I h8 Telefonica!

[Ben]

The telephone line in my in-laws house, where I need to work woth the internet for some time later this week is not working. So I phone the Telefonica faults line, 1002, repeatedly, only to be told every time that 'We are sorry, but the number you have dialled does not exist' - Is that what is meant by irony?:mad:

[Marbella]

Sorry I can't add any words of comfort re Telefonica but I hope you get it fixed soon. The problem with Telefonica in my experience is that when you do get to speak to someone there is no point of escalation. The voice at the end will just create or add to a case and there is no point asking to speak to a supervisor or manager, they hide behind the call centre.

When we lived in Valencia the phone would cut off when it rained, which was mercifully rare. I'd use a mobile to call Telefonica and then a couple of days later someone would call me from Telefonica, on the line that was now working because the weather was dry, and say cheerfully that the problem was obviously fixed. Of course the next time it rained the problem reoccurred. It never was fixed even though we were once 5 days without a phone line and I use the internet for work. All this fell on deaf ears at Telefonica.

To actually get a phone line at one place in Andalucia we had waited so long that the maintenance guy from the urbanizacion rang one of his mates who worked for Telefonica to come round and do the work for 10 euros tip.

[Ben]

They basically still think they have a monopoly (and to a large extent do) and can get away with the sort of things you describe above. Happily at home we have Jazztel, though will be switching to France Telecom/Wanadoo in September to get 1,000 free minutes of calls a month to landlines in the rest of Europe (skype is only so good for landlines...) Anything but give more money to Telefonica....

[greytop]

They basically still think they have a monopoly (and to a large extent do) and can get away with the sort of things you describe above. Happily at home we have Jazztel, though will be switching to France Telecom/Wanadoo in September to get 1,000 free minutes of calls a month to landlines in the rest of Europe (skype is only so good for landlines...) Anything but give more money to Telefonica....
Good luck with Wanadoo/Tele2. Don't forget to cancel your old phone service as I was billed for five months by Wanadoo & Auna. Silly me thought taking on a new one would cancel the old!!! As the only way to contact these phone companies is by phone it's great for learning the language - they were very patient with me, once I'd got through the almost unintelligible menus about 6 layers deep. I think that is how they make their money these days, premium rate calls to menus.
So far the only problems I've had with the internet access is the modem resetting itself to an incompatible standard (twice).

[Francisco Javier]

I think that the problem in the carriers providers with client attention is that the services are more and more complicated and the resources and people in the call centers do not have the knowledge according to the new services.

Good luck Ben in your new adventure inside the Spanish market :) ! I think the solution in order to have a good service is to foment the competition.

[Marina]

Hi Javi, welcome to the forum!

Can you tell me where did you get that amazing chair?:D:D:D

[Francisco Javier]

From San Marcos in Leon :)

[Pepino]

It's great. It reminds me of Blofeld from James Bond!:cool:

http://eislermusic.com/blog/ErnstStavroBlofeld.jpg

All you're missing is the cat ;D

[Ben]

Good luck Ben in your new adventure inside the Spanish market :) ! I think the solution in order to have a good service is to foment the competition.

Thank you Franciso Javier, I think the solution for me is to leave Telefonica forever. Any suggestions for good competition? :rolleyes:

[Francisco Javier]

Next time I will search a cat :D

Today I had an interesting meeting about differents between Spanish costumers and French costumers. You know in France there is a company called Free which obtains 10.000 clients from FT all months, the service is very cheap but the quality is not so good because "political games" with the incumbent..., but customers remain with free because they understand the situation of the market, but Spanish people go again with Telefónica and this is the problem in Spain. My suggestion is to select the best offer in function your requirements, bandwidth, free calls ... and to have patience, but besides, in your case, my opinion is that you have to search the best way to change your carrier provider because when you have the service with Jazztel it is needed an operation in the CO and it is always a risk because you can lose not only your ADSL2+ besides your calls.

[gary]

we left BT some years ago and get telephone and broadband through Yorkshire Caboe, which Became Telewest and is now NTL. We have free calls to UK landlines and 10Mb broadband. The only issue we ever had was in the early stages of our 10Mb subscription when the connection wouls be full bandwidth for about 10-12 seconds then be throttled back to under 2MB. Fair to say that if you are surfing and clicking about you'd never notice. We called them and challenged this and, eventually got through to someone on the server backbone and we told him that our suspicion was that they had sold the bandwidth before purchasing the capacity to handle the traffic and that if this was the case we were quite happy to call a newspaper. An engineer called the next day, dicked about in the house and in the green box on the end of the street and the connection has been a screamer ever since.

We even sacked Sky and went on to Cable - in the end it saves me £35 a month.....

[jdoe]

Thank you Franciso Javier, I think the solution for me is to leave Telefonica forever. Any suggestions for good competition? :rolleyes:
i don't think so, Ben

i'm a freelance software developer (Internet & multimedia stuff) and i work at home most of the time but when teaching. so, you can guess i'm nothing without an Internet connection.
and Telefonica "es la menos mala de todas" although, the more expensive
and when i had have problems with my connection, may be 2-3 times in more than 6 years, i've been able to talk to a real tech guy at 902 357 000

anyway, if you decide to change, be sure to switch to a company owning the lines they're using to provide the service, never with one sub-leasing them from Telefonica!!!
i think the best alternative to Telefonica ADSL are cable companies

good info here:
http://www.adslzone.net/
http://www.adslayuda.com/

note: my primary concern is trustworthy, not speed

[Ben]

Thanks jdoe. The telefonica connection is in my suegros house but here at home we have Jazztel, who so far have given us no problems at all - they do have their own lines. I am tempted to move to Wanadoo as they have a great offer for calling the UK - 1000 free minutes a month, but they do lease lines from Telefonica, which is always risky... maybe I will stick with Jazztel for now.

[ValenciaSon]

Is Verizon available in Spain? They laid out fiber in my neighborhood and are offering a bundled package where you get cable TV, phone service and internet connectivity at 15 mb/s.

[jdoe]

I am tempted to move to Wanadoo as they have a great offer for calling the UK - 1000 free minutes a month, but they do lease lines from Telefonica, which is always risky... maybe I will stick with Jazztel for now.
I'd think over it twice!!! I have 2 friends that have faced really nasty problems with Wanadoo: charging their accounts without the service being active, retaining their lines so they can't move to another company, ... And the tech support is the worst I've ever tried! Once I spent 45 min talking to different persons until the last one told me "Sorry, you need to call tomorrow because technicians leave at 22:00" :eek: I just could ask, so, who the hell are you, the cleaning guy?

Wanadoo en Internet, Auna en telefonía fija y Amena en móvil, las firmas con más reclamaciones (http://www.elpais.es/articulo/elpporeco/20060210elpepieco_2/Tes/economia/Wanadoo/Internet/Auna/telefonia/fija/Amena/movil/firmas/reclamaciones)

... though will be switching to France Telecom/Wanadoo in September to get 1,000 free minutes of calls a month to landlines in the rest of Europe (skype is only so good for landlines...)
Sorry, I don't catch it

[jdoe]

Is Verizon available in Spain?
AFAIK, they are only available in Gibraltar. Wich is the Spanish Falklands ;)

[cubix]

What is cell phone service like the España? I remember seeing lots of ads, and it seemed cheap, but one of the professors said cell service in spain was expensive and unreliable, and the only cheap thing was text messages.


Cell Phone plans in the US are reasonable at the moment, but I think they will start to increase in price. As all the competetion is bought out by Cingular....

[Ben]

I would say that the service is very reliable, but probably not as reasonably priced as elsewhere. I know in the UK there are a lot of plans where you get tons of free minutes, but here there is nothing like that. I have a basic plan and hardly ever make calls with my phone but still end up paying about 20 euros a month.

[Marina]

Wanadoo en Internet, Auna en telefonía fija y Amena en móvil, las firmas con más reclamaciones (http://www.elpais.es/articulo/elppor.../reclamaciones (http://www.elpais.es/articulo/elpporeco/20060210elpepieco_2/Tes/economia/Wanadoo/Internet/Auna/telefonia/fija/Amena/movil/firmas/reclamaciones))

Careful Jdoe you might upset our friend in the big chair. Let's see if has anything to say about it;)

I still find incredible that service providers companies don't realize that improving their customer client service is at this point far more important than improving prices.

Other thing that I don't understand is how the following things are permited by law: for example if your connection is misbehaving you have to call 902 number (truly expensive calls), sorry I've already pay my monthly fee, the service is not working and I still feel that they keep me on the phone much longer than needed to get some more money out of my pockets. I think the companies should have free phone numbers for failures.

Other thing that surprises me is that you can sign in to a new service by the phone, no signature or anything is required. They even let me sign up a new adsl contract on my fathers name and in his account number!!! Then they record all the phone converstions but they refuse to give you any proof of anything. I'm still waiting for an e-mail of sign up confirmation that I requested more than a month ago and they said that they would send straight away. Instead they sent me an e-mail thanking me for giving them my details for their use:mad:

[jdoe]

regarding cell phones i agree with Ben, coverage & reliability are fine but prices are so high i use mine almost as a beeper, just to be available (with a prepaid card)

to call, if i'm not in a hurry, i use a card from Telefonica that allows me call from any phone & it's charged as if i'd have call from home

disclaimer: i'm not a Telefonica employee ;D

[jdoe]

Careful Jdoe you might upset our friend in the big chair. Let's see if has anything to say about it;)
what about him, a Teleco CEO? anyway, complaints must go to El Pais/journalist/Industry department, i'm only the messanger :D

one problem in Spain is that there's no quality culture. and i'm sure every company in this country buyTelefonica shares, so everybody win with those 902 numbers!

the problem comes when you decide to move to another company, then you need to send ID card photocopy, sign and a lot of calls!!! some months ago a new regulation was released but i'm not sure if it's working

[richardksa]

Telefonica, or Movistar do have nice ads though. Click on this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh-Yw5KV4v8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh-Yw5KV4v8)

[cubix]

Telefonica, or Movistar do have nice ads though. Click on this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh-Yw5KV4v8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh-Yw5KV4v8)

I find it sort of odd that a commerical from spain, has american pop music in it. Is this common?