Use Telefónica Chile TLP Phone Card, Get $18 Long Distance Charges on Phone Bill
Read about a cheap phone card from Chile to the United States or wherever.
Just got the phone bill from Telefónica Chile, the Chilean telecommunications monopoly that does whatever the fuck it wants because it can. I'm being charged about USD $18 for a 12 minute call to the United States that I didn't make. The only calls I did make to the US this month were through phone cards, which, one would assume, don't show up on the phone bill.
But they did. The only thing I can think of: I do remember something weird. It was with two of the international phone cards I bought earlier this month, from guess-which-company: Telefónica Chile.
I wanted to blog about this anyway because those cards were incredibly sucky. For a thousand pesos (about 2 bucks) per phone card, I should have been able to talk for something like 15-18 minutes. But each card expired within 3 minutes, and this was during an important client call. (I'm using phone cards because I've given up with Skype. The quality sucks from Santiago. Certainly nothing to do with the owner of the fiber optic network...Telefónica Chile).
Even before the Telefónica Chile TLP (tarjeta linea propia) phone cards fucked me over, I was pissed off with from the get-go because they seemed to intentionally make calling out of Chile as strange and complicated as possible. Instead of the much preferable Peru Global phone card, TLP makes you dial a carrier code which shows up absolutely nowhere in their instructional insert (another example of excessive packaging). So I had to call Telefónica's customer "service." La weá. They told me I had to dial 188, then 0 + country code + area code + phone number. Why? Why 188? How would I know that? Why do I have to waste this extra time on the phone with you, listening to your cheesy "soul" music theme song while on hold? Why can't it be like a normal phone card, like Peru Global, where you dial the phone cards number, enter the scratch-off code, then dial the number you're trying to reach, bullshit free.
I can't really say what's the cause of this extra charge (although i suspect it's something to do with that fucking carrier number 188)
So I just now called up Telefónica Chile with a reclamo, complaint. The lady, Karina, immediately reversed my charges BUT it's only a temporary reversal she told me. In 15-20 days we'll get a letter explaining the Decision about what really happened. From Telefónica Chile. I lost control with Karina too. But not immediately.
I asked her if she could tell me some more about this "letter," this "decision." I wasn't yelling at that point. I simply wanted to ask her what she knew about it. But she wouldn't shut up. She was repeating herself. That tittering mouse-ish machine-mouth monotone -- No, I have a question! Please, let me say my question! I was talking over her. I talked louder. Listen! I wanted to ask her if she knew anything about the process, even a phone number I could call, anything. But I couldn't get a word in edge-wise. She hadn't stopped talking the whole time.
LISTEN! I yelled. Can you please listen to me! Sir, she told me, I heard you. That's impossible! I yelled. I never said what I was going to say. How could you have heard what I said when I never had said it! (but she kept on with the machine mouth monotone, saying god-knows-what nonsense) You're impossible, I yelled. Completely broke-down, pathetic -- *Click* That was me hanging up.
Around the 1960's Chile shifted its starstruck gaze from Europe to the United States, the King of Consumerism and by extension Customer Service. Chile seems to have picked up on a lot of cultural elements of the United States like boredom. If Steven Soderbergh filmed here he'd probably use a blue lens. But the dark secret is that in Chile customer service doesn't work. Businesses are broke. Clean modern office buildings are full of people who don't know what to do, and don't do anything all day. Simply put, Chile's got all the institutional sterility of the United States without any of the functionality.
Talk about failure.
Just got the phone bill from Telefónica Chile, the Chilean telecommunications monopoly that does whatever the fuck it wants because it can. I'm being charged about USD $18 for a 12 minute call to the United States that I didn't make. The only calls I did make to the US this month were through phone cards, which, one would assume, don't show up on the phone bill.
But they did. The only thing I can think of: I do remember something weird. It was with two of the international phone cards I bought earlier this month, from guess-which-company: Telefónica Chile.
I wanted to blog about this anyway because those cards were incredibly sucky. For a thousand pesos (about 2 bucks) per phone card, I should have been able to talk for something like 15-18 minutes. But each card expired within 3 minutes, and this was during an important client call. (I'm using phone cards because I've given up with Skype. The quality sucks from Santiago. Certainly nothing to do with the owner of the fiber optic network...Telefónica Chile).
Even before the Telefónica Chile TLP (tarjeta linea propia) phone cards fucked me over, I was pissed off with from the get-go because they seemed to intentionally make calling out of Chile as strange and complicated as possible. Instead of the much preferable Peru Global phone card, TLP makes you dial a carrier code which shows up absolutely nowhere in their instructional insert (another example of excessive packaging). So I had to call Telefónica's customer "service." La weá. They told me I had to dial 188, then 0 + country code + area code + phone number. Why? Why 188? How would I know that? Why do I have to waste this extra time on the phone with you, listening to your cheesy "soul" music theme song while on hold? Why can't it be like a normal phone card, like Peru Global, where you dial the phone cards number, enter the scratch-off code, then dial the number you're trying to reach, bullshit free.
I can't really say what's the cause of this extra charge (although i suspect it's something to do with that fucking carrier number 188)
So I just now called up Telefónica Chile with a reclamo, complaint. The lady, Karina, immediately reversed my charges BUT it's only a temporary reversal she told me. In 15-20 days we'll get a letter explaining the Decision about what really happened. From Telefónica Chile. I lost control with Karina too. But not immediately.
I asked her if she could tell me some more about this "letter," this "decision." I wasn't yelling at that point. I simply wanted to ask her what she knew about it. But she wouldn't shut up. She was repeating herself. That tittering mouse-ish machine-mouth monotone -- No, I have a question! Please, let me say my question! I was talking over her. I talked louder. Listen! I wanted to ask her if she knew anything about the process, even a phone number I could call, anything. But I couldn't get a word in edge-wise. She hadn't stopped talking the whole time.
LISTEN! I yelled. Can you please listen to me! Sir, she told me, I heard you. That's impossible! I yelled. I never said what I was going to say. How could you have heard what I said when I never had said it! (but she kept on with the machine mouth monotone, saying god-knows-what nonsense) You're impossible, I yelled. Completely broke-down, pathetic -- *Click* That was me hanging up.
Around the 1960's Chile shifted its starstruck gaze from Europe to the United States, the King of Consumerism and by extension Customer Service. Chile seems to have picked up on a lot of cultural elements of the United States like boredom. If Steven Soderbergh filmed here he'd probably use a blue lens. But the dark secret is that in Chile customer service doesn't work. Businesses are broke. Clean modern office buildings are full of people who don't know what to do, and don't do anything all day. Simply put, Chile's got all the institutional sterility of the United States without any of the functionality.
Talk about failure.
posted by Chileno @ 9:26 AM
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