Following the first declaration of state of emergency in Portugal due to the COVID-19 pandemic on 19 March 2020, up until 18 March 2021, ANACOM received 140 thousand complaints about providers of communications services, 37% more than in the same period a year earlier (19 March 2019 - 18 March 2020). Weekly complaints peaked in the week of 13-19 December with 4,300 complaints.
From the total number of complaints made, electronic communications were the subject of 92 thousand complaints. The highest weekly value in the one-year period between 19 March 2020 and 18 March 2021 was reported between 20 September and 3 October with 2,100 complaints per week. This is the highest weekly value since the start of the pandemic and also of the last three years.
The service providers generating the most complaints were MEO (35%), NOS (32%), VODAFONE (30%) and NOWO/ONI (4%).
Users reported a range of difficulties arising as a result of the measures adopted in response to the public health crisis, especially with regard to the quality of services, with emphasis on delays in resolving faults, in the delivery of services or replacing equipment and in the initial connection of services, slow speed of the Internet access service and lack of mobile or fixed network coverage (especially fibre) in certain locations in the country. In many cases, these difficulties hindered the exercise of teleworking and distance learning and resulted in long waiting times on customer support lines or in connecting with the service provider. There were also difficulties in negotiating the payment of bills and in the renegotiation of contracts upon the initiative of customers in situations of economic vulnerability, and complaints about the collection of penalties for late payment of bills, as well as about difficulties in cancelling without penalty, in particular for business customers.
Meanwhile, there were 47.5 thousand complaints about postal services in the period being reported, with a peak of 2,300 complaints between 13 and 19 December, the highest figure recorded in 2020 and in the last 3 years between 13 and 19 December.
The provider cited most often in most complaints about postal services was Grupo CTT (77%), followed by DPD (16%), while UPS, General Logistics, Ibercourier, DHL and others were together the object of 7% of complaints.
Users reported a range of difficulties resulting from the measures adopted in response to the public health crisis, including delayed deliveries and lost items in postal distribution, lack of attempts to deliver to homes, deterioration of conditions in postal distribution and of relationships with companies (increased waiting on telephone lines and at post offices or postal services offices and problems contacting the provider).
ANACOM has provided a rapid response to the challenges that have arisen in the regulated sectors since the beginning of the public health crisis caused by COVID-19, with the adoption of various measures based on the timely diagnosis of the needs of users in this period, based on assessment of the impact of the pandemic on the activity of companies and highlighting the rights of communications consumers in this volatile context.
In addition to today’s publication of the balance of complaints in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemichttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1642921, ANACOM has also published the report on complaints for the 1st quarter of 2021https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1642281.
