dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
994
Stewart
join:2005-07-13

Stewart

Member

[Rave] SFR (France) -- Unbelievably good service

It's not often that one receives service much better than can reasonably be expected. I hope this will be a refreshing contrast to the many rants posted.

A little background: I have a small apartment in Paris. For the past three years, my ISP there was Orange, with their lowest package of 10/100 Mbps FTTH Internet, phone with "unlimited" calling to 100+ countries (landlines only in caller-pays-airtime destinations), 100+ TV channels (mostly garbage). Reliability was outstanding, with only one support call for an installation issue. Contractual commitment was long over and current cost was €41.08 (about $54)/mo. I considered that to be a good value and was more than satisfied.

Tuesday afternoon last week, the doorbell rings. It was a woman representing SFR, selling Internet service. She explained that SFR had just installed fiber cable in the neighborhood. I normally shut the door on such people, especially if they are selling something I don't want. However, she was quite a cutie and I invited her in.

Her pitch:
All plans get the same 50/300 Mbps speed.
Plans start at €19.99 (promotional discount for first year; €32.99 thereafter).
Transparent pricing -- quoted prices are inclusive of equipment lease and taxes.
Professional installation at no charge.
No long-term commitment - cancel at no cost at the end of any month.
They handle the administrative work of canceling the old contract. My only responsibility would be returning the equipment to an Orange boutique.

The lowest plan does not include TV, not a big deal for me. I watch little French TV and what I do view is available off the air. When I "bought in", we went to my computer and she talked me through setting up an account and ordering online. I took the first available appointment, Tuesday morning. The tech would arrive between 8:30 and 10:30 and would need up to four hours to finish. The ordering process took less than five minutes.

Tuesday at 7:45 AM, the phone rings. The tech says that he arrived early for work and he could come now if I was available. I said yes and he shows up five minutes later. By 9 AM, he has installed and tested the equipment and demonstrated how to use the member portal and how to modify the router configuration. He waits while I run a speed test:


I don't complain that download speed is less than contracted, sign his tablet with a stylus, and he's gone. (The 0 ms ping is a quirk in speedtest.net; actual ping time to the server is ~2 ms).

Wondering whether they gamed the test, or whether such high speeds are really just hype, I downloaded a 711-megabyte Ubuntu distribution from a UK mirror. It took less than 24 seconds; reported speed was 30.1 megabytes/sec.

Yesterday, Internet and phone were still working perfectly. Fearing the worst, I took the old gear to an Orange store about three blocks from here. There was no queue. They have returns down to a science. The man scans the barcode on the set top box and a screen pops up showing an account pending cancelation. After confirming my name, he scans the router and clicks checkboxes showing that I had duly returned the power modules, remote and cables. A receipt prints out automatically, he signs it and in less than two minutes, I'm out of there. Awesome.

In most places, 300 Mbps Internet for less than $27 would be only a dream.
»www.sfr.fr/telephonie-mo ··· -99.html

TigerLord

join:2002-06-09
Canada

TigerLord

Holy shit!

Anonuser
join:2003-01-03
Milwaukee, WI

Anonuser to Stewart

Member

to Stewart
pictures of her or it didn't happen
Moffetts
join:2005-05-09
San Mateo, CA

Moffetts

Member

Yeah, nudes or shens.