Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)By Wendy Williams
AN ex-pat family have been left without electricity for nearly a month despite insisting they have paid their bill.
The family of five have been living in the dark since being cut off by Endesa despite paying their bill a few days late last month.
Katrina Miller, who lives in Archidona with her husband, elderly mother and two children, explained: “The bill was paid just slightly late, but I explained the situation and the woman in the office said everything would be fine.
“Then suddenly three days later the lights went out when nobody was at home.
“I thought this was against basic human rights,” she added.
Since being cut off the Miller family – who have lived in Archidona for six years – have been forced to jump through hoops.
“It’s a nightmare. We have been told different stories every time we have contacted Endesa,” said Katrina. “Staff have been so unhelpful.”
“They told us that we had to get an official report, or boletin, from an electrician, then we needed to get new buttons on our electric panel, all of which we have done.
“But they keep changing the goalposts and I feel like a performing seal.”
The latest demand is that the family move the electric metre outside the house at their own expense.
But their local town hall has written a letter on their behalf explaining it does not want outside meters on its historical streets.
Now the Millers must wait to see what Endesa will have them do next.
“It seems endless,” added Katrina, “I just don’t know where to go from here.”
“I thought this was against basic human rights”
Don’t be silly love, this is Spain.
Endesa, and all the other similar companies are all the same – they don’t know their a**e from their elbow and have zero customer service and care, as demonstrated here.
The Millers need to denounce Endesa as soon as possible, get the issue sorted out, and then change supplier. In the UK you would at least get a warning and a communication channel to the ombudsman, and an option to pay a lower rate. In Spain they just cut you off and then give you hell trying to get a simple task completed – Spain in a nutshell.
I thought that this sort of action had ceased in Spain but it seems not.
I wonder if the bad publicity this treatment of expats generates is contributing to the lack of enthusiasm for property purchase in Spain.
Fred. Why do you stay if everything is so bad?
I don’t actually stay here full-time Steve. I have a couple of other places in Europe and I now work between them. Btw what I said above is true; this country is barely functioning and it looks to stay the same unfortunately.
I wonder how the Miller family got on now that they got some coverage? What country cuts off a family’s essential supplies like this, especaially when they are in contact with the company directly. Sorry Steve, but Spain does not like expats any more. When they were buying all the housing stock and eating in the restaurants Spain loved them. Funny how things change.
I have been trying to cancel a phone line in Spain since the summer. They state all is cancelled and then they keep charging. The only option I have open to me that I have had to take is cancel the direct debit.
When I purchased my property the electric cables were just cut after the last person left. When I say cut they had really cut the cables, not disconnected.
Spain , the corrupt hellhole of Europe . Avoid Spain , you have been warned