Millionaire fines Bogota Telephone Company ETB for failing to respond to customer complaints

User complaints and complaints cannot be ignored by companies. This was recalled by the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce of the Bogotá Telephone Company (ETB), which imposed a fine for not responding to the requests of several users.

The entity responsible for protecting users of communications services became aware of some complaints lodged with that authority, about claims that had been filed with the company, but had not received a response or at least it could not be determined that they had been answered.

“In the context of the administrative investigation, it was found that, in the cases of two (2) of the complaining users, the sanctioned operator failed to respond to and respond, at the legal opportunity and in a comprehensive manner, to the disagreements presented by users,” the Superintendency said.

In this sense, according to the authority, the figure of positive administrative silence was configured, meaning that the operator must favorably access user requests, provided that they are within the legal framework of competence of this Entity.

For this reason, the Super ordered the ETB that those claims in which the figure of administrative silence was configured, it must respond to requests in a favorable manner, in which the investigation determined that there were no answers.

In its statement, the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce reiterated that users have the right to have all requests, complaints/complaints and remedies -PQR- addressed and resolved within the appropriate and legal opportunity, each of the claims set forth in the PQR to be answered comprehensively and that the responses issued are brought to the attention of users.

Administrative silence is set up when: it does not answer the PQR within 15 working days; it responds to the PQR exceeding the legally established time; the operator responds, but does not inform the user of the decision; the operator's response is incomplete.

On this occasion, the Super imposed a fine of 245 million pesos on ETB, a decision against which corresponding appeals and appeals can be imposed.

This is not the first time that the Bogotá communications company has been sanctioned by the Superintendency for ignoring users' requests. At least two similar decisions have already been submitted in the past.

In January 2021, the fine amounted to $109,023,120 pesos because administrative silence was also determined in several of the requests submitted by users. After the sanction, he had to accede to the claims he had ignored.

In 2020, the fine was even higher. On that occasion, a penalty of $1,366,914,832, equivalent to 1,557 SMLMV, was imposed on ETB for the violation of the right of free choice that users have, as well as for failing to respond to requests for termination of contract under the terms provided for in the regulation.

This is because SIC determined that ETB did not terminate multi-user contracts, despite the request, and continued to provide and bill the service. In 18,424 cases, the company did not complete the provision of the services requested by the holders.

On that occasion, SIC recalled that in 2017 ETB had already been sanctioned for this same conduct, a fact that was taken into account when quantifying the sanction, as well as the improvement action implemented by the provider and the withdrawals subscribed by users that were provided by the company.

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