Legislation is being prepared to make Portugal's complaints procedure available online, as opposed to the current system of filling in a complaints book in the store about which the complaint is being made.
Various consumer and trade associations have been invited by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs to participate in the process of getting the legislation right before presenting it for debate.
"We want the pilot project ready in the summer," said Leonardo Mathias, the Assistant Secretary of State and Economy speaking to press after a meeting of the National Consumer Council, adding that the Agency for Administrative Modernisation will coordinated the development of the new system.
Telecoms, water and energy sector trade bodies have been invited to collaborate and give input to the technological partner which is modernising the service.
This new system will "facilitate access for consumers, promote the handling of complaints more effectively and more quickly, reduce human intervention which will speed up response times and improve coordination with the authorities," said the Secretary of State, keenly aware that two recent government computerisation projects have gone woefully wrong on launch.
Leonardo Mathias claimed the new complaints process will be "easy, clear and swift," as the consumer goes to the new website, enters the tax identification number of the company he want to complain about, selects its area of economic activity and writes the complaint. The complaint is then forwarded to the company concerned.
The old style complaints book will still be available in stores to give the consumer a choice, said Mathias.
In 2014, the Secretary of State said that complaints had continued to rise in Portugal with health and safety organisation ASAE receiving 130,000 complaints and ANACOM receiving close to 90,000 relating to telecoms.
