The Joy Of Not Telefonica

Well, last week we finally decided we could not take the appalling service from Telefonica any longer, and we have spent our hard-earned money on getting a Wipzona installation. It cost us €300,00 to get the installation set up, and will then cost €40,00 each month for the connection, but after the dreadful time we have had with Telefonica that seems to be a small investment for our mental health.

I rang Wipzona and spoke to a man who had the most interesting English accent, in fact he turned out to be Norwegian. Since our village is largely inhabited by Norwegians I took this as a promising sign, since they generally do not put up with bad service. He said they would try and get the line installed before Easter, but if they could not manage it they would come on the Tuesday after Easter.

Imagine my delight when in fact they came on the Tuesday before Easter. In Spain, Semana Santa, or Holy Week starts on the Thursday before Easter and carries on until the Monday after Easter Sunday, and nothing much gets done during the period.

Predictably it was absolutely bucketing down with rain when the man arrived. Luckily we had decided not to have the installation on the roof but on the side wall of the balcony, which meant we could stand there with two umbrellas, keeping him and ourselves dry. The actual installation did not take much time and we are now the proud owners of a dish like structure on the side of the house that has transformed our lives.

Before, every time it rained, there was a storm, we had clouds, in fact whenever there was 'weather', we had no connection. We have had a dreadful period of rain and storms over the last 3 days again, but the connection keeps on going. No, it is not very fast, but it works and it keeps on working. No longer do we have to sweat to see if we can get a programme downloaded before the connection goes away again. I can surf secure in the knowledge that I do not have to wait for two hours again before I can get in.

Sometimes, it is just better to spend a bit of money upfront and to have good service, than to do things on the cheap and have no service at all.

Keep it up Wipzona, I will be recommending you to all my friends !

The Joy of Telefonica

I was going to write about how to physically get used to living in Spain, but since my internet connection has been virtually non-existent for the last two days, I thought I would write about the frustrations of dealing with the monopoly communications company Telefonica.

This is the statement made on the English site of Telefonica regarding their 'vision'

"We want to enhance people's lives and the performance of businesses as well as the progress of the communities where we operate, by delivering innovative services based on information and communication technologies'
Spirit of Progress

It is unlikely that anyone who has received services from Telefonica would realize that this is the vision of the company that never turns up when they have an appointment, are unable to understand letters and generally act as a monopoly company would, with complete disregard for their customers.

We have lived for two years in Spain now. Originally we had our main land-line number and our internet connection from them. When our internet connection kept cutting out, we rang their helpline number. Nothing happened. We were told there was nothing wrong with our connection and we must be using the computers too much. Because at the time we did not know anyone at all in Spain, the package we had that allowed us to make free phone calls within Spain was not appropriate and we tried several times to change to a different package. We are paying approximately 80 Euros a month for our internet connection, as the telephone was only ever used for incoming phone calls.

Ultimately we e-mailed Telefonica, because we found a different internet provider (or so we thought!). We asked them to disconnect our telephone and internet connection with immediate effect. This was on 12th June last year. We paid our bill on 21st June and again another bill on the 21st July, after which I went to the bank and discontinued our Standing Order. I rang Telefonica and informed them that we had ourselves put away the telephone and router and when would they come and pick them up. They seemed to have no record of our e-mail. We e-mailed again. Again no reaction. By this time we felt maybe snail-mail might be a better option, so we searched and searched, but no actual physical address to send a letter to could be found. After several more telephone calls, we hit upon the idea of opening a bill that had yet again been sent, putting copies of our emails in the envelope and returning the envelope to Sender.

This seemed to have some effect. In November we received a much reduced bill. Again I wrote to them, stating that as we had actually overpaid, Telefonica now owed us money, not the other way round. Five months later and the whole situation has not yet been sorted.

In the meantime we obtained our internet connection from the Internet Cafe, which has a licence to broadcast WiFi via small antennaes and USB slots. What we did not realise, though we should have, is that the Internet Cafe receives its signal from Telefonica. So, every time it rains, there are clouds, the trees have too many leaves, in fact, whenever there is weather, the connection remains dire.

We are now saving up to join a company called Wipzona, they have a good track record. Some of our friends have Wipzona (sounds fun to me!) and whenever they have a problem a technician appears within a few hours and sorts it out. They also have a postal address. And their charge for WiFi connection per month is 40 Euros. We just have save up to get the installation done.

For those people who are having problems with Telefonica, here is their address, which I finally obtained with great effort and I think should be on public record

Telefonica, Calle Granvia 28, Madrid. Hope this is of some help to someone.

Also, if you do move to Spain and want a mobile contract, try not to go for the big companies like Movistar (Telefonica again) and Orange/T Mobile. There are now more and more small companies that have excellent deals, like Viva (Euskatel combined with T Mobile) and will give you an operator and statements in your own language (English, German or Dutch). There are some others that work on similar lines. Shop around for your mobile provider. Ultimately we have found that using a mobile is actually cheaper than having a Telefonica land-line and a whole lot less frustrating.