We have been trying to get the phone and internet services we are paying Telefonica for for eight months. We’ve had seven different routers, nothing works when when it rains, reported faults have been ignored or closed before resolution, we even had operators hang up on us because our Spanish apparently wasn’t good enough (what is it about “no funciona nada” that they don’t understand??) , etc. etc. They refused to put us through to supervisors, or even give their names, and they even argued about refunding us for downtime. We’d had enough so….
We obtained the address of the Servicio de Defensa del Cliente at Telefonica - it’s the equivalent of the ombudsman and they have a legal duty to respond to customer complaints, record the outcomes, and report them openly.
The address is:
Servicio de Defensa del Cliente, Telef?nica SA, Gran Via 28, 28013 Madrid.
You need to write to them in Spanish. We sent a five-page letter listing all the dates and times of the down time, and every interaction we’d had with Telef?nica over the previous two months (well worth recording all this!). We explained how we were bounced from 1004 to the technies and back again, how Abentel (the local agent) insisted they couldn’t work on Imagenio when they’d been sent to do just that, etc.
In under a week, we received a reply from David Olmos V?squez at the above address explaining that although they couldn’t process our complaint under law (because you have to have no contact from Telefonica for a month before reporting them), nevertheless they agreed that the service was “de forma inadecuado” and gave us a complaint number then set the clock ticking. Telef?nica then had one month to resolve the issue.
When it rained and everything went down again, we phoned the techies again and this time they were all sweetness and light, only too pleased to help. They sent a technician out to our home on a Sunday, established that the fault was outside with a connection open to the elements (we’d only told them that seven times 😊) and the following day we had another technician to arrive to fix everything and provide yet again a new router.
Then we called the 1004 number to get a refund. Again all sweetness and light. “And how many days do you want to claim for? Certainly, no problem.” A bit different to them refusing to discuss it and even putting the phone down.
So the advice? If after dealing with 1004, you don’t get a sensible response:
* Write to the Servicio de Defensa del Cliente.
* Write in Spanish if possible, but you might still get a response in English.
* List everything - dates, times, problems, responses from Telef?nica, etc.
* Include your NIE number, name, address, email address.
Once you get the “n?mero de reclamaci?n” from SDC, your complaint must be resolved by law. If there’s any hassle with 1004, quote the number to them and they have to respond.
Only time will tell if we are clear of the silly (but stressful) nonsense but at least now we know a way of circumventing the wall of uncooperation at 1004.
Buena suerte!
