Chile Forum

john wrote:

T_ROBO wrote:

susiedillon wrote:Not sure whether the rules have changed in the past 2 years but we could not contract for either cell phone plans or TV or Internet plans until we received our Permanencias.

I think it was just local logic you ran into. I was able to get internet/cable/phone immediately after arriving with just a temporary visa. The contract was done in the comfort of my office, and the installation was done just a few hours afterward.

TP

I think it's beyond local logic! After returning to Chile at the beginning of October, I went to the VTR office on 8 Norte in Vina and requested that they re-install TV and Internet (WiFi) connections in my apartment. I did not expect to encounter any problems as I've had intermittent VTR service for the past two years obtained under my Temporaria. However, I was told by the VTR service representative that the 'rules had changed' and that I required a Permanencia to qualify. I informed her that I owned by Vina apartment and had a Banco de Chile checking account but she gave me a blank look - at which point, I asked to speak to her supervisor. I had an amiable chat with her supervisor for a couple of minutes at the end of which she told me that, if I provided evidence that I owned my apartment, an exception would be made in my case. I returned to the VTR office about 30 minutes later with a copy of my purchase contract (I keep a few copies around for such an eventuality) which was graciously accepted - requested service was installed the next morning with no hitches. Is a Permanencia really a prerequisite requirement? What's your take Admin?

susiedillon wrote:We definitely were not alone in this, our experience with Movistar has been shared by others in Curico ... and incidentally, for the same reason, we could not get " store cards" from Jumbo or Lider either, until we got the magic "permanencia". That was particularly galling given how much money we could have saved if we had had those cards when we were kitting out an entire house and property from scratch. But I must add that Curico has so few foreigners that we virtually never encounter the issues ( the infamous gringo tax, etc) that we often read about in this forum. So I suspect that this was just another example of "following the rules" by employees who are unwilling to go out on a limb and take the responsibility of making a decision.