provedor do cliente
Published 8 November 2026, 22:44
provedor do cliente — a company's ombudsman who handles customer complaints
A separate service within a company (telecoms operators, banks, energy companies) that customers turn to when ordinary customer support has said no. It is free, cases are dealt with faster, and the decision is, as a rule, binding on the company itself. It is not a state body: if the answer there is also no, the next steps are an entry in the Livro de Reclamações and a complaint to the regulator — for telecoms, that is ANACOM.
Where you come across it. An operator has charged you for a service that was never connected, a bank does not answer a complaint, a dispute with an insurer.
Not to be confused with the Provedor de Justiça — that is the state ombudsman, a different office altogether.