Arun 795 Report post Posted January 6, 2012 Press Trust of India Jan 06, 2012 at 10:11 AM IST New Delhi: Telecom firms will have to set up complaint centres and web-based monitoring systems for their customers within 45 days as per the new consumer grievance redressal guidelines announced on Thursday by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The new rules come into force with immediate effect. Every service provider will have to ensure redressal of the complaints and service requests in accordance with the time-frame as specified under the authority's quality of service regulations, TRAI said. In case it is not specified, the complaint should be addressed within three days, it added. "These regulations will apply to all service providers, including BSNL, MTNL and others providing basic telephone service, unified access services, cellular mobile telephone service, Internet service," TRAI said announcing 'Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations, 2012.' It said that within 45 days from the date of commencement of these regulations, telecom companies will have to establish a complaint centre and establish a general information number for providing information to consumers. Further, it said that every operator "shall, within forty-five days of coming into force of these regulations, establish a web based complaint monitoring system to enable the consumers to monitor the status of their complaints". Besides, TRAI said, each operator will have to publish a citizen's charter containing the information including name and address of the operator, the services offered and terms and conditions. Every service provider shall maintain complete and accurate records of redressal of complaints by its complaint centre and the appellate authority, TRAI said. Last year, TRAI had issued a pre-consultation paper on 'Telecom consumer protection and redressal of consumer grievances' to seek the comments of the stakeholders. The feedback received from the stakeholders emphasised the need for effective redressal of consumer complaints by the telecom service providers at all levels including at the level of nodal officer and the appellate authority. They also indicated that there is hardly any information regarding call charges especially to prepaid subscribers. PDF: TELECOM CONSUMERS COMPLAINT REDRESSAL REGULATIONS, 2012 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KapilAgrawal 340 Report post Posted January 6, 2012 Great. This would help the customers a lot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rajanmehta 4,056 Report post Posted January 6, 2012 TRAI took 19 months to announce this new regulations.. From floating consultation paper in May 2010. And what did it come up with in that much time? Complaint center already established under old regulation will be valid. So nothing new, most operators have complaint mechanism in place. Customer Care should be TOLL FREE. This is New. Now you won't have to pay for calling Customer Care of Operators who are currently charging. Customer Care IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) of every operator will be standardized now. First Level for Language Selection, Second level for options relating to the broad categories of complaints and service requests and Third Level for sub-menu under complaints and service requests, separately. Third Level will also have an option to speak to Customer Care directly. Complaint Redressal machinery changed. Now there will be no Nodal Officer. Consumer will have to lodge unresolved complaint directly to Appellate Authority of the operator. Every Operator will have a new Advisory Committee comprising of 1 representative from operator and 1 from a registered consumer organisation. App. Authority will have to send the proposed solution to Adv. Comm. who may accept it or suggest change. App. Authority can then either accept it or reject it citing reasons in writing. Time period for redressal is one month which is pretty useless for a customer fighting for some serious billing issues. Every operator will need to have a web based complaint lodging, monitoring, resolution mechanism. Citizen's charter to be published mandatorily by each operator. This will contain all info for consumer regarding services, his rights, operator obligation, QOS, complaint redressal mechamism etc. Still there are no penalties etc mentioned in the new regulations. Also there is no mention what should a customer do if his complaint is still unresolved after Appellate authority level. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
city02 63 Report post Posted January 9, 2012 they should also standardise '0' for operator or CC rep in all IVR so we can speak with a human directly Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
