Movistar dongle

[olive]

I am on Movistar (no contract) dongle. I am experiencing endless problems. In short. Some days it works fine but mostly I have to resort to ringing 1004 (thankfully a free call) and then magically after the Tecnico is consulted and I have restarted the PC it works as it should till the next time. Set this against expecting the service not to work when the kids go to and from school twice a day and when businesses open and close twice a day it is not a happy experience. I have been given all the std stuff clear cookies, we will check your transmitter (but they have no idea where my house is in Spain), restart your PC, install the latest version of software (buried in their website). Today I have been told that depending on the signal strength I have to select 3G only manually and not leave it on auto.

Is this familiar stuff to anyone else? I asked how you complain and was given a fax number or an Email. [email protected]. I have started keeping a daily record. Thankfully I haven't a contract with them. I would advise anyone considering a dongle to not have a contract even though it saves a few euros each month.

As an aside, I used to be a dongle customer with Orange. They lost my SIM during their exchange faulty dongle process. I asked on the forum for help back then and submitted a complaint by the local OMIC. Nothing seemed to be happening so I online complained by Ministerio de Industria. Months passed by and I was sent a copy of their submission to Orange. It is now EIGHt months later and nbot a word from either Industria or Orange. They have however sent me a bill for 17 euros which then resulted in being hounded by two different credit recovery companies.

Am I happy?. Funnily enough yes. The musioc on hold tells you to be happy. What else could you be!!

[Footprint]

I have absolutely no problems whatsoever with my Movistar dongle (which is on contract though with 'sin compromiso'). Would highly recommend it to anyone. I have used it successfully in many areas of Spain and it has never let me down. I guess we all have different experiences.

[gerryh]

As I have said many times before, it all depends on where you live as to what reception you get with a Movistar/ Vodafone or whoever dongle.
There is no "anywhere in Spain" coverage with any of them.
It is pointless one person making a general comment that XXX dongle is rubbish or excellent, it all depends on where you live.
Cheers
Gerry

[olive]

My point is, that living in the campo, that my experiences with two companies has been less than good. And that complaining through proper channels takes forever.

Currently my desk pc never moves position, no new trees overnight etc yet the signal quality varies from day to day. Sometimes the dongle works fine and is adequately fast(1.5Meg). Other times in desperation I log on at GPRS and make do with 15k. Each time I speak to Movistar they spin a yarn. Once they even told me and were sorry "a limiter had been put on the line" and nothing to do with having used my monthly allowance. All I want is a reliable service that I know will work each day without having to ring the tecnico to get the line reset etc. Maybe that is satellite.

[gerryh]

Olive
Sorry, I wasn't trying to get at you.
Your experiences show that solution A does not work for everywhere in Spain.
Quite a few people have recommended BB4S but I can't get it where I live
A Vodafone dongle gives me 4-5 Mbps download speeds where I live.
I understand your frustrations when you phone "technical" support.
I don't think they are technicians. They just follow a standard set of questions and give an answer based on your answers.
Satellite might be your best answer.
Provided you can have a dish mounted pointing at a fairly low angle in a southerly direction and it has a clear and uninterrupted view of the sky, then you should be OK.
Cheers
Gerry