Customer Support Lines - New rules!
According to the new rule, businesses that offer goods and services as well as organizations that deliver public services must offer free or inexpensive customer assistance lines.
Although added value lines (such as those beginning with 7 or 808) are not entirely banned, businesses are required to offer free or inexpensive customer care alternatives.
Learn what kinds of helplines you can offer to your clients and, more importantly, what has to change at your business to meet the new consumer helpline regulations set forth by the Portuguese government.
Customer Service Lines: What are they?
These telephone lines, often known as customer helplines, make it easier for clients to contact your company. The causes may vary, but they almost always have to do with offering goods or services for sale:
billing and payments,
support and technical issues,
service renewal or cancellation.
Companies often charge clients for value-added calls, or customer care numbers, whose cost to the customer varies depending on the prefix:
707 and 708 - the amount charged in the first minute, then it starts to be billed per second.
0.11 cents per minute from landlines.
0.16 cents per minute if the call is made from the mobile network.
760/761/762 - regardless of the duration, a maximum amount of 0.74 cents, 1.23, or 2.46 euros is charged per call, respectively.
808 - has a maximum cost of 0.9 cents in the first minute (from the first-minute billing is done per second) and a different value in the following minutes:
if the call is made during normal hours - between 9 am and 9 pm - the maximum cost is 0.3 cents;
if the call is made during off-peak hours - between 9 pm and 9 am on weekdays and on weekends and holidays all day is 0.1 cent.
809 - with a maximum cost of 0.3 cents per minute and billing per second after the first minute.
Line 6 - audio-text services (contests, pastimes, telesales, etc.) whose cost is defined by the providers.
What modifications are made by the new law (Decree-Law No. 59/2021)?
Decree-Law n.o. 59/2021 was authorized as a measure of customer protection to ensure that "the consumer can contact the supplier of goods or service providers by telephone without any hurdles or limits." This law lays out the requirements for offering and revealing telephone lines to customers, which you must do if you own a business.
Companies that supply basic public services like power, water, gas, telecommunications, or electricity are therefore required to provide a free or affordable alternative to the telephone ( mobile number). Companies may still offer added value lines, but this cannot be their exclusive method of getting in touch with customers.
Companies that do not offer vital services are not required to establish customer service lines, but if they do, they must offer free lines or charge the usual call rate (to a landline or mobile number).
In all of the company's communication channels, businesses must also explicitly identify the phone numbers they offer and their charges. Prior to informing value-added lines, toll-free lines and geographic or mobile lines (beginning with 2 and 9) must first be informed.
What happens if the company does not comply with the law in force?
You must comply with the following according to Decree-Law 59/2021, which took effect on July 1, 2022.
Having free or inexpensive phone numbers that are prominently shown in the company's commercial communications, on the homepage of the website, on invoices, in written communications with customers, and in contracts that are signed in writing;
In every form of communication, disclose the true cost of calls. The information "Call to the national fixed network" or "Call to the national mobile network" must be supplied if it is not possible to state the set pricing for the call;
give the same level of service whether the provided number is free or not.
The ASAE (Authority for Food and Economic Security), in the event of a significant or very serious economic infraction, will impose fines if these new guidelines are not followed.
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(Author)
Raj Don
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