There are many users who report different problems when contacting their electricity and gas company, not only by telephone, but also online. This has led the National Markets and Competition Commission to try putting itself in the shoes of any consumer. With this technique, they have been carried out more than 850 transactions with the objective of what customer service is. And the truth is that several points have been found that do not leave these companies in a good position.
Lack of transparency to the consumer
Carry out procedures, resolve doubts, complaints, incidents…There are many procedures any client can carry out with their electricity and gas company. The problem is that it is not always that easy or companies do not provide the necessary tools for it. Hence, the CNMC has carried out this method by posing as any client.
One of the first points that the CNMC highlights when verifying these telephone and Internet services is the lack of information for the consumer when contracting any of their products. Hence, it has established as “main deficiencies” the fact of hire online regulated market rates, both for gas and electricity. And it is not the only aspect that stands out.
In their research, after more than 850 procedures, they detect that the methods for finding the basic data of the contract in the private areas of the websites of most marketers present «common deficiencies during analysis«.
And there are two cases in particular that stand out above the rest, although they do not mention the companies in which these problems have been detected. In one of them, a marketer did not have a telephone channel for its customers. And, on the other hand, another of the electricity and gas companies had excessive telephone waiting times when making withdrawal and claim requests.
In any case, the National Markets and Competition Commission will inform said companies of the different problems, or deficiencies, that have been detected during the investigation. And, not only this, but it will check the measures that companies take to correct these problems.
Proposals to change the regulations
In addition to all of the above, they understand that the information that marketers give to clients is «essential«. For this reason, the CNMC They propose two regulatory changes:
- «Obliging regulated marketers to that have a channel through the Internet that allows the regulated gas and electricity rate to be contracted completely (and not partially)«.
- «Force marketers to record the entire sales callregardless of who originates it, to include pre-contractual information with the basic characteristics of the offer«.
This is intended to enable these companies to provide better customer service, both online and by telephone.