Hi, sorry my first post has to be a rant about Telefonica.
We had a Telefonica line for 4 years without any problems at all - ADSL and phone line. Unfortunately, whilst we were visiting the UK at Christmas, there were severe storms and part of the roof of our house collapsed so when we returned to Spain we had to move into our apartment (luckily it was empty) in another part of town. The insurance company have said they won’t pay for the roof which is a whole different story and I originally came here to find help about that.
On with the Telefonica saga…..
Whilst still in the UK we ordered a new phoneline and ADSL package over the internet with free connection and ADSL router. We came back to Spain and Telefonica still hadn’t come to connect us so we called to chase them up on a Friday afternoon and were over the moon when a technician arrived early Monday morning. That was until we got a bill for connection and equipment totalling 221.38 euros!
When we queried the bill and mentioned it should be free we were told that the call centre person had cancelled our original internet order and processed it again by phone so we had to pay and then claim the money back. As we’d never had a problem in the previous 4 years, we duly paid and naively expected we’d get the refund or at least a credit on the next bills. No such luck. The phone was disconnected with no warning so we called again and was told we had to make a payment of 74.03 euros - we paid on 17th March and we had a phoneline again but only for a few weeks and then it was off again!?
Next we were told we had to pay 196.90 euros to get reconnected - we paid on 5th May. Still no phone and we were told we had to pay a deposit of 222.09 euros to get reconnected - we paid it as we need the phone and internet for work purposes. Still no phoneline and by now the ADSL was off too.
Next we were told to pay 194.72 euros - we paid it and called to see why the phone hadn’t been turned back on. After all, we’d now paid them a total of 909.12 euros for a phone we’d had working for just 8 weeks. We were told the whole line had been cancelled and we’d need to re-order at a cost of 80 euros phone connection and 40 euros for a new ADSL connection.
By now we were reaching breaking point but said ok as we desperately needed the phone and ADSL service connected. On 15th May a Telefonica technician came and reconnected us and all was well for a whole week and then the phone line went dead again!! This time we were told that there was a fault on the line. However, we called this morning and were told we have a bill for line rental April/May for 87.00 euros and we must pay even thought that was during the period the line was cancelled - note, not just disconnected but actually cancelled to the point of needing a technician to come and turn it back on.
The customer service spokesman tried to tell us that we just have to pay our bills and they won’t disconnect us and then went on to tell us that they’d refunded the 222.09 euros even though we haven’t had it. He also claims we’ve only paid 673 euros even though we have receipts for the full amount.
We only actually have 3 bills - one for 221.38 (the connection that should’ve been free), one for 74.03 in February and one for 196.90 in March. We also have 2 credit notes - one for 115.92 in April and one for 40.54 in April - although we haven’t had the money back for these credits or had them applied to any bills as the phone was off until 15th May. Just useless bits of paper really.
To top it all off we have a statement on 17th April dating from 4th Feb to 16th April showing we owed 313.25 euros. We also have another statement from 19th April dating from 4th January to 18th April showing we owed 432.95 euros. The statements show some items the same and some different so it’s impossible to work out. As we’ve paid a total of 909.12 euros, even if both statements were correct, we’ve still overpaid.
We’ve even received line rental bills of 79.26 euros for our old phone line which was disconnected on 14th January.
Enough is enough so now we’re trying to find an alternative.
Sorry for the long message but I could scream all day about Telefonica and I still have to try and find a solution to our insurance claim problem too. We’re resident in Spain, we pay taxes and national insurance and have never had any problems until now with anything. Maybe we were just lucky before but I really feel totally ripped off at the moment.
Maya
