for all the bitching, telefonica and the Spanish telephone system isn’t that bad….Telefonica may have been an ugly monopoly a decade ago, but things have really changed.
*For installation, it is normally free if it is arranged through their web page… It take a couple of weeks for the installation guy to come around.
*For paying the minimal monthly rate (around ? 14 ) don’t rent a phone. If you make a lot of mobile calls, keep your eye out for offers as Telefonica and Telefonica Moviles merge (as they have done in the Czech Rep.)
*If you have some sort of grudge against Telefonica, try Ono (which just bought out Auna, Retevision, etc) and offers a fairly good price on telephone, national calls and DSL.
*For calling home (ie Europe, North America), the expat’s choice would be Wanadoo’s ADSL ?36 package. It includes national calls and 1000 mins of international calls. It may take a month or two to get Wanadoo (direct) service. In certain areas you can also get free calls to Amena mobile phones. Also expect future offers from Wanadoo and Amena as they are merged into Orange.
I doubt if American companies can beat ?50 a month for all of that.
Hey Bill,
It’s a good two bits, I gotta say, and your info about Wanadoo piques my interest, but fundamentally Telefonica is rife with, well, customer service corruption. Or at least that’s what I’ve heard. I’m sure you read the other posts here, and I don’t know anyone who has had a line with Telefonica that hasn’t had a big problem with them whether it’s communication notes that disappear, disconnections that aren’t processed (and thus billed extra), or imaginary charges that magically appear on your latest bill. I honestly haven’t had the personal experience yet, but having just ordered service from them I figure it’ll be interesting from what I’ve heard.
I went with Wanadoo originally but they said it would be 30 days for installation. That’s just too long, which is why I’ve decided to test the Telefonica waters. We’ll see…
I’ve dealt with Telefonica for the past 10 years or so. Sure, sometimes the’ve done things that bug me, like the things that you mentioned above, but in the end they will consider a complaint and respond in due course, often giving me (the customer) the benefit of the doubt. Saying “me gustar?a hacer una reclamaci?n”, usually puts a quick end to dumb and circular conversations.
My experience with the other companies like Auna (now Ono), Wanadoo, Jazztel or some of the other companies that have come and go isn’t the same. What is worse, with Wanadoo and the others you have to call a 902 number and go through a maze of menus just to get an answer, spending around a euro per call. Telefonica, on the other hand, still offers the free 1004 number. One important thing to remember is that if your line dies for whatever reason, Telefonica usually repairs it within a day…I’ve had reparimen show up in a matter of hours.
From my own experience, I’ve learnt to call 1004 two or three times to confirm and reconfirm things like line disconnection, package changes, etc. I have a rather thick accent when speaking in Spanish, so I suspect that I am at least half to blame if any confusion arises. What does bother me is when I get the sensation that my call has been forwarded to the Dominican Republic and I am speaking to someone who doesn’t have a clue about Spain.
There are a few more pointers to save money that I’ve come across:
*If you are billed through Wanadoo, Auna or Jazztel, it is a lot cheaper to use Telefonica for calls to mobile phones—just dial 1077 before the number
*the absolute best bargain for local and national calls is Carrefour at ?6.95—the catch is is that you have to get their credit card.
* If you have a flat rate for calling in Spain and need to call overseas, use a calling card with local access numbers for Madrid (91 XXX XXXX), Barcelona (93 XXX XXXX), etc. It works out to be maybe a penny or two a minute to call Europe, Australia and North America. Between the free calls that Wanadoo offers and the phone card option, Skype seems complicated and tiring….
Saying “me gustar?a hacer una reclamaci?n”, usually puts a quick end to dumb and circular conversations.
Good idea… I’ll have to remember that one.
My experience with the other companies like Auna (now Ono), Wanadoo, Jazztel or some of the other companies that have come and go isn’t the same. What is worse, with Wanadoo and the others you have to call a 902 number and go through a maze of menus just to get an answer, spending around a euro per call. Telefonica, on the other hand, still offers the free 1004 number. One important thing to remember is that if your line dies for whatever reason, Telefonica usually repairs it within a day…I’ve had reparimen show up in a matter of hours.
Hmm, sounds lucky, but I’ll take your word for it. Also, ONO definitely has a new number: 1400, which is free.
*If you are billed through Wanadoo, Auna or Jazztel, it is a lot cheaper to use Telefonica for calls to mobile phones—just dial 1077 before the number
Well I just had to mention a few things about Telefonica.
We have a computer shop in Cehegin and we have to work closely with Telefonica for 1 way rural internet satellite systems, and I have to say there service is a JOKE!
I would like to say at this point I can speak a little Spanish and I have Spanish friends and co workers, which are able to speak on my behalf so its not a communication problem.
1. Telefonica 1004 telephone staff are rude and like to hang up on you if you ask a hard question & the same with the technical support staff. I don?t mean us shouting at them I mean if they get stuck.
2. When you wish to get a Telefonica line they are able to sell you all the info over the phone in English, but when it comes to support then there is NO one who can help you if you don?t speak Spanish. Now whilst I agree that we are living in Spain, and we should speak Spanish it would be nice for them to employ at least 1 English able speaking person to support their English customers.
3. THEY LIE… we needed a internet connection for the showroom and we called everyday for 2 months to be told we NEVER called to order it! So it was delayed by 1 month.
4. Most of the time they send the bill out late, or this might just be where we live, so you have like 1 day to pay it before they cut you off.
5. Have any of you out there tried to get a TRACK/RADIO phone out of them? lol.
Now I know that I am having a bit of a moan, but there seems to be no other option other than Telefonica for home phones and internet unless you want to use microwave or satellite internet, which is much more expensive.
So this is my closing statement.
There product is good and the staff are: 1 totally incompetent or just too stupid to mention.
Well if anyone does have anything better to say about the staff comment I would like to hear a pleasant experience from a customer that had good service from the representative
I sure hate to admit it but I kinda have to agree with Bill. My Telefonica rage has mellowed over my 10 years here, for three reasons:
- Telefonica has definitely improved. As they’ve learned to live with competition, they’ve learned that they need to deal with improving customer service. In fact, I haven’t had a Telefonica person hang up on me for a couple of years!
- I’ve now dealt more with the competition. A few years ago, I was duped by an Auna comercial into switching, and soon developed Auna rage. More recently, I was duped again, this time by a comercial from a small company, Al-pi, reasoning that no bureaucracy would mean better service. It didn’t.
- I’ve gotten accustomed to a country where “the customer is #1” is not a corporate mantra, as it is in the USA. Nowhere is customer service all that hot (except maybe Mercadona), so my expectations are lower.
So here’s the typical interaction with a phone company. You dial a 902 number, say some information to a machine, then an operator comes on and asks you for the same information, hears your problem then passes you on to a “comercial”. The comerciales are all busy, so you wait, and listen to the same song that you heard two years ago (is it that hard for Telefonica or Auna to change the song). While you wait, you think, hmmm, the company makes money every minute that I’m kept waiting on a 902 number, so it pays them for the staff to go on coffee breaks. Finally the comercial comes on and says I can have a new line.
This is better than the scenario two years ago when the operator couldn’t pass you to another department. They instead gave you another number to call. You call and wait, then they tell you to call another number. You call and they tell you, no, the number to call is the first one you called.
Some random tips:
- With Telefonica, you can’t redirect a phone to an international number. With Auna, you can (and I don’t mean cable; the phone is still a Telefonica line).
- If you need a phone number or ADSL fast, get Telefonica (or get cable). Telefonica still dishes out phone numbers to the other companies. By law they have to do so in a certain number of days, so they stay barely within the law.
- If you money’s more important than time, maybe don’t get Telefonica. They can’t gouge you like they used to (for example, 110 euros for installing a simple phone line), but they’re not the cheapest. For ADSL, I’d go with ya.com or maybe jazztel.
- Auna’s gotten better since ONO bought them. I haven’t really had enough experience with ONO to judge (though the other day it took a couple of calls to decipher the recorded prompt in order to get through to a human—someone had spoken too close to the microphone).
- When a techie actually comes to your house to install something, get as much information as you can from them. They’re the only ones who really know a lot, and in fact are totally objective. They may tell you if another company does it better.
- There are many “centrales” within a city. Telefonica will only let you keep your number if you move within the same central. That’s why I got Al-pi. They told me Telefonica can technically do it, but they won’t, because things would get too complicated. Al-pi said if I transferred the 6 lines to them, they could retain the numbers in the new location. They did it, though it took them 6 months instead of the two months they said it would take.
- For Telefonica, always say “nueva linea” as your motivo por la llamada. That way you’re more likely to get actual Telefonica staff instead of staff of a subcontracted company, who often don’t even have access to the data that Telefonica staff has access to. (Rampant subcontracting is a big wart in the toe of customer service in Spain, subcontracting being one way for big companies to avoid having to give indefinite contracts . . . but this too may be improving.)
This is my first post on this forum so hello to everyone…
For all you business users out there I would highly recomend Comunitel (they are the business arm of Tele2). We swapped our office over 18 months ago and are still frankly amazed at the level of service we get….faults cleared up on the day of reporting….huge increase in internet speed and reliability….call center staff who are polite and knowlegeable.
They may not be cheaper than Telefonica (roughly the same per month).....but the difference in customer service is priceless.
So if I wanted to switch from Telefonica to Comunitel, I’d have to still keep my basic line with telefonica, correct? You’d have to pay telefonica 12 euros + whatever package with Comunitel.
Still a pretty good deal when you can get ADSL 6Mbs and national calling for 45 euros/month + whatever you’d have to pay Telefonica.
In answer to your query….no… comunitel buy the line from telefonica…so you only pay comunitel…keep the same number and get 1 bill from comunitel. we kept our original line and they put in three more for our “centralita”. It took about 3 weeks from signing the contract to saying goodbye to telefonica for good. (NB if you have phones on contract from telefonica you have to go to an official telefonica shop and hand them in otherwise they keep billing you for the rent)
Hi all, just joined SpainExpat as a member. I read the comments on the Telefonica service with interest…..having waited 3 years for my radiophone it was finally installed 2 days ago. Why didn’t I feel excited? Why did it seem like a none-event? What an anti-climax! Despite all of my neighbours having either a landline or radiophone and despite me pestering Telefonica on 1004 for 2 years, then my solicitor doing the same for 6 months, when I finally got the phone I had not pestered anyone for months and had forgotten about Telefonica! I felt shock more than anything having given up on the subject. I must say the technician was polite and friendly. The phone works ok, though when I went to buy a Group 3 digital fax (as suggested by the technician) in local retailers I was told that it was best to buy/rent it from Telefonica as “normal” fax machines may not work. Anyone have any information about this? Meanwhile my nine euro phone is working great! Just need to find a cheaper service provider…so off I go to re-read all your Forum comments again. :roll:
I am glad that some people like Telefonica, I hate them, they are rude etc, & don’t have any customer relations at all.
They are one of the largest phone companies in the world & don’t give a hoot about people.
They have had me in tears in their office in Torrevieja many times.
All I want is my phone reconnected, & just need a number. We had it disconnected when we rented our apartment, but the girl trashed it & we decieded never to rent again.
I know of many people who have gone back to the UK because of them.
for all the bitching, telefonica and the Spanish telephone system isn’t that bad….Telefonica may have been an ugly monopoly a decade ago, but things have really changed.
*For installation, it is normally free if it is arranged through their web page… It take a couple of weeks for the installation guy to come around.
*For paying the minimal monthly rate (around ? 14 ) don’t rent a phone. If you make a lot of mobile calls, keep your eye out for offers as Telefonica and Telefonica Moviles merge (as they have done in the Czech Rep.)
*If you have some sort of grudge against Telefonica, try Ono (which just bought out Auna, Retevision, etc) and offers a fairly good price on telephone, national calls and DSL.
*For calling home (ie Europe, North America), the expat’s choice would be Wanadoo’s ADSL ?36 package. It includes national calls and 1000 mins of international calls. It may take a month or two to get Wanadoo (direct) service. In certain areas you can also get free calls to Amena mobile phones. Also expect future offers from Wanadoo and Amena as they are merged into Orange.
I doubt if American companies can beat ?50 a month for all of that.
*If you have some sort of grudge against Telefonica, try Ono (which just bought out Auna, Retevision, etc) and offers a fairly good price on telephone, national calls and DSL.
BILL[/quote][/quote]
So Bill how do you get ONO if you haven’t got a phone number & the line is DEAD.
hi im new to this site but have been reading some of ur comments with interest, i use skype here in the uk to call my friends in spain for free, if phoning their landline it costs about 1p per min., we have bought a holiday home (later we will retire to)in the malaga area & have been looking into the 3g cards (no landline or modem needed) for my laptop, looks like its telefonica who sell them, just wondered if anybody has had any experience with these cards in spain, my friend uses her vodafone 3g card for her laptop when she goes to her caravan in the scottish highlands with no problems, anyway any info would be much appreciated.
Hi everybody, I?ve been reading the comments to see if I can gleen any usefull information. The person who wrote the trick to getting through on the 1004 number deserves a pat on the back, I followed the instructions, well almost, but anyway got through. After over 5 and half years of being registered as interested in a phone they have finally decided we can have a radio phone. What joy !!
There are a couple of points I have seen on the forum that worry me somewhat, one being that two different installation charges. Since we first applied we have become residents, could anyone who has had an installation recently let me know how much they actually paid? Call charges are another matter, I intend to sign up with BT they charge far less for calls, especialy overseas, easily arranged I believe, friends have accounts with them.
Does anybody know if it is possible to buy your own handset when you have a radio phone, or do you just have to have the handset they give you? I know I could just buy one if it was a landline but not sure if I can do the same for a radio system.
Ramblaed: I paid 133 euro for an installation of ADSL and basic phone line with unlimited national calls back in July. It was supposed to be a promotionally free install but they charged me anyway. I’m still waiting to get that money back, which they promised in November. Each time I call I hear that they’ll be depositing it back into my account “this week”... I so sick of their sh!t…
