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Megabyte
March 15, 2023

169 days since NOS damaged my apartment, I have spent hours on the phone, complained to Livro de Reclamações - NO RESOLUTION

I have been trying over multiple calls with NOS since September to fix damage they caused to my rented home 169 days ago. They promise to call back and follow up but do not. All of the below interactions can be proved by phone call logs to and from NOS. 

26.09.22: NOS-contracted engineer comes to install internet and causes two problems: #1. damage to a wall (broken plaster, hole in wall where there shouldn't be) and #2. a problem with the window, meaning we couldn't close it. After doing the damage, the technician said that it wasn't her fault and that she didn't know where the socket was on the other side of the wall as it "was not her house". I expect a higher level of professionalism from someone whose job is to install internet in other people's homes. She should have measured before drilling through the wall. She also didn't tell me about the window issue, I only found out after she left.

27.09.22: I called customer service who filed a report. I was advised to go to a NOS shop and add photo evidence to the report

28.09.22: I went to NOS Amoreiras and sent photos to NOS email address of person working there. He said he would add them to the report and I would receive a call back. I have email evidence of sending the photos to him

14.10.22: No one has called me back, so I went back to the shop, they got someone to call me. Another support ticket was raised and they promised to call me again

04.11.22: I called to follow up, as no one had contacted me. Was promised call back

09.11.22: I called to follow up, as no one had contacted me. Was promised call back

09.11.22: Received call back - was advised they couldn't see the photo evidence and the customer support person guided me to submit the images a 2nd time online (I later found out that the employee at Amoreiras hadn’t completed the report as promised)

10.11.22: I called to follow up, as no one had contacted me. Was promised call back

11.11.22: Received call back, promised two people would come to the house to review the problems. Was asked by NOS if I wanted them to fix the damage or I would prefer to do it myself and bill them. I requested they come to fix it

11.11.22: One technician came to the house to solve problem #2 (window) only

15.11.22: Received call back, I reported that problem #1 was still not fixed. Was promised call back

25.11.22: I called to follow up, as no one had contacted me. Was promised call back

14.12.22: Saw all support tickets had been closed as resolved even though the issue was still open. I called to follow up, as no one had contacted me. Was promised call back. I said that in my experience I wouldn't be called back. The agent promised to call back personally

17.01.23: I called to follow up, as no one had contacted me and the December support ticket had also been closed. Was told I need to submit the photos for a 3rd time and that I need to go to the shop to do this as there is no longer a way to do it online. I submitted a formal complaint to Livro de Reclamações Electrónico online, as I was so frustrated about the hours I have spent on this issue with no resolution and had given NOS more than 3 months to resolve the problem.

20.01.23: I went to the NOS shop in Amoreiras to submit the photos of the damage for the third time as advised to do by the agent on the 17.01 The employee there says the person I submitted them to on 28.09.22 no longer works there and that he had failed to submit the report properly as she couldn't see it. She said she also couldn't see the photos I uploaded via the online form in November. This form is no longer online, I assume because it had technical issues. She requested customer service to call me. They did and I spoke to a lady who apologised, and said it should not take this long to fix the issue. She said someone would call me back in around 3 days

25.01.23: Still no call back as promised

01.02.23:  I called to follow up, as no one had contacted me. The agent said she was forwarding the issue and someone would call me back. I asked that if they didn't reach me the first time, if they could please call again. I see now that the open pedido in the Apoio ao cliente was closed AGAIN without any resolution / call back on Feb 1st, and there are no open tickets even though the issue is still unresolved. It seems that the support team can choose to close support tickets without taking any further action?

06.02.23: Ines Carmo calls me related to the Livro de Reclamações Electrónico complaint, and says she will review and get back to me. I explained the situation briefly and that I am waiting for NOS to come and repair the damage themselves.

08.02.23: receive email asking for "document with budget and receipt of repair done" to comprovativos@nos.pt.  There is no document, as I have said multiple times, I am requesting that NOS come and do the repair themselves, as was offered to me back in November. I also have requested that this is a different technician that the one who did the initial damage. The email said I could call 218290507 for any clarification. This number does not work. 

09.02.23: sent email to comprovativos@nos.pt requesting a technician to come to the house and asking them to call me to arrange this

15.02.23: still received no answer to my email so followed up again via the email thread

27.02.23: still received no answer so tried calling. All lines busy, so I requested a call back. I followed up by email again to comprovativos@nos.pt

03.03.23: I called to follow up, as no one had contacted me. I called and asked to be connected to Ines Carmo and someone promised to call back 4th March.

15.03.22: 169 days after the damage was done, I am still waiting for a resolution 

 

This level of service is totally unacceptable. They have repeatedly lied to me, given me incorrect phone numbers and emails to write to, and wasted hours of my time. I don't know what to do next, does anyone have any contacts where I can escalate this issue?

    40 Comentários

    João H.
    Gestor da comunidade
    May 4, 2023

    Hello @ARH,

    We appreciate your feedback regarding this matter.

    So as we can proceed with this request we always need get a technical budget for the reparation.

     

    We’ve seen that you were contacted today regarding this matter and were asked to provide the documentation previously requested, since the first document you provided missed some information as:

    • Taxpayer Number
    • Date and signature of the company that executed the asses of  the damages

    Regarding this issue you should have received an SMS with the following information:

    Para dar seguimento ao seu pedido precisamos que nos envie num prazo de 3 dias os comprovativos de danos, . Pode faze-lo diretamente na App em nos.pt/upload ou na Area de Cliente escolhendo Apoio ao cliente - Os meus pedidos. Info: App NOS ou 931699000/16990 (custo nos.pt/linhas )

    As the SMS reads, you can send the documentation with the information requested through the App NOS in nos.pt/upload or thorugh the Área de Cliente in “Os meus pedidos”

     

    Please let us know if this is the information you received, and if you have any further questions.

    Thank you 

    Ajude a comunidade a encontrar informação relevante. Marque como "Melhor Resposta" e faça "Like" nos melhores comentários. Siga os perfis da moderação, através da opção "Seguir", para estar sempre a par das ultimas novidades.
    ARHAutor
    Megabyte
    May 4, 2023

    Hi @João H. that is correct, I have been asked to update the estimate with the missing information. This will be ready by tomorrow morning. 

    But the process is still different to the one I was told here, as apparently the first step is for a NOS employee to come to the house as was originally promised in November, not provide the estimate. This is why the messenger team asked me for the technician report. I hope that despite NOS skipping this step, it will still be possible to accept the estimate quickly so we can do the repair.

    nos.pt/upload is a 404 error page, so I will upload the document via the app.

    João H.
    Gestor da comunidade
    May 4, 2023

    Hello @ARH,

    We appreciate your feedback.

    Your testimony is important to us so as we can improve. 

    Please let us know if there is anything else in which we can provide further assistance.

    Thank you 

    Ajude a comunidade a encontrar informação relevante. Marque como "Melhor Resposta" e faça "Like" nos melhores comentários. Siga os perfis da moderação, através da opção "Seguir", para estar sempre a par das ultimas novidades.
    ARHAutor
    Megabyte
    May 12, 2023

    I provided the updated documents last Friday morning and was promised NOS would call me back early this week. They tried once on Monday when I wasn’t available and have not re-attempted to call again since.

    I have followed up 4 times in between and have been promised they will call within 24 hours (they didn’t) and then “We've insisted with our team to call you”. Still waiting.

    Mário P.
    Gestor da comunidade
    May 13, 2023

    We understand what you are referring to, your matter is being monitored by the team who will inform you accordingly, @ARH
    Your order is registered under the number 000133187430.

    Best Regards, 

    Ajude a comunidade a encontrar informação relevante. Marque como "Melhor Resposta" e faça "Like" nos melhores comentários.
    ARHAutor
    Megabyte
    May 18, 2023

    Still waiting for the call. Multiple follow ups to messenger team. No result

    ARHAutor
    Megabyte
    May 19, 2023

    Update

    Received a call yesterday from the technician that caused the damage back in September. NOS have told her she needs to cover the cost of the fix.

    Why didn’t they send her already in September or October or November or December when I called multiple times to report and request this and was ghosted in return?? NOS have delayed for months and months and then finally insisted i get a quote myself, which you then you only now inform her about and ask her to pay over 7 months after I first reported the issue?? This is not fair on her or me or the repairman you asked me to contract.

    isplitter
    Exabyte
    May 19, 2023

    Update

    Received a call yesterday from the technician that caused the damage back in September. NOS have told her she needs to cover the cost of the fix.

    Why didn’t they send her already in September or October or November or December when I called multiple times to report and request this and was ghosted in return?? NOS have delayed for months and months and then finally insisted i get a quote myself, which you then you only now inform her about and ask her to pay over 7 months after I first reported the issue?? This is not fair on her or me or the repairman you asked me to contract.

    I am gonna take a guess here, but I believe the time this all took was a bit deliberate.

    Most people don’t complain, although I really think that they should. I think being demanding, and demand more care and better service is a good thing. But, since most people don’t complain, NOS probably doesn’t have to deal with this a lot, and if they do, they might just wait for people to give up. Issues like this split trough the cracks all the time, so it is on NOS interest to make it a bit difficult, taking an excessive time to handle them. People give up. I personally think its good you did not, but I personally probably would.

     

    I assume you are not from Portugal, so I will share with you some thought I have about how the technicians work. Although I don’t know the current way NOS does things, I have a friend that has worked as a technician for some time. So I will be generalizing, and this might not apply to NOS.

    Generally speaking, the technician that went to your house is a subcontracted employee in a job with a somewhat high turnover rate. Because of this, NOS is really not too involved in forming technicians, and NOS doesn’t want to be either, is cheaper that way. The following part might not specificallu apply to NOS right now: Usually the technicians are subject to a penalty system, they get, sort of a fine, if something is wrong with the installation after they installed it, and probably (I am not sure) if they don’t finish the installation in a set amount of time, what I am sure is that, almost no matter what, they have to finish a set number of installations in a day. So, for example, if the you ended up having no TV signal, and is was something the technician did wrong, he would have some sort of penalty, usually monetary. This technicians work for a company that nos subcontracted. But they won’t work for NOS forever. There is usually some rotation between who subcontracts the services, so they will change between Vodafone, Meo, Nos.

    NOS interest is to do the install as quickly as possible, and leave everything working, so there are no call backs. Technicians usually work with some amount of stress if they have first installations to do. I have seen this myself, with technicians that came to my house. I don’t think NOS has a big concern about damages, just like the one that happened to you. Either the costumer doesn’t complain, and it’s all good, or it will be the technicians fault. Some of the damages might be impossible to avoid, but there really isn’t a system in place for this type of things, afaik.

    I am writing all of this, in an attempt to answer you why this happens like this. Between the high turnover rater for this job, and subcontracting changes.. you see technicians won’t probably feel valued in this positions. The system in a way where a lot of the times the technician is the weakest link.

     

    Mário P.
    Gestor da comunidade
    May 21, 2023

    We regret the situation and the delay, we verify that a new contact with you has been scheduled as requested, @ARH.
    Wait for our new contact

    Best Regards,

    Ajude a comunidade a encontrar informação relevante. Marque como "Melhor Resposta" e faça "Like" nos melhores comentários.
    Petabyte
    May 21, 2023

    Update

    Received a call yesterday from the technician that caused the damage back in September. NOS have told her she needs to cover the cost of the fix.

    Why didn’t they send her already in September or October or November or December when I called multiple times to report and request this and was ghosted in return?? NOS have delayed for months and months and then finally insisted i get a quote myself, which you then you only now inform her about and ask her to pay over 7 months after I first reported the issue?? This is not fair on her or me or the repairman you asked me to contract.

    I am gonna take a guess here, but I believe the time this all took was a bit deliberate.

    Most people don’t complain, although I really think that they should. I think being demanding, and demand more care and better service is a good thing. But, since most people don’t complain, NOS probably doesn’t have to deal with this a lot, and if they do, they might just wait for people to give up. Issues like this split trough the cracks all the time, so it is on NOS interest to make it a bit difficult, taking an excessive time to handle them. People give up. I personally think its good you did not, but I personally probably would.

     

    I assume you are not from Portugal, so I will share with you some thought I have about how the technicians work. Although I don’t know the current way NOS does things, I have a friend that has worked as a technician for some time. So I will be generalizing, and this might not apply to NOS.

    Generally speaking, the technician that went to your house is a subcontracted employee in a job with a somewhat high turnover rate. Because of this, NOS is really not too involved in forming technicians, and NOS doesn’t want to be either, is cheaper that way. The following part might not specificallu apply to NOS right now: Usually the technicians are subject to a penalty system, they get, sort of a fine, if something is wrong with the installation after they installed it, and probably (I am not sure) if they don’t finish the installation in a set amount of time, what I am sure is that, almost no matter what, they have to finish a set number of installations in a day. So, for example, if the you ended up having no TV signal, and is was something the technician did wrong, he would have some sort of penalty, usually monetary. This technicians work for a company that nos subcontracted. But they won’t work for NOS forever. There is usually some rotation between who subcontracts the services, so they will change between Vodafone, Meo, Nos.

    NOS interest is to do the install as quickly as possible, and leave everything working, so there are no call backs. Technicians usually work with some amount of stress if they have first installations to do. I have seen this myself, with technicians that came to my house. I don’t think NOS has a big concern about damages, just like the one that happened to you. Either the costumer doesn’t complain, and it’s all good, or it will be the technicians fault. Some of the damages might be impossible to avoid, but there really isn’t a system in place for this type of things, afaik.

    I am writing all of this, in an attempt to answer you why this happens like this. Between the high turnover rater for this job, and subcontracting changes.. you see technicians won’t probably feel valued in this positions. The system in a way where a lot of the times the technician is the weakest link.

     

    It can be very simple to resume, the telecom companies pay very badly for this kind of job, so they get very bad service. As most people dont complain or dont give it enought effort telecoms win loads of money with very bad technicians.
    They even lie in the contracts when they give 50€/60€ value to instalations… Most technicians do 5/6 a day and most of the time dont even receive that value a day.

    ROR00000000044710347 @EuSó reclamei de novo para saber se a provedoria me explica a dualidade de critérios.