# Movistar charges



## DunWorkin

We recently noticed that the credits on our 'pay as you go' mobile phone were going down even though we have not made any calls.

We queried this with Movistar and they said it was not possible. We must have made calls.

I have now got a list of all charges to our phone in the past month and every day there is a charge of €1.42 labelled 'Data Management SL NVIA' for a received SMS.

We have never subscribed to this and do not want it.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know how I can stop these charges?


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## nigele2

DunWorkin said:


> We recently noticed that the credits on our 'pay as you go' mobile phone were going down even though we have not made any calls.
> 
> We queried this with Movistar and they said it was not possible. We must have made calls.
> 
> I have now got a list of all charges to our phone in the past month and every day there is a charge of €1.42 labelled 'Data Management SL NVIA' for a received SMS.
> 
> We have never subscribed to this and do not want it.
> 
> Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know how I can stop these charges?


We had something similar on my MILs vodafone that started even before she had a contract. In our case vodafone said it was our problem and had we not got very stroppy then it would have remained so. 

Sadly in Spain lying corporates are common place. We did get some help from the consumers association but it took many months.

Good luck and do not weaken


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## Alcalaina

DunWorkin said:


> We recently noticed that the credits on our 'pay as you go' mobile phone were going down even though we have not made any calls.
> 
> We queried this with Movistar and they said it was not possible. We must have made calls.
> 
> I have now got a list of all charges to our phone in the past month and every day there is a charge of €1.42 labelled 'Data Management SL NVIA' for a received SMS.
> 
> We have never subscribed to this and do not want it.
> 
> Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know how I can stop these charges?


We had exactly the same problem! My husband never used his phone, but kept running out of credit. We switched to another company (Yoigo) and not only are they one-third of the price but you can check your account online at any time, free of charge (Movistar charge 50 cents for this).

Just ring Movistar and tell them if they don't stop it and refund your money you will switch to another company. Even if you don't want to do this, it will probably fire them into action. They are losing customers hand over fist at the moment.


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## gus-lopez

Some replies on here might help.http://www.expatforum.com/expats/sp...pain/66219-pay-you-go-scam-help-required.html


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## nigele2

gus-lopez said:


> Some replies on here might help.http://www.expatforum.com/expats/sp...pain/66219-pay-you-go-scam-help-required.html


Basically you are dealing with an endemic spanish problem IMHO. Corruption is now so commonplace in spain that now people who would otherwise be honest justify being dishonest as there is no point fighting the system or missing out. The problem for the consumer is if all suppliers of a sector are corrupt then what can one do?

I think beyond naming and shaming you should publicize good service. Many people seem to be suggesting that Yoigo are good and as I have heard nothing bad about them I am going to give them a try. Tx the recommenders  

The only other thought is when destroying your unwanted sim do it in the agents shop very verbally and visually when they have maximum prospects present.

One final thought I have a dongle from Movistar which had a monthly rental of 5 Euros (mas o menos) and a daily charge. It is for unplanned but very infrequent but important use. However I told them I would return it as the rent was too high. They replied that they would offer it rent free. Guess they are open to negotiation


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## Alcalaina

nigele2 said:


> Basically you are dealing with an endemic spanish problem IMHO. Corruption is now so commonplace in spain that now people who would otherwise be honest justify being dishonest as there is no point fighting the system or missing out. The problem for the consumer is if all suppliers of a sector are corrupt then what can one do?


Sorry, I can't let that one go by without comment. 

(a) Corruption in Spain is less common than it used to be - and anyway, this isn't corruption, it's shabby business practice and bad service. Of course you can and should complain and there are plenty of ways to do so. We wrote to the government telecommunications ombudsman about Telefonica and hey presto - we were refunded with a month's worth of ADSL rental for December 2008 when we had daily cuts in the service.

(b) Bad practice in Spain is no worse than anywhere else - ever tried dealing with NTL in the UK? Ryanair?? 

(c) Most Spanish companies do *not* give bad service. Don't tar them all with the same brush.


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## DunWorkin

I have read good comments about Yoigo. What is their coverage like? We used to be with Vodafone but around here is much less than Movistar.

We don't really want to change our number if there is another way.


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## nigele2

DunWorkin said:


> I have read good comments about Yoigo. What is their coverage like? We used to be with Vodafone but around here is much less than Movistar.
> 
> We don't really want to change our number if there is another way.


No reason why you shouldn't keep the same number. This takes 5 days max and is a well documented procedure. Just talk to the new provider and they are obliged to process it.


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## thrax

We had Moviestar for a few months on PAYG but it was really poor with coverage dropping out all the time. Once we were here permanently we did some research and everything pointed to Yoigo and we are now with them and it is excellent. Coverage so far has bee very good and we have had no problems, apart from not being able to figure out how to use the damn phone.... but that's another story.


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## Beachcomber

These messages are sometimes the result of having given your mobile number when signing up for something on the internet. If this is the case you may continue to receive them if you change your provider without changing the number.


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## gus-lopez

See how bad it is by googling 'nueva estafa de vodaphone' , ( or movistar) . There's pages to look at from the locals. Estafa =scam.


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## DunWorkin

Just to give you an update on the SMS messages we were receiving and being charged €1.42 a day for.

A Spanish friend of ours had the same problem recently with their mobile. Vodafone were more helpful than Movistar and told him how to get rid of the messages.

You need to find the number of the company sending the messages and then text 'BAJA' (means unsubscribe). Our friend did this for us and it appears the calls have stopped.

Why couldn't Movistar have helped us with this? 
How can the company legally make money this way by sending messages to people's phones? 

I still do not know how we managed to get subscribed but will certainly be more careful in future.


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## gus-lopez

I seem to recall that if they send you a message & you open it . It automatically sends a reply to them & from then on you are charged each time you receive a message whether you open it or not.


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## LilyM

I've been having the same problem!
I bought a SIM on Saturday morning, it cost me €15 but had €15 worth of free calls, I was told. This seemed a good deal. Today, having sent 3 texts and made a single, 2 minute call, I have no credit. I kept getting texts telling me my credit had gone down, but I don't speak Spanish very well yet, so I didn't realise what was happening until last night when a friend translated for me. I now have no credit to contact potential employers (I'm on a job hunt and have a lot of calls to return) or to get in touch with friends who have come out to visit me :-( Furious!


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## snikpoh

LilyM said:


> I've been having the same problem!
> I bought a SIM on Saturday morning, it cost me €15 but had €15 worth of free calls, I was told. This seemed a good deal. Today, having sent 3 texts and made a single, 2 minute call, I have no credit. I kept getting texts telling me my credit had gone down, but I don't speak Spanish very well yet, so I didn't realise what was happening until last night when a friend translated for me. I now have no credit to contact potential employers (I'm on a job hunt and have a lot of calls to return) or to get in touch with friends who have come out to visit me :-( Furious!


I seem to recall that you have to phone their customer service group to get the credit registered.

Try ringing 1004 (free call) from your mobile and ask for someone who speaks English.


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## LilyM

Thank you, called them and they say my phone has been connecting to the Internet. I told them the Wi-Fi is off, roaming is off and I deleted all my apps when I arrived so I don't understand how, but they said I have been on the Internet. Anyway, they have blocked it from their end, so hopefully that will help, but they didn't refund my credit or anything. I think they said I have €0.67 credit now, and as I'm broke that will have to last me til next month!


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## JaneyO

Beachcomber said:


> These messages are sometimes the result of having given your mobile number when signing up for something on the internet. If this is the case you may continue to receive them if you change your provider without changing the number.


My friend had the same problem with Vodaphone. It took 6 visits to the shop each time they said they had blocked the messages but nothing happened. They did get it blocked eventually and the money was refunded but that took a long time. They can do this for you you need to persist.


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## Alcalaina

If you don't want internet on your phone, there are now contracts so cheap that it makes sense to do that rather than pay as you go. I have one with Yoigo which is €6 a month - I've never gone beyond that limit. You can call or text international (e.g. +44) numbers for the same price as national ones. 

Orange have Ardilla 4, just 4€ a month but they do charge more for dialling and texting international numbers.

Movistar charge 78 cents inc tax to text an international number, even a UK phone used in Spain. That's outrageous and can really eat your credit! It's much better to use Skype for sending texts, they are around 10 cents each depending on the country.


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## snikpoh

Alcalaina said:


> If you don't want internet on your phone, there are now contracts so cheap that it makes sense to do that rather than pay as you go. I have one with Yoigo which is €6 a month - I've never gone beyond that limit. You can call or text international (e.g. +44) numbers for the same price as national ones.
> 
> Orange have Ardilla 4, just 4€ a month but they do charge more for dialling and texting international numbers.
> 
> Movistar charge 78 cents inc tax to text an international number, even a UK phone used in Spain. That's outrageous and can really eat your credit! It's much better to use Skype for sending texts, they are around 10 cents each depending on the country.


Better still, use 'whatsapp' - it's free! 

Tell all your friends and family who have 'modern' phones to install the app.


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## zenkarma

DunWorkin said:


> Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know how I can stop these charges?


In my honest opinion if you want the fastest, easiest, least hassle free solution simply switch to a different company and new SIM. Write off the credit on the existing SIM and simply switch to a new one. Sorted!

Annoying I know having to write off whatever credit is left on the SIM, but they can't keep sending you silly £1.42 SMS messages if there's no credit left to pay for them!

You could save yourself a lot of aggro doing it that way.


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## doubledonn

DunWorkin said:


> We recently noticed that the credits on our 'pay as you go' mobile phone were going down even though we have not made any calls.
> 
> We queried this with Movistar and they said it was not possible. We must have made calls.
> 
> I have now got a list of all charges to our phone in the past month and every day there is a charge of €1.42 labelled 'Data Management SL NVIA' for a received SMS.
> 
> We have never subscribed to this and do not want it.
> 
> Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know how I can stop these charges?


having the same experience as the phone is being recharged and not in use the credit went down 3 Euros Its not possible to keep any money on the phone.


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## cllve

Now that roaming charges within Europe have been reduced and will dissapear next year consider a UK PAYG. My wife and I both have Tesco PAYG phones and recently when she was in the UK we were charged, mobile to mobile, either Spain to England or visa versa 4p connection charge plus 4p per min, and only 1p per text message. 
I wasn't charged for receiving calls either.

Also we only need to make one call every 6 months to keep our line. Bye the way the phones were only £10 each from the supermarket.

Now we are both in Spain we need to see the charges when calling each other's mobile here. I will post the results.


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