Speachless for a week

...LAURENCE AND TONY sailed their yacht from its berth to La Cala yesterday, the picture left is when it departed. We were having lunch with Jonathan and Duncan at the time, so the picture is from our balcony. I am looking forward to the next time Ange and I are aboard, it is a great day out on the yacht. Laurence and Tony are perfect hosts.

I knew they were on their way to La Cala when I received a phone call off Laurence. And trust me that phone call was the first one I had had for just over a week. No! that isn't because I am extremely unpopular, its due to me changing mobile telephone providers. I was using 'Vodafone ES', and a few people had transferred from their provider to one called 'Telitec'. It boasts 7 cents a minute to mobiles and landlines in Spain and 5 cents a minute to mobiles and landlines in the UK. There is a connection fee of 14 cents. Texts are also cheaper. So a number of us, maybe as many as 12 decided to do the change and Jonathan took the lead to get us all moved over as smoothly as possible. On the 30th march I sent an email to a lady at Telitec along with all the details they required. In Spain it is now necessary to register pay as you go mobiles which means providing a passport number and an NIE number (a Spanish requirement if you have any financial dealings in Spain). She said it would happen between 7 and 14 days. So in the meantime I was in the UK thinking the new SIM card would arrive during my absence. It didn't. So I left things a while and then Ange got a text from something called 'Hits' which unknown to me at that time is the name of the new network provider. It said in Spanish that her mobile transfer date was the 15th April and the SIM should arrive on the 17th April. I didn't get a message. so I telephoned Telitec on my landline because on the 17th my mobile SIM card from Vodafone was disabled. The lady at Telitec said she would contact the technical guys and they will respond to me. A chap from the technical side rang me and said he had despatched both SIMs on the 15th and it would take a couple of days to arrive. this was on Friday the 17th April. The weekend loomed so I thought it is likely to be Tuesday when it arrives so I decided to wait until then before calling back. On Tuesday 21st it hadn't arrived so I emailed the lady in sales, she replied saying she had forwarded it to a man in the technical department. He eventually rang me and said it had been despateched on the 17th and that I should try the Post Office in VillaJoyosa, the post man may not have been able to deliver it for some reason. The next day I took Andrea with me to the Post Office because she had a note in her mail box saying that she was out when the delivery of her SIM card was made and we needed to sign for the SIMs. When I got to the Post office I quoted a tracking number given to me by the technical guy. They had it and gave me the package.

I got home and inserted the SIM and keyed in the code number. The screen lit up and a message said 'SIM card registration failed'. I was now beginning to lose my temper. So I sent this email:

Dear Madam,

I am not sure that anything else can go wrong. After many phone calls and eventually getting a tracking number from you I discovered my SIM card was in Villajoyosa Post Office. I had not received postal slip in my post box to say that they failed to deliver. So after a long time without phone I eventually got the SIM card today. I came home and inserted the SIM keyed in the PIN number and the message on my screen was your SIM card registration failed. My phone is an Open phone I bought it as such to take my Spanish and UK SIM cards. I have telephoned a lady who told me that someone will call me back and will I be in all day? She added it may be the SIM card....! Great another 4 weeks no doubt.

Bob

You may sense a hint of sarchasm. Nothing much happened during the day and I was told to deal directly with HITS. After speaking with Hits I sent another email:-

Dear madam,

It is now day 26 since I requested a transfer to Telitec. Yesterday I had several telephone calls to the techie, still no phone. He then put me in direct contact with HITs, who asked me all the same questions and took me through the same procedure as the techie until they realised I am neither insane, incompetent or untruthful. They then said they are putting in an 'incident' to vodafone, who supply the signal (strange that I managed to get a signal when with Vodafone which was a week ago today). I telephoned HITS this morning and the lady said there is no solution yet it is in the hands of the technical people and she doesn't know when it will be corrected.

I have lost a week's worth of business and had to buy a vodafone SIM card so that I don't lose any more, and I have now got 2 phone numbers in the system which I was trying to avoid by asking you to transfer my original one.

I think your system is flawed, I think your people are insensitive, and HITS are uncaring. I wish I had never transferred over, and will certainly dissuade others from doing so.

regards

Bob

I got a phone call from the techie almost immediately. He said "I have been reading all the emails and I am doing all I can to resolve your problem" to which I asked "and what is the solution"? He said "Well I have made you another SIM card and I am going to post it to you and it should take 1 to 2 days to arrive" I thought Deja Vu! "Don't post it, I will come to your office in Moraira and get it directly from you I don't trust the mail." He replied "I will be right back I have to go stop the mail". We arranged to meet before 2.pm. So me and Ange drove all the way to Moraira, found the office and met up with the techie. I put the SIM in and I didn't get a signal. "No signal" I said somewhat frustratedly. He said "Let me have it" and he walked outside, then came back and said "You do have a signal, but its a crap signal in here you have to go outside"..... it gave me very little faith that statement!

Sure enough I had a signal. I received a text as soon as I got outside from someone complaining they couldn't contact me. The first person I rang was Jonathan. "Guess where I am ringing you from Jonathan" I said, "where?" "From Telitec at Moraira, I went for my own SIM".

When I got home Jonathan had written a status message on his facebook. "Good news, Bob is mobile again, (he went for his SIM card) Wonder what he has to talk about on facebook now"......