Telefónica problems notice board
At Direct Telecom, we hear shocking stories from our clients on a day to day basis with which we could no doubt write a book about frustration and utter dissapointment. People have either lost their phone number, simply got disconnected without prior notice, have been overcharged, or suddenly got themselves signed up for a service they never even asked for!
We feel this space could be usefull to share stories and experiences with Telefónica (or any other provider) so that we can hopefully help eachother and not fall into the same trap. We therefore invite you to post your comments that will with no doubt be extremely helpful and very much appreciated.
Remember that if you are unsure when dealing with Telefónica, please do call us and we will be delighted to help.
the Direct Telecom Team.
December 31st, 2007 at 9:56 am
Dear direct telecom team,
I appreciate this opportunity to share my extremely frustrating experienve with telefonica, and I really hope this does not happen to anyone else!
I run a business from home, and I had ADSL with Telefonica for over 2 years. I was getting my free national calls month after month until one day I received my factura from telefonica billing me over 600Euros!!
I realised when looking at the bill that they had charged me for all my local national calls during 2 months!!
Next thing, is I get my son to call them (he speaks spanish) to complain. They said they made a mistake but in order to solve the problem, they said I first had to pay them the FULL sum, and then they will send me a cheque with the difference. No matter how long we argued with them, there was no other way round as they would otherwise simply cut off my line altogether!
I therefore paid the full amount to avoid disconnection and today, almost 1 YEAR LATER, I am STILL waiting for the cheque!! I must say that it is unbelievable that telefonica can get away with this and no one seems to be able to do anything about it!
Since this issue, I am glad i have been recommended to contact Direct Telecom who now give me an outstanding service and Telefonica certainly has much to learn from this team of professionals who I can trust!.
Thank you DT, and I hope no one else goes through a similar experience to mine with telefonica!
January 30th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
In reply to R.B’s letter, I understand that if your using you home phone to ‘run a business’ you should have a business line and pay for your calls like everyone else in business …. I understand that telefonica offer the free local/national calls for residential phone lines with ADSL. I, like R.B. have had similar problems with bills from Telefonica re repairs but feel I must say as they are the solo suppliers of telephone lines in Spain they do a reasonably good job.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Problems with Telefonica
We have had so many starting from when we first had a phone line installed.
We arranged for Telefonica to charge our bank via direct debit, but every month they said our bank had refused payments. We spoke to our bank manager who advised us that they had had problems with Telefonica with non resident accounts. He called Telefonica several times but in the end got nowhere. He said they were talking nonsense
I kept calling the English Department at Telefonica asking them to provide proof of claiming the monthly debits. Of course the English department have an inability to understand English when it suits, but we were constantly told that it was the banks fault (other direct debits went through regularly with no problem). I kept asking for proof as the bank showed no records of their ever presenting a direct debit. One person told me they didn’t work that way and didn’t have any debit payment requests. I told them they must have something and was told I had no idea how they worked and they didn’t do that. When I suggested that the bank must have a crystal ball to know the monthly bills of all Telefonica clients, they still insisted that’s not how they worked.
The trouble was everytime we called they took details again-countless times we were told they had no details before, yet they showed on their previous statements, but they always insisted that they didn’t have them and it would be fine next month. Of course each month it failed and to make matters worse if we failed to remember to check they would cut us off for non payment leaving us with no phone and a Euro 15 reconnection fee
They did manage one direct debit, after I was told it was too late to take details for the overdue payment, but to let them have details for the next one, they did manage to debit for the month they said was impossible to do, but sadly never managed it since. We only managed to get direct debits made after we became residents and changed bank account details
I wrote four times to try to get the payments sorted and spoke to the English department every month. Never once received a satisfactory reply from the English department or an answer to my letter. I’d also asked about two additional debits on our monthly ADSL bill that we never ordered and had no clue what they were. I never found out about those either one for Euro 10 a month got stopped, but never refunded, the othetr for just under Euro 5 a month is still being charged.
We also have a problem with the lines, everytime we have heavy rain or winds the lines fail. The engineers say it’s old lines that need upgrading, but they can only request an upgrade. Repair is supposed to be within 48 hours, after 48 hours they tell you it will be repaired in another 48 hours, a couple of occasions it’s taken over 5 days to repair, I asked for credit for the days the lines weren’t available as we pay for full service, they say they won’t pay for the first 48 hours because they’re allowed that time, but if you ask they may recredit for the other days. When I asked I was told I had to wait till I got my bill before asking for a recredit.When I got my next bill I called and asked for a recredit and they said they would process it-I’m still holding my breath
Sorry tohave bored everyone to death, but sadly that sums up the kind of sttandard of service you get from Telefonica. Unfortunately you have to have their line, just try and arrange a link up with other service providers once you do
April 19th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I HAD A LINE & INTERNET CONNECTED ON MY ARRIVAL IN SOPAIN BY TELEFONICA THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FREE INSTALLATION BUT WAS NOT
THE INTERNET PACKED UP AFTER 2 WEEKS AND I RANG TELEFONICA 13 TIMES NO ONE IN BROADBAND DEPT. CAN SPEAK ENGLISH APPARENTLY !! BUT WAS ASSURED SOMONE WOULD CONTACT ME TO REPAIR NO ONE DID
THE MONEY WAS BEING TAKEN FROM MY BANK ACCOUNT AND I WAS ADVISED BY THE BANK CLEK THAT I STOP THE DIRECT DEBIT IF I WAS NOT GETTING ANY SERVICE
I THEN CONTACTED TELEFONICA TO COLLECT THEIR PHONE AND BOX BUT NO ONE EVER CAME I ALSO WROTE THEM 2 LETTERS OF COMPLAINT
I WAS DISCONNECTED AND HAVE NOW HEARD FROM A SOLICITOR THAT I WILL BE TAKEN TO COURT OVER OUTSTANDING MONEY FOR A SERVICE I NEVER GOT I WAS ALSO BEING CHARGED FOR THE LINE WHEN IT WAS DISCONNECTED
ALL THIS IS IN SPANISH HAVING BEEN TOLD THAT ALL LETTERS AND BILLS WOULD BE IN ENGLISH
I AM NOT HAPPY TO PAY THE SUM OF OVER 5OO EUROS FOR SOMETHING I NEVER HAD.
June 10th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Well it sound like I am just 1 out of so many unsatisfied client from telefonica… How is that possible that they can get away with treating their customers like this..
It took me 3 attemts( apparenly I canceled the installation right after ordering it???) 8 weeks before I finally had a line in my house… Aswell I was told that the promotion was free installation.. Up til now I have paid 400 euros.. in 2 months. I spend days waiting for tecnitians ,and on the phone for hours with telefonica, just to be told something different every time. If I would run my business the same way as telefonica, I would be without work and in prison.. I am very close to tell telefonica to stuff their fantastic product.. Good luck everybody..