Unexpected bills, fake invoices and poor customer service. The magazine Råd och rön has come up with this year’s most notified companies to the Swedish Consumer Agency in 2024 – and there are many familiar names.
The list of shame, as it is called, is published every year by the newspaper. Several of the names on this year’s list are recognizable from last year’s list. Klarna, which in 2023 received 132 notifications and has unfortunately received more notifications this year when they landed at 196.
The telecom company Telenor also ended up on the list of shame in 2023 with 170 reports. In 2024, they had 145. But one company that was at the top of last year’s list was Dinbilgaranti with a whopping 633 notifications. This year, they have managed to lower that figure to 369.
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Telia on the shame list 2024 – 227 reports
A company that also ended up on this year’s shame list is Telia. In 2024, they managed to collect 227 entries and ended up in fifth place.
The criticism is about several different things, but the Consumer Agency reacted to one thing: The difficulty of canceling a subscription.
Number of reports received by the Swedish Consumer Agency so far this year:
1. By Métis, 529 notifications
2. Dinbilgaranti, 369 notifications
3. Bedomahalsa.com, 340 submissions
4. Tele2, 279 notifications
5. Telia, 227 notifications
6. Klarna, 196 notifications
7. Telenor, 145 notifications
8. Nordic Best Energy, 123 entries
9. Visible, 113 reports
In order to end up on the list, it is required that the Swedish Consumer Agency’s lawyers have opened a supervisory case. It could, for example, be about misleading marketing or shortcomings in contractual terms.
Source: Advice and findings.
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Telia: Well under one percent of our total customer base
News24 have talked to Roija Rafiiwho is press manager at Telia Sweden, about the shame list. She points out the large customer base that Telia has, and that the list does not take into account notifications as a percentage, but only in number.
– As one of Sweden’s largest companies with a large proportion of customers, we are aware that we can end up on lists, like this one, if you start from the number of cases instead of the percentage compared to the total customer base, explains Rafii.
She also points out that Telia has reduced its notifications since 2023 when they had 297 cases registered at the Consumer Agency.
Rojia Rafii, press manager at Telia. Photo: Stig Albansson.
– It mainly shows two things. Partly because our dedicated work to constantly improve has led to a reduction of an average of around three cases per month compared to last year. Partly, that it is about well under one per thousand of Telia’s total customer base, and that the absolute majority of our customers are satisfied. But we obviously take every case that shows the opposite very seriously, and we work continuously to reduce these by improving our service in various ways.
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Customers have found it difficult to cancel subscriptions: “Not reasonable”
In Råd och rön’s shame list, Telia’s placement on the list is justified by the fact that customers have had difficulty canceling their subscriptions. Those who have wanted to cancel via email or website have instead been referred to customer service.
“It is not reasonable that companies do not accept termination of agreements via email or website when it is perfectly possible to sign the agreement that way,” wrote one reporter, according to the newspaper.
This is something that the Swedish Consumer Agency considers to be “an unreasonable contractual term”.
– This year, Råd og rön refers to a case about redundancies, but it is something that the Swedish Consumer Agency closed already in September. This as we quickly introduced the improvements that were requested. This has also been pointed out to Råd og rön since before, says Rafii at Telia.
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Telia: “Notified incorrectly”
Rafii at Telia believes that some of the reports to the Swedish Consumer Agency are not complaints, but pure questions. Some of the other reports, she believes, have simply ended up wrong.
– A certain percentage of the cases are also about opinions on, for example, campaigns and channel packages. In addition, we can exclude another ten ≈as it concerns other companies, such as “Telianen”, she tells Nyheter24.
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