In 2016, ANACOM (Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações) received approximately 69,500 complaints, an increase of 9% over the previous year, reversing the falling trend in complaints seen in 2015.
Complaints about electronic communications represented 83.6% of the total complaints received, increasing by 6% over 2015. The complaint rate, i.e. the number of complaints per thousand customers, was reported at 4 complaints per thousand customers, 0.3 complaints more than in the previous year.
Among the complaints received on electronic communications, the issued giving rise to most complaints were "Sale of the service" (15.7% of the total), "Cancellation of the service" (14.4%), "Equipment" (10.8%), "Billing "(10.5%) and "Faults" (9.6%). There was also a notable increase in the number of complaints related to "Alteration of contractual conditions" (1,708 complaints more than reported in 2015, rising from 10th to 6th place in the ranking of subjects generating most complaints).
Among electronic communications services, the mobile telephone service saw the most complaints; "Equipment" was the most cited reason (35.1%). Bundles of services saw the second largest number of complaints, but the highest rate of complaints (4.7 complaints per thousand customers). The main reasons for complaints about bundles were "Sale of the service" (22.9%), "Cancellation of the service" (22.7%), and "Faults" (13.3%).
The subscription television service was the service with the third largest number of complaints, with "Faults" (30.5%) and "Sale of the service" (19.1%) cited as the main reasons for dissatisfaction.
The mobile Internet was the service with the 4th largest number of complaints, with "Sale of the service" (22%), "Billing" (18.3%) and "Cancellation of the Service" (12.3%) giving rise to most complaints. The Internet service at a fixed location followed, with "Faults" (37.7%) and "Speed" (35.8%) as the most cited topics.
In the case of the fixed telephone service, the service with the 6th largest number of complaints, "Faults" (28.7%), "Portability" (18.5%) and "Billing" (10.2%) were the main issues.
Reporting complaints according to provider, NOWO (Cabovisão) and NOS registered complaint rates above the average in the period being reported (7.1 and 6.1 complaints per thousand customers, respectively), even though they have seen their rates fall compared to the previous year (NOWO, 0.3 fewer complaints and NOS, one fewer complaint).
The number of complaints about postal services (13.9% of the total) increased by 26.9% over the previous year to 9.7 thousand complaints. About 44% of complaints are associated with problems in the distribution of postal items. The main reasons for complaints were "Customer service" (28.1%), "Lack of attempt to deliver to recipient" (12.4%), "Distribution faults" (11.7%), "Delays in delivery of postal items (11.4%) and "loss/significant delay" (11.2%).
In 2016, there were 399 complaints about DTT, 23.6% fewer than in 2015. Complaints about digital terrestrial television accounted for only 0.6% of the total volume of complaints.
With regard to services supported by electronic communications services, there were 977 complaints about information society services (173% more than in 2015); 290 complaints about value-added services based on SMS/MMS-sending (23.5% fewer than in 2015) and the 81 complaints about premium rate services (42.6% fewer than in 2015).
Consult the statistical report:
- Reclamações sobre serviços de comunicações - Análise do ano 2016 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1409015
