Telef?nica story (50 days waiting for a telephone line)

Jul 27, 2007 · Gran Canaria · 25 replies · 14962 views

Read-only legacy forum thread. Sign-in, registration, and replies are retired.

June 7
I ordered a landline and ADSL using Telef?nica using online form which is available at:
http://www.telefonicainenglish.com/Form/ALTA/index2.htm

The form data were successfully sent and the system showed the following information:

Thank you for your application. Your order will now be processed and a Telefonica technician will contact you within the next 20 working days to arrange a day to install the telephone line. Within the next few days you will be charged a one off admin charge of 68,44 (Inc.IVA.) ... If there are any problems with your order an English operator will contact you. ...

June 9
I received an email from Emma @ Telef?nica Customer Service telling that:

"Unfortunately there has been a problem with your details in our system. The system can't find your address."

I asked several people who live in my house to check if I have corect mail address. All of them confirmed that the adress is correct.

I sent reply to the Customer Service and included the same address, and asked to check one more time if their system really can not locate it.

June 11

I received an email from Louise @ Telef?nica Customer Service telling that:

"Thank you for supplying this information. If there are any more problems, we will contact you by email.."

June 12
Waiting for Telef?nica technician call.

to

June 17
Waiting for Telef?nica technician call.

June 18
I sent an email to the Customer Service asking if there is some way how to process my landline aplication faster because I am self-employed server administrator and programmer and id I don't have Internet, I don't have a job and money. I agreed to pay double or triple installation price.

I received an email from Emma @ Telef?nica Customer Service telling that:

Your application states that it was ordered on the 12th of June.

Unfortunately, we can not specify the exact date when the technician will go to your property. It normally takes approximately 10 to 20 working days provided that there is infrastructure and lines available in the exchange. A technician will call, on the contact number given by you, prior to installation to make arrangements.

June 19
Waiting for Telef?nica technician call.

to

July 5
Checked my bank account and discovered that Telef?nica didn't charge money for telephone line installation.
Sent an email to the Customer Service with question why Telef?nica didn't charge money yet for telephone line installation.

July 6
Waiting for Telef?nica technician call.
Waiting for answer from Customer Service.

to

July 8
Waiting for Telef?nica technician call.
Waiting for answer from Customer Service.

July 9
Sent one more email to the Customer service asking the same question.

July 10
I received an email from Emma @ Telef?nica Customer Service telling that:

Unfortunately your application states that your bank reclaimed the monies we tried to debit so we were not able to proceed with your application.
Once we have successfully debited the correct amount of monies from your bank account, then we will be able to proceed with your application.

I sent angry reply with my bank data and asked to check if they have correct information.

July 11
I received an email from Emma @ Telef?nica Customer Service telling that:

Thank you for supplying the additional information. I have updated your application and if there any further problems I will contact you via e-mail.

July 12
I sent email to the customer service and asked when can I expect my telephone line to be connected.

July 13
Waiting for Telef?nica technician call.
Waiting for answer from Customer Service.

July 14
I received an email from Emma @ Telef?nica Customer Service telling that:

Your application will be ordered in the next 3 to 5 working days.
Then It normally takes approximately 10 to 20 working days provided that there is infrastructure and lines available in the exchange. A technician will call, on the contact number given by you, prior to installation to make arrangements.

July 15
Waiting for Telef?nica technician call.
Checked bank account. Telef?nica didn't charge for landline installation.

to

July 17
Waiting for Telef?nica technician call.
Checked bank account. Telef?nica didn't charge for landline installation.

July 18
Sent an email to the Customer service telling that 5 working days are over, and asked why Telef?nica didn't charge yet for landline installation.

July 19
No answer.
Sent an email to the Customer service telling that 6 working days are over, and asked why Telef?nica didn't charge yet for landline installation.

July 20
No answer.
Sent an email to the Customer service telling that 7 working days are over, and asked why Telef?nica didn't charge yet for landline installation.

July 21
No answer.

July 22
No answer.
Sent an email to the Customer service telling that 8 working days are over, and asked why Telef?nica didn't charge yet for landline installation and what games is playing Telef?nica.

July 23
No answer.
Sent an email to the Customer service and asked if their company is closed or what.

Translated into Spanish and sent a letter with my story to all available Telefonica email addresses (including address livechat@telefonicainenglish.com) and to some Spanish newspapers.

.................

Jul 27, 2007 · Gran Canaria

continued
.............................

July 24
I received an email from Emma @ Telef?nica Customer Service telling that:

Thank you for your application for a landline, Unfortunately there has been a problem with your details in our system. The system can't find your address. Could you please verify your address by checking another utility bill or asking a neighbour what the correct address is with the town hall.

I sent answer asking what is the reason why Telef?nica is humilating me and asked to provide snail mail address where can I send complaint about Telef?nica support system.

July 25
No answer from Telef?nica Customer Service.

I called 1004 and asked what's wrong with my landline application. Operator who answered my call told me that there are my personal data in their system, but I don't have any applications submitted, and if I want a landline, she can accept my application. It was done and operator told me that the technician will call me till August 20.

July 26
I received an email from Emma @ Telef?nica Customer Service telling that:

Good afternoon,
We recieved an email from you before stating that you wished to cancel.
We cancelled you application and no monies will be taken out of your bank account.
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Emma
TELEFONICAINENGLISH.COM

=================================

I am shoked. I feel like Alice in Wonderland.

To be continued...

Jul 27, 2007 · Expatriator

Eh, Gran Canaria, you know that TelefonicaInEnglish is NOT Telefonica, right?

Jul 27, 2007 · Expatriator

And your link was ellipsis'd. Wanna edit that?

Jul 27, 2007 · Gran Canaria

The Expatriator, I edited my link.

What do you mean - TelefonicaInEnglish is NOT Telefonica?

Btw from my computer for some reason I can not open Telefonica's website www.telefonica.es
I am being redirected to:
http://www.telefonica.com/home_eng.shtml

which is Telefónica's International Corporate Site and doesnt contain any information about telefonica services and how to order them.

Jul 27, 2007 · Expatriator

Read their About Us (http://www.telefonicainenglish.com/About%20Us.htm): they're NOT Telefonica.

As for being redirected, even Wikipedia's entry for Telefonica doesn't have a product page for them.

And dude, you definitely have my sympathies. Unfortunately you're suffering from all the Telefonica Rage symptoms and you've only just arrived (it would seem). Wait another year...

Jul 27, 2007 · Gran Canaria

OK, now I see that it's not Telefonica, but they offer Telefonica services and use Telefonica's name. Telefonica must be responsible for their agents activities. 50 days I am waiting for a landline and it's not normal in 21 century in an EU country.

Sure, Wikipedia?s entry for Telefonica doesn?t have a product page for them, but it's just Wikipedia and not an official website of Telefonica. I was writing that I have to visit an Internet cafe if I want to see the content of www.telefonica.es which is an official website of Telefonica. It's very strange that some users (some computers) for some unknown reason are being redirected to the corporate website. Maybe only computers with Spanish version of Windows are allowed to access Telefonica's website. Don't know.

Probably I am suffering from all the Telefonica Rage symptoms, but your irony make me very sad. I arrived to Gran Canaria on May 27. I am self employed server administrator and programmer. I can work from any place in the world where Internet is available. As you can understand, I don't work since I arrived because I don't have Internet. I was ready to wait 2 or 3 or 4 weeks, but not for months. Since May 28 till yesterday every day twice a day I visited Internet cafe which is located ~5 km from my home to make the most important work what I can do from a computer in Internet cafe. Once in 3 days I visited a restaurant with wi-fi where I can connect to the Internet with my own computer.

After 1 month of this "marathon" I'm having problems with health. I am having problems with heart and more and more often can sleep only 2-3 hours per night.

Yesterday I got Internet m?vil from Movistar. Afternoon it's extremaly slow, but better than nothing.

More than 2 years I planned my move to Spain. I have heard many bad stories about Telefonica, but I never thought that I will have problems like this.

Sorry, if my English looks strange. I am not from UK nor other English speaking country.

Jul 27, 2007 · Expatriator

So have you looked at other DSL or Cable providers? There should be other options!

Jul 27, 2007 · Trogg

GC, you have my fullest sympathy!

Telefonica are woefully inept as well as rude, but they are a law unto themselves and I believe they actually enjoy messing people about because they know nothing can be done about it.

They don't care if you go elsewhere - they still get their monthly paychecks because other service providers have to pay Telefonica a proportion of their revenue anyway!

I'm not surprised they couldn't find your address - they couldn't find my address from the previous occupier's name or telephone number. Did they ask you for a neighbor's telephone number?

Jul 27, 2007 · wendone

I HATE TELEFONICA

Jul 27, 2007 · Expatriator

that's it, let it out. You'll feel better. :)

Jul 29, 2007 · Wendy

I waited over 2 years & all I wanted was a reconnection as I already had the landline installed when we first bought the apartment.

I also hate T*****fonica

Wendy x

Aug 4, 2007 · wendone

FINALLY telefonica called me to fix a date and time to install everything. They called me thursday, told them I'm in Belgium till 7th and THEY complained!!:-)

Aug 13, 2007 · wendone

I really really hate telefonica.

two guys came to install my new phone line(I ordered the trio package: phone, television and Internet) after the installation of the phone they wanted to leave.
"ADSL and the television package does not arrive where you live"...aargh!!!!!!!!

I called telefonica two days later and they will install the television cable on august 23 and still waiting to set a date for the internet.

I hate telefonica

Aug 13, 2007 · aligran

We moved into our new house in Andalucia last October from Barcelona, we are not in the middle of nowhere, 15mins from Granada city, but we live half way up a mountain!!! Telefonica said they would get round to it in 2008 when they lay the new lines.... obviously we complained as previous owners had telephone line which they very kindly decided to disconnect completely before we arrived, hmm nice or what??? Guess what??? We didn't wait and now have internet and telephone with Iberbanda, works perfectly well for us, although sometimes have the odd glich!! and guess what again??? After we had all this installed, Telefonica wrote us and said they would be coming in a few days to connect with some special doodars, don't ask about all this techno stuff and we told them to bog off!!!!

Aug 14, 2007 · vuurvlieg

>

[experience very similar to mine]

.................

Next time you call 1004, ask them for the number of their complaints fax. Then write to them and tell them you give them 5 more days to install your phone line or you will contract alternative services such as a mobile phone contract with UMTS (not Movistar, of course) and the required equipment, and send them the bill. You'll be surprised how quickly you have your phone line. They are required by law to give you a phone line within 30 or 60 days (don't know exactly which) or indemnify you for any damages or alternative solutions. Good luck!

Aug 26, 2007 · Washington

I can't remember the address but our friend wrote to the communications in Madrid and the next week the phone was installed!!! We used Vodafone mobile connect for the interent. It uses 3g connection and was very good except you can't download masses of data due to the speed. however for emails, booking flights and searching the web it was fine. I had about 50 mb a month to use which I rarely went over. if you go over you have to pay on top of your monthly fee, otherwise it is just the set fee.

The one thing you need here in Spain is patience. Yes they can send a man to the moon but can't sort our phones out. You just look for ways around the problem and there usually are ways around. 50 days is not long as most people can wait up to 4 years!!!

Sep 12, 2007 · schilly

I note the information in this thread.
I am currently writing a magazine article on Telefonica in English as I too have been waiting for since the beginning of May - over 4 months with similar dribble from the so called customer services. I even have an order number but that was well over a month ago and still nothing.
I would be grateful if anyone who has used, or tried to use, their services could give me their comments. ie.
Was the process smooth?
Were there any problems? Did you lose money?
Did you initially believe the company to be part of Telefonica?
etc, etc,

I am not looking to report on any individual case but aim to give an 'objective' general consesus and warn prospective customers if necessary.

Many thanks
schilly

Sep 13, 2007 · vuurvlieg

> I note the information in this thread.
I am currently writing a magazine article on Telefonica in English as I too have been waiting for since the beginning of May - over 4 months with similar dribble from the so called customer services. I even have an order number but that was well over a month ago and still nothing.
I would be grateful if anyone who has used, or tried to use, their services could give me their comments. ie.
Was the process smooth?
Were there any problems? Did you lose money?
Did you initially believe the company to be part of Telefonica?
etc, etc,

I am not looking to report on any individual case but aim to give an 'objective' general consesus and warn prospective customers if necessary.

Many thanks
schilly

I waited 60 days for a phone line before I gave up. I depend on phone and internet for my job, so I couldn't afford to wait any longer. At about 5 occasions they gave me an installation date - a technician was supposed to call me to arrange the installation of the line in my newly rented apartment. Of course, a technician never called me on any of those dates, nor did Telefonica bother to call me in advance to cancel the appointment or anything.
Increasingly desperate and frustrated, I started calling them almost every day from my cellphone to find out what was happening. In varying degrees of rudeness, I was given wildly different reasons for the delay. Every operator seemed to have a different excuse, none of which made any sense. No phone lines available in my area in 2007 Western Europe? Unpaid phone bills while I've never had to deal with Telefonica before?

Finally, I moved out of the apartment, losing the rental deposit for ending the lease prematurely. I lost several thousands of euros there. I could probably sue them (I made my original decision to move into the apartment based on Telefonica's promise that I would have phone/internet there within two weeks), which I might actually do if I get some time to spare anytime soon.

My new apartment has an ONO connection, which got installed the day after I ordered it.

Sep 13, 2007 · schilly

Thanks for your response.
Was it 'Telefonica in English' that you were dealing with, or Telefonica?
As has been pointed out they are NOT the same. Telefonica in English are an independent company who 'arrange' services from Telefonica.
I have been in touch with Telefonica and they take NO responsibility for the activities of this business.
My article will be based on 'Telefonica in English' - www.telefonicainenglish.com - as one of the main issues is that many people believe they are dealing with Telefonica and they are not.
Any info would be much appreciated.

Sep 14, 2007 · vuurvlieg

> Thanks for your response.
Was it 'Telefonica in English' that you were dealing with, or Telefonica?
As has been pointed out they are NOT the same. Telefonica in English are an independent company who 'arrange' services from Telefonica.
I have been in touch with Telefonica and they take NO responsibility for the activities of this business.
My article will be based on 'Telefonica in English' - www.telefonicainenglish.com - as one of the main issues is that many people believe they are dealing with Telefonica and they are not.
Any info would be much appreciated.

It was Telefonica, and I think that's exactly where the problem is for many Telefonica-in-English customers.
TIE simply relays information back and forth between Telefonica and their customers. They order a phone line on behalf of a customer, and if Telefonica doesn't deliver, well, that's Telefonica's fault. If they don't communicate about the issue, same thing.
TIE customers and direct Telefonica customers experience the same kind of problems.

Sep 21, 2007 · Bambi

Hello all!!
i am shocked about telefonica as they were really good with us. the first house we lived in we applied for reconnect the phone line, and internet, 3 days after we received a package , that had the discs and wires and everything in, toke us 5 mins to set it up, and actually that was a day before christmas. we thought we would never get in before new years eve but it was there.
we moved house in may, and this is a new built, no phone line or nothing in this area. we have rang telefonica they said they will come out to install it in the next two weeks. and they rang a couple of days after saying the next day 3pm they will be here. and in the morning we had a phone call saying they cant do it, because they have just find it out there is no lines or anything in this area it can take up to 12 month. so we were really upset and thought we cant have it then. We went out shopping and came back just before 3pm and two man from telefonica was outside of our house waiting for us, they have installed it perfect in half an hour they were really nice and helpful, they didnt understand why telefonica said they cant do it, and we are the first one on playa golf area who has the line installed.
So we were very pleased with them both times.
the only problem is that the operators never speaks english. thats all.
But both times we had to ring spanish telefonica and try to speak spanish to them. the two guys said that if anyone wants a phone line has to ring telefonica because other companies are getting the line from them anyway and they wont help them because they want to sell the year contract.
so thats the best way to do it.

Feb 16, 2008 · Rosa

Hi would like to add my twopenny worth. We live in the campo and applyed for a track phone in April 2007 we were told 30 days max on the 30th day the lines man came to connect us up and told us no way, you have to have a track phone as there are no lines here to connect you to.

We finally got our telephone in November after 75 teleophone calls to 1004, great we thought all settled now lets get on with life oh no 11th January 2008 the internet went off still had the telephone line called 1004 told there was problems in our area went to UK for two weeks came back still no internet, called 1004 to be told we had been cut of as we had not paid our bill what bill I asked well we have not sent you one but you have been cut of as it was not paid. Talk to the wall ok how do we pay this bill we have not recieved, we were told pay at the post office 104 euros 88 cents and we will reconnect you in 4 hours this we did and three days later we were indeed reconnected.

Still have not had the bill do not know what we have paid for as the calls in Spain are free and all my calls are made in Spain one can only think the internet charge is over the top.

The 1004 people are so rude they are beyond belief, what gets me the most is when you have finished getting no where with them they keep asking if there is anything else they can do for you. Yes I tell them sort out my challenge and ask your employers to give you some customer service training.

Rosa

Feb 16, 2008 · Washington

I don?t ve a problem speaking to someone who speaks English at Telefonica as I just ask the operator if I can speak to someone who speaks English. They have never been rude but I can see how they fail to solve problems througgh a lack of understanding. I would query your bill Rosa . They have to provide you with a detailed factura. The charges for rental are ahead of themselves so that bumps up the bill. I have the internet and calls package and only pay for calls to the uk which now are 6 cents a minute as I pay 3 euros a month for that service. Because we have the TRAC phone we can?t always take advantage of the other companies offers. For some unknown reason we can?t even put the answering machine on or use some of the functions on the DOMO telefone. However, have got round that one by buying a BT response 75 answering machine.

I always say, they can send a man to the moon but Telefonica can?t provide a satellite broadband service. Disgracefull in this day and age. Moan over!!!

Feb 16, 2008 · Rosa

> I don?t ve a problem speaking to someone who speaks English at Telefonica as I just ask the operator if I can speak to someone who speaks English. They have never been rude but I can see how they fail to solve problems througgh a lack of understanding. I would query your bill Rosa . They have to provide you with a detailed factura. The charges for rental are ahead of themselves so that bumps up the bill. I have the internet and calls package and only pay for calls to the uk which now are 6 cents a minute as I pay 3 euros a month for that service. Because we have the TRAC phone we can?t always take advantage of the other companies offers. For some unknown reason we can?t even put the answering machine on or use some of the functions on the DOMO telefone. However, have got round that one by buying a BT response 75 answering machine.

I always say, they can send a man to the moon but Telefonica can?t provide a satellite broadband service. Disgracefull in this day and age. Moan over!!!

Hi Susannah

Have used both the Spainish and English speakers and they are both as bad, we also paid 3 euros a month for English calls just in case we needed to call the UK. Will be calling at the post office on Monday if we have not recieved a factura, will be contacting telefonica again.

Has anyone noticed how they always say the line is bad when you are trying to sort things out

I think you are right about the lack of understanding, its the same for me when I talk in Spainish to my Spainish friends I do not always understand the meanings of the words they say. We asked for an ADSL line and was told we could only have it if we had electricity still on a generator my friend as it as they have solar power.

We will have electricity by the summer 2008 we have been told this for the last 4 years but thats another story.

Rosalie