Spain's rules
My operator won't cancel my line, or keeps charging me after I cancelled
The official steps, and a place to count your complaint.
Who this covers
Mobile, landline, home internet or bundled pay-TV contracts where the operator refuses, delays or ignores a cancellation, or keeps billing after it. Not early-exit penalty disputes (es-telecom-permanence) or failed number transfers (es-telecom-portability).
Add your complaint
Rantr counts your complaint and shows you others who have it.
No promise of a fix or refund. Do not name private people or include private details. This does not send a complaint to the company.
Your official route
-
Ask to cancel through a channel that leaves proof
Deadline: The cancellation must take effect within two working days of your request; the operator cannot bill you for anything after that.
You can cancel at any time using the methods in your contract; the channel you used to sign up is always valid. By phone, get the cancellation reference number there and then, and ask for a document confirming it by post or email. By post, send it with acknowledgement of receipt. Owing money is not a reason to refuse your cancellation.
Official source ↗ -
Complain to your operator in writing and get a reference number
Deadline: Within one month from when you learned of the problem; complaining to the operator in that time is required before you can go to the OAUT.
Attach your proof of cancellation and ask them to stop billing and cancel the wrong bills. Use the channel you used to sign up, or phone: the operator must accept both. It must give you a reference number for your complaint. If you complain by phone, ask for a document that proves you filed it and what it said.
Official source ↗ -
If there is no answer within a month, or you disagree, complain to the OAUT
Deadline: Within three months from the operator's answer, or from the end of its one-month period to answer.
The Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones (Ministry) handles complaints from individuals, self-employed people and microenterprises. File online (with a digital certificate) or on paper, and attach the operator's reference number, bills and contract. Refusal or delay in processing a cancellation is one of the matters it resolves. It has six months to decide, and the operator must comply with its decision.
Official source ↗ -
Instead of the OAUT: consumer arbitration, if your operator accepts it
Deadline: To keep the OAUT open, ask for arbitration within the same three months.
You can take the dispute to a Junta Arbitral de Consumo; it only works if the operator submits to it. If the operator refuses arbitration, your three months to go to the OAUT count again from that refusal.
Official source ↗ -
Last resort: court
Before suing you must have tried to negotiate, and you need written proof of that attempt: for example, proof that the company received your request to negotiate or your proposal. If it does not reply within 30 calendar days of receiving it, the attempt counts as ended without agreement.
Official source ↗
Your written complaint
To: Your operator's customer service (the channel you used to sign up, or phone)
Must include
- Your full name and the account holder's ID (DNI/NIE)
- Customer or contract number and the lines or services to cancel
- The date and channel of your cancellation request and its reference number
- The bills issued after the cancellation date, with amounts
- What you ask for: confirm the cancellation date, stop billing, cancel those bills and refund what you paid
Keep
- The reference number the operator gave you
- A copy of your complaint, with the date and channel used
- The bills involved
- Your contract or contract summary
- The cancellation reference number and the document confirming it
- Acknowledgement of receipt if you cancelled by post, or a screenshot if online
Your rights
-
You can end the contract at any time, telling the operator at least two working days before it is to take effect. The operator must not bill anything accrued after those two days, unless it is your fault.
Official source ↗ -
The operator must accept the same channel you used to sign up, and phone, for cancellations and complaints, and give you a reference number.
Official source ↗ -
The operator must process your cancellation even if you owe money; it can claim the debt separately.
Official source ↗ -
If you switch operator keeping your number, the porting request cancels the services linked to that number with the old operator. If you switch without porting your number, you must cancel with the old operator yourself.
Official source ↗ -
When switching, if the old operator keeps billing because no cancellation was requested, the OAUT considers whether you authorised the new operator to request it: if you did, the new operator must bear those bills.
Official source ↗ -
Complaining does not stop the operator from trying to collect. If a bill stays unpaid for more than one month, it can suspend the service temporarily after warning you.
Official source ↗ -
To stop your bank paying the operator's direct debits, you can revoke the direct debit order with your bank in a dated, signed document. It only affects a debit if the bank receives it before the end of the working day before that debit.
Official source ↗ -
In its decision the OAUT can cancel bills, order refunds of amounts billed wrongly and take other measures to restore your rights.
Official source ↗ -
If a consumer arbitration board has started a procedure, you cannot use the OAUT unless the request is closed without a decision on the merits or the parties withdraw from arbitration.
Official source ↗ -
In court claims of up to 2,000 euros you can act yourself, without a lawyer or a procurador.
Official source ↗