Senator reprimanded Oi's boss for poor service.

Bahia 247 - Annoyed with the services provided by Oi, Senator Walter Pinheiro (formerly of the PT, now independent) complained directly to a director of the operator with whom he had a close relationship and negotiated campaign donations.

"Where are the promised megabytes? Who are we complaining to, and to whom???? How the average user suffers!", said Pinheiro in a message to Otávio Marques de Azevedo, who was president of the holding company of Andrade Gutierrez, one of the controlling companies of Oi until 2014.

The conversations are from wiretapped phone conversations attached to investigations in Operation Lava Jato, according to the newspaper Folha de São Paulo. Azevedo was arrested a year ago in the operation and is now a cooperating witness.

The complaint from the senator, who is currently the Secretary of Education for Bahia, began in March 2014. In a message, he stated that he had been without a phone for 48 hours. "The 'technicians' from Oi are trying to mislead me with things like 'remove the battery,' 'remove the SIM card,' configuration, 'contact your operator,' and more and more absurd things," the Bahia native complained.

Two weeks later, the senator complained again and "threatened" to switch providers and criticize Oi in messages to all his acquaintances, including "members of the Anatel board" (National Telecommunications Agency). "If this is how it is with a senator, who comes from Oi, imagine the poor customer."

Pinheiro is a telecommunications technician who made his career as a union leader and worked at the former Bahia state-owned company Telebahia, of which Oi is the successor.

The week after the first complaint, the senator said that, without internet access, he was forced to use the old "old-fashioned" SMS service. "For now, I'll manage with a Vivo phone."

Azevedo's responses always delivered with humility, despite him being one of the country's leading businessmen and one of the biggest campaign financiers.

The contractor asked for a chance to "turn things around" and said that he was Brazilian and never gave up. "Please agree to talk so we can try to resolve these problems."

The transcript of the conversations shows that the contractor was indeed making an effort. He relayed the politician's complaints and demanded "an urgent solution"—in messages written in capital letters.

According to Folha, the conversations reveal a series of occasions in which Pinheiro and the contractor arranged meetings. Azevedo calls the Bahian senator "my favorite senator," and makes a pun during the 2012 end-of-year festivities: "Christmas is the time for everyone to have their own PINE TREE nearby to celebrate."

That same year, the two discussed donations to the campaign of the then-PT candidate for mayor of Salvador, federal deputy Nelson Pelegrino.

Other side

Walter Pinheiro told Folha de São Paulo that he has known the contractor for decades, since Azevedo was in charge of the Minas Gerais state-owned company Telemig. He says that the relationship with him was not inappropriate. He also recounts that he pushed for improvements in the company because he had previously worked there after the privatization of the telephone companies.

"I lashed out, saying that if every Brazilian had the phone number of the president of Oi, the problem would be solved," he said. 

According to the newspaper, Oi declined to comment on the matter.