They present an instrument to accelerate the response to consumer complaints

Introduce an Instrument to Accelerate the Response to Consumer Complaints

The National Consumer Protection Directorate of the National Trade Secretariat introduced the figure of the Consumer Ombudsman so that consumers have another forum Quick, Free and Federal to resolve your claims.

From January to June of this year, the National Directorate of Consumer Protection received 75,089 complaints. The most reported element was communications services (Internet, fixed and mobile telephony, cable and satellite television: 27%) and the most frequent complaints were total non-compliance of the contracted service (28%). ); defective or partial service (24%); the lack of treatment of the withdrawal order (23%); problems related to billing (12%) and non-compliance with offers, promotions or bonuses (6%).

They were followed by financial and insurance problems (credit and debit cards, insurance, savings accounts, loans, home banking and discount cards, among others), with 17 % demands.

Resolution N 394/2018, published on July 6 in the Official Bulletin, the Ministry of Production established that the Client Mediator is a person designated by the companies themselves; must be a lawyer and prove his competence and experience in the field of consumer protection.

Companies may voluntarily join this system, which aims to settle customer claims within a maximum of 15 consecutive days. The experience has already been successful in countries such as Colombia, Spain, Chile, and Uruguay.

The Customer Ombudsman is a modern figure that allows consumers to resolve complaints faster, online and for free. For its part, companies that adopt this mechanism, add a tool to solve problems and retain their customers across the country, said the national director of consumer protection, Fernando Blanco Muio.

Prior to the appointment of the mediator, companies must draft a settlement for the handling of claims, and once the system is put into use, they will have the obligation to send quarterly reports to Consumer Defense. with how much and how consumer complaints have been addressed. In case of failure, the National Directorate of Consumer Protection may revoke the issued approvals.

In addition, if there is no agreement between the consumer and the supplier, the Ombudsman will issue an opinion which will be binding.

The creation of this figure of the Consumer Ombudsman was the result of the dialogue between consumer protection and companies providing services from different sectors, based on the badysis of claims statistics billed to consumo.gob.ar.