Help an American deal with French
New wso user here. I got a call from a former PWM client I worked with at a BB before moving to IB. The client called me from a French mobile number but no matter how hard I try to call back it does not work. I tried everything from calling the phone company, using our office VoIP and a pricery phone card but to no avail.
Can our French WSO friends help regarding how you call French mobile numbers from the US? I was told it's different than landlines.
I dial 011 33 6 and the rest of their phone number but it doesn't work.
I used the same format to call the landline of the French fund the client works at and it worked. The problem is their receptionist got very annoyed when I asked (in French) if we could speak in English. She sounded like she was trying to get rid of me and very rude. I was surprised at the difference in customer service tbh. She told me to add a 0 before the 6 but that didn't work either.
I feel terrible because I received a voicemail from my former client inviting me to their engagement and they were really nice.
Any help or suggestions is much appreciated. Thanks.
That's good to know. Thanks. Do you have work experience with them or did you live there?
I really thought being very polite and making an effort to speak in French first and requesting to speak in English would do the trick yet I was stunned with their response. I probably should've avoided saying I was American haha.
Lived in Quebec for 2 years and also interacted with French from France.
Funny thing was the Quebecois mock/hate all English/Americans/anglophone Canadians. And the French mock the Quebecois because their “accent is funny.”
And French are the only people that get angry and respond back in English even if you speak fluent French but with slight non-French accent (had friends who grew up learning and speaking French but got discriminated because of accent).
Every other language you try to speak even a sentence, the people will encourage and cheer you up. But the French would rather respond in a worse level of English than your level of French haha.
Did you work with a French fund or client before? Yea I think that's a good suggestion. Thanks.
Good friend does, so I get to hear the horror stories.
They're still holding on the their glory days in the 17th century.
Are you serious? Americans don’t know how country codes work?
Yea I used the 011 and 33 which is the country code for France.
In the EU, I would use 00 and 33.
I can call French landlines no problem but not mobile. The receptionist told me it's different to call mobiles and add a 0 before the local code but it doesn't work.
Never had this issue with other intl calls.
Do you know what this special way to call French mobiles out of France is?
On your mobile try +33 6…... So basically their number comes after the +33 bit but make sure to omit the first zero
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