# Telefonica - use them or lose them?



## Donna773 (Dec 12, 2010)

I've just been reading some positive comments from members on another thread about Telefonica's service. I'm afraid my experience with them was really negative and in the end I gave them the push. Can't go into detail here but I've just put it all in an article on my signature link. All comments welcome...even from Telefonica!


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Donna773 said:


> I've just been reading some positive comments from members on another thread about Telefonica's service. I'm afraid my experience with them was really negative and in the end I gave them the push. Can't go into detail here but I've just put it all in an article on my signature link. All comments welcome...even from Telefonica!


Firstly Donna, please dont direct people to your blog/web site in threads.


I have had no problem with Telefonica. When we moved here they took just over a week or so to install our phone and internet. We have rarely had a service breakdown. They once mistakenly took €138 from our account, but once I drew their attention to it they refunded immediately.

I dont really have any serious complaints about Telefonica, which is strange because I had all kinds of problems with BT!

The only think I would say is its bloody expensive. But thats the market here in Spain.


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Stravinsky said:


> Firstly Donna, please dont direct people to your blog/web site in threads.
> 
> 
> I have had no problem with Telefonica. When we moved here they took just over a week or so to install our phone and internet. We have rarely had a service breakdown. They once mistakenly took €138 from our account, but once I drew their attention to it they refunded immediately.
> ...


I agree with that, I have found them very efficient, however, yes, expensive they are.

I have phone, Imagen T.V, and internet connection,

Hepa


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

We signed up with Telefonica for phone line and broadband when we moved here in 2008. We had a series of technical problems due to poor cabling outside our house, leaving us with no internet right over Christmas and New Year. Their customer service was woefully poor - they even put the phone down on us a couple of times.

We wrote to the government telecommunications ombudsman listing our complaints and hey presto, three weeks later we got a refund for all the downtime. Coincidence?

They were still very expensive though, so we switched to a much cheaper supplier (Jazztel) a year ago and have had no problems at all. Telefonica (or Movistar as they are now called) still phone us every week or so offering us special deals if we go back. 

We also switched our mobiles to Yoigo, about a quarter of the price of Movistar, and received a total of 24 texts offering a better deal on the Movistar tariff if we didn't switch.

I think a lot of Telefonica/Movistar's problems were due to the speed at which Spain caught up with the rest of Europe in the use of the internet; the number of users doubled in 6 years and Telefonica simply couldn't keep up with training engineers and support staff (no such problem with sales staff however). 

Also until recently they had a monopoly, but now there is plenty of competition. Their prices have come down a lot for new clients, and their call centre staff are now much more closely monitored.

I would not personally use them again, but on the other hand I wouldn't advise new arrivals to Spain not to use them, if they are offering an attractive package.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

PS - compared to NTL in Britain, Telefonica were the model of efficiency and good service.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> Also until recently they had a monopoly, but now there is plenty of competition. Their prices have come down a lot for new clients, and their call centre staff are now much more closely monitored.
> 
> I would not personally use them again, but on the other hand I wouldn't advise new arrivals to Spain not to use them, if they are offering an attractive package.


When businesses are dealing with hundreds of thousands of clients it has to be expected that there will be a few who are dissatisfied. The only problem I had with Telefonica was their price - when our promocion came to and end our bill shot up to nearly 70 euros a month.
Now we pay less than half that and our ASDL is fast(ish) and reliable.


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

I agree with all of that. A good service but very expensive.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

I think part of the Telefónica hate came from when you tried to terminate your contract with them - it was nigh on impossible. You see, when other companies first set up Telefónica was the only one people were trying to get rid of, so it was just a general complaint against Telefónica. Now the "new" companies are established and there are good and bad stories about all of them. However Telefónica still seems to crop up with more frequency, but it could be, as others have said, just due to their prices.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

I'm in the "AAAAGGGGHHH TELEFONICA" camp! I have had nothing but trouble with them, which I wont go into again or I'll need therapy!!!

Jo xx


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

Jazztel is the telephonic equivalent of a computer virus! They call me a dozen times a day but I can't complain. I derive much fun from responding in various ways as well as being able to make good use of my 'colloquial' Spanish. 

For me Telefónica rules.


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## Guest (Dec 14, 2010)

I have had no problems with Telefonica what so ever, neither technical or billing, but many people I know have. They must mess up pretty often and I must add that the staff in their Moviestar/Telefonica shops are extremely unhelpful in most cases, you must instead dial the "magic" number, the good thing with that one is that, if your Spanish is poor, you can get an English, French or German speaking person ol, maybe more languages? (Ofc it is not that easy to dial the number if your phone does not work...).


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## dunmovin (Dec 19, 2008)

VidaTombola said:


> I have had no problems with Telefonica what so ever, neither technical or billing, but many people I know have. They must mess up pretty often and I must add that the staff in their Moviestar/Telefonica shops are extremely unhelpful in most cases, you must instead dial the "magic" number, the good thing with that one is that, if your Spanish is poor, you can get an English, French or German speaking person ol, maybe more languages? (Ofc it is not that easy to dial the number if your phone does not work...).


The people in the shops are just ordinary people trying to make a living, BUT and it's huge but... they don't work for telefonica. The shops are mostly franchise operations and the staff in those shops are just sales people with no actual connection to the company. A while back, when I was in a telefonica shop, sorting out a minor problem, I had to explain this to a very irrate, red faced Brit, who was shouting at the girl, demanding to see the complaint book and lodge a complaint about the technician who made 5 appointments and never turned up.

Telefonica was and in one respect, still is, a monopoly company.Although Spain allows other service providers, the lines, exchanges and other infrastructure of Spain's telephone network is still under the total control of telefrustration.

what that means to Joe Public, is that the other service providers can only offer you what telefu()up will allow them to, reducing them to no more than contract sellers and billing agents. With their large purchasing, the others may be able to offer you a better deal, but in the end, you are still at the mercy of "gits at tele _who gives a sh!! about customers?_ fonica".

I used to think PCCW in Hong Kong was the most obtuse company I had ever dealt with.... then I found telefonica. PCCW were marvels by comparison.

But ... this is Spain, this is how it works here and if you want to live here, then it's just something you have to put up with


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## Guest (Dec 15, 2010)

yeah, Dunmov, same in Sweden, there it's called Telia, own the lines etc, the old state company, same thing. I just wanted to say that I personally have not had problems with their services, but I may have problems with how they use their power.

And yes, people in the shops may be franchise, so much more reason to be customer-friendly? Or? Haha, in every dictionary I have searched the word "service" does not exist in Spanish.


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## dunmovin (Dec 19, 2008)

VidaTombola said:


> yeah, Dunmov, same in Sweden, there it's called Telia, own the lines etc, the old state company, same thing. I just wanted to say that I personally have not had problems with their services, but I may have problems with how they use their power.
> 
> And yes, people in the shops may be franchise, so much more reason to be customer-friendly? Or? Haha, in every dictionary I have searched the word "service" does not exist in Spanish.


what you HAVE to remember is that the people in the shops are only sales people, not connected to the dreaded telefonica. They work for a franchise company, which has no influence over what telefrustrion does. They are paid employees of a company(doing a job) which is a barrier between you and telefonica. Who sold you the contract? It wasn't telefonica, but a franchise, ergo telelfonica are "off the hook" for any shortcommings in that contract and that is what you will find all the way down the line. 

You can't "nail down" a single company, director or person who is at fault for this


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

If you have a bad experience with a company you moan about it and warn people off. If you've had a good experience, you enthuse about it to everyone.
If you just get normal, run -of-the -mill service, you don't mention it.
That's life.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

VidaTombola said:


> I have had no problems with Telefonica what so ever, neither technical or billing, but many people I know have. They must mess up pretty often and I must add that the staff in their Moviestar/Telefonica shops are extremely unhelpful in most cases, you must instead dial the "magic" number, the good thing with that one is that, if your Spanish is poor, you can get an English, French or German speaking person ol, maybe more languages? (Ofc it is not that easy to dial the number if your phone does not work...).


The 1004 number has English-speaking staff. But if you are having problems with your internet you have to ring an "averias" 902 number and speak in Spanish. The English-speaking sales staff on the 1004 number are not allowed to interpret for you when talking to the engineer.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> The 1004 number has English-speaking staff. But if you are having problems with your internet you have to ring an "averias" 902 number and speak in Spanish. The English-speaking sales staff on the 1004 number are not allowed to interpret for you when talking to the engineer.



Oh...I didn't know that.
I will now take down my very heavy Spanish-English dictionary compile a list of technical terms that may come in useful and place it by the phone.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> Oh...I didn't know that.
> I will now take down my very heavy Spanish-English dictionary compile a list of technical terms that may come in useful and place it by the phone.


Our router used to conk out every time we had a thunderstorm. I just kept wailing "_mi router inalambrico no funciona_" (my wireless router isn´t working) in my best blonde voice until they promised to _enviar un tecnico al domicilio _(send a technician to the house). 

My OH was a systems engineer in a previous life and used to try and analyse the problems for them, but sadly my dumb blonde tactics got better results in the long run!


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## djfwells (Sep 28, 2009)

I had been a paying client of Telefonica's for 5 years when I called them and asked if I could upgrade my line. They advised me that my line (the number I was calling on) didn't exist, nor did my address. I said in that case could you please refund me the 2'500 euros that I had spent over the last 5 years. It took them 2 weeks to call me back to let me know that they had 'found me', and that, no, I couldn't upgrade.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

djfwells said:


> I had been a paying client of Telefonica's for 5 years when I called them and asked if I could upgrade my line. They advised me that my line (the number I was calling on) didn't exist, nor did my address. I said in that case could you please refund me the 2'500 euros that I had spent over the last 5 years. It took them 2 weeks to call me back to let me know that they had 'found me', and that, no, I couldn't upgrade.


Hahaha.
That made me smile.
Thanks


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## Guest (Dec 15, 2010)

just to add to confusion: the 13th ever discovered computer virus was named "Telefonica". In 88/89. It did attempt to attack Telefonica. I was working with these things at the time, lol, not writing them, but disassembling them etc. The Telefonica hate club is an old establishment full of tradition )


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## Linda Murphy (Feb 9, 2013)

Telefonica - that is a swear word. Telephone and internet wonderful when working but when there is a complaint it is impossible as none of the people at 1004 actually care. I used to have an internet speed of 1.5mg. which is not fast but as I live fairly rural I accepted it but suddenly it has gone down to .850kpbs which is totally unacceptable. I have phoned 1004 and they really don't care and have told me that I never got 1.5mg. I really take exception to be called a liar, but not a lot I can do as most of the other providers except Jazztel seemingly, all use the Telefonica infrastructure but any different ideas would be much appreciated.


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

Telefónica are the prime example of why monopolies are a bad thing for the consumer.

They are nothing short than a bunch of theives, and they will never knowingly see another cent of mine as long as I live.

Just in case you were wondering, I vote "lose them".....


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## Trubrit (Nov 24, 2010)

Telefonica for me every time, although I have only been in Spain 2 years and moved house 3 times, Telefonica moved my service quickly and efficiently. When I last moved, the poor engineer spent 4 hours threading cables through 2 streets and an hour chiseling through my concrete driveway because the wonderful Spanish builders had put 10cms of concrete over the connection box. this is why I love Spain so much, it is just like living in a Monty Python sketch.


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Ive never had a problem with Telefonica. The only reason I moved away from them was they couldnt give me the speed I wanted but still charged me the price that someone with twice the speed got. So I went for Wimax and got 2 Mb for half the price


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

We left telefonica/movistar once...for less than a month.
My only whinge is that every year when my annual contract expires I have to threaten them with leaving again before they renew at the same price...47 euros inc. IVA, which seems an awful waste of time and money when they could just give me a fixed permanent deal without the calls and paperwork.
To me 47 euros is an OK price as it includes free calls wiithin Spain and I use this service a lot.


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## Linda Murphy (Feb 9, 2013)

Goodness, I have never heard of a temporary contract which needs renewing once a year. I have been with them for over 10 years and everything just carried on until I hit these latest problems with my internet speed. I wish they had contacted me once a year as I have been paying 13 euros more a month than everyone else for the last two years for a much poorer service.


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

Linda Murphy said:


> Goodness, I have never heard of a temporary contract which needs renewing once a year. I have been with them for over 10 years and everything just carried on until I hit these latest problems with my internet speed. I wish they had contacted me once a year as I have been paying 13 euros more a month than everyone else for the last two years for a much poorer service.


Come to think of it I have never heard that one myself and I have been with Telefonica/Movistar for 18years.The only reason I can think of is that these people are living in rented accommodation and they don't do a runner owing money.I think whichever company we use you will always have people finding a gripe with them.Also there are a few companies around at the moment advertising mega speeds but when you inquire it's a completely different story.I know a couple of weeks ago my router went on the blink.I rang Movistar and 24hours later I had a brand new router which cost me 5euros for postage.


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