Canary Islands not part of Spain - apparently

[#1]

I have Anytime + with free minutes to Top 20 International Destinations, however I have just queried a charge for a call made to friends in Gran Canaria & have been told by Plusnet that they are not part of Spain   Despite having the same dialling code, government. police force, passports etc they do not count - I wonder if anyone has told King Juan Carlos that Plusnet have removed a chunk of his kingdom It would be nice to see a special mention on the tariff list so that people know that some international borders have been redefined. I wonder if Majorca & Ibiza will be given the same treatment & then the Greek Islands too

[#2]

Unfortunately the destination of calls is not something we can alter, the Canary Islands are classed as a different area to mainland Spain as this is the way BT Wholesale classifies it and as we use their pricing structures it is not included in the top 20 destinations. On the link below it shows that Canary Island calls are outside of the top 20 internation destinations.
http://www.plus.net/images/residential/voice/pdf/home_phone_tariffs.pdf

[#3]

But it doesn't make any mention of this fact when you are proclaiming Spain as a top 20 international destination - it should be clearly marked as an exception so as not to mislead, most people who have been to Canary Islands regard it a Sapin therefore would not bother to search through the tariff list just in case it appears separately, in the same way that I wouldn't go looking thru for Galicia, Catalonia etc - blaming it on BT doesn't excuse the misleading nature of the list - incidentally when I use call1899 they include the Canaries as part of Spain .

[#4]

This isn't intended to be misleading and I certainly wasn't trying to make excuses, merely explain why the pricing is set up as so. Other companies including the Canaries as Spain is their decision, we don't and the pricing pdf shows this. I'll see if I can get this made clearer on the home phone pricing pages.

[#5]

I personally think that this is quite an interesting argument.
You can argue it from both sides.  Personally, I am of the opinion that the Canary Islands are *not* part of Spain.  They are part of the spanish territories, which in my mind is not the same thing.  I'd argue equally that the Falkland Islands are not part of Britain, but they are part of the British Commonwealth, as is Australia.  You don't see Australia being called part of Britain.
So, it's definitely an interesting discussion, but to the question as to whether or not it should be made clearer on our pages, then I think it should.  We should clasify Spain as Spain (Mainland) which would completely negate this issue.

[#6]

That should help, what doesn't help is that the Canaries have the same International dialling code as the rest of the country so if anyone was just given a number to ring they will now need to check the area code just in case it's gonna cost them more than they bargain for.
For example when I ring my Spanish bank I usually ring head office in Madrid, they might give me the branch phone number which I could very easily have just dialled & ended up paying 24p a minute!

[#7]

The Canaries are the same to Spain as the Channel Islands are to the UK.  They are not part of the EU.

[#8]

Try telling that to the French
They refer to the Channel Islands as an "accidente d'histoire".

[#9]

Yep, same as the Channel Islands, technically not part of the UK, or EU but the Queen is the Head Of State.
Have £'s and p, but their own notes. They accept UK notes, but I think not the other way round.
Same dialling code, +44 and their mobiles are 07xxx like ours. Also BT has nothing to do with them there.
Interesting though - I went there in 2003

[#10]

Channel Islanders will maintain that Great Britain is a subject of the Channel Islands (something to do with William the Conqueror)
They have their own parliament, and the islanders can only be called up for the British armed forces specifically to protect the Queen.
Their money is legal tender in the rest of the UK (as are the coins and notes of the Scottish and Northern Ireland banks), but many shop assistants (and even some bank staff) don't understand.
But back on topic.  The Channel Islands are not part of the EU (as has already been stated) and therefore exhorbitant EU taxes do not apply. (That's why they don't have VAT)
And before you try to move, non-islanders have a lot of trouble getting rights of residence (unless they're millionaires of course)
John
I've had all sorts of trouble using Ulster Bank, and Allied Irish Bank notes in the UK.  I even went into a bank to change a fiver for a Bank of England one, just to save the hassle, and was directed to the foriegn currency counter

[#11]

OT

Quote

Ulster Bank, and Allied Irish Bank

Tell me about it
Although I have to say that I have experienced little difficulty here in Sheffield.

[#12]

Quote from: hulls

Their money is legal tender in the rest of the UK (as are the coins and notes of the Scottish and Northern Ireland banks), but many shop assistants (and even some bank staff) don't understand.

Scotland and Northern Ireland currency are not legal tender in England. This can be check on the Bank of England web site.

[#13]

Yes,
Using Scottish notes in England is a bit of a lottery, generally I find in Central London they are accepted, but not if I tried to use them locally (15 miles from London). So I try to avoid any notes which aren't English because they can be a PITA to spend.
I didn't know how it worked in the Channel Islands when I went there, but I realised Jersey accepted both their own notes and English ones freely. But then I went to Guernsey for a day trip and withdrew some money and got it in their notes. I had to ask at the bank whether they would be accepted in Jersey when I got back, and they do. Was a bit surprised when they all accepted them, where in England it can be trouble using anything other than English notes.
Anyway sorry for continuing this thread a bit off topic. I'll stop there

[#14]

I know that Mark has managed to use some of his silly Irish notes here in Sheffield.

[#15]

I remember him showing me a new Northern Irish fiver that is being trialled.  Made using some kind of fabric so you can't rip it... or something.
The average life of a £5 note is said to be something like 6 weeks when continually spent.