How Orange made us see Red.

Soon after we bought the French phone, which is pay-as-you-go, or in French ‘prepaye’, we got a text from Orange saying we could access our account online and that 160.37e would be taken from our account on November 6th! That’s about £140!! Why? And what account? We hadn’t given any account details, but we had paid by credit card. We fretted for several days till we could get back to the ‘Phone House’ (Carphone Warehouse) shop where we bought it. Closed for lunch!  There was an Orange shop in the same complex, we went to them. ‘Je ne comprends pas du tout’ was all the assistant could say. (He could have phoned Orange – the firm he worked for!) We waited till well after the given end of lunchtime; no sign of Phone House opening – it was travelling day, we had to get on. We phoned the Orange customer service number from the info with the phone. I explained I was English and spoke fairly good French, but it would help if the ‘advisor’ would speak slowly. ‘Would you like to speak to an English-speaking colleague?’ ‘Ca pourrait etre aimable’ (That might be helpful). Short wait ….. “Mr. Thompson!” (I hadn’t given my name) “How can I help you?” I explained the situation and read the text aloud. “Mr. Thompson, don’t worry – it’s a mistake; that text is not for you. That text is for the person who had that number before you. You should not have received it. Mr. Thompson, don’t worry, you have no contract, no money will be taken. Bonne journee!” ‘Have a nice day’ seems so much more natural in French than in American! we all say it, it’s almost an essential courtesy. OK – it’s an odd thing to have happened, and it shouldn’t have happened, but the service on the phone was exemplary, and very re-assuring.