Economy

Call centres must to address consumer grievances: Trai Corporate Bureau New Delhi, May 4  To redress consumer grievances more effectively and in a time-bound manner, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday brought in a regulation mandating the telecom service providers including state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) to set up call centres within 60 days from the date of implementation of the regulation and appoint nodal officers in each licensed area within one month. The companies would also have to create an appellate authority, for looking into complaints. The regulation becomes effective from August 1. “Service providers are also mandated to publish”Manual of Practice for handling consumer complaints”, which basically provides for consumer rights, obligation and resolution of grievances,” a Trai statement said. The regulatory authority also directed the service providers to provide all applicable information such as applicable tariff plan, credit limit, security deposit, methodology for calculations of various pulse rates and charges, procedures regarding payments of bills, setting up of public grievance mechanism and display of customer information box with certain information etc, to be printed in easily readable font size and be included in the t bills issued to consumers. “The exponential growth and competition in the telecom sector has thrown up new challenges for protection of consumer interest. Telecom companies introduce new and effective tariff packages and also value added/premium rate services. Lack of consumer awareness and at times neglect of consumer aspirations has led to consumer grievances. The consumer is at a loss as he is unable to communicate with the redressal machinery of the telecom provider,” Trai said. The regulator said that the institutional mechanism provided for resolution of consumers’ grievances within the company and is subscriber centric.”Consumers may contact the call centre for redressal of their grievances.

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