The Malta Communications Authority (MCA) recently published its report on the complaints received and related activities during the last six months of 2014. In total, the MCA received 240 complaints, an average of 40 complaints per month. During the period under review, the MCA also received 243 enquiries and requests for information on matters related to the sectors it regulates. A number of these complaints/queries related to practices adopted by service providers in the sectors regulated by MCA over which the MCA has no legal power to intervene. In such cases, the Authority referred complainants to the competent Authorities.
The most common complaints of a contractual nature received by the Authority related to the termination of a service/s. When investigating such cases, the MCA guides subscribers on the procedure to be followed to effectively terminate their service/s. The termination procedures are required to be included in subscriber contracts. On the other hand, the MCA is also responsible to ensure that service providers adhere to their own procedure for termination of service/s. During the second half of 2014, the MCA took regulatory actions following reports it received which indicated that in some instances a local service provider did not adhere to the termination procedure. The Authority notes that with respect to these cases, following MCA’s intervention, the necessary actions were taken to address the complaints received by MCA.
During the second half of 2014, the MCA also received complaints of a billing nature. With respect to complaints referred to MCA where it was clear that subscribers were incorrectly billed, the Authority intervened by ensuring that such charges were waived by the service provider. The MCA is currently closely monitoring this matter. The Authority also received a few claims regarding unclear billing. In these cases the MCA ensured that operators provided the necessary clarifications to their subscribers.
The MCA also received complaints in relation to service provision, in particular the repair of intermittent and temporary faults to internet and fixed telephony services. Such faults are generally the result of damages, either to the service provider’s infrastructure, to the residence’s internal wiring or to the physical equipment. In such cases, the MCA monitors the actions undertaken by the service provider to ensure that faults are repaired in the shortest time possible. In those cases investigated by the MCA, subscribers were offered compensation or refunds as stated in their service contract, particularly in those cases where the fault was not caused by force majeure.
Complaints of a postal nature received by MCA continued to decrease during the second half of 2014 when compared to the same periods in 2013 and 2012. The main type of complaints received by the Authority in the second half of 2014 related to mis-delivery and late delivery of ordinary mail. MCA brought these cases to the attention of MaltaPost so that it could look into the matter and ensure that ensuing issues are addressed accordingly.
The report also highlights consumer related activities undertaken by the MCA during the period under review. These included an information campaign launched in July 2014 to promote the new roaming rates which came into force in July 2014. The MCA also marked World Postal Day which is celebrated annually on the 9th of October, by reaching out to the general public through the use of social media to raise awareness about the use of postal services in the local market and end-user rights. During the second half of 2014, the MCA published a number of postal surveys in order to evaluate users’ perception and satisfaction levels with respect to different postal services provided locally. These surveys can be accessed on MCA’s website.