Violation of consumer
rights in the public electricity service in Guayaquil, 2022
Vulneración de derechos
del consumidor en el servicio público de energía eléctrica Guayaquil 2022
Maria Isabel Vieyra Villala*
Mariela Alava Macias*
Michael Jose Ortega Tambaco*
ABSTRACT
The
present study has as a general objective to elaborate a legal analysis on the
rights of the consumers of the public electricity service from the
Constitutional and Legal context that allows to demonstrate if there is or is
not a violation of rights before the provision of this service. For this
purpose, an exhaustive search has been carried out on the figures, conceptions
and theoretical constructions on the right to the consumer and the quality that
they must generate in the provision of this service. For this, adequate
research methods were used that allowed knowing the perception of the users of
the city of Guayaquil about the provision of this service, thus evidencing a
discontent due to different factors associated with quality, unsatisfactory
customer service, lack of maintenance, exorbitant charges on electricity bills,
among others. These results led to the conclusion that institutions such as the
Ombudsman should correctively influence user demand and ask the company that
provides the electric power service for detailed reports on its operations and
solutions regarding complaints and petitions. of the users.
Keywords:
Quality, Consumer, Rights, Electric power, Services.
RESUMEN
El presente estudio tiene como
objetivo general elaborar un análisis jurídico sobre los derechos de los
consumidores del servicio público de energía eléctrica desde el contexto
Constitucional y Legal que permita evidenciar si existe o no vulneración de derechos
ante la prestación de este servicio. Para tal fin se ha realizado una búsqueda
exhaustiva sobre las figuras, concepciones y construcciones teóricas sobre el
derecho al consumidor y la calidad que deben generar en la prestación de este
servicio. Para ello se utilizaron métodos de investigación adecuados que
permitieron conocer la percepción de los usuarios de la ciudad de Guayaquil
sobre la prestación de este servicio, evidenciando así un descontento por
diferentes factores asociados con la calidad, atención a la cliente
insatisfactoria, falta de mantenimiento, cobros exorbitantes en las planillas
de luz, entre otras. Estos resultados llevaron a la conclusión de que,
instituciones como la Defensoría del Pueblo influya de manera correctiva ante
la demanda de los usuarios y solicite a la empresa prestadora del servicio de
energía eléctrica informes detallados de sus operaciones y soluciones en cuanto
a las quejas y peticiones de los usuarios.
Palabras clave: Calidad, Consumidor, Derechos,
Energía eléctrica, Servicios.
INTRODUCTION
This document addresses a very interesting topic
within the legal field, specifically consumer rights, specifically those who
receive electricity services in the city of Guayaquil. To this end, it is
necessary to conduct a study focused on analyzing the exercise of consumer
rights, making this issue particularly relevant given that it concerns a vital
public service enshrined in the Constitution, which must be provided in an
optimal manner by the entities responsible for it in order to ensure user
satisfaction.
However, in response to various requests and
complaints to the Public Defender's Office, it is striking that corrective
measures have not been taken to provide a quality service. On the contrary,
this problem has continued to affect users over the years, who have expressed
their dissatisfaction with factors related to quality, poor customer service,
lack of maintenance, exorbitant charges on electricity bills, among other
issues.
However, the aim is not only to ensure that the
provision of this service is geared towards user satisfaction, but also to
enable consumers to exercise their rights as set out in the regulations, and
not only in the provision of private services.
In short, the document detailed here provides timely
content for greater awareness of both consumer rights and public electricity
services in the country.
To address this study, it is necessary to point out
that over the years, countries have sought to maintain peace agreements after
World War II, thus creating a culture in companies to provide trust and
peaceful coexistence among all, giving rise to a list of rights aimed at
protecting consumers, which have an impact on the circulation of goods and
services within the market.
However, these visions have not been fully realized
because these guidelines have not achieved the desired end, that is, essential
aspects within this system such as quality optimization, fair competition,
protection from misleading advertising, adequate information, assistance, or
equitable treatment of users or consumers are scarcely perceived by those who
depend on the provision of a good and/or service.
At the same time, it is striking that, despite the
existence of the Organic Law on Consumer Protection, which came into force in
2000 through Official Register Supplement 116 of July 10, 2000, as an organic
law regulating the protection of consumer rights, its lack of awareness is
alarming, both in terms of its existence and, even more so, its content. This
prevents consumers from effectively exercising their rights and, at the same
time, allows companies, suppliers, and businesses to ignore or omit certain
considerations, rules, or benefits that users are entitled to under the
aforementioned law.
It should be noted that this law introduced the
so-called Complaints Book, which different types of businesses are required to
acquire so that customers or users can record their complaints about the
service or product they have received. However, few businesses use them,
although most public sector entities do keep such a book.
At the same time, there is a problem in the field of
public service relations that can arise between the consumer and the provider,
where the former has been only superficially protected by common law, due to
the lack of effective control of companies, businesses, and commerce in the
country, since misleading advertising, abusive contracts, rates, and fees for
certain services, and even intentional harassment of consumers are commonplace.
Therefore, given all these considerations, public
services have always been the subject of controversy when it comes to
evaluating or assessing the care and diligence with which they carry out their
work. One such service is electricity, which is the subject of numerous
complaints and claims to the Ombudsman's Office and to the public companies
themselves, where citizens' dissatisfaction is evident in the lack of
maintenance, control, quality, determination of proportional values, customer
service, and all types of management, which are criticized by consumers.
Furthermore, these complaints are not addressed in accordance with the law that
regulates them.
In short, this problem has been causing discontent
among the people of Guayaquil, who are affected not only by the obsolete and
inadequate quality of the service, but also by unforeseen events that are not
dealt with urgently and put citizens at risk, such as falling cables, poor
connections, and overloaded regulators, among others.
MATERIALS
AND METHODS
Google Scholar was used to ensure that the information
referred to regarding the legal relationship between parents and children came
from scientific articles, books, or documents identified as verified sources of
information. In addition, the following table details the resources used and
their respective values.
As its name suggests, this is a decisive method when
analyzing data and information. In this particular case, it is applied in the
review of various research sources, such as scientific articles, books,
legislation, doctrine, and others, from which the most relevant points for this
project must be extracted and subsequently analyzed to provide optimal content
on public electricity services in relation to consumer rights.
This method consists of collecting information
obtained from a specific place or area for research purposes, based on the
application of various procedures. For our topic, this method is necessary
because we have carried out the respective research in specific places such as
the Ombudsman's Office in the city of Guayaquil. At the same time, we have
focused on a specific population, namely the electricity consumers of this
city.
RESULTS
Given the results of the research techniques used, it
was found that all the people included in this study have electricity service.
However, their response was not affirmative in terms of the quality of this
service, as most of them indicated that they were dissatisfied with its
quality, which appears to be far from being addressed and optimized.
Consequently, citizens' lack of knowledge about
consumer rights is considerable, as most indicated that they had no idea about
them, and those who indicated that they knew a little about them had an
ambiguous and unclear perception.
Similarly, it was found that there are several
shortcomings in the provision of this service, and that most of those surveyed
considered that all of them (lack of maintenance, customer service, excessive
charges) are part of the problems they face on a daily basis with this service.
They have even gone to their local agencies to file complaints about various
irregularities and have not received a response that satisfies their requests.
They indicated that the problems were not corrected, which has led them to
distrust the entity.
Figure 1.
Electricity service
Figure 2.
Quality of electricity service
DISCUSSION
On the other hand, it has become clear that people
have little information about the functions of the Ombudsman's Office,
especially with regard to consumer rights. However, some have submitted
requests regarding the electricity service, which are still being processed.
Finally, they indicated the need for a restructuring of the provision of this
service, with an effective and high-quality model to meet their needs. The
study on public electricity services reached the following conclusions: Through
a legal analysis of the rights of consumers of public electricity services from
a constitutional and legal perspective, it was possible to demonstrate that there
is a violation of rights in the provision of this service to users in the city
of Guayaquil, based on various sources of research, such as Official Letter No.
DPE-DPGYS-2023-0709-O dated July 17, 2023, regarding complaints related to this
service; the results obtained from surveys showing that users are dissatisfied,
interviews with officials from the Ombudsman's Office who have detailed the
multiple problems with the provision of this service, and the regulations
themselves that describe the standards under which this service must be
provided. At the same time, it was possible to identify the main problems
associated with the provision of public electricity services in the city of
Guayaquil, which have to do with poor technical management, lack of
maintenance, high consumption bills that users claim they did not incur, late
or denied responses to their requests, lack of maintenance, among others.
The importance and diligence with which this service
must be provided was also detailed, as it is recognized by international
instruments as a contributing factor to improving people's living
conditions.
Finally, a proposal was made to establish three
measures that would benefit the provision of this service in order to optimize
its quality and customer service so that citizens can effectively exercise
their consumer rights.
On the other hand, it has been shown that people have
little information about the functions of the Ombudsman's Office, even more so
in relation to consumer rights. However, some have submitted their requests
regarding the electricity service, which are still being processed. Finally,
they indicated the need for a restructuring of the provision of this service,
with an effective and high-quality model to meet their needs.
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* Universidad de Guayaquil, Abogada, Economista, Magister en Administración Mención Recursos Humanos,
Maestría en Formación de Profesores de Inglés como lengua extranjera, Master in
Teaching English as a foreign language (culminado y en proceso de registro de
título en el Senescyt)
E-mail:
maria.vieyrav@ug.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1983-3048
* Universidad de
Guayaquil, Ingeniera
en Sistemas Administrativos Computarizados, Magister en Administración de
Empresas Mención Telecomunicaciones
E-mail:
mariela.alavam@ug.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8971-1304
* Universidad de
Guayaquil, Abogado, Ingeniero en Comercio Exterior, Magister en Negocios
Internacionales
E-mail: michael.ortegat@ug.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8576-7443