From GRRRRR! to WOW! with Telefónica

JIMENA When things are wrong we can't rush fast enough to write about it. So we should do the same when things are right. Here goes: a story with a nice ending about the world's largest telecommunications - yes, it's Telefónica, all of whose services in Spain are sold under the Movistar banner. Alberto, Prospero's alter ego, wearing his TranslationHELP hat, was asked to help someone who couldn't get online but who felt he didn't have enough Spanish to deal with it.  Alberto is no IT expert (very far from it), but a certain amount of experience told him that the problem was the router. Experience also told him that, rather than sit through all kinds of useless tests dictated by tech geeks over the phone, it would be easier just to order a new router, which is (or should be) free to Movistar customers. So he called 1004, where he was redirected to somewhere else after the usual, long, tiresome 'press 1-2-3' dance. Somewhere else was probably Colombia or some other cheap-labour country in South America (judging by the accents).>>>

Emergency numbers inoperative because of Council debt

Tarifa

TARIFA The Local Police emergency number, 092, has been inoperative for about a month, according to reports from would-be users.  Sources at the Police station say that 'there is a debt problem'. In other words, money is owed to Telefónica. Other sources in the town hall say that the debt, which also includes fax numbers in the town hall, will be paid today. The new Council also set about changing the phone service from Movistar (i.e. Telefónica) to Vodafone.

How many of us are paying too much for our broadband?

(by Philip Heinzl) How many of us are paying too much for broad band internet connection?  "All of us " I hear you say, and you may be correct. We noticed our bill to show a supply contract of 6Mb broad band or ADSL.  We live almost too far from the telephone exchange in Jimena to receive broad band at all, but they manage to give us a contract of up to 1Mb. Of course we will never get the full quota and that we have to accept as reality, but having noticed the change in our billing led me to do some searching. The Movistar site allows for you to do a line test to  determin the best contract for your location. "Nice" you might think; but for who?  The test allows you to enter your telephone number and away it goes and comes back with a 6Mb contract, the minimum contract that they advertise as available.>>>

Telefónica restructures its Spanish business with shock therapy

SPAIN (Agencies) The President of Telefónica de España, Luis Miguel Gilpérez, accompanied by the President of Telefónica de Europa, José María Álvarez Pallete, announced on Wednesday that the company is changing its rates policy based on the client's freedom to personalise the products (i.e. everything from mobiles to ADSL and beyond, which come under the Movistar brand) according to need. That includes "transparency and flexibility" in changing rates. The executive admitted that the present profusion of charges, rates, tariffs, plans and so on had "complicated communication with the client." In general terms, Gilpérez said that minimum use on contracts will go down from €9 to €6, a 33% decrease. Also, rates for voice and web surfing will include unlimited text messages in Spain. Together with that offer, all Movistar clients that also contract broadband (i.e.ADSL) will have a rate discount of up to €5. The plan includes a reductionof the quantity of mobile terminals (i.e. phones) Telefónica will offer: from between 270 and 2,870 at present, to under 100 models.

What's a 902 number?

SPAIN The observant reader will have noticed that on almost any product, box, packet or whatever, there is a 902 number, usually under the heading Atención al Cliente ('customer service') - if you can actually find it, of course. Similar to a free call number, it is decidedly not free (from June 1 this year it costs you €0.010 (1 cent) to 'establish' the call and €0.072 per minute. Not a lot, you may think, but it adds up quickly. The tariff is in between an inter-provincial call (i.e. from Cádiz to Málaga provinces) and a local call (more or less within the same province). If you have ADSL with free national calls, though, these calls are NOT free.>>>

Junta fines Telefónica for making unsolicited charges

ANDALUCIA (Agencies) The Junta's Council of Government has approved two sanctions for a total of €440,000 against Telefónica España, SAU, for charging for a service that had not been contracted and for not prior information on price. These fines, €220,000 each, are considered 'very grave' under Law 13/2003 of Defence and Protection of Consumers and Users of Andalucía, as it affects a great number of users and it having been committed voluntarily and continually as an habitual practice. An investigation began in August 2008 after a denuncia by FACUA-Consumidores en Acción, saying that the company started to charge for its caller identification service, which until then had been free and was activated automatically.>>>

Ministers slam Telefónica plan to cut workforce

César Alierta, CEO

SPAIN (Agencies) The back-to-back announcements by former state telecoms monopoly Telefónica that it will lay off 5,600 workers, while rewarding its executives with huge bonuses, is likely to incense public opinion. Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who is on an official trip to Asia, declined to comment on Telefónica's controversial plan to shed 20 percent of its workforce in Spain over the next three years. But one of his colleagues was more forthcoming. "I disagree with it. It's impossible to put it more clearly than that," said Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, following the regular Cabinet meeting on Friday. Labor Minister Valeriano Gómez, lamented news of more job cuts in a country with 4.7 million unemployed, around 20 percent of the workforce and double the number for a European average. "This is certainly not a good moment for a cuts of this size," he said.>

Phone operators agree on code of ethics to cut back on harrassment 'spam'

SPAIN (Agencies) If it hasn't happened to you, it is surely to have bothered someone you know. Most people have suffered from aggressive sales calls from telephone companies, a practice which amounts to harassment. A year ago, the Government tried to put a stop to this through a law to regulate the so-called telephone ‘spam’, but things have barely improved. Now, after continual complaints and aware that these calls are seriously damaging their image, Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange, Yoigo and Ono have decided to regulate themselves by signing a code of ethics. It includes part of last year's law plus a few new initiatives. Teleoperators will have to speak to the customer within three seconds in most cases - one of these 'spam' practices is to dial hundreds of numbers at a time but only to speak to the first person to answer. This is why when you answer the phone, there is nobody there. If somebody says they are not interested, that company cannot ring them again for three months. The companies can also only make three attempts a month to phone a number which isn't answered.

Two charged with identity theft via Tuenti

LA LINEA (Agencies) Two women, aged 19 and 20 were arrested as the suspects in a case of identity theft when they created a profile on Tuenti (a social network much in favour by Spanish youth in which Telefónica has a large share). They used the name and photographs, as well as other identifying features of a minor, and used obscenities on the profile they created. The National Police managed to trace two computers via their IP address to two friends of the minor, who had reported the incideent. The older women are 'at the dispoal of the courts'.

Too slow to work

All of Jimena, and, as we understand, a good part of the Campo de Gibraltar, was without landline connection this morning - and as we write, the connection is a bit iffy, to be very polite. Some people had an Internet connection, others didn't. Banks and the Post Office couldn't operate, and we couldn't do a lot of this work, just as we come back from a couple of days off. Yet Telefónica ain't half fast at cutting you off if you don't pay, as someone said. Yes, we know; we're still on borrowed connections because we can't pay the bill. PLEASE TELL US IF YOU HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH THIS TODAY! (Photo: illustration only - but you knew that.)

Don't worry, this is your new Telefónica bill

SPAIN
Unaccustomed as they are to advance warning, Telefónica has changed their billing form again. As it says, 'All Telefónica products are now called Movistar'. So, if you're Vodafone or Orange or anything else for your mobile, don't throw it away (as Prosp almost did) if you've got Telefónica broadband or land line at home, thinking it's just advertising. Click on the image to enlarge for a (marginally) less fuzzy idea of what it looks like.