Having noted that some post offices have been providing incorrect information to postal service customers on the basis of it being misleading or unclear information, ANACOM gave the company 45 working days to rectify the information regarding the complaints book it supplies to the entities it subcontracts for the provision of the post office services and which has led to the failure to comply with the relevant regime.
Within this time limit CTT has to clarify that (i) the complaints book provided for in Decree-Law No 156/2005 of 15 September (Decreto-Lei n.º 156/2005) at the post offices must be made available irrespective of whether the complaints to be submitted relate to postal services provided at that post office or not; and (ii) when the postal service is provided at premises of the public authorities and bodies which directly deal with the public, the CTT must ensure the complaints book is available, and that the other obligations laid down in that act as it stands are fulfilled.
After the expiry of this period, the CTT will have five working days to send ANACOM evidence that the information in question has been rectified for the benefit of the users of the postal services supplied in the postal establishments operating there.
The 45-working-day deadline set in ANACOM’s final decision meets the concerns expressed by the CTT at the previous hearing, which considered that the 30 working days originally decided by ANACOM was not sufficient to modify the internal procedures and provide the information and the appropriate training to the post office managers operating in the Juntas de Freguesia (Parish Halls).
CTT defaults on two quality indicators in 2018
As regards the CTT, ANACOM also adopted the final decision on the values of the universal postal service quality indicators verified in 2018, when the minimum values of two universal postal service quality indicators were not met:
- Transit time for priority mail on the Mainland Portugal;
- Transit time for intra-community cross-border mail.
In view of this non-compliance, ANACOM decided to apply the compensation mechanism, which is implemented when the universal postal service quality indicators are not met. Accordingly, it was decided to apply a penalty of 0.06 percentage points to the maximum price change allowed for 2019, instead of 0.085 percentage points in the likely direction of the decision. This is because, in accordance with the rules laid down by ANACOM and applicable from 2019 inclusive, the indicator for intra-Community cross-border mail is not taken into account for the purposes of the compensation mechanism, given that the figures for this service do not depend solely on the CTT but also on other service providers in other countries.
Due to the application of the penalty, the CTT will have to reduce the prices in force since they have already updated them.
Consult:
- Approval of CTT's determination to correct disclosed information regarding obligations under the complaint book https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1479221
- Approval of the values of the universal postal service quality indicators reported by CTT in 2018 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1476605
