(Granada, Vega) How many hard working, honourable people have witnessed their names being included on the non-payers blacklist, destroying their personal credit ratings? How many have found themselves on the black list for a pittance bill that they didn’t even know about or one that really didn’t correspond to reality? Too many, is the sad answer.

Eliseo Medina Martin’s problem is a case in point. Back in December he received two mobile phones in the post from the Movistar company. Considering it to have been some kind of error, as he hadn’t asked for them, he sent them back, wrongly supposing that this would be the end of it and that the phone company would gratefully recognise their error.

Soon after, he started to receive phone bills on his bank account for two unknown telephone numbers. Thus began the tried a failed procedure of trying to get some sense out of a telephone company through their customer service number.

He then ordered his bank to reject any further bills, which they did, but far from ending the matter the bills continued to arrive for amounts he hadn’t spent on phones he did not possess.

One of the few occasions that he did manage to get through on the customer-service number, they assured him that the numbers had been given la baja; i.e., taken out of service.
“You just feel so hopeless attempting to solve the problem, because you just want to speak face-to-face with somebody in charge in the company, but instead you just get to speak with different minions each time you manage to get through, each one telling you something different.”

Well, Eliseo has taken it to the regional consumer complaints department, belonging to the Junta de Andalucia; and for him it is his last hope, but taking legal actions is both too costly and too slow.

So what can we tell you – that telephone companies and politicians vie for bottom slot on the general-public’s appreciation scale?

(Provincial News: Vega area of Granada, Granada, Andalucia)