Last Friday, I received a rather innocuous phone call – from NOS, my Internet provider. It didn’t start well, but after a quick discussion about the best language to use, fortunately for me, English won out.
At that point, the conversation went:
‘Would you like to upgrade your service?’
‘Tell me about it?’
‘€44.99 for 2Gbps of data, plus TV and phone.’ I currently pay €46.65 for 200Mbps, so that was a good start.
I responded:
‘I don’t need the TV, nor the phone, and I probably don’t need 2Gbps. Do you have any cheaper offers?’
‘Yes, €34.99 for 1Gbps?’
That seemed good to me, five times the speed and a saving of €144 per year. Bonus.
We agreed the deal and the guy told me that a contract would be emailed to me, and that my new router would be sent via CTT sometime the following week. I thanked him and left him to it.
This Wednesday, I received an email containing the contract. I opened it.
What the…?
1 Gbps of data… for €47.99!
Bloody hell! I wasn’t happy with that! What had happened to the price we’d agreed? What had happened to €34.99?!
I let myself stew for a while, becoming more and more feisty as my frustration grew. We’d agreed a price, hadn’t we? And now NOS had bloody reneged on it!
In the end, I decided there was nothing for it. I would make contact and ask what the hell was going on.
I went onto their website where I found that the only way to contact them was by phone or a visit to the store. A visit to the store it would have to be then. I really didn’t fancy trying to explain things over the phone.
Before I could get on my bike (metaphorically speaking), head to Olhão and relieve my frustration, I received a text telling me that the new router would be delivered Friday morning. At that point, I decided that I would head into Olhão Friday afternoon, so that I could take the router with me. And what would I do with the router? I would tell them where to stick it. In the meantime, I wrote out my complaint, translated it into Portuguese, printed it out and stewed some more.
Come Friday, I caught the train as planned, walked from the station up to NOS, took a ticket and waited my turn.
The only operator available seemed a bit grumpy as he served the people in front of me. I wondered how things were going to go. Eventually, I was called to the desk, and having calmed down somewhat, explained the language issue (ie I can’t speak Portuguese), and once we’d agreed that English would be the way forward, explained my problem. His expression didn’t change, instead he started tapping away on his computer.
After a couple of minutes, he asked one question:
‘€34.99?
‘Yes.’
He tapped away some more and then said:
‘My friend will change.’
Blimey! That was a result! So much for me telling him where to stick it!
He continued to sit there looking at his screen. I filled the gap:
‘Sorry for the trouble.’
He looked up at me, surprised I think, and smiled:
‘No trouble, it’s my job.’
I’ve found that in Portugal, rather than complaining, it’s far easier to explain the problem and apologise, even if it’s not your fault. It’s worked for me so far.
We then carried on chatting, and two minutes later, I was out of there with my new contract.
I was happy and the NOS man was happy – a win-win. So much for the rumours that fly around telling you that bureaucracy and customer service here in Portugal are a nightmare.
Blimey, sometimes things are so much easier than you expect.
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