Complaints, fired and angry minister: what’s going on at Telecomprijsbreker Digi?

Digi started the fourth telecom player on the Belgian market in mid -December. That did not go quietly: with a GSM subscription of 5 euros per month and the internet from 10 euros per month, the cheap rates were the conversation topic of the day. It was not long before the other operators adjust prices or formulas.

« We have been calling for extra competition for years and we are happy to see that prices are falling so considerably, » said at the time when Testingkoop. « The question now is whether the service will also be in order. » That turned out to be a good question and is just one of the reasons why Digi is now under fire.

Complaints

More than 300 reports have been received at the telecommunications ombudsman for the past five months. « An excessive number for an operator of that size, » says Telecom Vanessa Matz (Les Engagés).

Read too. Ombudsman Telecom asks Digi to solve ‘start -up problems’: « You can demand compensation for this »

Most problems are about the long waiting times of customer service. In addition, there is a complaining about the loss of reach, invoicing and number transfers that are delayed or fail.

« Starting up a telecom operator is quite an undertaking, so it is not abnormal that some complaints come in in the first weeks, » says Tom Evens, Professor of Media Economics at UGent. « We are now months further, so it should be fine now. It cannot be the case half a year after the launch that you have no reach in Antwerp, as I heard this week. »

Jeroen Degadt, General Manager of Digi Belgium, acknowledges that there were problems, but thinks it is strange that attention is now being paid to it. « Those complaints date from shortly after the launch. At that time, the call center was abundantly called. » Especially because there was a delay with supplies of SIM cards due to the busy Christmas period. « There were indeed waiting times of one hour at the time. » However, since mid -January those problems have been gone and the situation is under control, says Degadt.

Read too. New telecom operator Digi is a price breaker, but stands for major challenges. How does everyone get the internet and what about TV?

On the mat with the minister

Solved or not, Minister Matz wants to know it and calls Digi on the mat. « The established problems are unacceptable and undermine the expected quality of telecommunications services in Belgium, » she says. The number of complaints also ensures « serious concern ».

The minister will therefore soon be around the table with Digi to discuss the issue, « to demand corrective measures » and « to ensure that the rights of the subscribers are strictly complied with ».

Degadt emphasizes that there are no major problems. « Reports always come with a little delay at the Ombudsdienst, but the large stream of complaints has stopped. The waiting time at customer service is less than two minutes and we have launched digital e-SIM cards so that you don’t have to wait for them. » The fact that the range sometimes falls away or customers notice another problem is incidental and not structural, says Degadt. « The vast majority has a trouble -free service. The teething problems are over. »

Dismissed

Finally, it was announced that a dismissal round took place this week at Digi Belgium. That is not the first time. For example, almost half of the members of the board were shown in February. This time it is about twenty people who work in “supporting activities, such as in marketing and warehousing”, Degadt explains.

« We have indeed had to make a difficult decision. » Although it was more a strategic than economic decision. After all, people are still being recruited in other domains, it still sounds. « We are now focusing on developing our regular and mobile networks and are looking for ‘people in the field’, for example door-to-door sellers or people who lay fiber optic. In the large picture we are still growing and the ambition to make Telecom affordable. »

Messages about the issues above do not help, conclude Professor Evens. “They sometimes say There’s No Such Thing As Bad Publicitybut I dare to doubt that. This is not good for the image of Digi anyway. «