Valencia Property Blog

Sometimes I don't understand Spain. Don't get me wrong, I have been here for over half of my life now, in certain ways I am more Spanish then anything else. However I will never ever be Spanish because I just don't know how to organise myself as badly as Telefonica do. Now Telefonica is a hugely successful international company with a massive customer base (see the articles below). Let me say however if they hadn't occupied the position of a monopoly before deregulation I do not think they would have managed to gain a single customer coming into the market new. They are shockingly incompetent. Today's example goes as follows. I have decided to change over my phone line at home from Telefonica to Vodafone. Why would I do this you ask? Well they have been fleecing me for years and now Vodafone have offered me the same price but with a USB 3G dongle for me to use when I am out with unlimited data. So Vodafone do the paperwork and everything looks hunky dory, until Telefonica get involved this morning. They phoned me up to install a new line, and I think cool that was quick, before even contemplating the "new line" in that sentence. Let me just clarify here. I want to keep my number and just pay the money to a different company, something allowed under competition law in Spain. I was out so my daughter who is on study leave receives the man from Telefonica and two minutes after he arrives I get a phone call. "Dad, do we need a phone line?" The hairs on the back of my neck start to bristle of course. "What's wrong?" "Well the man from Telefonica says he needs to install another line with another number on it and cut off the current home number until the changeover to Vodafone is complete when they will be able to get the new line running and we might not have a phone for a couple of days." (My italics) Now if I know one thing after living so many years in Spain it is this:

A couple of days can easily be a month

I asked my daughter to put the man on and explained what is supposed to be happening, a change of service provier on the same line and same number. He says but yes this is how it is done. So I gave him the number of my Vodafone representative and told them to sort it out but I cannot be without a phone line "even for a couple of days".

An hour later I get home. Suddenly I have three numbers at home rather than two. I still don't have my usb dongle because Telefonica are taking a bit of time to do the changeover, see what I mean about a couple of days?, and I have a totally new number I haven't asked for on a new PTR box, the connection thingy on the wall, and i am still none the wiser as to when I will get the service I want and finally rid myself of Telefonica.

You might get the sense of frustration in the video below.

Anyway I have started a survey about the Worst Company in Spain. Click below to take part. Just a bit of fun and don't let my rant influence your decision! ;-)

Another Telefonica Blog 2) The Worst Companies in Spain