Himanshu Singh 19 Report post Posted January 25, 2010 (edited) Empowering India’s 500 million plus mobile users, the country’s telecom regulator has decided to set up an online customer redressal mechanism, providing a platform for dissatisfied consumers to express their complaints against their service providers....... Its a good move. Put simply, any customer can log on to this web-based system, that will be maintained by Trai, to register complaints, violations or any other grievance against their mobile operator. This independent platform will work on a real-time basis, implying that the operator in question will immediately get the complaint, a top Trai official told ET. This official also added that this system would enable Trai to monitor if customer grievances were being addressed. “We can then see as to what per cent of customer complaints are addressed,” the Trai official explained. When pointed out that only a fourth of the country’s mobile subscribers had access to the internet, the Trai official said that the regulator was trying to expand the scope of the platform to include SMS-based complaints. “We are looking at different technologies to explore if SMS or voice calls can also be made part of the online customer redressal platform,” the Trai official added.... Brilliant thinking here too. Trai has decided to go in for this online model, as it is not empowered to handle individual consumer complaints against service providers. The regulator will begin the process next month, and after consultations with all stakeholders, it plans to have the platform working from the beginning of next fiscal (April 1, 2010). Trai is also of the view that despite all operators having directed a three-tier redressal structure, which includes call centres, area-wise nodal officers and appallette authorities, most grievances went unaddressed. Currently, the only other option that a consumer has is to take the operator to court. Meanwhile, the telecoms regulator will also meet the two telecom industry bodies next week — Cellular Operators Association of India and the Association of Unified Service Providers of India — over a demand by the industry that they be allowed to charge subscribers for calls made to customer care outlets. At present, all calls made to the customer care are free.... What the duck is this? “Operators have told us that a significant majority of calls that mobile users make to customer care are for enquiry purposes, and not related to grievances. Since running these call centres and offering customer care involves a huge cost, they want consumers to pay for this service,” the Trai official quoted above said. ET spoke to mobile service providers, who confirmed that the industry had jointly sought Trai’s approval to charge consumers for calls to the customer care, if they were not related to grievances/complaints. But Trai officials are divided on the demand by telcos. “We do not have any mechanism to determine if a call to the customer is for a complaint, enquiry or for other purpose. Interpretations can vary. We want to give telcos a hearing on this issue,” another Trai official added. In another consumer-related move, the Trai is also planning to junk the Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry, as this has failed its purpose of ensuring that telemarketers do not make unsolicited calls or send SMSs to those enlisted in the DNC. Instead, the regulator plans to explore the option of setting up a ‘Do-Call’ registry, where only registered users would be called by telemarketing firms. Edited January 25, 2010 by sachinrocks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
srk006 21 Report post Posted January 25, 2010 a demand by the industry that they be allowed to charge subscribers for calls made to customer care outlets. At present, all calls made to the customer care are free.... smells like a telenor suggestion!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Himanshu Singh 19 Report post Posted January 25, 2010 If this proposal to charge customers for calls made to customer care is accepted, it would have,in my opinion,the following impacts: 1. Customers would be put on hold for longer duration to milk money. 2. Over a period of time customers would become intelligent and start making calls from office phones etc. 3. A lot of customers who don't have the second option would stop making calls to customer care even if a caller tune is activated without request and so on. You might even find companies start charging us wrongly by a few rupees every day in the hope that no one would dare call customer care. 4. If the calls made to Customer care become very less these telcos would not need to hire many for call centers. So job losses would occur and economy would have some impact due to this. 5.May be Raj Thakre would intervene and all those who are fired might get back their jobs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted January 25, 2010 emails will be flooded to cc and higher authorities.. more customers will rush to local mobile provider offices... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
::Hitesh:: 1,763 Report post Posted January 25, 2010 1) Making online CC is very good option, but my problem is i dont call CC for solving my problems, i call them to take out my frustrations about their network. this can not be full filled by online CC 2) Charging money for calling CC is like stilling a lollipop from a 1 year child , (even they want to impliemnt this under some telco's pressure, charge per call, dont charge per sec or per min.) 3)Planing to junk DnD, WHY ?, DnD is working almost perfectly, in sms 99% success, in calls 95% (its for me) This statement from TRIA is 100% under influence of telcos, Kisi babu ne paisa khaya hoga !, aur kya ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raccoon 53 Report post Posted January 25, 2010 Charging subscribers for grievance related calls is totally unacceptable. Also, most calls for inquiry are because the telcos are not supplying complete info about most plans/offers/rules/etc. Just see the latest extra talk time offer- no info about its validity period or if it can be done thru netbanking, etc. If all this is posted at least on their websites, a lot of inquiry related calls and waste of time of the customer would be avoided! As for DND, it isn't perfect (ocasionally I get an SMS, which I report) but it works pretty well with Idea at least... definitely not a total failure. Dunno about RCom as I haven't activated it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
santhoshavanoor 7 Report post Posted January 25, 2010 (edited) A good move from TRAI. But TRAI is acting as a post office. That is not good. Which operator would like to charge for the customer care centre number? Defenitly from the next month once they implemented the charges, they will be out from the market. Why the operators are thinking like this? We will see whehter TRAI will approve operator's proposal. Edited January 25, 2010 by santhoshavanoor Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
::Hitesh:: 1,763 Report post Posted January 25, 2010 (edited) A good move from TRAI. :NOTriste: I think you haven't read the full post, or If you have did, you think differently !! Every buddy have their own opinions. Its like giving you 1rs and taking 2rs from you. Edited January 25, 2010 by hitesh123 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
santhoshavanoor 7 Report post Posted January 25, 2010 A good move from TRAI. I think you haven't read the full post, or If you have did, you think differently !! Every buddy have their own opinions. Its like giving you 1rs and taking 2rs from you. Thanks for the reminder, I have edited my post. When I have finished one sentence, I pressed the post button accidently and I haven't checked the post preview. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted February 3, 2010 just got the following tweet "Heard Airtel is now charging 50ps/3mins for calling customer care. Is that true?" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
srk006 21 Report post Posted February 3, 2010 Airtel always comes first in increasing rates and the last to reduce huh! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted February 3, 2010 but some one please confirm if airtel started charing calls to CC.. i dont have an airtel to check.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raccoon 53 Report post Posted February 3, 2010 (edited) Btw, I was going to post about this myself - when I called up Idea CC to ask for some plan clarificaiton, I got a shock when before connecting to an agent, I was told that I will be charge 50p for 3 mins for the call!! But before that I was told if it was a complaint I should disconnect and dial some other number. I got pissed and just disconnected the call. I thought TRAI was still in the process of considering to allow operators to charge for calling customer care. Then how come these $%#$ telcos have started to charge already?? I certainly hope that they are not charging for complaints related calls, at least... Edited February 3, 2010 by raccoon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted February 3, 2010 calls will be charged only if get connected to CC or even while on IVR ?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raccoon 53 Report post Posted February 3, 2010 (edited) No. Seems you can fool around on the IVR... but when you opt to speak to an agent, you get the recorded message that you will be charged, and you can press some number to continue and some other number not to continue. Thats what I experienced with Idea. Dunno about Airtel yet, as I'v stopped using their SIM. Edited February 3, 2010 by raccoon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KanagaDeepan 1,084 Report post Posted February 4, 2010 See friends, how these thugs take SUPER FAST actions for things they get paise from us and how fast they are acting to give nice scheme to us like SMS packs, reduction in roaming tariffs... Hope RCom will just start something like "NO SMS BLACK OUT DAYS" like scheme say "NO CHARGES FOR CONTACTING CC"... Then we can over our friends using Airtel/Idea.. These IDEA guys are saying to save TREES , but only GOD can save their subscribers ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
srk006 21 Report post Posted February 4, 2010 I think this "Charge to calls to cc" was supported by all members of COAI as well as AUSPI. So I think RCOM and Tata too are going to implement this! But I hope it doesn't happen atleast with RCOM. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted February 4, 2010 These IDEA guys are saying to save TREES ... they wasted too many papers to advertise their idea "save paper, save tree"... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Himanshu Singh 19 Report post Posted February 4, 2010 Good morning friends..Nicer way to loot us.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
::Hitesh:: 1,763 Report post Posted February 4, 2010 ^^^ Its after noon good or bad i dont know. Idea is giving idea only to market their brand , its an bad idea sir ji Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raccoon 53 Report post Posted February 4, 2010 Damn bad idea. But considering the competition in the sector, I guess they are looking at ways to reduce costs. And I'm sure many people misuse the service hogging up their time. But we are gonna be penalized for it even when we have reasons... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
