Money for nothing
Telecom company registers expat as debtor for service she never received
AN EXPAT has been involved in a surreal situation with the phone company Orange since the beginning of the year and she has now taken a step forward by hiring a solicitor to represent her.
Heike Schmitz Johnson from San Miguel de Salinas took advantage of a Black Friday offer in December and contracted her landline, mobile phone, and internet supply with Orange.
However, her internet connection never worked and her former and current internet providers spent the whole month passing the buck back and forth between them, which forced Mrs Schmitz to sign a new contract with a local telecommunications provider.
“The engineers were unable to work the problem out and the company was unable to give any solution and ignored my complaints,” she said.
“I had to buy a temporary router and SIM card to get an internet supply, because I was losing many clients and my husband could not contact his relatives in the USA for Christmas.”
The new provider completed the changeover ( portabilidad) procedure at the beginning of January.
Mrs Schmitz claims that Orange charged more than € 260 from her bank account and started to harass her by phone.
She claimed that during the lockdown, she was called up to 15 times a day from different numbers and offered discounts.
“A discount on a service I was not getting? I was not even their customer anymore!” she said.
“I ordered my bank to return the invoices, because I would not pay for a service I had never received.
“I have tried several times unsuccessfully to return the router to Orange shops at Torrevieja
and Orihuela Costa and I have sent several certified letters and e- mails to the company, but they have not replied.”
The company has been submitting new invoices every month and on September 2 she received a certified fax urging her to pay € 279 because she had been included in one of the national registries of defaulting debtors.
The certified fax reads that from the end of September her details will be available to all banks and credit institutions in Spain, which in practice means
that she will face great difficulties in getting a loan and some credit banking services.
The certified fax has been the last straw in this battle for Mrs Schmitz, who has hired a solicitor and sent a letter to the phone company on Tuesday.
“It is a problem in their system and I am not going to pay for a service I never got, no matter how much discount they offer on it,” she said.
Costa Blanca News had not received any reply from Orange before going to press.