The Municipal Consumer Information Office handled more than 4,000 complaint queries this year

This year, electricity and telephone companies are the most in demand, along with music and leisure festival promoters.

To date have been processed about 14% more files than last year

The City Council of Estepona, through the Municipal Office of Consumer Information (OMIC) has managed this year more than 4,000 queries from users who were dissatisfied with the care received, services provided or products purchased from companies or businesses. This is a way that the Consistory makes available to citizens so that they can give transferred these problems and can initiate a complaint or mediation file.

In total, as of December 5, the office had handled a total of 4,128 queries, 3.6% more than last year, which have been made both in person and by telephone and telematic, all of them from users who were dissatisfied with services or products of companies.

Once again this year, electricity and telephone companies received the highest number of complaints, accounting for 25% of all complaints, although this year they were joined by music and leisure festival promoters (12.28%), those related to the purchase of new and used vehicles and repair shops (11.55%), insurance companies (9.8%), online shopping (9.21%), banks (7.75%), and companies in the travel sector and airlines (4.2%).

To date, a total of 689 complaint files have been processed, which represents an increase of 13.81% compared to 2024, as explained by the councilor attached to the area of Commerce, Cristina Cintrano, who stresses the importance of citizens being aware of their rights as consumers and that the City Council has a specific office that informs them of how current legislation protects them against bad practices by companies.

As a result of these initial steps, this year a total of 96 files have been transferred to other competent sectorial bodies, depending on the type of claim, such as the Consumer Arbitration Boards, the Bank of Spain, the Directorate General of Insurance or the Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) for their resolution. In addition, the City Council has carried out from this office 623 mediations in the defense of consumers.

The OMIC carries out an important informative work, free of charge, offering the user all the possibilities within his reach to repair the possible injured rights.

The Municipal Office of Consumer Information is located on the first floor of the Estepona Town Hall. Face-to-face consultations are made by appointment, which can be requested online at https://citaprevia.estepona.es or at the point located at the entrance of the Town Hall. In addition, you can contact by phone to make inquiries at 952809000 (extensions 1488 and 1323) or, if you have an electronic certificate, make the claim directly online through the electronic headquarters.