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

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.

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,

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.

@Utilizador123456 @isplitter thanks very much for your messages giving some more context on the situation. It is sad and frustrating that the big telcos have such a monopoly and no incentive to take care of the people that work for them or provide better customer service. We were even kind of forced to go with them in the first place as everyone else in our building uses them. I will continue to fight this case as I am past the point of no return now.

@Mário P. @João H. NOS called me two days ago and after claiming that the technician told them the problem had been fixed (?!) say that the they want to send the technician to my house to assess the repair. 

This is a totally different process to the one provided to me by email back in February in response to my LRO complaint and multiple times by your team via public and private forum messages. I have it in writing that I need to provide the estimate and invoice and you will cover the cost of the repair. Please can you work with the specialized team to confirm the estimate so I can get the repairman you forced me to find to come and fix the problem.

Hello @ARH,

Thank you for your feedback. 

We’re following up on this matter. This situation is currently being analyzed and we’ve asked for celerity in the process.

You’ll be contacted as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding

@João H. The specialized team called me. They say that the process is that the technical partner must come to the house to fix the damage.

I do not believe they will cover the cost of the repair that the Forum team insisted I get multiple times and said would be covered. You yourself even said “In order for us to proceed with this request we need get a technical budget for the reparation.” And then you asked me to add additional information to the estimate and I had to ask the repair man to spend more time to complete it. Why did you request this if your team was going to ignore the estimate?

Please can you speak to the specialized team. I have a commitment to the repairman and my landlady to pay the estimate amount for the fix and this issue is causing a lot of distress. NOS can easily afford the repair amount. 

NOS could really afford that money, but maybe they thought your estimate was over the top, só they will fix that cheaper. Yet they should pay the cost of making the estimate.

@João H. Please can I have an answer from your team? How are you going to help me cover the cost of the estimate you insisted I get but is not actually needed?

The lady on the phone said NOS must have "assumed" all the damage had been fixed already back in November. This is despite me calling and messaging several times since then to request someone come and fix the wall. I have now got a copy of all my call recordings with NOS to date which prove these interactions and exactly what was promised at the time. 

But the wall was finally fixed?

Not yet no. I have a commitment to the repairman and my landlady, who went out of her way to help coordinate the repairman (after multiple times trying to get NOS to send someone themselves). I am asking NOS to honor this commitment considering the whole issue is a mess they created through total negligence.

I have really appreciated your messages throughout this ordeal, thank you. I wish the NOS team would approach it with the same humanity and common sense.

Hello @ARH,

Thank you for sharing your feedback.

This matter is being followed up by a specialized team, with the following reference INC000133187430. You can see the updates in you Area de Cliente or App NOS.

After consulting this request, we’ve seen that a scheduling as been made for the 19th of june, with the insurance company.

We apologize for the delay on our response. So as we can promptly follow up on this matter, we ask that you please send us a private message to the @Fórum profile, where we were already following up on this.

Thank you for your understanding

@João H. your response is misleading and full of incorrect information. Instead of trying to do damage limitation and make it seem to Forum readers that you are offering a good service, you should invest your energy in actually helping your customers.

Your team has repeatedly gaslighted me and wasted hours of my and my landlady’s time by repeatedly giving false information and you refuse to apologise for it.

The scheduled visit on 19th of June is not with the insurance company. It is with the original technician that did the damage. If the insurance company decide the fix is less than the estimate amount, I will have to pay the balance and I am not willing to take this risk. So you are stating the wrong information AGAIN.

In answer to your claim you have been following up via private message. The last 3 messages I have sent over a month ago asking for clarity have not been answered. The estimate you made me get and even asked me to correct was completely the wrong process and caused additional stress and time. Even after I asked you multiple times on here and via private message. Screenshots of full private message history as proof: 

It has now been 8.5 months since the damage was done, and we are back to the original solution that I accepted 8 months ago and have been chasing ever since. I have never experienced such negligence from a service provider, and I can’t believe you are able to get away with it. No apology, just a “thank you for your feedback and understanding”