In Spain is about to end “All our operators are busy. Please wait online and you will be assisted “ which usually comes right away whenever you have to do a procedure by telephone.

Because the Council of Ministers has just approved a bill so that those calls are followed that end up getting on the nerves of those who have to manage in “less than three minutes”.

The bill of Customer service which will now begin its elaboration in the Congress of Deputies and in the Senate also provides that “companies must offer personalized attention and professional to people as soon as they verbally request it “.

“There are many Spanish men and women who get desperate when they are faced with a customer service call waiting to be followed up or there are many who have serious difficulties in getting through. unsubscribe from a service with convenient mechanisms ”, said the Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón.

The minister presented the draft at a press conference after his ministry’s proposal was approved during this week’s cabinet meeting.

“The waiting times are over practically endless that produce frustration and that generate an impatience that often produces the opposite effect and the person refuses to be assisted “, explained Garzón.

The minister criticized the “administrative labyrinths which prevent good treatment in customer service and which involve a waste of energy, money and time which presuppose the effective renunciation of the right to customer service “.

“I want to talk to a person”

“I want to talk to a person, not a car”, The bill is promoted by the Ministry of Consumers, which aims to improve customer service by establishing that complaints must be resolved in a maximum of 15 days -and not 30, as is the current term-.

Another novelty: free phone calls they cannot be derived from paid numbers.

If the power goes out …

“If there is a basic outage, such as water or electricity, the company must inform you of the reason for the problem and give you an estimated deadline for restoring the service. in less than two hours”, They explain from the ministry of consumption.

The second vice president and minister of labor and social economy, Yolanda Díaz, celebrated the draft: “Protect consumer rights and ensures a personalized response, ”he said.

These measures aimed at improving customer service will be applied to companies, public or privatewhich involve some type of consumption by citizens and which have more than 250 employees or a turnover exceeding 50 million euros.

Anyone who does not comply with the provisions definitively established by the Customer Service Act, according to the draft approved so far by the ministers of the PSOE-Podemos coalition government, must pay fines of between 150 and 100,000 euros.

“I’m older, not an idiot”

“As in all laws, you have to read the full stops, commas and all aspects of the bill. I’m waiting to find out all the text to be able to comment on it ”, he says Clarione Carlos San Juan, the 78-year-old retired urologist who revolutionized all of Spain with his campaign a few months ago “I’m older, not an idiot” expect the banks have more personalized care for the elderly who is not familiar with technology.

Saint John collected nearly 650,000 signatures through the change.org petition platform and presented them to the Ministry of Economy, where he was received by the Minister and Vice President of the Economy and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calvino.

“I am almost 80 and it saddens me a lot to see that banks have forgotten old people like me,” complained Don Carlos.

“Now almost everything is online … and not all of us understand each other with machines. We do not deserve this exclusion”He said in his statement.

In the initiative he explained that “they don’t stop closing the branches, some ATMs are complicated to use, others break down and nobody solves your doubtsthere are procedures that can only be done online … And in the few places where there is attention face to face, the hours are very limited, you have to make an appointment by phone but you call and no one answers … And they end up redirecting you to an application that, even in this case, we don’t know how to use. Or send yourself to a distant branch that you may have no way of getting to.

As soon as the claim of the Valencian San Juan went public, Banco Santander announced an extension of its program direct attention to the public. Others, such as BBVA, Abanca and Sabadell, have been enabled a free line for over 70s which, in Sabadell’s case, he frequents until 19:00.

“They had promised that there would be a financial user defender in the law so that when we felt harmed, we could file a complaint free of charge, ie without a lawyer or attorney. Provided they were less than 20 thousand euros. And the bank automatically had to deposit 250 euros as a deposit. This is to improve the current situation where we have no one to take care of us, ”says Don Carlos.

“In my city, Valencia, things have improved, but on a rural level, in the cities, it hasn’t improved at all the situation. Banking is not considered a public service, no matter how we collect our pensions, and more and more offices are closing, ”he complains.

Madrid. Corresponding

ap