NKREKP wants to order new call center services for informing consumers of electricity and natural gas. There will be two telephone lines, which will be answered by six operators. At the moment, of the two numbers available to customers, one is down, and the operator on the other did not know how to answer simple questions such as when you can switch suppliers and whether companies pay a capped price for energy. These gaps should not exist, given that NARE is an institution that fines energy companies if they do not have effective communication with consumers.

ANRE has published an announcement for contracts for call center services, with a budget of 193,400 lei (excluding VAT) for this year.

The institution already has a call center (how it works – we will see below), which it opened during the liberalization of the electricity and gas market (2021), but the current contract expires on March 1.

More precisely, starting from this date, NARE wants to have two functional telephone numbers, which will be answered by at least six people, three operators for each number.

Goal: “To provide an adequate and effective communication system aimed at increasing the awareness of end consumers of electricity and natural gas regarding their rights. Increasing the information and communication capacity of NARE with the aim of fulfilling the information obligations established by the Law and strengthening the institution’s position as the main source of safe and transparent information that promotes and protects their interests,” the message reads.

HotNews experiment: ANRE call center operator did not know how long it would take to change supplier

We wanted to see how the call center service provided to ANRE consumers works.

Currently, only one of the two numbers posted on the NARE website is working.

I called 021 9782. About five minutes later an operator answered and I asked a few simple questions as a private caller.

What the operator knew: if you do not receive invoices from the supplier, at the first stage you contact the supplier, and if you do not decide to do so, you submit a petition to ANRE; you can choose a new supplier by comparing prices on the NARE website; Prices for household consumers are limited until March 31, 2025.

What the operator did not know: for what period can you change the energy supplier (according to the law, this is done a maximum of 21 days from the moment of application); whether companies have a capped price for energy (currently, non-household consumers pay a capped price of 1.3 lei per kWh).

There is another number on the NARE website, 0374 554 265, where it is indicated that we will receive information about the change of supplier of electricity and natural gas.

“The dialed number is incorrect. Please dial again, more carefully,” says the robot when someone calls this number.

We hope that from March the operators at the other end of the line will be better prepared, given that we are talking about an institution that regulates the energy market and that, in turn, has developed performance standards that companies in this sector must meet.

Photo source: Dreamstime