2723 could cost you e5000

Hear hear, John!

We're continually being screwed-over by Telcom Italia. Once for a 'free trial' of Alice Sat (they billed us €256, never installed it and then tried to charge us interest on our non-payment) and several times for the dreaded 'Hello Sempre' tariff. Trying to rectify these errors is a nightmare that ties my wife up for hours on end. Its got to the point where Telecom Italia could phone us up and offer us a genuinly free holiday in Martinique and we would still say [b]No![/b]

Our choice of Telecoms provider is Tele2. Their rates are low and they get the bills right.

marc...agree... we used tele 2 for calls and just payed telecom the rental ...recently it has all changed you can now escape telecom and use tele2 for both line rental and calls... takes about a month to switch over...in that month you just stick 1022 in front of the numbers you call... and then your free... tele2 unless anyone has anything bad to offer have always been easy to deal with and efficient...

so if you have a telcom account phone up tele2 and they will change it... you just have to register... its easy and the costs are much lower...and they talk to you...

That does sound like progress John and they do ADSL too - might give them a call Monday. I don't know how large is my ADSL traffic in order to choose the right tariff - any techies out there know how I can discover this?

Thanks for the information John. It tooks us 2 months for Telecom Italia to finally get our phone connected and shortly after were offered "free" ADSL. The package arrived last week and the receipt says Gratis. Do I take it that if we now register that we'll be stung for a huge bill?:(

russ.. sorry cannot help with honest transactions...i guess you just have to wait and see... however ... the switchover to tele2 is handled by them ...so if any probs...get in touch ...its all on their web site and get them to handle telecom.... its all a learning experience.

Just spoke with my friend in Abruzzo and mentioned your post. Being Italian, he went into a blind panic and was straight on the phone to Telecom Italia. They said if the modem was used without getting a "profile" an hourly charge of €2 would be made, so if left on constantly €24 per day €700+ per month. Get a profile and the monthly charge is €21. Can't say I'm convinced at this stage........

russ .. does this mean you owe me a glass of wine on your next vist here

I reckon I do John! I'm over again in a 3 weeks time, so if you're passing, we'd be pleased to see you. Is it true that it's 24c up there today? Weird weather!

[QUOTE=adriatica]... theres a programme on rai 3 ...sort of consumer thing... but pretty pathetic... anyway maybe a bit of useful news that might help keep the euro a bit longer in your pocket...

you can get cold called via telecom italia and alice... generally about internet connections...modems or adsl connections... you might say no...dont want that...dont have a computer even...and they say goodbye...

however to keep their jobs these sales people have to make a certain number of sales per week...month ..whatever. so you are signed up..

sometimes because there records are not up to date even dead people get on the list and then you are billed for the use of/connection to this service... the actual consumer guy... the one who runs the sort of which consumer organisation here says that there are around twenty million euro worth of sales generated through false declarations and that every one should check carefully their phone bills... if anything from telecom italia or alice arrives to you through the post in a package you have to sign for do not unless you have ordered it sign... ever... just tell the post person to take it back...if you sign for it you will keep getting bills and never get away from them...

in general people pay between 200 to 1000 euro ... because if you do not pay they threaten to cut your line off...also they can get the police onto you and prison might well loom... there is very little recourse anywhere... there were two people with bills payed of 3000e and 5000e ... seventy year olds that had payed because telecom was threatening to cut the line off if they didnt and because one or another was ill they needed it to call doctors/hospitals....

so if you get a cold call... put the phone down...an unsolicited to be signed for parcel...refuse to accept... and check your bills... and put in writing...dont try to call any debates over bills... and have the letter witnessed by a professional and sent ...keeping a copy... by registered mail...[/QUOTE]
John,is absolutely right.
Any other info you may receive is only devious.
We now take the hard line,what is that you may ask.
(and whilst being entirely sorry for any human having to work in a call center)
We threaten them overtly saying we will come round and smash them to pieces if they don't stop this harrassment immediately ...low and behold it works..any objections we start to say what may happen to their families then it really stops.
take a hard line...always.

four days ago... it was at 6.00 am -2 in pescara...the next day at the same time it was plus 15...today you could eat outside in your shorts here ...and we dont live by the coast and no im not australian...yes it is weird... we have had now four days of almost early summer weather and had no rain for god knows how long... but if all goes to plan its due to change tomorrow... according to the weather man ...colonel .... rain spreading in from the north...temps dropping and sort of regular spring weather...

luckily because we live in the province of Teramo we are too insignificant for the weather man to notice.... and the gran sasso... seems to often protect us.. we seem to miss the worse of the weather in general and often find the rain never arrives... just enough to keep the place green on occaision... and no this really cannot happen elsewhere...because there isnt another place in italy apart from the alps that has such a high mountain range to protect it...

[QUOTE=Marc]Hear hear, John!

We're continually being screwed-over by Telcom Italia. Once for a 'free trial' of Alice Sat (they billed us €256, never installed it and then tried to charge us interest on our non-payment) and several times for the dreaded 'Hello Sempre' tariff. Trying to rectify these errors is a nightmare that ties my wife up for hours on end. Its got to the point where Telecom Italia could phone us up and offer us a genuinly free holiday in Martinique and we would still say [b]No![/b]

Our choice of Telecoms provider is Tele2. Their rates are low and they get the bills right.[/QUOTE]

I hate Telecom, and even though you can now use other providers for telephony and internet services (but still have to maintain the telecom line and pay them a huge monthly rental), they have ways and means.

This is what happened to us.

We moved house. I had previously been using Tiscali Flat for internet broadband, and was tied in to a 12 month contract that was tacitly renewed each year. To cancel involved sending a lettera raccommandata, jumping through a few hoops and a couple of handstands and I would still have to pay for the rest of the year. However, the good news was that I could move the contract to another phone line. I ordered the move but could not complete the procedure because I didn't have the new line yet, but had to close the old one because we were renting out our old house.

The new house did not have a phone line, so I asked Telecom to install one. It took 7 months and many hours spent on the phone to them to get one installed. In the meantime I was existing on mobile phones and a mobile card for my laptop and still paying the 60 euros a month to TIscali for flat ADSL, even though I wasn't able to use it.

When Telecom finally installed my line, they asked me if I wanted to use broadband, and I said yes, because I already had a Tiscali contract in place and was waiting to transfer it. All well and good. I contacted Tiscali and they moved my contract to the new number.

My "tecnico di fiducia" came and installed my router and set up wireless broadband in my house. To connect the broadband, he used the tiscali username and password that I had been using previously. I was connected, fantastic.

Two months later I had a bill from Telecom for over 1,200 euros. It turned out, after much investigation by my tecnico, that Telecom had installed a "filter" on my phone line meaning that the broadband could only be supplied by Telecom Alice. They had installed, without my knowledge or permission, an "Alice Free" contract at 2 euros per hour. I eventually, after many hours getting rather hysterical on the phone and several lettere raccommandate to the head offices, got a partial refund although they STILL charged me for installing the Alice filter, which I had never wanted as I had told them from the off that I wanted to use Tiscali. In the meantime, remember I am still paying Tiscali 60 euros per month (I had been paying them this for nearly a year now without being able to use the service. Tiscali told me that wasn't their problem as it was Telecom who had delayed in putting in the line and then put in the Alice filter).

So I contacted Telecom and asked them to remove the filter they had installed so Tiscali could come and install theirs and I could finally use the contract I had been paying for. I was told that it would take at least 6 months for them to remove the filter. In the meantime, I would not be able to use my Tiscali connection, only the Alice Free (2 euros per hour). Alternatively, I could choose to switch to Alice Flat (35 euros per month) and that would be effective immediately.

Eventually I cancelled the Tiscali contract, paid out the rest of the year and was forced to switch to Alice.

The same thing happened to a few other people I know.

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions what is going on there!

Che incubo!

[QUOTE=Marc]Che incubo![/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.slowtrav.com/rebecca/20060105.htm[/url]

Read this if you want to laugh rather than cry.

I have ISDN and ADSL because I don't dare rely on ADSL alone - this is a very expensive insurance policy but offset by using VOIP for 90% of telephone calls.

Talking about Telecom Italia, I liked this scathing attack on the head of the company's new book on Beppe Grillo's blog;

[url]http://www.beppegrillo.it/eng/2006/02/the_industrialist.html[/url]

By the way, I'd never heard of Beppe Grillo before, but according to [url=http://www.technorati.com/pop/blogs/]Technorati[/url], his blog ranks as the 11th most popular blog in the world.

Very interesting Marc - wasn't he the bloke who was pointing out that Parmalat's debt was more than their annual turnover - two years before "il crack"?

Can you go direct to tele2?

No - I have just found the answer on tele2 website - or near enough

Ho il numero Telecom, ma non la linea attiva con Telecom Italia. Posso attivare TELE2?
No, devi avere una linea analogica attiva con Telecom Italia (no ISDN).