Free Center, the shop that is useless

The Free Center has joined the carousel of operators around Place Kléber in Strasbourg (Photo PF / Rue89 Strasbourg / cc)

Around Place Kléber in Strasbourg, telecommunications operators compete to attract new subscribers in sparkling shops. Orange, SFR, Bouygues… were joined by Free in December. But the 4th operator does not intend to sacrifice its profitability in a network of stores, the concept of Free Centers is between permanent advertising and the demonstration stand.

Free has built its success and its offers on direct marketing, via the Internet. No shop, few employees and as a result, cheaper subscriptions than its competitors. But since the profits of Iliad, Free's parent company, exploded (€142 million in 2013, +78%), Free has the financial latitude to wage war on the same terrain as Orange, SFR or Bougyues, directly in the marketplace.

But Xavier Niel, the bubbling CEO of Iliad, has no intention of reproducing the significant structural and logistical costs that usually accompany such a distribution network. In the Free Centers, there are no phones for sale, no Freeboxes in stock to exchange them with a faulty one, and no accessories. The Free Centers are in fact only spaces for demonstration and advice to discover the Internet access and mobile phone offers of the fourth French operator. You can take out a mobile subscription, on the Internet, and the phone will be sent to your home a few days later.

Permanent and well-placed advertising

So what are these shops, soon to be 40 in France, including a Place Kléber in Strasbourg, for? Especially to restore the image of Free, an efficient operator but weighed down by the reputation of inaccessible customer service. Thus, Didier, 54, came especially from Wolfisheim for a problem with the sim card (the small smart card in mobile phones):

Free Center, la boutique qui ne sert à rien

In fact, Didier had exactly the same service as that provided by the telephone customer service of Free, except that instead of having waited a few minutes on the telephone, he will have waited an hour. Because in the middle of Monday afternoon, the shop is always full and an impressive queue has formed in front of the two young advisers. Between the screens scrolling the menus of the Freebox and some demonstration phones, they chain the explanations without stopping. A real marathon but… only online. In fact, their job is to do on behalf of subscribers the operations that they can perform themselves on the Internet.

The two advisers know by heart the options of Free on the Internet and fortunately, because the requests are very very numerous (Photo PF / Rue89 Strasbourg)

Thus Erblin, 17, from Strasbourg, could not subscribe on the Internet because the validation by sms of the online payment by credit card did not work. He came to the store to see if he could subscribe. Impossible, the advisers use exactly the same process as any Internet user… He lost an hour but he now knows that he must resolve this validation problem with his bank.

Taken twice a month? Call 32 44

Zohra, 25, from Strasbourg, has a more troublesome problem. Since she moved, she has been debited twice, from two different accounts, with different sums in addition:

One of the Free Center advisers, Karim Merdja, explains:

The Free Center of Strasbourg is looking for its manager, in order to support the small team. But to apply, do not go to the store with your CV because it is written on the poster, you have to go to the site, Free recruits section.

Claudia BaudouinPierre France