FACUA.ORG/LAPEOREMPRESA

Movistar, voted again as The Worst Company of the Year by consumers

The Worst Business Practice: the refusal of the utilities companies to offer competitive prices, so the Government can raise rates. The Worst Ad: Nueva Rumasa's promissory notes.

FACUA.org
España-15/03/2011

Movistar has again been chosen as The Worst Company of the Year by consumers. In the second edition of the awards presented by FACUA-Consumers in Action, the Spanish multinational won 35% of the votes, one point more than they received last year.

The telecommunications multinational has won this prize, awarded on 15 March to coincide with World Consumer Rights Day, for maintaining a policy of misleading advertising, overcharging and neglect of complaints from customers.

The major change introduced over the last year by the leading telecommunications company in Spain was in its corporate image, but not in the treatment of users, which is not exactly the best example for the rest of the sector to follow.

This time, the prize was hotly contested with Vodafone, which eventually finished second with 32% of the vote, after sharing the top spot with the Spanish telecommunications company for several days. The British multinational was also nominated last year, although the percentage of votes then was less than half of those received this year.

Consumers had been voting on the five nominees through the website FACUA.org/lapeorempresa since the 23rd of February.

Movistar, Vodafone, Bankinter, Power Balance and Ryanair were selected after consumers put forward more than one hundred companies for carrying out the most irresponsible, unfair or fraudulent practices in order to make money at the expense of consumers’ rights.

The Worst Business Practice, the refusal of the utilities companies to offer competitive prices

Consumers have decided that The Worst Business Practice of the Year, with 32% of the vote, has been the refusal of the utilities companies to offer competitive prices. Successive governments have promised that the liberalization of the utilities market would bring competition and lower prices for users. These days however, the only thing some companies compete in is misleading advertising. The utilities companies refuse to offer rates that would improve the fixed rate established by the Ministry of Industry in the hope that the rate continues to rise.

Second place, with 20% of the vote, went to the unfair penalties issued by mobile companies for the early termination of mobile contracts.

The other nominated practices were the illegal inclusion in debtor’s lists, the fraudulent fees for unwanted SMS services and the non-fulfilment of the electricity meter replacement plan.

Last year, the most deplored business practice for consumers was telemarketing spam.

The Worst Advertisement: Nueva Rumasa’s promissory notes

The Worst Ad of the Year has been Nueva Rumasa’s promissory notes campaign, which received 35% of the vote. The companies operated by the Ruiz Mateos family launched promissory notes offering high annual interest rates, a far cry from those offered in the current economic climate. To provide credibility, they used the image of a nonexistent holding company, Nueva Rumasa, and the logos of businesses owned by Ruiz Mateos, when in reality the companies that would be liable for the promissory notes would be solely and exclusively the issuing companies.

In second place with 28% of the vote was the Vodafone campaign, which promised ADSL and Gol TV for 4.90 euros a month. Only once the small print had been inspected did it become clear that the offer was dependent on signing up for mobile Internet for 35.28 euros a month and that the television channel was free only for a few months.

The other three nominees were ads for Club Natura, Font Vella Ecoligera and Actimel yogurt from Danone.

In last year’s inaugural awards, the prize for Worst Ad Campaign went to the If you’re legal, you’re legal campaign by the Ministry of Culture.

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