suein56
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Southern Morbihan 56 Brittany
Posts: 7,520
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Post by suein56 on Dec 6, 2023 19:32:41 GMT 1
I'll start ..
I've been somewhat neglectful here as we've been struggling with one of the inconvenient results of so much rain. Yes, I know we live in Bretagne but we are not flooded out, thankfully. Just inconvenienced by the thoughtlessness of Orange.
After what I thought was a super smooth installation of fibre by a really nice technician 3 weeks ago we have had flooding problems.
Water was pouring out of the 'gaine' that housed the fibre optic cable .. straight into our cupboard which houses the Linky and all the electric cables which arrive in the house. There was no way to stop the flow of water so my OH and I stayed up most of the night, using a v small plastic hand pump to empty the water which was flooding the cupboard. This was after 22h30 on Sunday evening. I spent 2 hours on Monday reporting the issue to Orange (with great difficulty) as they don't have a category for this kind of flood. Especially as the electricity and the Internet are still functioning .. no idea how. When I replied 'yes' to 'Is the Internet still working' their interest was lost.
We have emptied and cleaned up, helped by 2 days without rain, and the smell is receding.
Unfortunately it is going to pour tomorrow.
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cernunnos
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Post by cernunnos on Dec 6, 2023 19:38:50 GMT 1
surely a simple solution is possible ?
Open a trench where the gaine enters the house and cut the gaine to let the water drain out ?
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suein56
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Southern Morbihan 56 Brittany
Posts: 7,520
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Post by suein56 on Dec 6, 2023 20:14:26 GMT 1
It's not that simple .. I will explain later. My OH is about to serve up our supper .. somewhat later than predicted.
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Post by houpla on Dec 6, 2023 21:32:33 GMT 1
So sorry to hear this , Sue. I can well believe that Orange aren't helpful. As long as your connection is functioning, they don't want to know. Our classic French 'betise' was on the part of Saur, who sent us oodles of paperwork while we were still in UK asking us to draw them a detailed plan of where we wanted our connection and meter. We produced a beautiful, full-colour plan which the installers studiously ignored, putting the meter slap-bang in the path of all the run-off rainwater from the adjacent chemin  Said meter has been underwater for 17 years now  It's quite fun watching the meter-readers having to bail out the box twice a year. Can you really not intervene at the source of the water ingress? I do hope you find a solution or at least Orange shift their derrières to sort it. xx |
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Aardvark
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Living in soggy 22 and still wondering what's going on.
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Post by Aardvark on Dec 6, 2023 22:14:15 GMT 1
I had a very similar response years ago with France Telecom. A large branch of an oak tree came down onto the phone line a few metres up the road from us. F.T. asked if our phone was still working. Yes it was but the wire was being pulled down to within two metres of the ground, tight as a guitar string. Sorry, there is nothing we can do. I wasn't prepared to simply wait until it broke and cut of our phone so in the dark of night I cut the branch close to the wire with my chainsaw. Twang! Crash! Job done.
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Post by houpla on Dec 6, 2023 22:20:12 GMT 1
Our phone line is still on the ground 4 weeks after a similar incident. The tree's owners have shifted the debris, but it's not a priority as far as Orange are concerned, to re-instate the pole and wire, as long as we've got a connection. Given their commitment to covering France with fibre and attracting new customers, it's understandable |
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suein56
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Southern Morbihan 56 Brittany
Posts: 7,520
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Post by suein56 on Dec 6, 2023 22:45:48 GMT 1
Open a trench where the gaine enters the house and cut the gaine to let the water drain out ? That would be a wonderfully simple solution except all our cables etc are somewhere unknown underground. As we received no paperwork regarding where the cables etc are when we bought the house we are almost clueless. The original garage was converted into a room in 2007 and an additional garage was built at the same time. We bought the house in 2012. Nowadays I am more savvy and would have made more of a fuss over missing paperwork .. any paperwork would be good. Now we have Orange's view on the matter we have options .. visit the Mairie's planning dept. and ask for the previous owner's planning application etc. Fortunately we have Insurance to cover legal letters et al if it comes to that with Orange. This is so sudden .. no problems at all in nigh on 12 years until the arrival of fibre - we hadn't thought of problems where none existed before. Call us naive. |
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suein56
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Southern Morbihan 56 Brittany
Posts: 7,520
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Post by suein56 on Dec 6, 2023 22:48:48 GMT 1
As long as your connection is functioning, they don't want to know Just so true .. it is extraordinary that all the electricity and Internet cables continue to function 'sous l'eau'. Anyway we are on a learning curve .. and that's what life is all about. |
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suein56
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Southern Morbihan 56 Brittany
Posts: 7,520
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Post by suein56 on Dec 6, 2023 22:51:10 GMT 1
it's not a priority as far as Orange are concerned, to re-instate the pole and wire, as long as we've got a connection. Apparently, according to what I have learnt today, Orange is really in the mire due to the astonishing number of problems caused byt the recents storms/wind/rain/flooding etc. |
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Post by houpla on Dec 6, 2023 23:13:58 GMT 1
That's what I meant by it being understandable that they're having to give priority to customers without a working connection  The wires themselves are pretty well insulated, aren't they? Weak spots will be connectors/junction boxes etc. Is your Linky well above the (possible) water level? |
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suein56
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Southern Morbihan 56 Brittany
Posts: 7,520
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Post by suein56 on Dec 6, 2023 23:45:25 GMT 1
That's what I meant by it being understandable that they're having to give priority to customers without a working connection The wires themselves are pretty well insulated, aren't they? Weak spots will be connectors/junction boxes etc. Is your Linky well above the (possible) water level? Yes and yes. As I said we are on a steep learning curve. Altho the amount of rainfall recently has been v high we have experienced similar in the past nearly 12 years so smthg odd seems to have happened during the transition from adsl to fibre .. as the technician used the same route as we had for ADSL. The cables arrive in the house at a low level - the level of the original concrete floor, which had subsequently been covered with a wooden floor before our purchase On Sunday evening all the gaines and cables were under water in the ex-garage cupboard .. I couldn't see anything but I could hear water running and then I could see a bit when I used a torch.
As I said we are learning as we go.
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exile
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Massif Central
Posts: 2,686
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Post by exile on Dec 7, 2023 0:24:00 GMT 1
Sounds as if the gaine at the other end has been lowered when fibre was installed. So when that box fills, the rain water can now enter the gaine and flow down like piped water.
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Post by Polarengineer on Dec 7, 2023 7:18:42 GMT 1
Notwithstanding, the fibre cable is not electric and water ingress does not become a priority concern during installation. You may find that a good squirt of expanding foam up the gain will block off any water ingress to your cupboard. The fact that the rest of the cable may be underwater inside the gaine is of no consequence.
EDIT.. No not a joke. I accidentally hit the laughing smiley when I wanted to edit
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Post by houpla on Dec 7, 2023 7:24:59 GMT 1
Might not Orange get iffy about doing that?
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Post by Polarengineer on Dec 7, 2023 7:26:18 GMT 1
Not if the internet still works
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Said meter has been underwater for 17 years now 
It's quite fun watching the meter-readers having to bail out the box twice a year.
The wires themselves are pretty well insulated, aren't they? Weak spots will be connectors/junction boxes etc. Is your Linky well above the (possible) water level?