Complaints about MEO topped the register last year with the National Communications Authority receiving 101,100 complaints about telecoms suppliers and Portugal’s postal services.
According to the latest report from ANACOM, 57,000 complaints were registered in complaints books with a further 17,000 registered using the new online complaints service. A further 27,000 complaints were made directly to ANACOM.
Overall in 2017, the number of complaints rose 16.7% in a year, probably due to the ease of being able to complain online.
The main telecoms operators - MEO, NOS and Vodafone - "accounted for 94% of total complaints," in the telecoms sector but it was MEO that led the field with a rise in complaints of 47% year-on-year.
The areas of customer discontent were: problems with billing, equipment problems and cancellation of service, the remainder relating to crashed systems, customer service and sales techniques.
Regarding Portugal’s postal services in 2017, "most of the complaints received through the complaints book were related to the Post Office (CTT) at 93%, with complaints rising 46.9% over 2016," notes the report.
For post, the reasons related to distribution - problems such as "significant loss or delay (17%), delay in delivery (15%), failure to deliver (15%), attendance (8%) and delivery to the wrong address (7%)," among others.
The telecoms and post regulator said it managed to process 95,000 thousand complaints in 2017, but is striving to become more efficient and speed up response times. The regulator estimates that its review will improve the complaints handling procedure in 2018.
As for fines, ANACOM triggered 416 proceedings with 122 cases producing fines of €1.7 million.
