# Got a problem with your phone/ internet?



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Back in the land of the living - temporarily at least!!
On the 13th of July a digger cut through our, and several neighbours telephone lines. Yesterday, 3 weeks to the day, we managed to get a provisional line after hours of futile telephone conversations, 5 visits from technicians, 2 letters of complaint and a burofax (a kind of notarized letter). Of course this could all end at any time because it's provisional and Telefónica are still supposed to dig everything up and re-lay the line...
Anyway, yesterday I was talking to a friend who is having hige problems with Vodaphone and she told me about this 
Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones - Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones
Hard as it may be to believe, this is a page set up by the _*Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio*_ to guide consumers through the complaint procedure to a telephone company, such is the number of complaints. 

Incredible.

Why don't they just pass a few laws and then see that they are adhered to???


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Back in the land of the living - temporarily at least!!
> On the 13th of July a digger cut through our, and several neighbours telephone lines. Yesterday, 3 weeks to the day, we managed to get a provisional line after hours of futile telephone conversations, 5 visits from technicians, 2 letters of complaint and a burofax (a kind of notarized letter). Of course this could all end at any time because it's provisional and Telefónica are still supposed to dig everything up and re-lay the line...
> Anyway, yesterday I was talking to a friend who is having hige problems with Vodaphone and she told me about this
> Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones - Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones
> ...


pass 


I'm going to copy your useful post to the useful links sticky


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Back in the land of the living - temporarily at least!!
> On the 13th of July a digger cut through our, and several neighbours telephone lines. Yesterday, 3 weeks to the day, we managed to get a provisional line after hours of futile telephone conversations, 5 visits from technicians, 2 letters of complaint and a burofax (a kind of notarized letter). Of course this could all end at any time because it's provisional and Telefónica are still supposed to dig everything up and re-lay the line...
> Anyway, yesterday I was talking to a friend who is having hige problems with Vodaphone and she told me about this
> Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones - Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones
> ...


We used this when we were having problems with Telefonica a few years ago and it did the trick, we got refunded everything we asked for.

It's a consumer protection service similar to OffTel in the UK, (but not so user-friendly). Unfortunately you can't rely on companies to adhere to the law unless someone waves a stick at them!


----------



## Guest (Aug 4, 2011)

THANK YOU. 

The man has gone through a nightmare with Vodafone and we're anxiously awaiting his contract to expire in October. That will be a day to celebrate!! 

Sorry to hear about the talented digger. I don't know what I would've done! Glad to see you reconnected!


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

I got the info a bit too late to try it out, but, as I'm not convinced that our phone problems are well and truly sorted I'll be putting this web into my "favourites". It looks like it'll take a bit of wading through, but when you consider that nobody - Spanish or otherwise, technicians, call centre agents, customer attentions service - nobody knows what to do, well, it's worth studying this page.
I'm sending the link to everyone I know in Spain as I think people just don't know about what to do and this page should have the answers.


----------



## lovethesun (Oct 19, 2010)

I am a bit surprised, as it's set up by the ministry for tourism, that there is no option to change to different languages on the website.


----------



## lovethesun (Oct 19, 2010)

*Telefonica complaints*

Right that's it!!!! I've now had enough of telefonica and am taking this further, if I knew how???? 
I am _still _being billed for my last telephone line and I moved in March. I have repeatedly rung them and now have 6 pages containing the names of all the people I spoke to, what was said and the time and date of call. I must have spent hours on the phone to them. Every time they have taken the money from my bank, I just called it back again. They then played a crafty and changed the date they took it out of my bank but luckily my friend works in bank and informed me. I am sick of constantly checking my bank account and thinking about [email protected][email protected]!...Telefonica. A couple of weeks ago I cancelled the direct debit and now they have sent a bill to my new apartment for the 3 months 'outstanding' for the old address that I had moved from. The line in my new apartment that I moved to in May is with them, the thick b.......s!
So now they have pushed me too far, I have even spoken to a 'supervisor' and still no joy. I want to know who the top guy is at telefonica who I write a letter of complaint to. My new landlord is a solicitor and I am even thinking of asking him if I can threaten to put a claim in for compensation for the stress caused over the past few months, my time wasted on the phone to them etc etc. 
Anyway my question is, please can someone give me the name and address of the person who I contact to sort this mess out once and for all, thanks.


----------



## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

If all else has failed try here:

Información general - Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones


----------



## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

I see this link has already been given.

The address of the head office of Telefónica is:

Telefónica de España S.A.U.
Gran Vía 28
28013 Madrid

César Alierta Izuel is the 'Presidente Ejecutivo' and Julio Linares López is the 'Consejero Delegado' so you could send a letter to one and copy it to the other but send it 'certificado con acuse de recibo' and if you are unable to write more or less perfect Spanish get it properly translated


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

lovethesun said:


> I am a bit surprised, as it's set up by the ministry for tourism, that there is no option to change to different languages on the website.


I guess they think that not many tourists are going to make complaints about the telephone service 
Seriously, it's Spain. They have only recently got around to sticking up notices in Arabic policia de extranjería offices. In Barajas international Airport in Madrid you may see the occasional sign in English, but nothing more.
Try the link that Beachcomber and I have given.
We found that a bureufax made the difference, although it's expensive. Personally, I think it should be sent to the customer service department as I don't think the high ups deign to go to the offices...


----------



## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

I have written to the executive director on two occasions and both times received a reply from an underling to whom the letter had been passed for action.

On both occasions my particular problem was resolved within days. 

In order to ask for a receipt that the letter has been delivered (acuse de recibo) you need a name to which to address it. I don't think sending it to a department generally would have the same effect.


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Beachcomber said:


> I have written to the executive director on two occasions and both times received a reply from an underling to whom the letter had been passed for action.
> 
> On both occasions my particular problem was resolved within days.
> 
> In order to ask for a receipt that the letter has been delivered (acuse de recibo) you need a name to which to address it. I don't think sending it to a department generally would have the same effect.


Well, that's good to know Beachcomber.
I was dealing with Orange and we sent the burofax to an Apartado de Correo which was the address they had for their customer service department. A burofax has to be received by the person you address it to, in this case no one, but we did recieve confirmation that it had been received by Señor so and so and his ID number. That afternoon a technician came round. And the next day he came twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon after 3 weeks of nothing. A coincidence??
We were advised that a burofax was the best way to prove that correspondence had arrived and been seen by the correct person.


----------



## lovethesun (Oct 19, 2010)

Beachcomber said:


> I see this link has already been given.
> 
> The address of the head office of Telefónica is:
> 
> ...


Thanks a lot for that info Beachcomber, so am I better writing to these two people raher than to that ministry tourism palce and which one of these two guys is the main one to write to and which one the copy and am I better writing to these as opposed to the ministry tourism mentioned in this thread.


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

lovethesun said:


> Thanks a lot for that info Beachcomber, so am I better writing to these two people raher than to that ministry tourism palce and which one of these two guys is the main one to write to and which one the copy and am I better writing to these as opposed to the ministry tourism mentioned in this thread.


Lovethesun - the suggestion is not to write to the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, but to look at the web page that they have which gives information about what steps to take if you have a complaint about a telephone company 
When I was having problems I phoned and wrote to as many people as possible, not because I wanted to, but because it seemed necessary. Even then it was three weeks without a phone. Now we have a temporary line and the neighbours still have a huge hole outside their house. 5 weeks and counting...


----------



## lovethesun (Oct 19, 2010)

Beachcomber said:


> I see this link has already been given.
> 
> The address of the head office of Telefónica is:
> 
> ...


This is for beachcomber :kiss: As he suggested, I sent my letter of complaint to both of them by recorded delivery. Two weeks later I received a letter telling me that all is sorted, the line at my previous place has _finally _been cancelled, the money they said I owed (which I didn't) has now all been cleared, my line at this apartment has been reconnected, so everything is back in order after almost 8 months and a near nervous breakdown!!! thanks to this forum and special thanks to beachcomber :clap2:


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

My only complaint -so far -about Telefonica /Movistar is that they waste time.
Every year they give us a 'promocion' which when it ends they renew but only after I threaten to use a different service provider. Why not cut the time spent sorting all this and just give me one permanent acceptable deal??
It seems that the quality of service you receive depends on the person you deal with. I was told by one call centre employee that to get another 'deal' I would have to have a new number, that a technician would have to come to the house to do this and set up internet with a new router...A call to a different employee resulted in an acceptable deal - 49 euros for internet/phone line with free national calls, still more than in the UK but I'm not in the UK I'm in Spain....
I don't think it's fair to tar all companies with the same brush. The vast majority of firms of all sizes try their best to give good service and treat their employees fairly. In the current climate it's hard for them too.
We have just had experience of the restrictive effects of Spanish labour laws. Our charity employed someone who turned out to be completely useless and actually harmful to our operations.
Quite understandably, he put us through hoops to justify our decision to make his post redundant. We had a watertight case and were happy to pay what was due as severance but a lot of time and money was wasted on getting rid of a useless employee whose attitude and incompetence was harming our organisation.
I am not surprised that there have been calls for a reform of the current labour laws. The balance is too much in favour of the employee and for small businesses this is a huge deterrent to hiring and training workers.
Fairness works both ways and I say this both as a still active trades unionist and as a former and current employer.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

lovethesun said:


> This is for beachcomber :kiss: As he suggested, I sent my letter of complaint to both of them by recorded delivery. Two weeks later I received a letter telling me that all is sorted, the line at my previous place has _finally _been cancelled, the money they said I owed (which I didn't) has now all been cleared, my line at this apartment has been reconnected, so everything is back in order after almost 8 months and a near nervous breakdown!!! thanks to this forum and special thanks to beachcomber :clap2:



Beachcomber knows whereof s/he speaks!!
I wish s/he would participate more in 'political' debates but guess s/he has more important stuff to get on with...


----------

