For some time now I have been planning my little rant on the top ten Spanish companies. However it is a reverse top ten really, these are the top ten worst Spanish companies. You may notice there are only five, well that is because I want suggestions. Over the years I have heard horror stories about so many aspects of customer care in Spain that I thought it would be unfair for me to hog all of the limelight with my experiences. Therefore I am asking for suggestions from you.
Here is the list of five of the companies I consider to be the worst then, in no particular order, in order to achieve this I haven't used the term 1,2,etc just put five companies down. Who do you think are the worst and what are your experiences? Remember your comments here may help a lot of people coming over very soon to Spain.
Iberdrola
The electrical company for the Valencia region and many other regions in Spain. Iberdrola are past masters at the following scam. You buy a house and phone them up to tell them the new owners' details and bank account. At the next bill they charge the owner and also charge the previous owner the same amount thus getting double the money in. Cool if you can get away with it. Remember on selling a house to cancel your direct debit with them.
Not content with this great duplicity they also overcharged everyone in Spain they were billing at the start of this year by using an estimated billing without actually reading any meters. This increased their income by an estimated 25% compared with the previous year although electricity consumption actually dropped due to the contraction in the economy. They have been very slow to refund too. I am still waiting.
Telefonica
The past masters at wrong billing slow service, excuses, blaming others, double charging calls, cutting lines etc... Should have a monument made to their stupidity and placed on a prominent plinth in the centre of Madrid for everyone to throw eggs at.
Movistar
An arm of Telefonica but the mobile arm. If you want to be charged an arm and a leg to do anything, never be ofered the new tariffs which are better even if you are an exisiting customer and spoken to rudely by call centre operators who know nothing about anything then these are the boys and girls for you.
My experience, I left them because they had no coverage in La Pobla. Their call centre operators decided to take great offence that I may suggest that the only way to get coverage in my house was to go to the third floor and hang out of the window standing on one leg and in that way I could hear about half of a conversation. Tried to impose a fine on me for lack of their service and charged me a standing charge when their mast wasn't working for a week in my area.
Orange (Previously Amena)
I suggest that Amena only changed their name to Orange because there was nobody else left to con, spite and generally annoy in Spain. They tried to fine me 900 Euros usng lawyers' (Various) letters and threats after leaving their service when they hadn't solved an overbilling problem for twelve months and repeated the same mistakes every month, charging for supposed free calls (No refunds were ever made) They only desisted when we made an official complaint with all copies of correspondence from our end to the Spanish "Defensor del Consumidor" (Ombudsman) As soon as they got a letter from the Ministry of Telecommunication telling them to drop it suddenly there was peace.
Iberia
Need I start? The Flag Carrier for Spanish airlines and the image of Spain in air transport abroad. I will let others tell you their stories because I simply do not use them. If they gave the flight free and put me in business class with free massage and bed I would still prefer to use Ryanair (That is the biggest insult I can think of)
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