We live in an urbanizacion in the Malaga province, and alike many people I know in this area, we don’t always receive our mail. The telefonica bills have never arrived during the 4 years we have lived here, and therefore, it has happened occasionally, that we were late paying them.
Fair enough, they did cut us off a few times, which means you need to contact them, find out the amount you owe, and go to the post office to pay, after which they switch you back on within 48hrs.
But than, the last time this happened, I must have gotten the amount wrong. I understood I had to pay 70,49, but when they entered this amount at the post office, it wasn’t accepted. I was in a hurry, and we needed to be back on line, so I stupidly assumed that the amount might have been 170,49, and paid that, which was happily accepted by the computer.
Due to the problems with the direct debit, we decided to change it to a different account, and we phoned telefonica with the new details. A week or so later, they cut us off again…, this time we found out that they lost all of our bank details, both the old, and the new one. On top of that, we checked, how much the last bill actually had been, and it appeared to have been only 71,83, meaning we overpaid by 98,66. Off course, none of that was registered or known to them. After being on hold way to long (with that ever so annoying music) and repeating myself 500 times by explaining what had happened, they informed me that the 98,66 I paid extra, was for old outstanding bills….but they couldn’t tell me which months they applied to, nor what invoice numbers they referred to. So they entered a reclamacion, and I would have to wait 10 days for an answer. They also charged us for being cut off again, which was their fold by loosing our bank details, but to be switched back on line, we had to pay these charges + the invoice at the postoffice again, and than file a reclamacion to get it back! They are very happy taking your money, but oh so difficult in giving you your money back!
It is 2 and a half months later now, and we still haven’t received our money back, nor any answer from Telefonica.
To piss us off even more, they charged us 50 extra on our invoice this month (by direct debit off course) for activating our telephone line (?!?). Unbelievable. Now we have a 2nd reclamacion pending, and must wait 8 days for an answer.
All in all, they now owe us about 150,- and probably will charge us for somethng they haven’t done, next month.

We are definately considering writing a letter to SDC (Ombudsman Telefonica, see forum messages), and most surely, we will keep a close eye on the payments to Telefonica. Alike many people in today’s financial crisis, we can’t afford being ripped off by companies like Telefonica or Endesa.

your post there about Telefonica , has problems there
1 we don?t always receive our mail. The telefonica bills have never arrived during the 4 years we have lived here, and therefore, it has happened occasionally, that we were late paying them. .... i fine that to hard to belive , you bill could be used against you as “Identity theft ”  a bill like caN TRACKED AT YOU LOACL POST OFFICE ASK ..

2 So how can you prove that thay own you money then ? Now with all that going on in the banks , service provider are cut people off lot faster then befor

3 Why not set up DR account wich deal in payment two this service provider ...

4 If not getting you bill from the phone company what outher bill out standing

5 I had no problem with bills get to me here ...

6 I think there bigger story going on here .....
jurdy

Hola Nads

I sympathise with your dilemma involving Telefonica, I am pleased to say that those days are long gone for me, we moved to Monda in November 2007 and Telefonica lines are not available, we were forced to go wireless - all I can say is yippeeeeeeee!

When we moved to Monda, we cut off our line, left it connected for a month after we moved and on the 5th December 2007 we sent the forms back (Telefonica post to you) confirming that we wished to cancel the line. We also had a company call and deal with it for us, we were getting nowhere, the bills still kept on coming until they finally stopped billing monthly and got the message, we now have letters that are coming from a debt collector asking for ?180 - we have refused to pay and we have no intentions of doing so, we have everything including the fax form stating that the fax was sent and the date.

I had various problems very similar to your own when we used their service but I am very pleased to say that I have not had a Telefonica headache for 18 months (BIG GRIN)

If I were you I would look for a provider in your area for wireless, not only is my internet now cheaper, it is quicker and I use Skype for all other calls including business, the internet is so good I can use VOIP without any problems - who needs Telefonica! 😉