The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has made it mandatory for telecom operators to set up a Web-based system whereby consumers can track the status of their complaints.
The regulator has also asked operators to appoint an Appellate Authority to look into unresolved consumer complaints. Under The Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations, 2012, the regulator has done away with the need for nodal officers at the circle level.
These regulations replace the earlier ‘Telecom Consumers Protection and Redressal of Grievances Regulations, 2007'. Under the new rules, operators have to establish a complaint centre with a toll-free “Consumer Care Number”. The centre will be responsible to address all the complaints received by them. Provisions have also been made at the complaint centre to establish a Customer Care Number which could be accessed from any other service provider's network.
Two-tier mechanism
The existing three-tier complaint redressal mechanism – Call centre, Nodal Centre and Appellate Authority, has been replaced by a two-tier one by doing away with the Nodal Officer. This is because the Complaint Centres are essentially registration and response centres and do not deal with the resolution of complaints. They only facilitate registration of consumer complaint and the level at which a problem is resolved within a company depends on the complexity of the issue involved.
Every complaint at the Complaint Centre shall be registered by giving a unique docket number, which will remain in the system for at least three months. The docket number along with date and time of registration and the time limit for resolution of the complaint would be communicated to the consumer through SMS. The customer shall also be informed of the action taken through SMS.
Advisory panel
If a consumer is not satisfied with the redressal of his complaint, he can approach the next tier – the Appellate Authority for redressal of his complaints. A two-member advisory committee has to be set up in each of the service areas by the service provider. This will comprise of one member from the consumer organisation registered with TRAI and another member from the service provider.
All appeals of the consumers will be put up before the Advisory Committee which will advice on all such appeals to the Appellate Authority.
The existing regulations have not done much to address consumer issues.
According to consumer groups, the new regulations are also weak because the regulator has allowed the operators to set up their own Appellate Authority.