Movistar Problems

[Polaron]

There's a reason why many peruvians refer to movistar as robistar. The company seems to be universally hated wherever it does business. In Spain , where movistar originates, that company is responsible for fully three out of every four consumer complaints made to the government. It's part of the multinational corporation telefonica de Espana, which when I lived there, Spaniards
called "Timofonica" ( a play on the word timar, which means to swindle.

I find myself once again without internet due to some kind of as yet unexplained major outage. This is the fourth time for me in under a year. I have the fiber-optic package from movistar; apparently the non fiber optic is not out of service at this time but fiber optic is.

This most recent outage occurred Suddenly Last Night and the first thing I did was call movistar. After getting disconnected a number of times before the call even went through I finally got hold of someone who said she would have to transfer me to another department. She did and I waited and waited and waited and waited listening to instrumental music on hold and then the line simply disconnected. I called back was again transferred and again had the line cut off.

The person I spoke with on the phone before transferring me had said that they had received any complaints from fiber optic users about a service outage. He nonchalantly explained that the lines were probably saturated, as if that made everything okay.

So early this morning when I woke up for a different reason I thought I would call movistar that their lines would not be so busy. I got through immediately only to be transferred again and again to wait and wait and wait and wait and then have the line disconnected.

The bottom line here is that I don't have internet and I can't even report it. Meanwhile I'm still being charged for internet and movistar will not process an adjustment without a case number. But much more than the adjustment of course I want internet.

Now here's the sick thing. Of the three internet providers that serve my area (Claro, Olo, and Movistar), movistar is the least bad. Worse I have not been able to find out how to contact movistar Executive offices. In the past when I've used claro I've been able to contact their Executive offices and get a quick resolution but not so with movistar.

I'm unwilling to switch to claro because I can't get the speed that I need and a year ago I had a very bad experience with Olo. My other alternative is to simply not have internet at all but of course that's untenable. So I got to thinking why not brainstorm this issue with my expat friends?

I know I'm not alone in this. Millions of people expat and otherwise are suffering at the hands of movistar's awful service. So I thought this would be a good place for us to share ideas. Constructive replies are most welcome.

[SilverbackPeru]

I'm just sick to death of the whole internet problems here. Claro have been a joke all year. The connection constantly cuts out on every electronic device. I can barely watch anything with out the video or streaming cutting out.

I had a wi-fi plan for my mobile which i didn't receive for two months. You complain to the company but sweet f.a ever gets done.

I recently had a few nights away and the server in the hotel was a different company and yet youtube kept cutting out regularly on the smart tv.

Does any internet company actually bloody care about their reputation or customer service down here or are they all just fk'n idiots! Sorry for the language but i'm paying for internet.....any chance of receiving it tho? Nope not a chance in hell!

Polaron i feel your pain!

[Polaron]

Where my internet came back on this morning it was out for about a total of 10 hours. That's the shortest time it has been out of the four times this past year I've dealt with it.

Every Peruvian that I know complains about poor internet service. Their acceptance of the situation borders on fatalism. On the other hand however they don't seem to become too upset over circumstances they cannot control. Well I'm very unhappy with the service here I have to admit that it's a whole lot better than it was when I lived in Paraguay about 10 years ago.

Paraguay has the most expensive and slowest internet service or just about anywhere on the continent. In 2007 I was paying about the 60 or $70 a month for 256 k. Now I'm getting 20 megabytes so I guess things could be worse

[sbaustin]

On the topic of telehuevonica, Movistar is gifting tons of bonuses on mobile plans right. They give me 7GB of bonuses for wireless data each month on top of my 5GB/month plan, I have no idea why. Anyone else know?

[Polaron]

Another Movistar internet outage, just came up after Midnight this morning (Sept. 14). On hold so far 8 minutes awaiting an answer. Movistar is outdoing itself in outages this week.

edit to add details: The first call I made I got cut off after about 12 minutes waiting on line to speak to a service representative. The second call answered quickly but after I confirmed and convinced the service rep that I have fiber optic service he explained that he would have to transfer me however there have been many calls sent to that department so it was like that the lines would be saturated. He suggested that I call back later in the night in the wee hours of the morning when it was short to be less busy.

He further said that it was possible that there might have been a widespread outage. Curiously as soon as I hung up the internet came back on.

[woodchuck]

As with too many businesses in Peru, they will gladly take your money - but forget you when you need customer service. IMO, Movistar & Claro are some of the worst! A few years ago, it was even worse as thet had no competition; now they have competition - but they still treat you like CRAP!
Must be something in the water? They aren't trained to help customers. Thanks.

[Polaron]

To save money and hassle claro and movistar like so many other companies have outsourced their customer service. Unfortunately the companies that pick up these contracts employed people that get paid less than the going rate and these people something their clients' customers.

Movistar and Clara are not the only ones to do this. Examples of us companies include Verizon Cisco Systems Intel Motorola General Electric Del Monte Tupperware Ford Motor Credit Capital One and many others, in almost all cases their customers are unhappy with the service they receive.

However movistar and its parent company telefonica de Espana, and for providing substandard service everywhere they operate every country. And you're right what's up with customer service is crap and they do not care.

Granted this is a generalization, the customer service in Latin America tends to be less of a priority except at find businesses such as very expensive stores restaurants hotels etc. Now if you talk to an employee of a call center here they will tell you about the Draconian measures management takes to ensure quality.

And management gives the face of demanding good quality, but the jobs are so tedious and difficult and they pay so little that the service Representatives very quickly get fed up. Turnover is high customer dissatisfaction is high and profits are Sky High.