The MEO saga - part II (of ??)
In which we involve the Complaints Book (and still get nowhere)
If you haven’t already read part I of this story, you’ll be lost; this post picks up where that one left off.1 Onward …
Our downstairs neighbor - who was quite fed up by this point - went to the MEO store again on May 15th and heard great news! 🙄 The latest plan called for installing the box on May 22nd and scheduling our connections the following day! We were squarely into “we’ll believe it after it happens” territory by then2 but that’s certainly better than mid-July.
On May 18, Scott almost ran out of mobile data so he called MEO to ask for more. The rep told him someone would be calling us the next day to schedule an appointment to connect our apartment! The only way that made any sense is if they were, in fact, planning to install the box very soon - like May 22, maybe. Things were looking up!
May 22 rolled around3 and we heard noise from the street close to mid-day. Looking out the windows we saw two guys in MEO vests yakking with a cop4 while a third MEO vest was on the phone.5 There was equipment all along the sidewalk - coiled wire, metal cases - and a truck parked around the corner with its nose just past the edge of the building. Things were REALLY looking up!
A short while later we looked out the window again and the people and equipment had disappeared. The truck was still there, though, so we figured they’d gone off to lunch. Around 13:15 Scott went back to the window; the truck was gone.
Did the workers install the box?
Unclear.
That evening, Scott called MEO to try and schedule an appointment to have the apartment connected. Maybe that would shake loose some answers. The representative he spoke to spent a long time “looking things up” and eventually said he would send a message to the people who actually had the authority to schedule an appointment to have the apartment connected. They would get in touch.
When?
Unclear.
Our downstairs neighbor went back to the store the following day and was told the work would be done “in a week.”
Scott: Is that a week as in na próxima semana6 or a week as in ‘there is a technician scheduled to come to your building on May 29’?
Neighbor: He told me in one week it’s ok.
Uh oh. Looks like we’re into na próxima semana land.
Sure enough, the week of May 29 came and went with no news. By this time, we’d learned to manage the lack of service; it was the Lucy-pulling-the-football-from-Charlie-Brown act that was wearing us down.
Which is why we finally, reluctantly decided to use the nuclear option. On Friday, June 2, Amy resorted to the Livro de Reclamações.
Livro de Reclamações
The Livro de Reclamações is actually kind of a nifty thing. It even has an option for English in the upper right-hand corner. Let’s give that a shot, shall we?
Much better.7
Every business in Portugal is required to make a physical copy of the complaints book available if asked. Every business in Portugal is required to post a sign saying as much. Websites link to the online version. If you look for it, it’s ubiquitous.
Basically, this is a last-resort tool for citizens to use when they have a complaint about a company or service.8 Legally, a company has two weeks to respond to a complaint, and there will be follow-up to ensure compliance. We’ve used the complaints book twice before. Ironically, the first time was last summer, with MEO.9
A few days later, Scott called MEO again to get more data and, after asking for a status update, was told there needed to be “more poles and wires” installed on our street. Poles? There are no poles anywhere on our street. There’s no room for poles on our very narrow sidewalks.10
But ok. And, of course, no sense of when this might happen.
Friday, June 9 our downstairs neighbor went back to the MEO store and reported the following to our building’s WhatsApp group:11
What a coincidence! 🙄 Some mysterious thing that was opened in April was closed an hour before she happened to stop in to the store! Which meant maybe things would be ok … next week!12
On June 14, she went back to the store.13 And they told her something would happen on June 30.14
On Saturday, June 17, Amy got an email from “MEO-GSC,” presumably as a result of her use of the Complaints Book.15 It was … perfunctory (and in English):
Subject: ROR0000000004480273016
Dear Mrs. Amy Redfield,
Regarding the above identified exposure, we inform you that we are making every effort to solve it as soon as possible.
We expect to get in touch again until the next 01-07-2023.
For more information, we are always available through 16200 and in the Customer Area at meo.pt.
With kind regards,
Randomly, on Thursday, June 22, some workers showed up and appeared to be actually laying cable!
The building’s chief engineer was on site so Scott asked if this was an installation of fiber cable.
It was!
For Nos and Vodafone only. They share wires.
MEO will install their own cable.
At some point.
*sigh*
On July 4, three things happened:
Nos technicians came to the building and worked inside the utility cabinet. They installed and tested a box that would work for both Nos and Vodafone.
Scott (again) needed more data for his cellphone so he called MEO.17 The tech support rep he spoke with explained that the “PDO box” was on order and “the deadline” to install it was July 28.
the customer support rep he spoke with told him that MEO would “probably” not enforce its standard fee for breaking the contract if we decide to do so, because we have not been getting what we paid for. She also refunded our payments for the last three months. (Yes, MEO continued to charge us full price this entire time.)
Third, our upstairs neighbors/Vodafone customers went to the Vodafone store and were told they would get a call about setting up their service.
When?
Unclear.
Most of July passed with little movement.
On Tuesday, July 25, a total of five MEO technicians and a police officer descended on the building.
Wires were run! A box was installed!
New life was breathed into hopes that had nearly died! Our downstairs neighbor made an appointment with MEO to have a technician come and install her service on August 2!
Scott, needing a data top off anyway, called MEO on the 25th and asked about an appointment to install our service. He was told someone would call him about that and hung up expecting his phone to ring later that day.
After 48 hours of silence, Scott called MEO again. Apparently, there’s still something that needs to be done before we can be connected.
What?
Unclear!
The very nice customer service rep18 put in a request for … someone … to do … something.
A person to call us and explain what's happening? Maybe.
A person to actually fix whatever the problem is? Possibly.19
How is it that our neighbor has an appointment to have her service started but we cannot make one for ours?
Unclear!
And that’s where we are at present. There’s no question progress has been made; the before and after photos of the utility cabinet are proof of that. As usual, though, we remain in the dark about what still needs to happen and what kind of time frame we’re talking about.
That’s all for now.
Love from Lisbon,
Scott & Amy
P.S. Click here for the end of the story.
Which was with a call from MEO on May 11 saying we might not have service until mid-July.
Did we mention the theme of moving the goalposts?
No, nobody called us on May 19. Of course nobody called us on May 19.
We’d heard somewhere along the way that one reason for the delays is that the police needed to be involved. Presumably since the technicians would need to be working in the street traffic would need to be either stopped or re-routed. Seeing a police officer with the MEO crew was heartening.
There is no scenario in which a worker on the phone is a good thing. None. If all is going according to plan, there’s no need to call anyone.
There’s a thing in Portugal, apparently, where people don’t want to give bad news. So rather than say, “This could take several weeks, a few months maybe” they’ll say it’ll happen “na próxima semana” which literally means “next week.” In this case, though, it really means “we don’t know when it will actually happen, we just know it won’t be this week.”
Though a careful read/comparison of the two pages doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the translation …
Yes, it’s also possible to “Compliment or Suggest” or to make an “Information Request.” The ratio of nearly 900,000 complaints to just over 5,000 compliments indicates it’s rarely used for much but the former.
Last August we didn’t let the process play out, bringing in our black market technician before MEO could act on our complaint - though both MEO and someone from the Livro called to follow up. So we have no idea what would have happened if we had waited a bit longer. This time, we had no choice but to wait.
Is this a case of the word “poles” being used somewhat loosely to refer to a generalized need for infrastructure? Or is it (yet another) case of poor communication at MEO where someone who has not seen our neighborhood is guessing at what needs to happen?
Unclear!
Audio used with permission.
Beginning to wonder if they make up these excuses immediately after she leaves, in preparation for her next visit, or if they wait until they see her coming to throw something together.
No, they didn’t send her a message the previous Friday afternoon. Of course they didn’t send her a message the previous Friday afternoon.
The goalposts have been moved so many times by now it’s a wonder the groundskeepers haven’t collapsed into an exhausted heap on the field.
In both of the previous times we’ve used the Complaints Book, we’ve gotten phone calls.
Huh?
No, MEO did not “get in touch again” on July 1. Of course they didn’t.
They’re all very nice. And Scott has probably talked to all of them by now
Though one would expect that request would already have been part of the workflow.
It's a very pretty street. Such a shame it's so cluttered up with utility poles.🤪♥️
OMG!!!!! No other words!
I'm only having these problems with people and services in the US!