twice.
Steve
I am reading this forum thread as I have been without broadband for over 2 weeks now and it does not look promising for the futur. The only comment I would like to make is that we all choose to live in France and therefore should speak french. Do you think that BT has a french speaking helpline? (Maybe an asian one!!!!)
I understand all of this. I have been paying for 2 accounts for 3 months. telephone on internet didn’t work for 2 of these!!! Now just lost my email address, all saved emails and contacts. The english speaking line is fairly useless, but then so is france telecom. i’m told the emil will work, but i have to wait a month OR change my phone number AGAIN!!!!!
Great choice. Also customer service doesn’t exist.
I don’t think there is a service like OFCOM in France.
Sorry torant, just so annoying. Of course you still have to pay during all these problems;
Hi Paul, sounds as though you have had a nightmare!
One possible option could be to contact Que Choisir which is a consumer watchdog in the same style as Which?
http://www.quechoisir.org/
Hope this helps, Craig
Whether i contact the France Telecom English number or one of their local agencies it makes no difference. After two and a half years of waiting and asking, France Telecom are still unable to give me a phone line. I live in a small town, not out in a field and Im on a fairly main road. France Telecom billed me for a line I did not have for a year and a half and the threatened me with bailiffs because i refused to pay for a line I dont have. Apparantly France Telecom has a ‘boitier’to which are connected the phone lines. This boitier is full so France Telecom has basic said “hard luck” and i have to survive with a mobile and mobile internet which costs me a fortune
The so-called “English number” 0800364775 is completely useless as it is constantly busy today, 20 January, the first day I am trying to use it. France Telecom TV service has always been woefully inadequate for non-French language programming, supplying only two English language channels: CNN and BBC for the last three years we’ve been stuck with France Telecom. Now they no longer even offer those two channels. CNN and BBC are simply gone from the list of available channels. You can find Polish TV, Russian TV, Chinese TV but no English channels. What are they thinking? I’ve been dialing 0800365775 for the past 5 hours(!) and continually get recordings telling me that the operator is busy and that I should call back later. Do they have only one operator? Two? Until and unless France Telecom corrects this matter, I suggest everyone interested in freedom of choice DUMP FRANCE TELECOM and choose another carrier.
Well it is sometimes difficult to get through to the English speaking Customer Service but at least it exists, which is not the case for other telecommunication operators in France
I’ve called a couple of times and I must say that they do their best to help the customers
When it comes to english-speaking tv channels which are indeed lacking I was informed of a new bouquet coming up,fully in english, it might be worth considering
I got great news from someone who works there… they’re getting new operators, and even better, an English technical helpline should be ready soon!
Hi Sil, many thanks for your message and if an improved service becomes available I’m sure many people would appreciate it.
All the best, Craig
Hello, One of my friends has had so many problems trying to sort things out with France Telecom to no avail that she has now moved to UK Telecom which offers 1st class English Support for Telephone and Broadband and its Free and you get to talk to someone rather than pressing loads of numbers. Hope this helps.
Website for UK Telecom:
http://www.uktelecom.uk.net/france
Hi Candice, many thanks for your comment and I hope people are able to make useful choices to get the best service.
All the best, Craig
There is now an English Language fault reporting service on http://www.1013.fr/ I have used them to report a fault and they are very good. Beware though if the problem lies with the way you have installed your equipment, or something that you have done then you could be charged over 55 euros for the engineers call out. GOOD LUCK
Hi everybody,
Guess what? Since the biginning of may, the free hotline(0800 364 775) proposes 2 options :
The customer services and
the technical services.
Also since the biginning of may, you don’t have to wait anymore, an operator takes your call immediatly wich makes you earn more time.
🙂
Any one have the number which you can ring from the UK to get the english speaking service as I keep getting a dead line on the 0033 0800 364 775
We’re also having trouble getting through; I think it’s a UK 0800 number (so no need for 0033) but either way it give unobtainable. As the French number now just redirects to the 0800 I’m at a loss to know how to contact them.
Hi Victoria and Tommy, this should help you : the 0800 number is a French number
from abroad you’ll need to dial 0033 800 364 775 (always remove the 1st “0” if you dial from abroad)
I am desperately trying to contact France telecom from the UK to sort out our account, which they have frozen because they haven’t collected the direct debit. Can anyone help with another means of contact other than the 0800 no’ which doesn’t work from the UK.
Thanks
I got through easily to France telecom on 27.07.09 by dialling 0033 800 364 775. Spoke to a really helpful man in English. Phoned from here in UK!
Can anybody tell me the number that you have to dial in France from your landline to pick up messages on the France Telecom answerphone system, please ? it is for a friend over there now. Thanks I know it is only 4 numbers!
I want to pay my phone bill from Ireland, can I just ring 0033800364775 for an english speaking operator.
I need to send a letter of resilience to cancel a telephone contract. Can anyone supply me with a standard letter in french to comply with the authorities?
Hi Esther,
There are a number of letter templates available at:
http://www.lettres-utiles.com/
and
http://www.conso.net/page/bases.5_vos_droits.1_conseils./
Hope this helps, Craig
I have a France Telecom acoount for the phone in my apartment in Antibes. I want to pay my bills online.
how do I get the necessary account details for France Telecom?
Pete