Phone contracts

[pladecalvo]

Here is some information that may help those who find themselves trapped in the usual 18 month contract with a phone company that they are not happy with.

I recently took out a contract with a company and received this with the contract:

TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONSUMER RIGHTS.

Under the current legislation of the Spanish Ministry in charge of Telecommunications, Department Trade and Industry with respect to the protection of telecommunications consumer rights, the following rights, among others are guaranteed.

3. You are entitled to subscribe from the service at any moment. In such case, the only requirement is that you communicate it 15 days beforehand to the service provider. Once your request is received the cancellation of your subscription will be handled in a maximum term of fifteen days.



According to the information, you can also cancel your contract without penalty, if any aspect of the contract (such as prices) change and you are not happy with the changes.

I was always under the impression that one was locked into a phone contract for a fixed term. Apparently not!!

[Alcalaina]

Very useful!

But has anyone managed to find an address to send a cancellation to? They certainly don't put them on their websites!

[pladecalvo]

The contract paperwork from your supplier will have this information. If not you can get advice from your local Oficina Municipal d'Informacio al Consumador, or by contacting the Telecommunications Consumer's Bureau (Oficina de Atencion al Usuario de Telecommunicationes del ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio) on 903 33 66 99 or www.usuarioteleco.es

[donz]

to be fair, despite the terrible reputations these companies do have (my father in law wsa locked in a legal battle for 18mths with one as well) we managed to get out of our dongle contract recently.

We ordered 2 dongles for our computers because previous owner had used same company previously and they worked fine. Ours didn't - absolutely no service where we are. We went to the providers shop who told us to back to the 'all rounder' shop we got them from within 7 days who, despite speaking English tried to fob us off. When my OH then spoke to him in Spanish and told him not to screw around with us, he then called said provider who proceeded to cancel the subscription.

Don't get me wrong, it was a huge pain in the rear to get sorted and I only just got the confirmation about 6 weeks that everything was closed finally (this was end Jan) but it did get done and you do have rights - as I understood it you have to speak to them within 7 days if you have such an issue. I know it is usually 14 days but just get in there asap!