Last year I wrote a post about the worst companies in Spain. It was quite popular and struck a chord.
Today I received a mail from Steve Hall at This Is Spain about the overwhelming winner of the title of the worst company in Spain, Telefonica. I repeat it in all its glory below. Then just to ice this particular cake there is my recent experience from them. The last month has been hell as against all my better judgment I tried to contract one of their services. Read, enjoy and hope that you never have to deal with this incompetent bunch of halfwits and retards.
From Steve:
I was recently asked why I called Telefónica "A National Disgrace"
My response was:
Hi, 30 years in telecom and I have dealt with almost all the Western European (ex-)monopolies and many of the new contenders.
My BIGGEST complaints against Telefónica
1) Telefónica abused their monopoly position to keep prices artificially high. Even when they were fined (heavily) by Brussels they refused to deregulate. When the got fined again and were threatened with the full force of EU law, they allowed one competitor and, in effect, created a duopoly. Who was the competitor? Retevision. Who owned Retevision? You guessed, Telefónica. (Board members all ex Telefónica executives) Who had the higher prices? Yes, you guessed, Retevision!When EU found out about this they fined Telefónica AGAIN and made it abundantly clear that licensed operators MUST be allowed to enter a fully deregulated market.
I was involved in all of this 1998/2001. DT were difficult but efficient, Telecom Italia did not seem to care. "One less client for us, one less piece of hassle." (We took 1,7 million clients from Telecom Italia to Infostrada in 2 years) BT had their moments but normally at least played clean.
2) Once you had been through THEIR approval process (as well as the Telecom Control Council´s) they then made it almost impossible to deal with them as a tier one licensed reseller. Uni2 were made to jump through hoops and then again to deal with even the most simple process that were fully automated elsewhere. The effect was that customers to the new carriers were getting a 2nd class service as the carrier was not able to provision, bill or give a quality customer service!
3) Some 12 years later they have some of the very highest wholesale prices in Europe (in fact Western World) and thus keep carries costs high, The result? Some of the highest retail CPM charges in Europe. Figures can be made to prove anything (ask Telefónica) but whether you measure the call charge as a percentage of average income, against the retail price index or the number of grains of sand on the beach Spain is ALWAYS at/near the top of telecom charges.
4) Technically (ironically!) they are very competent and have a good reputation throughout Europe. The obscenity is that some of this technology is deliberately held back. Their TRAC service is an insult to a post-industrialised society and their constant prevarication and procrastination another insult to their clients. Movistar is one of the most advanced networks in Europe but again Telefónica, as owners, seem more intent on profit than popularity.
5) Their marketing is based on ¨confusion marketing¨techniques when a huge percentage of their customers have no idea what they are paying for. I have unlimited examples of customers being charged for dial-up accounts AND 24/7 ADSL accounts on the same line.
Their claw-back techniques are at best dubious and at worst illegal (So they get fined, again!)
It´s no wonder that they have one of the highest retention rates of all the ex-monopolies. Nobody knows how to leave them and when they try the Telefónica juggernaut kicks in. The customer service which before was "poor" to be will now do most anything to keep the client and/or make it nigh on impossible to leave. "Yes, you can leave us today but you have a Friends and Family option that has x months to run on it ....and you will still be liable for payment."
6) In short, the entire culture of Telefónica compared with, say, Telia or Telenor disgusts me.
Why is there this culture? How many ex-presidents of BT have ended in jail in the last 20 years? NIL. How many of the last 4 presidents of Telefónica have? (The jury is out on the incumbent!)
I would LOVE to have the success in Spain that we have had in Scandinavia, UK, France and Italy but with Telefónica making it so difficult you can see why I (and so many other operators) concentrate elsewhere. I "thought" we had a real chance last year but sadly the whole experience left me a bad taste in the mouth.
I am always talking to potential operators but even the might of Tele2 (12 million customers in Sweden, with a population of just 9 million) have not broken the monolith that is Telefónica. Yes, we will be announcing something soon but I don´t expect to have a client base of 130% of the population within 10 years! Sad.
Steve Hall shall@thisisspain.info
From Me:
On the 25th of November I signed a contract for Trio with Telefonica through one of their outsourced agents. The promise was it would bring down my telephone bill from 100 Euros per month, of which 7 Euros are calls!!!! to around 45-60 Euros. Trio is ADSL 10 megas, phone line and Imagenio with a free USB dongle to use twice a month for free and then 2.50 Euros per day.
So far the results are;
The technician turned up and connected the internet but didn't connect up the computer downstairs which is our business printing PC where we send all work to be printed.
My fault because I should have insisted at the time but as it was connected on the old line I forgot. Since then no return visit despite repeated calls to connect it
Imagenio we didn't want so it isn't connected.
10 Megas ADSL. Don't make me laugh. 5 at best.
The USB dongle I have so far wasted about 20 hours trying to get and still don't have it and now they say they will not honour the contract that i signed with them as that offer stopped at the end of November and no longer exists. Let me emphasise this is despite the signed contract.
Fantastic company. If anyone fancies RT'ing this all over twitter, Facebook and everywhere else until somebody at telefonica actually gets to see it then thank you. The buttons are below.
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