On September 8th ANACOM - Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações published the statistical report that discloses the number of complaints, information requests and other requests sent to it, in writing, by the users of electronic communications and the general public in the 1st half of 2010.
Since there was an error in the relative standing of the electronic communications providers with respect to the complaints received, that report has been rectified, reissued and republished on 9 September 2010.
It is based on that change that ANACOM is releasing the following information.
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In the first half of 2010 the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações received 21,333 complaints, 5% more than in the first six months of 2009. This growth is largely explained by the constant increase in complaints book sheets. In fact, these sheets accounted for around 82% of all the complaints received by ANACOM in the first six months of 2010, and represented over 98% of all complaints received relating to the postal sector.
Besides the 21,333 complaints, the regulator also received 446 information requests, 58 petitions, 28 suggestions and 18 communications of other types. Overall, ANACOM received 21,883 requests in writing from users of electronic communications and from the general public.
As in previous years, the vast majority of complaints related to the electronic communications sector (77%), followed by the postal sector (20%), and the Information Society with 2.68%.
Concerning electronic communications, the Internet access service motivated the highest number of complaints per 1,000 customers, with 1.36 complaints, followed by the fixed location telephone service, with 1.19 complaints, and the paid television service, with 1.10 complaints per 1,000 customers.
Regarding the issues giving rise to complaints, those received through complaints book sheets are mainly related to equipment, customer service and billing. In terms of complaints addressed directly to this Authority, the main issues related to contracts (with a high incidence of situations regarding contract changes) and billing issues (with particular relevance to mistakes on invoices).
Regarding the electronic communications services providers seen in the complaints, data is once again given by provider and by service, by classes. There are nine operators in the class with most complaints, having 2.2. or more complaints per 1,000 inhabitants: Refer, TMN, Radiomóvel, Uniteldata and PT Prime, for the fixed location telephone service, and TMN also for the provision of the fixed Internet access service. This bloc is completed with Vodafone and PT Comunicações, also in relation to the fixed Internet access service, ZON, for complaints about its mobile communications services, and also Vodafone and Optimus, with complaints regarding the paid television service.
Concerning the postal sector, the greatest number of complaints referred to the mail service (about half of the overall volume of complaints). And while in complaints addressed directly to this Authority the most complaints were in connection with delays in delivery and mail going astray, in complaints books sheets the vast majority were related to customer service problems.
As for requests received at ANACOM’s public attendance services, 2,457 requests were recorded - of which 2,132 were complaints and the other 325 were information requests. The vast majority of those complaints were made by phone and concerned the electronic communications sector. The telephone service at a fixed location had the highest number of queries.
Consult:
- Relatório de reclamações e pedidos de informação - 1.º semestre de 2010 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1044597
