One reason why I want to go home....

In dealing with businesses here, namely those services essential for survival, there are an old cultural set of rules which I suspect come from the closed off culture of Spain. I am accustomed to the competition and customer service driven business atmosphere of America. Say all you would like about Capitalism, but the focus and aim of capitalism tends to benefit the consumer and the consumer sparks the economy, the economy sparks business...and so on and so on. When business is difficult to deal with, customers feel as though they are economically enslaved to a system that profits from this. Here in Spain, I feel as though the idea of choice is a foreign idea, for lack of a better phrase.

For so long, the state runs the necessary and essential services and in some capacity still do. There are benefits in the city supplying water and sewage to their citizens. Competition in placing separate water pipes to a home don't seem economically feasible. Still with the deregulation of the telecommunications industry in America, it took many years for other companies to get a foothold in the market share of long distance providers but today you can chose between Sprint, AT&T and so forth. Still these companies pay a usage fee for the millions of miles of fiber optic cabling provided by AT&T in the 70’s and 80’s but still a way was found to make these new telecommunication companies to provide reliable and economically affordable products.

In Spain, and most of the Spanish speaking countries around the world, Telefonica is the major source of telecommunication. Sure they provide long distance, local and Internet connections much like those companies in America, but I would say they own maybe 99% of the market share. They are the giants here in Spain and if you want a phone, you have some choices but the competing companies are far off the mark when it comes to availability and offerings in rural towns like Tossa. So when we moved here to Spain, we found it essential to get a home line connection for telephone and Internet. With the inception of my business, I knew I would need telephone and Internet there also so we set up two different accounts. In order to pay for your accounts, the norm is to give your bank account information to a representative and it is automatically debited each month. Since Spain is in the 21st century when it comes to debit card use rather than writing checks and balancing checkbooks, surprisingly Spain is well equipped to handle this idea. Still if you live hand-to-mouth, instead of risking coming up short monthly, you tend to live without certain amenities but the economy holds well enough that most people have cell phones and satellite television (don´t get me started on cable providers here…there are none).

Our problems all started when we changed bank accounts in January. At the advise of my in laws, we were guided into choosing another local bank to handle our money. Still here in Spain as it was centuries ago in America, you build a personal and daily relationship with your bank office in your town. Sure they have ATMs to feed the availability of Euros to the many tourists who come, traveler´s checks are nonexistent here. Of course we called all of our providers (gas, water, telephone, satellite, etc) to advise them of the change in account information. Still we found that the inability to change account information reliably was as poor as their common sense. One morning we awoke to no running water. Eyes crusted with last night dreams and heavy sleeping, faces caked with the oil from active glands, breath only sweetened by the use of bottle water used in brushing our teeth, I headed over to the local water company to inquire why we did not have water. It seemed that we did not pay our January bill. How coincidental…we changed our account in January. But it is now March and I hold the transcript from our new bank account showing that we paid our February and March bills. Still the local office of water, Sorea, claims we never paid January´s. Did you send a notice that you were to cut off our service for 30€ (roughly 45 dollars...that´s right, a month of water is $45!!!!)? Of course they did not, that would be too practical and cut into their profits to print a piece of paper and walk 4 blocks to my apartment. When he looked at his computer screen, I asked him what bank account number did he have…and he replied back with the old account number from our previous bank for January, the new account number for the following two months. But somehow they had the new account information to get their February and March payments.

I hope you are following this because here is when common sense comes in. If you have successfully retrieved payment for the past two months, and there was a change in bank accounts, why are you still trying to pull money from the old account? Why would you just not pull it from the new account. He replied simply…we cannot do that.

OK why did you not change then bank accounts for January? He replied we did…but I guess not in time. I figured my leading down the path of reason and common sense was in fact not getting him anywhere. He was Ray Charles looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. I was wasting time and my family sit in last night's stench, dreaming of taking a hot bath on this chilly morning. I sighed and paid in cash the balance of the bill, all the while thinking if I had indeed paid January and had not paid March, I would still have water, so it was not a fact of being late, but having a negative on my account for more than 2 months. Am I explaining this well enough?

Well it doesn't stop there. The same issue happened with Telefonica. But this time, I had my service cut off in May due to a bill not being paid in January, even though they successfully have received Feb. through May. They turned off my phone with no warning, email or phone notification…to my business. I was unaware of this due to the fact I had my phone service transferred from one location to my shop I am presently in. Since i was waiting for another state run agency to come and connect my electricity (they promised one particular day but never came stating they did not have enough work to do in Tossa to warrant making a trip for little ole me, a paying customer). I could not connect my phone or Internet to test whether it was functioning or not. When I did finally get power and opened my business, I was not surprised to see that my phone was not working, although my Internet was. When i called Telefonica, they stated I was turned off because I did not pay my January bill. Sigh. Again same story with the accounts.

So I headed to the local postal office to pay my bill and the next day I was turned back on. Well the story goes on. 3 weeks later, Carme called me at the shop and discovered I had no phone connection. I was unaware, as it is not common practice to routinely call myself from my cell to make sure my phone is working. But it sounds like a good idea if this is going to be common place. When I called Telefonica, they were unsure why I had no service. After an hour on the phone with my cell phone raking in big bucks for Vodafone, I was finally told that "the computer thought I had not paid my bill and automatically cut off my phone. Being a computer technician, I found humor in the words "the computer thought". Let's get this straight. Did you ever see the movie "War Games" with Matthew Broderick? you know where the computer takes over and almost starts WWII? Or better yet "2001: A Space Odyssey" where HAL went ballistic. Where I have a news flash ...computers will never take over the world. Computer only can do what you tell them to do. You tell a computer to cook a piece of bread for so long to make toast. If mechanically it fails, well you have a burnt piece of bread. But the little computer in the toaster doesn't say, "uh oh...we are burning the bread, EJECT!!!

So here I sit without phone service and magically, my Internet connection fails in mid conversation with this moronic person on the phone. What a coincidence. When I asked when they will correct THEIR mistake, I had to be put on hold to get an answer. I expected something along the line as "let my computer think about it." i was then informed that it may take up to 10 days to have my connection restored. Of course they would have to send a technician to Tossa to reconnect me. I am sure it may be longer if they do not have enough work to come to Tossa to justify the trip.

Luckily, 5 days went by and I had a technician show up at my door. He connected my telephone and Internet but treated it as if it was a new install. In doing so, he connected me with a new phone number. When I inquired, he informed me he had his instructions and could do nothing about it. Thinking he was an extension of Telefonica, he sarcastically replied, "do you want the service or not. If not I have to go." Right then my life flashed in front of my eyes. Specifically the portion of my life when I am thrown into a Spanish jail for assault after sticking my sized 49 shoe into his paella eating ass and deported politely back to the US. I grit my teeth and take my Spanish medicine of rudeness, frankness, and laid back "I don't make the rules" attitude.

To make a short story longer, here I sit thinking about what I have learned today and how I can grow from it. In a nutshell...nothing. I am redesigning my fliers to reflect my new number. Good thing I was too lazy to make new ones 3 weeks ago since I needed to change my address on my business cards anyhow. As i share this story with more and more of my neighbors, they take it as the norm. They respond in horror but somewhat expectant to hear of these issues. What can you do. I just hope that this feeling of complacency does not wash over me and seep deep into my being. I am American and I demand customer service. It´s in our constitution somewhere I am sure of it.