France Telecom Does it Again

I'm on a bit of a blogging blitz at the moment because I haven't had internet access for the last 6 days and so now I'm playing catch up.

I use Orange for my internet access and they showed once again that their customer 'service' isn't up to scratch. I know most telcos have a bit of a bad rep for customer service but FT seems to take the cake.

Here's a timeline of how things went:

• Saturday: Woke up to no internet access. Gave it a couple of hours before calling FT to be sure my connection wasn't coming back.
• Saturday afternoon: Called FT. Spent 45 minutes testing different things which determined it was a problem on their end, which I told them in the first minute.  Technician is to call me Tuesday between 12 and 1pm to fix it. Naturally they don't work on the weekends.
• 5 minutes later: FT girl rings back saying it's a general problem so it should be fixed much earlier.
• Tuesday afternoon: Still no internet access. Glad it was fixed earlier than imagined. Technician rings as promised. Performed the same tests as on Saturday and 45 minutes later confirms the problem is on their end. Makes appointment for a technician to call between 4 and 5pm Tuesday.
• Tuesday at 6:30pm: Technician calls and spends 45 minutes doing tests which confirm the problem is on their end. Glad we sorted that out. Promises a technician will call first thing Wednesday morning to fix the problem.
• Wednesday afternoon: Still no internet access and no call from FT. I call them and customer 'service' says it's only 3pm so I shouldn't be worried - if they say they'll call, they will. Ok, I believe you.
• Thursday afternoon: Some guy calls to see if I my connection is working. It's not. Says the technician is working on it at that very moment and he'll call me back within 30 minutes.
• 3 hours later: I'm back online.

Thanks France Telecom/Orange, you're the best.