EXCLUSIVE by Amie Keeley

A PAIR of pensioners are up in arms after they were abused for complaining about shoddy service from a satellite TV company.

They insist they were sworn at after asking Free2viewTV for a refund for equipment that did not work.

One, Paul Rosevear, 65, from Cartama, spent 300 euros on a satellite box fitted by the company last month.

But it stopped working just an hour after a technician had been sent round to install it.

When his son rang the company asking for a refund, boss Steve Rose’s response was simple and to the point: “What the f*** does it have to do with you?” and slammed down the phone.

Days later, however, the technician arrived with a new box, but when Rosevear explained he wanted a full refund, he was told he could only have a credit note.

Incredibly when he complained by email, he received a reply on Valentine’s Day from company director Rose who threatened to sue him if he continued to complain.

Rose warned him that his wife was a lawyer and his brother-in-law was a policeman.

It ended: “Get a life you muppet.”

A furious Rosevear told the Olive Press: “This is a total disgrace and no way to behave.”

Another customer Cliff Hugill, 67, also from Cartama, had problems in November when equipment did not work.

When he phoned to complain he claims he was also told to ‘f*** off’ and ‘this is Spain not England’.

After calling another technician to take a look, he was told that the new equipment was, in fact, secondhand.

When the Olive Press contacted the company last month, we were also threatened.

Director Rose insisted he would sue us if we printed anything and insisted that Hugill’s work was, in fact, sub-contracted out to someone else and nothing to with him. Eventually, the sub-contractor, James Taylor, agreed to replace it.

However, two months later and Hugill still hasn’t had a replacement and is unable to get through to James Taylor or anyone at Free2viewTV.

“They are ignoring me. I have phoned several times. As pensioners, we are a vulnerable group of people,” he said. “People need to be warned.”

When asked why he felt entitled to abuse his customers, Rose told the Olive Press: “I accept what you are saying. Some people get treated worse than others.

“But nine out of ten customers are happy and I can give 10 good references.

“That man’s son swore at me and threatened my wife.If they had a problem why did they pay for the service in the first place? You are clutching at straws.”

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15 COMMENTS

  1. Of course no-one in the family is either an ‘EU lawyer’ nor the ‘head of the guardia civil’. Hot air, blown about by a typical cowboy expat outfit which wouldn’t survive for 2 weeks on home turf. Use the complaint books folks! By law they have to supply those. If they don’t, phone the police there and then.

  2. There’s a lot of Expats putting a lot oif work into trying to lobby and coerse the Spainish authorities to clean up their acts and make it a better vplace to start and operate a busness. Britain was the hishest investor in Spain ;last year. Brits have a constant battle to work here and receive fair treatment and we can only refer to our own standards i UK and other countreies to push for chnage….And thuggery and skullduggery like this just let’s all of us down. Thanks very much!

  3. To be honest ive been here on the costa for around 10 years.I have used there company many times as my wife and i have a property rentals company.We have both dealt with steve from free2viewtv.His work has always been of a very high standard and he has never once let us down.Hes been out to our clients
    even of a weekend to complete work.Its true they dont offer cash refunds but he does always replace any faulty equipment.
    We will stick with him as we have done for the last 7 years.
    thanks…

  4. Ben whoever you are?.Whats fishy about having an honest opinion.I dont agree with what the paper has wrote about one of our clients.Your more than welcome to share your interests in my comments.But i just dont agree with the article.Ive always dealt with free2viewtv on a proffesional level,and never been let down by them.My office is situated in Peurto Banus,We are called prestige properties,Feel free to look us up at anytime.

  5. We were conned right left and centre by Steve Roses company free2view tv. Paid him a fortune and now have a sky digital recording box that doesnt record and no sky channels whatsoever. Tried to contact them on several occasions but no luck. Have reported him to the police a couple of months ago. Also paid subscription to Sky for 12 months in advance which still has months left to run.Hope he gets his come uppance as he well and truly deserves it

  6. Well people here is the full story of James Taylor.
    We were sending subscriptions to him for sky and freeview to enable our clients.
    He was charging us 120 Euros yearly. We paid yearly off course and after 2 months subscriptions went off and he disappeared with over 12000 Euros of our money. Now we have to refund 100 clients so we are going out of business.

  7. Sheri, you cannot legally get Sky in Spain. I have no issue using Sky in Spain on a on a personal one-to-one basis at home, since the risk is then your own, but to resell it doesn’t sound very business-like. Your business plan is like someone renting a property to a person and they sub-let it to someone else without telling you.

  8. Another uneducated chav bully taking people to the cleaners. Plenty around down there. So unprofessional as well and trying to use scare tactics. I only work from recommendations and never phone unknown people in adds, learnt the lessons when I was in my early 20’s. Jacob, if you are to the person himself I would not be associating my Company with someone who sends emails out like that, it will not make you look good. Rosey must be really thick as well as a bully to send out an incriminating email like that.

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