telefonica.... it ain't that bad

Hey Bill,
It's a good two bits, I gotta say, and your info about Wanadoo piques my interest, but fundamentally Telefonica is rife with, well, customer service corruption. Or at least that's what I've heard. I'm sure you read the other posts here, and I don't know anyone who has had a line with Telefonica that hasn't had a big problem with them whether it's communication notes that disappear, disconnections that aren't processed (and thus billed extra), or imaginary charges that magically appear on your latest bill. I honestly haven't had the personal experience yet, but having just ordered service from them I figure it'll be interesting from what I've heard.

I went with Wanadoo originally but they said it would be 30 days for installation. That's just too long, which is why I've decided to test the Telefonica waters. We'll see...

I've dealt with Telefonica for the past 10 years or so. Sure, sometimes the've done things that bug me, like the things that you mentioned above, but in the end they will consider a complaint and respond in due course, often giving me (the customer) the benefit of the doubt. Saying "me gustar?a hacer una reclamaci?n", usually puts a quick end to dumb and circular conversations.


My experience with the other companies like Auna (now Ono), Wanadoo, Jazztel or some of the other companies that have come and go isn't the same. What is worse, with Wanadoo and the others you have to call a 902 number and go through a maze of menus just to get an answer, spending around a euro per call. Telefonica, on the other hand, still offers the free 1004 number. One important thing to remember is that if your line dies for whatever reason, Telefonica usually repairs it within a day...I've had reparimen show up in a matter of hours.

From my own experience, I've learnt to call 1004 two or three times to confirm and reconfirm things like line disconnection, package changes, etc. I have a rather thick accent when speaking in Spanish, so I suspect that I am at least half to blame if any confusion arises. What does bother me is when I get the sensation that my call has been forwarded to the Dominican Republic and I am speaking to someone who doesn't have a clue about Spain.

There are a few more pointers to save money that I've come across:

*If you are billed through Wanadoo, Auna or Jazztel, it is a lot cheaper to use Telefonica for calls to mobile phones --just dial 1077 before the number

*the absolute best bargain for local and national calls is Carrefour at ?6.95 --the catch is is that you have to get their credit card.

* If you have a flat rate for calling in Spain and need to call overseas, use a calling card with local access numbers for Madrid (91 XXX XXXX), Barcelona (93 XXX XXXX), etc. It works out to be maybe a penny or two a minute to call Europe, Australia and North America. Between the free calls that Wanadoo offers and the phone card option, Skype seems complicated and tiring....

> Saying "me gustar?a hacer una reclamaci?n", usually puts a quick end to dumb and circular conversations.

Good idea... I'll have to remember that one.


> My experience with the other companies like Auna (now Ono), Wanadoo, Jazztel or some of the other companies that have come and go isn't the same. What is worse, with Wanadoo and the others you have to call a 902 number and go through a maze of menus just to get an answer, spending around a euro per call. Telefonica, on the other hand, still offers the free 1004 number. One important thing to remember is that if your line dies for whatever reason, Telefonica usually repairs it within a day...I've had reparimen show up in a matter of hours.

Hmm, sounds lucky, but I'll take your word for it. Also, ONO definitely has a new number: 1400, which is free.


> *If you are billed through Wanadoo, Auna or Jazztel, it is a lot cheaper to use Telefonica for calls to mobile phones --just dial 1077 before the number

How does that work exactly? What do you mean?

Well I just had to mention a few things about Telefonica.

We have a computer shop in Cehegin and we have to work closely with Telefonica for 1 way rural internet satellite systems, and I have to say there service is a JOKE!
I would like to say at this point I can speak a little Spanish and I have Spanish friends and co workers, which are able to speak on my behalf so its not a communication problem.

1. Telefonica 1004 telephone staff are rude and like to hang up on you if you ask a hard question & the same with the technical support staff. I don?t mean us shouting at them I mean if they get stuck.
2. When you wish to get a Telefonica line they are able to sell you all the info over the phone in English, but when it comes to support then there is NO one who can help you if you don?t speak Spanish. Now whilst I agree that we are living in Spain, and we should speak Spanish it would be nice for them to employ at least 1 English able speaking person to support their English customers.
3. THEY LIE... we needed a internet connection for the showroom and we called everyday for 2 months to be told we NEVER called to order it! So it was delayed by 1 month.
4. Most of the time they send the bill out late, or this might just be where we live, so you have like 1 day to pay it before they cut you off.
5. Have any of you out there tried to get a TRACK/RADIO phone out of them? lol.

Now I know that I am having a bit of a moan, but there seems to be no other option other than Telefonica for home phones and internet unless you want to use microwave or satellite internet, which is much more expensive.

So this is my closing statement.

There product is good and the staff are: 1 totally incompetent or just too stupid to mention.

Well if anyone does have anything better to say about the staff comment I would like to hear a pleasant experience from a customer that had good service from the representative

I sure hate to admit it but I kinda have to agree with Bill. My Telefonica rage has mellowed over my 10 years here, for three reasons:
- Telefonica has definitely improved. As they've learned to live with competition, they've learned that they need to deal with improving customer service. In fact, I haven't had a Telefonica person hang up on me for a couple of years!
- I've now dealt more with the competition. A few years ago, I was duped by an Auna comercial into switching, and soon developed Auna rage. More recently, I was duped again, this time by a comercial from a small company, Al-pi, reasoning that no bureaucracy would mean better service. It didn't.
- I've gotten accustomed to a country where "the customer is #1" is not a corporate mantra, as it is in the USA. Nowhere is customer service all that hot (except maybe Mercadona), so my expectations are lower.

So here's the typical interaction with a phone company. You dial a 902 number, say some information to a machine, then an operator comes on and asks you for the same information, hears your problem then passes you on to a "comercial". The comerciales are all busy, so you wait, and listen to the same song that you heard two years ago (is it that hard for Telefonica or Auna to change the song). While you wait, you think, hmmm, the company makes money every minute that I'm kept waiting on a 902 number, so it pays them for the staff to go on coffee breaks. Finally the comercial comes on and says I can have a new line.


This is better than the scenario two years ago when the operator couldn't pass you to another department. They instead gave you another number to call. You call and wait, then they tell you to call another number. You call and they tell you, no, the number to call is the first one you called.

Some random tips:

- With Telefonica, you can't redirect a phone to an international number. With Auna, you can (and I don't mean cable; the phone is still a Telefonica line).
- If you need a phone number or ADSL fast, get Telefonica (or get cable). Telefonica still dishes out phone numbers to the other companies. By law they have to do so in a certain number of days, so they stay barely within the law.
- If you money's more important than time, maybe don't get Telefonica. They can't gouge you like they used to (for example, 110 euros for installing a simple phone line), but they're not the cheapest. For ADSL, I'd go with ya.com or maybe jazztel.
- Auna's gotten better since ONO bought them. I haven't really had enough experience with ONO to judge (though the other day it took a couple of calls to decipher the recorded prompt in order to get through to a human -- someone had spoken too close to the microphone).
- When a techie actually comes to your house to install something, get as much information as you can from them. They're the only ones who really know a lot, and in fact are totally objective. They may tell you if another company does it better.
- There are many "centrales" within a city. Telefonica will only let you keep your number if you move within the same central. That's why I got Al-pi. They told me Telefonica can technically do it, but they won't, because things would get too complicated. Al-pi said if I transferred the 6 lines to them, they could retain the numbers in the new location. They did it, though it took them 6 months instead of the two months they said it would take.
- For Telefonica, always say "nueva linea" as your motivo por la llamada. That way you're more likely to get actual Telefonica staff instead of staff of a subcontracted company, who often don't even have access to the data that Telefonica staff has access to. (Rampant subcontracting is a big wart in the toe of customer service in Spain, subcontracting being one way for big companies to avoid having to give indefinite contracts . . . but this too may be improving.)

This is my first post on this forum so hello to everyone...

For all you business users out there I would highly recomend Comunitel (they are the business arm of Tele2). We swapped our office over 18 months ago and are still frankly amazed at the level of service we get....faults cleared up on the day of reporting....huge increase in internet speed and reliability....call center staff who are polite and knowlegeable.

They may not be cheaper than Telefonica (roughly the same per month).....but the difference in customer service is priceless.

Welcome to the forum Dun.

FEI, that would be at http://www.tele2.comunitel.es/

So if I wanted to switch from Telefonica to Comunitel, I'd have to still keep my basic line with telefonica, correct? You'd have to pay telefonica 12 euros + whatever package with Comunitel.

Still a pretty good deal when you can get ADSL 6Mbs and national calling for 45 euros/month + whatever you'd have to pay Telefonica.

Thanks for the welcome,

In answer to your query....no... comunitel buy the line from telefonica...so you only pay comunitel...keep the same number and get 1 bill from comunitel. we kept our original line and they put in three more for our "centralita". It took about 3 weeks from signing the contract to saying goodbye to telefonica for good. (NB if you have phones on contract from telefonica you have to go to an official telefonica shop and hand them in otherwise they keep billing you for the rent)

Hi all, just joined SpainExpat as a member. I read the comments on the Telefonica service with interest.....having waited 3 years for my radiophone it was finally installed 2 days ago. Why didn't I feel excited? Why did it seem like a none-event? What an anti-climax! Despite all of my neighbours having either a landline or radiophone and despite me pestering Telefonica on 1004 for 2 years, then my solicitor doing the same for 6 months, when I finally got the phone I had not pestered anyone for months and had forgotten about Telefonica! I felt shock more than anything having given up on the subject. I must say the technician was polite and friendly. The phone works ok, though when I went to buy a Group 3 digital fax (as suggested by the technician) in local retailers I was told that it was best to buy/rent it from Telefonica as "normal" fax machines may not work. Anyone have any information about this? Meanwhile my nine euro phone is working great! Just need to find a cheaper service provider...so off I go to re-read all your Forum comments again. :roll:

I am glad that some people like Telefonica, I hate them, they are rude etc, & don't have any customer relations at all.
They are one of the largest phone companies in the world & don't give a hoot about people.

They have had me in tears in their office in Torrevieja many times.

All I want is my phone reconnected, & just need a number. We had it disconnected when we rented our apartment, but the girl trashed it & we decieded never to rent again.

I know of many people who have gone back to the UK because of them.

Wendy x

> for all the bitching, telefonica and the Spanish telephone system isn't that bad....Telefonica may have been an ugly monopoly a decade ago, but things have really changed.

*For installation, it is normally free if it is arranged through their web page... It take a couple of weeks for the installation guy to come around.

*For paying the minimal monthly rate (around ? 14 ) don't rent a phone. If you make a lot of mobile calls, keep your eye out for offers as Telefonica and Telefonica Moviles merge (as they have done in the Czech Rep.)

*If you have some sort of grudge against Telefonica, try Ono (which just bought out Auna, Retevision, etc) and offers a fairly good price on telephone, national calls and DSL.

*For calling home (ie Europe, North America), the expat's choice would be Wanadoo's ADSL ?36 package. It includes national calls and 1000 mins of international calls. It may take a month or two to get Wanadoo (direct) service. In certain areas you can also get free calls to Amena mobile phones. Also expect future offers from Wanadoo and Amena as they are merged into Orange.

I doubt if American companies can beat ?50 a month for all of that.

Just my two bits


BILL

*If you have some sort of grudge against Telefonica, try Ono (which just bought out Auna, Retevision, etc) and offers a fairly good price on telephone, national calls and DSL.






BILL[/quote][/quote]

So Bill how do you get ONO if you haven't got a phone number & the line is DEAD.

Please tell me.

Wendy (in Costa Blanca South)

hi im new to this site but have been reading some of ur comments with interest, i use skype here in the uk to call my friends in spain for free, if phoning their landline it costs about 1p per min., we have bought a holiday home (later we will retire to)in the malaga area & have been looking into the 3g cards (no landline or modem needed) for my laptop, looks like its telefonica who sell them, just wondered if anybody has had any experience with these cards in spain, my friend uses her vodafone 3g card for her laptop when she goes to her caravan in the scottish highlands with no problems, anyway any info would be much appreciated.

Hi everybody, I?ve been reading the comments to see if I can gleen any usefull information. The person who wrote the trick to getting through on the 1004 number deserves a pat on the back, I followed the instructions, well almost, but anyway got through. After over 5 and half years of being registered as interested in a phone they have finally decided we can have a radio phone. What joy !!
There are a couple of points I have seen on the forum that worry me somewhat, one being that two different installation charges. Since we first applied we have become residents, could anyone who has had an installation recently let me know how much they actually paid? Call charges are another matter, I intend to sign up with BT they charge far less for calls, especialy overseas, easily arranged I believe, friends have accounts with them.

Does anybody know if it is possible to buy your own handset when you have a radio phone, or do you just have to have the handset they give you? I know I could just buy one if it was a landline but not sure if I can do the same for a radio system.

Ramblaed: I paid 133 euro for an installation of ADSL and basic phone line with unlimited national calls back in July. It was supposed to be a promotionally free install but they charged me anyway. I'm still waiting to get that money back, which they promised in November. Each time I call I hear that they'll be depositing it back into my account "this week"... I so sick of their sh!t...

What is there left to say about Telefonica. I?ve been here over 20 years and have had problems with them since the first moment I put a line in back in 1987. It was Ok when they had offices you could actually go to visit to complain but since they got rid of them all, it?s been a licence to completely ignore the complaints procedures here in Spain. If you look at figures from both the Consumer Offices, they are the single biggest Company people complain about. Customers services ops are really not interested in any complaint you wish to make and I?ve been forced on more than one occasion to visit the local consumer office to lodge an official complaint and it does work eventually. Telefonica, in nearly all cases, does resolve these matters but it?s time we have to waste. My last gripe with them concerned the change they?ve made to billing dates. As usual, no information forwarded to the consumer and when you call to ask them for an explanation, they quite happily tell you that with millions of customers, how can they possibly inform them all. My reply was that if they can send advertising bumph to one and all, why can?t they do the same with things that would actually interest us to know.

Can?t see things changing in the near future although I?m an eternal optimist...on one other point, I haven?t tried anyone else as I find service with other providers to be not much better and hey, in any case, the line?s with Telefonica anyway so, in the end, I?ll still not be able to get rid of them.

Will it not end up like all the major operators though? As soon as some competition gets in the way they start loosing customers?

I?d like to be able to say, yes, I?m sure it will but I?ve tried other operators and they?re really no better. In Spain, in all service industry, until they realise that the customer is primary, they?ll never get it right and particularly among expats who are used to, in most cases, first class customer service. The difficulty other companies have is that Telefonica still provide the lines and until that changes, I don?t think anything else will for the foreseeable future. I?d like to think that there will come a time when they have to do something but I?ve been waiting for it to happen and it hasn?t yet.

I couldn't agree more but at the same time 20 years ago we were in the same position in the uk with one company supplying all the lines as soon as another took over then 20% of customers left BT. Now they boast that those people go back to them but at the same time there is 40% more people able to supply the line but not the service.

Do you not think that long term (15 years) it will iron itself out to be the same?

I think it's important to remember that even though Telefonica supplies the line, it's still the customer service and billing that is the main problem. If you can get the same product from another supplier like Wanadoo or ONO or whoever but with better customer service and a billing department without the mission to boost profit margins and revenues then inevitably the customer experience should be better.

Have Orange not just purchased Jazztel? I thought that Jazztel were one of the only other companies that had their own infrastructure? Just a thought but if they have would this not pave the way for a slightly better service all around?

I?ll like to believe that eventually things will change. Orange have just come into the market so it will be interesting to see how well they do....you are right that it is billing and service that seems to be the problem. These special offers they put on to attract clients are also very misleading as they advertise what seems a great package but when you look at the small print, after the first three months, it?s not much different from any of the others. Only time will tell.....

Telefonica are without doubt the worst corporate company I have ever had to deal with, I have put up with 3 years of telefonica staff telling me a different story everytime I contact them, they have been telling me for 3 years that I need (one week its 7 poles the next week its 5 poles the next week.... you get my drift!) to have a land line fitted.

A year ago they fitted a radio phone and I do not think that I have ever had a conversation using the phone since without being cut off because the signal was too weak.
Today they have fitted a land line (guess what....not 1 new pole) this is the 6th day in a row that they were going to fit the landline at 11am ( today was the 1st day that they actually turned up).....at 3pm, so 6 days off of work and 3 years 2 months later I finally have a land line, I won?t go into the Telefonica internet access that I have been paying for for 13 months that has never worked.....thats another story, I suppose that this is all part of the charm of living in Spain.
My patience has improved no end as now I do not expect.....

Oh happy days!!...and I mean it, if this is all I have to put up with after the uk then thank gawd!

Telefonica is one of the most profitabe companies in Europe and one of the worst. I never dealt with a WORSE telephone provider (fixed and mobile) in any of the four other countries I lived in.

They will not activate roaming on my mobile line because they say I am a "new customer". Get a pre-paid card instead!!
In other words, they quite bluntly told me they do not trust I will pay them; they explained to me they are afraid I will run off without paying my bills; only way to go is to give them an aval bancario OR a certificate of how much money I have in my bank account!!!! The first option is crazy, the second is absolutely ludicrous. Each of my monthly bills for the last two months had three digits in it; they are automatically domiciled on my account by the way!!!!! I asked their useless customer service what difference it would make if I called foreign countries for hours from here or if I call Spain from foreign countries when I am on a business trip, with roaming, when it comes to my credit reliability... They didn't quite understand what I meant. I do not understand if I am more likely to pay for traffic generated from here than from another country!!

Once I called to understand my phone bill (did you ever read "If you have any doubt on this invoice, call ....": a French lady with a terrible English accent actually lost patience at my asking her how much I had spent that month (no way to figure it out!!). She told me they do not know that, and that I should check on the internet... I told her, what if I do not have an internet connection, since Telefonica has not cabled the whole block of where I live????


Yes, listen to that. My obra nueva (9 months since it was finished) is still NOT cabled by Telefonica (and therefore 50 families do NOT have any fixed telephone, with Telefonica or anyone else). Now, I am NOT talking about a small town in the middle of nowhere, I am talking about a fairly central area of the third biggest city of Catalunya! Apparently Telefonica has some interest NOT to cable the block until some other construction is finished.. Isn't there any law against this? Is there any way to force them to provide a fixed line to us?? I am quite happy to begin a class action against this horrible de-facto monopoly if someone can provide some information on such cases.

All I want is that Telefonica cables the building, then I will ask Tele2 to give me a telephone line!! ;-)

Well, having posted that we were to have a phone in January we eventually got our radio phone installed at the end of June. Six years to get a phone!

Since then I have found various ways to keep my bills down. I use companies that give me free calls, some only short but useful, and a main company to get low cost calls to UK and anywhere else in the world. I also get a UK phone in number with that so friends and family can call me.

So far telefonica have only had ?1.43 out of me for calls.

Anybody wanting to save money on their calls can try www.direct-telecom.es if you quote my ref number 12971, you get ?10 worth of credit on your account when you open an account. Many friends and neighbours got their phones at about the same time as me and I recommended direct telecom to many of them and they are as delighted as I am at how much they can use the phone for so little compared to telefonica.

Don?t talk to me about ADSL, as well as it taking 3 years to get my landline at my house, I was approached by Telefonica, they asked me if I would like ADSL fitted at my Hotel ( I also own a hotel on the Sierra Espu?a) They sent me the modem 2 and a half years ago and set up the direct debit to take the money from my account, the ADSL never worked and I informed them so, they promised to send an engineer (2 and a half years ago), I have tried on numerous occasions to cancel the contract as an engineer never arrived, they have sent me forms to cancel the contract but still continue to take the money from my account, my adsl payment is paid with my telephone bill so I cannot stop the payment at the bank.
An engineer arrived at the hotel last week and after fiddling with the computer for half an hour informed us that we were too far from the exchange and cannot have ADSL at our hotel, Telefonica STILL have not cancelled my contract and refuse to give me my money back, (1200 Euros?s) because they say it is my fault as I should have cancelled the contract earlier....the mind boggles!!

It is now a matter of principle and I have instructed my Lawyer to attempt to get the money back, I don?t care if it costs me 1200 Euro?s!!