The long-awaited electronic complaints book system is set to go live on July 1st to the delight of consumers who are unclear as to how to complain to services that are supplied from businesses with few, if any, branches.
The first types of business to have electronic complaints registered against them are service suppliers such as electricity, water and telecommunications.
The government expects companies that provide "essential services" to respond to complaints within 15 working days.
To encourage complaints to be logged online, the government wants the electronic complaint book to be available on the company websites.
This is but stage one, with the inclusion of other types of businesses after a test period that will be analysed by the government’s Agency for Administrative Modernisation.
For now, there is not much more information on this subject but more is expected in the next few days. The online Complaints Book should coexist with the paper version so customers have a choice.
In 2015, some 303,548 complaints were written in books across Portugal.
The five bodies handling the highest number of complaints - 92% of the total - were ASAE the economic and food standards agency, ERS the heath service regulator, ANACOM which regulated telecoms companies, ERSE which regulated energy suppliers and the Bank of Portugal which is said to regulate banks.
