problems with internet provider

[molina]

hi there
i have a contract with quantis.es - a satellite internet provider. the contract is for 2mbps, voip (which is a router for telephon calls and wifi). the first two month our speed was ok - around 1.7mbps. with the phone we always had problems. we could hardly make phonecalls. incoming calls were ok. the last 3 month our internet speed was in the average around 0,6 mbps. i wrote a few times to quantis, first cancelling the phoneline, as nothing improved and also complaining about the slowness of our internet service. i never got any response. as it is with these things i spent hours on the phone - never got someone in the reclamacions department and the technician with who i spoke said, i should connect with cable and forget about wifi... and they also mentioned not enough broadband.
is there anyone who has problems as well with quantis or with any other internet providers and is there a customer/citizens advice bureau with legal aid available in spain. i live close to ronda....
any suggestions really appreciated...
thanks upfront.

[olive]

I'm the last person to give advice on this subject but here goes.

In the first instance you need to try all avenues to get the problem resolved with the provider. KEEP good records of every contact and every problem and what was said when and by who.

Assuming you have got to an impasse you can complete a Hoja de Reclamacion available in their "shop". It is filled out in Spanish and normally the mere thought of a customer asking to do this spurs the outlet into action. If you do resort to this my understanding is the local police have a look at it and make sure that the complaint is signed off satisfactorily. In other words you need to specify a reasonable outcome. In my experience the local shop (Orange) wasn't at all interested as they are a franchise interested in one thing only - new sales. Mine failed because I hadn't specified a desired outcome just detailed the problem which they (correctly) said was nothing to do with the shop.

Next you can try OMIC - this is an office in your local Ayuntamiento. (Bit like a UK citizens advice bureau). You talk them through your complaint and if they agree you have a valid complaint they paraphrase your compaint and submit that to the organisation on your behalf. they then respond. In my case the response missed the point anyway and concentrated on their process detail (they lost my SIM card during faulty dongle exchange).

At this point I made a mistake of involving any and everyone in resolving my complaint. The next and as I understand the final step, is to complain to Telecom Usarios. I did that easily enough by the Internet BUT they are very remote unlike your OMIC office where you can talk to0 a person face to face. Telecom Usarios trump OMIC and they now just take a back seat. NINE months on I have heard nothing and expect to never hear anything. All parties are just waiting for me to die.

My advice to you is to perhaps try an Hoja de Reclamacion face to face with a person . If and when that fails then use OMIC. Be prepared for a long time to elapse. Oh and keep detailed records of every contact.

Three weeks ago I was prepared to ditch Movistar and go with Tooway from Bentley Walker. Today everything is working fine. Such is Spain.

Good luck

[Lavanda]

Very clear reply, Olive. My only advice, Molina, is that if you cancel with your current provider DO NOT take up with Vodafone or anyone else — they are all a nightmare. Just use semaphore.