Lack of transparency in information. The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has detected several deficiencies in the customer service services of energy marketers in the information provided to the consumer when contracting their services.
The organization, which will monitor that companies correct such situations, proposes regulatory changes, such as forcing regulated marketers to have a channel through the Internet that allows them to fully contract the regulated gas and electricity rate, as reported this Tuesday.
Using the mystery customer technique, the CNMC has carried out more than 850 procedures to verify the attention that the telephone and Internet customer service services of the main energy marketers offer to consumers.
The difficulty or impossibility of contracting the regulated market rates (gas and electricity) entirely online, as well as finding the basic contract data in the private areas of the websites of the majority of marketers, have been common deficiencies during the analysis.
In the telephone channel, for its part, insufficient pre-contractual information has been detected in several marketers and, sometimes, contracts in the call itself, which prevent the details of the offer from being consulted.
The CNMC dedicates special mention to the “confusing information” about the electricity market adjustment mechanism introduced by royal decree-law 10/2022, popularly known as the Iberian mechanism, which denotes “insufficient preparation of commercial agents.” In the case of one marketer, it has been detected that he did not have a telephone channel, and in the case of another, excessive telephone waiting times for withdrawal and claim requests.
The CNMC, which does not reveal names, has announced that it will inform companies of the deficiencies detected, and will check whether they have implemented the corresponding correct measures. For the organization, the information that marketers offer their customers “is essential so that they can understand the products they purchase and make informed decisions.”
Therefore, it proposes to force marketers to record the entire commercial call, regardless of who originates it, to include pre-contractual information with the basic characteristics of the offer.
Likewise, it urges that regulated marketers have to have a channel through the Internet that allows them to contract completely (and not partially) the regulated gas and electricity rate.
