The Consumer Protection Institutes (Procons) recorded 1,823,797 calls across the country in 2021. The data are from the Consumer in Numbers 2021 survey, released by the National Consumer Secretariat (Senacom). The average is 150,000 calls per month.
The calls made by the platform Consumer.gov.br totaled 1,434,101 completed complaints. Together, the two channels totaled more than 3.2 million calls last year.
In the case of Proncons, complaints represented the majority (78.9%), with 1,440,411 attendances. Following are consultations and guidance provided to consumers by Procons, with 343,030 calls (18.8%).
The data, released this Monday (14), show even more 40,356 calls classified as Extra Procon, which represent 2.2% of the total and refer to guidelines in cases where there is no consumption relationship.
The sectors that most took consumers to Procons were financial services, with 21.6% of attendances; telecommunications operators, with 17.4%; Retail and Electronic Commerce, with 10.6%; Electric Power Concessionaires, with 5.2% and Industry, with 3.1% of registered services.
Issues related to banks were the issues that most generated consumer demands. The data show that, in 2021, there were 184,209 attendances related to commercial banks, which represents 10.3% of the total attendances.
In the sequence, questions related to mobile telephony (9.7%0, with 172,791 calls; electricity (5.7%), with 102,169 calls; in fourth place, issues related to credit cards (5.3%), with 93,662 attendances, and fixed telephony (4.7%), with 84,150 attendances.
Platform
Among the main problems reported by consumers are collections, which represented 37.1% of complaints and 660,952 attendances; then contract problems, with 16% of complaints, totaling 285,457 calls; and problems of addiction or poor quality of product or service, with 241,819 attendances, representing 13.6% of the total.
In addition to services provided by Procons, the bulletin provides data related to the platform Consumer.gov.br. Launched in 2014, the tool has already registered more than 5 million complaints and has a base of 3.5 million registered users and more than 1,148 accredited companies.
According to the bulletin, in 2021, 1,434,101 complaints were finalized and 183 new companies registered.
“Currently, 78% of complaints registered on the platform are resolved by participating companies, which respond to consumer demands within an average period of 7 days”, says the document.
Last year, banks, finance companies and card companies (29%), telecommunications operators (21.1%), e-commerce (7.4%), air transport (7.1%); Electronic payment companies (4.5%) were the most complained about by consumers who accessed the platform.
Among the other most complained subjects, credit/debit/store cards stand out, with 9.2% of complaints and 131,647 attendances. Next comes payroll-deductible credit/consigned credit card/RMC (for INSS beneficiaries), with 7.7% of the total number of cases and 110,211 complaints.
Then there are issues related to air transport” (7.5%), with 107,960 attendances, followed by databases and consumer registration (5.7%), with 81,945 attendances and, also, complaints related to mobile telephony after -pays (5.3%), with 75,765.
Regarding the main complaints presented by consumers on the Consumidor.gov.br platform, issues related to charges and disputes appear as the most complained in 2021, totaling 52.1% of complaints. Problems related to the contract/offer appear with 23.8%; followed by attendance/SAC, with 19.1%. In fourth place, there are problems related to Information, with 6.9% and, in fifth place, problems related to the delivery of the product”, with 5.3% of complaints.
