English customer service

[edwardte01]

Hi, 

I am from the Netherlands and I do not speak French. I purchased an 'Internet partout' last summer, but the shop could not get it working properly. We tried for 3 days and even tried another SIM. But no results. I also tried to get it solved with the chat continuous using Google Translate, because the chat does not support English.

So, I never used the product. I could not return it to the shop and get my money back. And now I am charged for multiple days of usage and even the cost of a new SIM I never authorized. I had no other option than to block SFR payments from my bank account. 

So now I get a lot of reminders from SFR to pay my bills. But I won't because it is not my fault the 'internet partout' does not work. I am not gonna pay additional for something that doesn't work. It is a bloody shame that I could not return the product and get my money back (purchase of Euro 79 and Euro 10 for activation/SIM). 

Anyone who can give my advice what to do? Much appreciated!

[Ryry · Accepted solution]

Hello @edwardte01 

Unfortunately there is no customer service in English, only (with chance) an operator who is personally able to switch from French to English if he wants to.

• By the way, I've encountered the opposite problem when landing on a airport in Belgium, the radio operator never wanted to speak French (he had clearly this right since the supported contact language is English) to help the pilot of our little private plane in a better way to taxi on the complicated ways on the ground (because the radio operator was Flemish part of Belgium (Flanders))... Then the pilot, totally lost in the explanations, asked for the "Follow Me car" to be guided on the ground after landing... And only at the end, when parked, the radio operator said, in a perfect French without any accent "Ah ces français, vous êtes vraiment pénibles !"... 🤣🤣🤣

So, back to your situation, If I understand well:

• you purchased and payed this "internet partout" SFR product last summer
• the product never worked, even with the help of the shop, but you didn't ask to get your money back at this time
• now you are no longer in France (you returned to the Netherlands)
• and you are still charged 3€/day of use for this product

Is this summary correct?

It's strange because, as I understand the assistance page (HERE😞 after the initial bill, you are charged only for the days when you use this product (resulting in 3€ per day of use). So you shouldn't be charged currently, apart from your initial bill of purchase.

Does you SFR client account on the web show usage on this line? Even after your summer?

---

(purchase of Euro 79 and Euro 10 for activation/SIM).

---

Ah? Even stranger, the initial bill seems to be 39€ (pocket box) + 10€ (SIM)... 3€ per day of use (none for you)...

(prices obtained by merging the infos from the subsription page (HERE) and the support page given above).

---

It is a bloody shame that I could not return the product and get my money back

---

As far as I understand, even for a French customer located in France, this product isn't meant to be returned: it's a definitive purchase (as a TV set), and only charged afterwards for the usage during the days of use.

Your situation is special since, in fact, immediately after your purchase, you (and SFR) never managed to get it work: so, of course, you deserve the right to get your money back if it never worked.

• => in this case, of course, the better way would have been to ask for it when you were still in France, a few days after the purchase
• => but now, months after, you shloud normally be able to declare this problem:
  1. to the customer service, for instance by chat as you did: what did they answer? You didn't report?
  2. and without satisfaying answer from the customer service, you can write to n+1 service named "Service consommateurs" using this procedure, that has also third lever, external and independant from any ISP: read HERE, et THERE for the postal address of this "Service conso".

Good luck!