Direct Telecom Blog

Two months ago we happily announced that the days are numbered for Telefonica’s monopoly in Spain.

But it seems that Telefónica will stop at nothing to try and desperately hang on to its clients – not even outright deceit. So we want to make sure that you are all aware of the latest trick to watch out for, because it’s a big one!

Telefónica are sending letters out to their landline subscribers, asking them to fill out and return an attached form. (Click on the images below to see samples of the letter and form).

The first time you read the actual letter in Spanish, it sounds like Telefónica are asking for your written consent to allow other operators (like Direct Telecom) to handle your call traffic. But read it a few more times and especially look at the small print on the form and it’s a whole other story!

What Telefónica actually want is your consent for them to cancel any preselection or low-cost call routing to other operators, so they can make all your calls go through their own system. But this intention is cleverly disguised until you get to the following text in the form that you have to sign:

“Solicito que procedan a inhabilitar total o parcialmente la preasignación del/de los numero/s arriba relacionado/s, para realizar, por defecto, estas llamadas con Telefónica de España S.A.U.”

Which translates to:

“I request that you proceed to totally or partially disable the preselection facility on the number(s) above, to route all calls through Telefónica de Espana S.A.U. by default.”

It is very possible that these forms, once signed, will actually be further used by Telefónica to prevent or hinder their clients from being able to sign up with competing Low Cost Call companies at all! If you have ever faced the incredible red tape and delaying tactics you get when you try and cancel your Internet subscription with Telefónica, you’ll know that we are not exaggerating about this.

On a similar note, we have had five complaints over the last few days about Telefónica technicians turning up at clients’ homes out of the blue, saying they have to make some changes to the line. Once the changes are done, the client is told that they now have a new phone number. This seems to be a way of prolonging the client’s contract with Telefónica so they will not be able to switch over to another telephone operator when the time comes.

If this has happened to you, call Telefonica’s 1004 helpline and say that you want your old number back or you will go to the police. We are told that this has been successful in getting the operation reversed.

We believe that Telefónica are getting ready for the big hit they are going to take towards the end of this year, when companies such as Direct Telecom will be able to take over the line rental from them, and are doing whatever they can to try and prevent this. As they are about to lose the battle to retain their monopoly, Telefónica are resorting to fighting dirtier than ever. But forewarned is fore-armed, so please let your friends and family know about these tricks so they do not fall for the scams.