Fuck You Telefónica Chile
Our love affair is over. I'm not sure what this means, I'm using swear words now.
Before we get started, though, I'll put the takeaway at the beginning of this post. To anyone in Chile: don't ever, EVER get yourself mixed up in 188. I have no idea what it is, but when you use it in conjunction with a phone card, you'll fucked and then charged again. Another takeaway: don't ever buy Telefónica's TLP phone cards. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. Third takeaway: if you're moving to Santiago, go to Nuñoa, or anywhere else that where VTR reigns. Nobody can be as bad as Telefónica Chile.
Apart from giving you takeaways, this is blog therapy; it's all I've got. Well, I could call one of their reps and yell at them, but there's not much satisfaction ultimately. It's not their fault and besides they aren't among the sharpest tools in the shed. What do you expect, they earn $300/month.
I shouldn't be surprised that the answer is in and it's not in my favor. I recently complained to Telefónica for charging me $18 after I used their faulty phone cards, the TLP phone cards provided by Telefónica Chile. Today's letter informs me that they've rejected my request to discount the additional cost. In their words:
A side note about Spanish names. This gentleman is normally called Rodrigo Camacho. Bacigalupo is his mother's name, his "second last name". The equivalent in North America would be just Rodrigo Camacho, and Bacigalupo would be what the bank would ask him for "mother's maiden name". So, fwiw, you can choose between "Rodrigo Camacho," or "Rodrigo Camacho Bacigalupo". Either way, is it too much to ask that he burn in hell while watching each member of his family sodomized with a broomstick wrapped in barbwire? A further sidenote, I think that was a real torture in Brazil during their dictatorship.
Anyway, in typical Telefónica style, Rodrigo Camacho makes it easy for us to find where to complain, by not giving any pertinent contact info of these government organizations. In the meantime, you can call him with the above-mentioned or similar curse, at (56-2) 330 9988 or go to:
Telefónica Larga Distancia S.A.
Servicio de Comunicaciones
Providencia 127
Santiago - Chile
Meanwhile, I'll be taking the legal route and going to SUBTEL. Wish me luck.
Before we get started, though, I'll put the takeaway at the beginning of this post. To anyone in Chile: don't ever, EVER get yourself mixed up in 188. I have no idea what it is, but when you use it in conjunction with a phone card, you'll fucked and then charged again. Another takeaway: don't ever buy Telefónica's TLP phone cards. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. Third takeaway: if you're moving to Santiago, go to Nuñoa, or anywhere else that where VTR reigns. Nobody can be as bad as Telefónica Chile.
Apart from giving you takeaways, this is blog therapy; it's all I've got. Well, I could call one of their reps and yell at them, but there's not much satisfaction ultimately. It's not their fault and besides they aren't among the sharpest tools in the shed. What do you expect, they earn $300/month.
I shouldn't be surprised that the answer is in and it's not in my favor. I recently complained to Telefónica for charging me $18 after I used their faulty phone cards, the TLP phone cards provided by Telefónica Chile. Today's letter informs me that they've rejected my request to discount the additional cost. In their words:
In response to the complaint we inform you that according to the analysis of your account and the records that appear in our register, the discount will not proceed.
Therefore, the objected amount of $9,733.00 has not been accepted.
Regarding the above mentioned, we welcome you to contact our Customer Service department at 800 200 300, for any additional questions.
If you are not satisfied with the result, you have the right to appeal your complaint before the Subsecretary of Telecommunications, SUBTEL, within 10 working days of the date of notification. Also, this appeal can be presented by you or your representative, sending it in by hand, mail or fax to the Subsecretary or to Seremitt, in accordance with the stipulations of Article 12 of the regulations governing the processing and resolving of complaints".
Attentively yours,
Rodrigo Camacho Bacigalupo
Head of Customer Service
A side note about Spanish names. This gentleman is normally called Rodrigo Camacho. Bacigalupo is his mother's name, his "second last name". The equivalent in North America would be just Rodrigo Camacho, and Bacigalupo would be what the bank would ask him for "mother's maiden name". So, fwiw, you can choose between "Rodrigo Camacho," or "Rodrigo Camacho Bacigalupo". Either way, is it too much to ask that he burn in hell while watching each member of his family sodomized with a broomstick wrapped in barbwire? A further sidenote, I think that was a real torture in Brazil during their dictatorship.
Anyway, in typical Telefónica style, Rodrigo Camacho makes it easy for us to find where to complain, by not giving any pertinent contact info of these government organizations. In the meantime, you can call him with the above-mentioned or similar curse, at (56-2) 330 9988 or go to:
Telefónica Larga Distancia S.A.
Servicio de Comunicaciones
Providencia 127
Santiago - Chile
Meanwhile, I'll be taking the legal route and going to SUBTEL. Wish me luck.
posted by Chileno @ 4:01 PM
Share on Facebook
Search This Blog:
9 Comments:
good luck, it would be interesting to see if they do something, take it to your representative, get a few chileans to sign a complain and send it to the senator they should be made aware of the problem of monopoly, and take it to the newspapers, im all behind u is about time somebody took a stand against these corporations.
Well, you obviously noticed that I tagged this entry "optimism" among other tags such as "monopoly". I appreciate your support. I don't think it'll be a big media thing unless there's a real story. Like 100,000 Chileans and one gringo sign a petition saying they got dicked over by Telefónica in some way. Actually, that's a damn good idea. I could start with my building, where everyone else had to wait over a month for installation. Then go to the line at Telefónica where you have to pay your bill. Plenty of people there, not the happiest, either.
But who'd volunteer to collect all those signatures? Who would fund this sort of thing? Where's Rafael Nader when you need him?
Chile doesn't have a consumer friendly culture. And it wouldn't surprise me if people didn't sign -- out of fear. But I could be wrong. Mostly, this is about funding, and organization. If you have any ideas, lemme know. Send an email to savechileno@gmail.com
Any other activists out there?
You're wasting your time. I don't say this to put you down, but with as a sympathetic warning. When I lived in Chile I found the best way to stay sane was to divest as much as possible from such companies. Get a cell phone without a contract, it's expensive but nothing ties you to the bastards. Better yet, skype. Avoid the phone companies, the mail, the cable companies (just try cancelling your contract!), etc. Many wil screw you over with the same tactic, add a few pesos to your bill for no reason. If you ever shop at Lider, pay close attention to the bill. Expensive items get stocked where the labels for cheap ones are, or discounts and promotions aren't done, etc.
In the end Telefónica will say you lie and you won't really be able to prove it. I say vote with your money as much as possible.
Good luck!
Christian
>>>You're wasting your time.
Um, did you notice a "pessimism" tag on this entry? Cuz I sure didn't...
Just joking. I know you're right. And I'm pretty convinced Felipe won't email me and the petition will never happen. But if Felipe does email me and says he knows some other consumer rights groups interested, and possibly funding, whatever -- I would definitely do my part in the movement: Blog and bitch. Otherwise, though, I've got plenty on my plate. I've even considered not appealing this because I could spend 1/2 hour and earn those $18 extra they're charging me. Much nicer than spending dozens of hours on a lost cause.
It's easy to be pessimistic about Chile when you hear things like the class action lawsuit was implemented for the first time in Chile just a few months ago. Obviously, that's also a cause for optimism. Chile is slow as fuck in the human rights, consumer rights, but at least something's happening. You won't get shot for being out past 11pm. That is a start.
I'm all about voting with my money, but it's impossible with Telefónica. Internet is my livelihood. I guess I could move to an area of town where VTR is the monopoly. (That's how Santiago's divided up).
Look up my entry from last week about Skype in Santiago. I've been using it up to now, but it's caused a rift in communications. The quality sucks in Chile, and, interestingly enough, the lines are all Telefónica's, and Telefónica got slammed by the fair competition court for trying to exclude all VoIP providers from using its lines. Chile came through. So Telefónica has to open up its lines. But still, strangely enough, Skype is fuzzy the majority of the time. I'm talking different computers, different connections, etc. But Skype wasn't fuzzy for me in the United States. A friend of mine in Europe calls his family in the United States all the time on Skype. In Chile, however, I'm back to using phone cards.
PERU GLOBAL BABY!!!
I don't know why I ever fucking bought that those two TLP cards that ruined my life.
skype works 100% fine for me in valpo with vtr. the 2MB connection probably helps. but vtr isn't all that much better-for the first 3 months they kept sending the wrong bill and almost cut us off twice for not paying the wrong bill despite having call logs of our complaints. luckily i've got one of those pitbull like complainers as a girlfriend and we finally got it sorted out. We also managed to swindle 10 grand out of them. I honestly can't work out how but we paid 10 grand less than we should have done. maybe i should donate it to you to cover your telefonica losses...or perhaps i'll just buy a few beers and just think about your bad luck...
But if you think customer service is bad in chile then try living in ecuador or argentina and see how far you get...to me, chile's like a breath of fresh air. well, a breath of santiago air at the very least.
luck for you.
Saludos.
Any luck with Skype lately? I'd be interested in knowing if it's possible to use Skype there (Santiago, not VP) at any point.
Yeah, Skype is much, much better with VTR. Although it's better calling off peak hours, and interestingly it's a LOT easier calling people/companies abroad while here in Chile calling cell phones and even normal lines skype is nearly impossible, even using VTR.
I think it's just a question of bandwidth being used up, and Telefonica is the worst with millions of users crammed onto the same lines or whatever.
Go file the complaint with Sernac, let them handle it. Or write this same article, just changing some rough language, to El Mercurio. Let them handle it. For now, change to VTR or Manquehue.
Those damn spaniard bastards and their neo-colonization......even their website sucks ass! As an american/chilean with properties in Santiago, one of the first things I did was get away from those "gilipollas". Now if we could just switch away from Endesa........
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home