Relampago

If I lived in UK and only I leave of UK only because the mail service is disastrous, I believe that I would act of a stupid way, because UK would be many more things than a simple mail service...you don't believe?

Wendy Nesbeth

sonofspain, most of them left because they had a business here & needed a phone.

Wendy x

Relampago

And what problems concretely they did have with this company?

Wendy Nesbeth

They could not get a landline

Wendy

firtreesix

As I understand, Telefonica is not a nationalised concern, therefore is not subject to being told how to run their affairs by the governing authorities. In other words, your "actual and incompetent govern(ment)" has no business in Telefonica's day to day running.

Yes, you are correct, there are twits worldwide. Presently I am having a problem with Sprint/Embarq in Florida who have terminated my phone service abruptly for no apparent reason that I can fathom, so...I choose not to let it get me down.

I know several Spanish who have worked in the NHS (British Sanity) and were well treated and well paid, but I can see that there could be problems owing to miscommunication. I would think that there are few Spanish speaking people in the UK, whereas I have encountered many Spanish here who speak English.

Don't let the twits get you down

Firtreesix

can

It's almost 1 month over since I opened this thread, so, I am posting results.

I did call 1004 and the operator said that my telephone line has been suspended because of 2 unpaid bills (I didn t get any bills from Telefonica). I went to the post office and paid both bills. The next day my telephone line was working again.

I decided to check if Telefonica is sending bills to the correct address. This time I wanted to contact Telefonica by email. I found some email address @ Telefonica's website and sent my home address asking to check if they have the same address in their system. I got reply that they had a diferent address and now it's updated.

I also asked for telefonicaonline.com password and I got it in the next email. I received one more email telling that in the next few days I will receive previous bills which were sent to the wrong address. it's more than one week over, but I didn't get any bills.

Today is November 2 and I checked the new bill @telefonicaonline.com. My address on the bill is still not correct. For some reason they do not include apartmen's number in my address. I live in a house with ~150 apartments and postman can not know in which of 150 apartments I live.

As I understand it's not possible to force Telefonica to send bills to the address I want. But al least now I have access to telefonicaonline.com where I can see my bills and pay them.

gallerie9

ours is paid by standing order.

jdr

Ours was direct debit, but we still got cut off when they forgot to send it to the bank. ;-))

Econ

Telefonica do have English speakers, you just need to Speak Spanish to ask for one!

I did some calls to Telefonica for a non Spanish speaker, I explained the retired person was having difficulty dealing with Telefonica because they don't speak English, the operator explained it was probably best to call after 9.00 and before 15.00 to get an English speaking operator, but then they set the system to 'auto' answer in English for the callers number.

If I remember correclt you can actually use the automated voice answer machine to get to English also, but it seems totally usless to have this as you also need to understand Spanish to know what numbers to press, couldn't help laughing a lot with that one.

I find with Telefonica operators are hit and miss, I find that a male operator is generally more helpful than a woman operator, the latter generally downright ignorant. The male operators actually sound gay and as I am male then maybe that is why they are helpful! if a man answers I just flash my eyelashes and flirt a bit and I can have anything!!!!!!! if only it worked like that everywhere

Hope this helps
Mike

Econ

No you can't force them to do anything, but you can ask them to change the address. I do agree they can be downright ignorant but with Telefonice and speaking to a non Englsh speaker then it is very important to speak reasonable Spanish when dealing with them, if you can't then get someone who can and who understands what you want to do.
The slightest tone from you that makes the operator think you are loosing it will get you nothing from any of them.

Hope this helps
Mike

Mitzyboy

All you need to do is wait until all the messages are played out, eventually an operator comes on, and then you ask for the English Department ..... simple for anyone who doesn't speak Spanish. theres not always someone there, but most times you can get through. They have always been helpful

Now Internet, thats a different thing ... you have to call Madrid and there you need to speak Spanish as there are few English speakers

heath1974

My best advice to anyone at the moment is to shop around. We´re now connected with IBERBANDA, who offer telephony and ADSL internet and have excellent coverage throughout Spain. We´ve never had any problems since we changed over.

Recently my parents bought a country property with an old DOMO sat phone system, via Telefonica, already installed. We wanted to upgrade this so they could get ADSL internet. They offer a new package and system on their website, but when contacted, they did´nt want to know. "Not available", "Can´t do it in your location" - which is funny because the Spanish neighbours already have it!

The Spanish neighbours said they can be like this and it´s not only the "foreigners" they´re turning down. They have relatives who have been refused. The problem is that because Spain is such a rural country, it costs them alot of money to service rural clients, especially for upgrades, yet they publicly advertise "free upgrades & installation".

Telefonica are actually in breach of European law by refusing to upgrade or connect customers, but are fully aware that people won´t pursue them for a number of years legally over what would be a small claim.

Hence my advice - shop around. The market is opening quickly, just as it did in the UK.

Econ

Take the matter further, insist first and then visit the 'Defensor del consumidor' with the matter, tell Telefonica you are going to take the matter further if they do not upgrade you as advertised, but do it calmly as this is the only way forward with them.

One thing to be aware of, as far as a landline ADSL connection is concearned Telefonice gives the nearest bandwidth as advertised, it is the fastest speed out of all I have tried. I have tried several over the years and ended up back with Telefonica because of this, if you are only doing some simple browsing and sending the odd email then fine but if you need to use internet a lot then they are un beatable.

Hope this helps

can

My Telefonica story continues.

Yesterday my landline stopped to work. No incoming cals, no outgoing calls - no signal at all. I called 1004. The operator asked for my mobile phone number informed me that their technician will call me.

I was waiting 26 hours. Noone called me. I dialed 1004 one more time. The operator said that I should wait 48 hours.

After 1 hour I got a phone call Telefonica's technician. He called me just to say that he will come to check my line on Monday. Today is Friday and it means that I have to live 4 days with without telephone and Internet.

I am a self employed person and if I don't have Internet, I have no work. In my house only "ADSL rural" is available and I pay every month almost 90 EUR for 1 Mbit connection. For this money I have regular problems with ADSL - every month 2-9 days it's just not working.

I am really shocked by Telefonica's services.

tinalise

Just saw the headline and good memories of trying to get internet in my flat in Madrid about 5 years ago. Took me 2 months of phone call and then it didn't work...

Live in US now and I am still chocked that they charge me when someone calls me!! To top it off the mobile phones are 5 years behind Europe. People still got antennas on the mobiles. Spain is way ahead in some ways!