14.07.2020

 

In the first 6 months of 2020, the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) received more than 2,400 complaints from electronic communications and postal service users in Romania. "More and more users are aware of ANCOM’s role and turn to us to help them solve the problems they encounter in using communication services. Both the development of the sector and this atypical period we are going through have triggered an increase by 64% in the number of petitions sent to ANCOM. For example, the growing importance of the parcel delivery service during this period was reflected in the number of complaints the Authority received, which increased by 59% compared to 2019", said Sorin Grindeanu, president of ANCOM.

ANCOM’s attributions during the state of emergency in respect of fighting fake news about COVID-19 also determined the increase in the number of complaints. 367 complaints on this topic (15% of the total number) were registered during this period.

Postal services

10% of the total complaints filed with ANCOM in the first half of 2020 (59.33% more than in the first half of 2019) concerned the provision of postal services.

The main issues indicated by postal service users concerned the postal items delivery failure (20%), loss or theft (17%), delivery term (14%), and deterioration of postal items (12% of all the complaints).

Electronic communications services

50% of all the complaints sent to ANCOM in H1 2020 concerned electronic communications services. The users were mostly dissatisfied with issues regarding the contractual relation with their electronic communications service providers, indicating problems on contract termination (23% of all the complaints regarding electronic communications services), billing of the services (20%), providers’ breach of contractual provisions (12%) and execution of distance contracts (11%).

Naturally (due to the restrictions on travelling abroad), fewer complaints on roaming services were submitted to ANCOM compared to H1 2019 (2% of the complaints in H1 2020, compared to 7% in the same period of the previous year) and they referred mainly to involuntary roaming.

5% of the complaints sent to ANCOM concerned issues encountered in the process of porting telephone numbers.

Other sources of discontent

9% of all the complaints received by ANCOM in H1 2020 regarded signal coverage and signal quality for telephony and internet services, 7% concerned technical problems (faults) and 4% related to new technology issues.

Solving complaints

ANCOM can step in where the providers of telephone, internet or television services infringe the users' information rights, do not provide the number portability service (or do not comply with the legislation in the field), do not include certain information in the contracts or do not observe the conditions for the conclusion of distance contracts.

Complaints about non-compliance with the contractual terms may be addressed by residential users to the National Consumer Protection Authority (ANPC), while the business users in this situation may address the competent court.

As regards the postal services, in the event of non-observance of the delivery term, the users may contact ANPC, which is the competent authority to sanction suppliers for non-compliance with the Contract/General Conditions for the provision of postal services. In case of loss, theft, (total or partial) destruction or damage of the postal item, the users who have not received a reply from the provider within 3 months or are dissatisfied with the reply, may address ANCOM, with the proof of going through the complaint procedure with the provider, following the steps described here. However, ANCOM cannot determine the amount of damage payments, nor can it oblige the supplier to pay them, as such competence lies with the court.

Further details are available in the InfoCentre section of ANCOM’s website or on the Authority’s Facebook page.