# WANTED: Phone plus internet



## parispete (Jun 5, 2008)

First I bought me a little slice of Spain, then needed a phone with internet. So I went to Phone House and got stitched up with a router that didn´t work and a refusal to exchange or repair. So I cancelled and went to Telefonica. Within a month I was getting another person´s calls and my number was changed. My Spanish is basic, so they said they´d call back in English. No call - plus my line is so crackly the phone is useless. So I´m cancelling tomorrow. Question now is what next? In Spain nothing seems to work. Does anyone have any bright ideas?
I live in La Carihuela, near Torremolinos.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

parispete said:


> First I bought me a little slice of Spain, then needed a phone with internet. So I went to Phone House and got stitched up with a router that didn´t work and a refusal to exchange or repair. So I cancelled and went to Telefonica. Within a month I was getting another person´s calls and my number was changed. My Spanish is basic, so they said they´d call back in English. No call - plus my line is so crackly the phone is useless. So I´m cancelling tomorrow. Question now is what next? In Spain nothing seems to work. Does anyone have any bright ideas?
> I live in La Carihuela, near Torremolinos.


I would have thought you'd have no trouble there at all??!? I have to say that I can barely say the word "telefonica" cos they have caused me so much trouble.

Have you any friends nearby or neighbours you could ask? see what they use or if they can speak spanish well enough to help you communicate with telefonica

Jo x


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## Xose (Dec 10, 2008)

parispete said:


> First I bought me a little slice of Spain, then needed a phone with internet. So I went to Phone House and got stitched up with a router that didn´t work and a refusal to exchange or repair. So I cancelled and went to Telefonica. Within a month I was getting another person´s calls and my number was changed. My Spanish is basic, so they said they´d call back in English. No call - plus my line is so crackly the phone is useless. So I´m cancelling tomorrow. Question now is what next? In Spain nothing seems to work. Does anyone have any bright ideas?
> I live in La Carihuela, near Torremolinos.


I had that problem - another person's old number, and in my case made worse by him being a plumber and his advertising still up in town. Not fun!!
They changed my number and appart from a couple of calls for the person who used to have it, no probs. Clearly they assign old numbers and if the old person was a small business, an Autonomo, you have a few interesting weeks. But they did change it without problems.

Recently, following the major storms up here, we had bad static problems on our line, and so ADSL was running a bit erratic if at all and I couldn't hold a conversation. Called 1002 (Telefonica techies) and got a reference number. If they don't volunteer this, ask for it. Called them every 2 days to hassle them and blasted their 24/48 hrs commitment. All the time knowing that the storm had made their lifes hell for the two weeks prior, but also knowing that without hassling in Spain, you get nowhere fast.

Someone who speaks Spanish has to call 1002 to report the static on your line - with your details handy. Then keep hassling them. In my experience, they responded well to that kind of pressure. Oh, and don't let them change your reference number once they give it to you on the first call. This is very important as it shows in their internal systems how long the incident has been open without technician fix. This makes good reading for management and the techies don't like it - so they might try to re-issue a new number after the 48 hrs, don't let them and refer back to the original number and date in all calls.

Bottom line, without Spanish, you're going to have problems with service providers when a problem arises.

Good luck.


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## Basar (Aug 26, 2008)

Telefonica has been excellent for phone and internet in my case. They connected me in 20 hours (central Madrid), and I can max my bandwidth without restrictions, no problems. They also have English speaking personnel, you have to say English when you call them (to the robotic voice nevertheless). Jeje. 

By the way, I heard of this site called telefonicainenglish.com and had awful horror stories with them ripping people off. Be careful.


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## DROOBY (Aug 5, 2008)

parispete said:


> First I bought me a little slice of Spain, then needed a phone with internet. So I went to Phone House and got stitched up with a router that didn´t work and a refusal to exchange or repair. So I cancelled and went to Telefonica. Within a month I was getting another person´s calls and my number was changed. My Spanish is basic, so they said they´d call back in English. No call - plus my line is so crackly the phone is useless. So I´m cancelling tomorrow. Question now is what next? In Spain nothing seems to work. Does anyone have any bright ideas?
> I live in La Carihuela, near Torremolinos.



Hi There,
I Installed hi speed wireless internet. Fantastic value and npo land line needed. 29 euro a month no limits and i use skype for all my calls costs 4,50 a month to subscribe for european calls free of charge any time. I also have a british and spanish number so people back home can phone at local rate, Just been on the phone for over an hour to Canada only cost 97cents
Alot of people around this area at least are switching to it great value for money


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## Pasanada (Feb 5, 2008)

Basar said:


> By the way, I heard of this site called telefonicainenglish.com and had awful horror stories with them ripping people off. Be careful.


Telefonicainenglish.com are NOT part of the Telefonica group.

I suggest the OP contacts Steve Hall on here; he's a comms guru.....and can tell a horror story or a million about Telefonica....or Crappy-fonica as we know them!

Good luck!


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## parispete (Jun 5, 2008)

Thanks for all your good advice, the best of which is simply to forget Telefonica if you need a phone around Malaga. The best advice seems to be to go for wireless internet plus Skype, or in my case, my Orange mobile works just fine.
Does anyone know a good wireless broadband company around Malaga?


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## DROOBY (Aug 5, 2008)

parispete said:


> Thanks for all your good advice, the best of which is simply to forget Telefonica if you need a phone around Malaga. The best advice seems to be to go for wireless internet plus Skype, or in my case, my Orange mobile works just fine.
> Does anyone know a good wireless broadband company around Malaga?


Not sure if i'm allowed to say but nerjasolutions done mine they came well recommended and sure they cover malaga.

Cheers
D


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## parispete (Jun 5, 2008)

*Internet and phone*

Thanks heaps, Drooby. I´ll get in touch and see if they can do something for me.


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## chris(madrid) (Mar 23, 2008)

Pasanada said:


> ....and can tell a horror story or a million about Telefonica....


Thing is - I'm beginning to think this is part myth and/or something more and more isolated by region, P. 

Near us Telefonica is really more than adequate. In fact more and more folk who took on a different provider are reverting. And in the wilds of deepest darkest rural Spain - the service is often excellent. 

At work we're "testing" an alternative - so far the technical results are less than encouraging. However I'll put money on us swapping - and not because TF is poor.

We've a good friend who was a union rep in TF. His stories explain sometimes why TF didn't do things - They were actively blocked to allow the others a foothold. This was seen as poor service. In fact it was poor government.

TF now has an interesting business solution - they pro actively support other operators in areas they don't currently cover well (new areas). It's clever on a couple of levels. 

I personally dislike all this Wifi - I'm not paranoid about it, but in the same way mobile antennas are banned from areas around schools - I'm not yet sure it's that safe. I'm old enough to be able to realise that just because somebody says it's safe - does not mean it is. There's often another agenda in there.


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## SteveHall (Oct 17, 2008)

I can absolutely GUARANTEE that there are certain areas where Teléfónica are appaling. South of Alicante and rural Murcia are two that come to mind. After 7 years of daily battles with them I am (almost) a beaten man. Their dirty tricks department is an industry legend (globally) and remember this is a company where two of the past four presidents have ended in prison. 

Depsite being part of the EU and thus obliged to follow its laws re de-regulation, Spain (=Telefónica) simply failed to start the process of breaking down the telecom monopoly 
When Brussels INSISTED Telefónica de-regulate and allow other licensed operators to compete, let's remember what happened. Yes, Telefónica set up another company themselves(Retevison) and started to offer services at HIGHER prices!

Brussels got wind of this, fined them (again) and only at that stage did people like Spantel, Vicom eventually get to play on a level (-ish) playing field. All that said they were hit by another record fine 18 months ago 151 million euros for yet another anti-trust crime. (price rigging at its most blatant!) 

It's sad really as technically Telefónica are quite sound - they just need to behave in a more transparent manner and secondly speed up the roll out of genuinely hi-sppeed ADSL! 

(I broke off this email to argue with the wholesale billing department of France Telecom - don't even get me started on them!)


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## chris(madrid) (Mar 23, 2008)

SteveHall said:


> they just need to .... speed up the roll out of genuinely hi-sppeed ADSL!


Amen to that - They seem to be having SERIOUS problems en OpticFibre conection to domestic/small business users. To be fair so do others who core business is based on fibre.


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## Suenneil (Feb 17, 2009)

*plesantly surprised!*

Hi all .... first time Ive posted on here - although have to admit to reading the posts pretty regularly.

I just wanted to say that we have been pleasantly surprised at Telefonica recently! Having been in Spain just over 4 years our previous experience of them was dire!! hence we switched to a mobile internet via vodaphone so we would have to deal with the nightmare that was telefonica ever again ... however! I truly believe that its easy for me and others to post negative stuff .... but just as important to give praise when its due ! 
Having felt conned with the diabolical speed of the mobile connect through vodaphone at a cost of more than 40 euros a month - the husband was fed up of pulling his remaining hair out trying to make it run quicker!! - so last week we called telefonica to get a line installed so we could then set up ADSL via an additional provider .... 1004 took my call in English - was most polite and thorough in asking what we needed etc .... gave me a reference number and said the line would be installed in 28 days max. They did it in 24 hours!!! and even called yesterday (customer services section) to check we were happy and was everything working ok!
So to say we are pleasantly surprised is perhaps and understatement at the moment! (we are in Estepona by the way).


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## SteveHall (Oct 17, 2008)

Praise where it is due! I only wish I heard it more than every Preston Guild. 

Think I'll go and take a little nap now!

Seriously, they CAN do it professionally and it's good to hear something positive about Spanish telecoms.


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## Xose (Dec 10, 2008)

chris(madrid) said:


> Thing is - I'm beginning to think this is part myth and/or something more and more isolated by region, P.
> 
> Near us Telefonica is really more than adequate. In fact more and more folk who took on a different provider are reverting. And in the wilds of deepest darkest rural Spain - the service is often excellent.
> 
> ...


Not to mention who's doing what with your data !!

Totally agree with you. I hate TF like anyone else when something goes wrong, but to be honest, they put things right fairly sharpish and are clearly aware of the opening market. The "Have a nice day" element of their call centres is getting better than it used to be. Mind you, I have the privilage of selecting the "Gallego" option on their auto reply system so as not to end up speaking to someone in South America or wherever.

As for WiFi WANs or VPN's, I have to trust the likes of TF, Orange and the like. But my own local WiFi router gives me enough security concerns without worrying who's doing what with my unincripted passwords and data in general without worrying too much about the ISP.


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## Xose (Dec 10, 2008)

SteveHall said:


> ......
> (I broke off this email to argue with the wholesale billing department of France Telecom - don't even get me started on them!)


Saw the news on YA.COM getting the "worst company for complaints" for 2008 with the Telecoms Consumer protection department. Looks like France Telecom aren't doing to well in the private sector here at the moment.


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## SteveHall (Oct 17, 2008)

France Telecom have the dubious distinction of owning Orange. 

I used to be quite a francophile until then


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## parispete (Jun 5, 2008)

*Spanish Internet Wanted*

You're not wrong there, Steve - the phone/internet business is a jungle. 
One thing I am fascinated by is Wireless Internet. There a quite a few small setups doing it around Malaga and it seems just what I need, since I am away from my flat for long stretches, during which time one pays nothing. I have a large roof parabola for my satellite TV, so could this be used? Otherwise, what is a good sort of indoor/outdoor antenna to use? It's just for emails and being top floor with no big buildings around, the reception should be no problem.
If you could steer me towards a reliable company, I'd be most grateful


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## mdavidfrost (Aug 13, 2011)

*Internet Without Phone Line*



parispete said:


> Thanks for all your good advice, the best of which is simply to forget Telefonica if you need a phone around Malaga. The best advice seems to be to go for wireless internet plus Skype, or in my case, my Orange mobile works just fine.
> Does anyone know a good wireless broadband company around Malaga?


I'm in the process of returning to Málaga and needed Internet and a landline.

Within the city of Málaga the following are available:


Internet from Instanet, through The Phone House, using a wireless router which doesn't need a phone line, and costs about €35 per month without a contract, or a bit less with a contract.

A mobile from Vodafone with both a landline number and a mobile number. Cost about €20 per month, which is used up on mobile calls at the rate of 8 cents per minute, with a generous allowance of free minutes on the landline number.

David


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## parispete (Jun 5, 2008)

*Thanks, Dave, I'll check that info out*



mdavidfrost said:


> I'm in the process of returning to Málaga and needed Internet and a landline.
> 
> 
> Thanks Dave, I'm home in Oz at at the moment, but I'll check those tips out when I get back,
> ...




Thanks, Dave, I'll check those good ideas out when I'm back in Malaga


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