Aug. 2: If telecom regulator Trai has its way, you will not have to wait for four weeks to get your incorrect telephone bill rectified. That’s the time period allowed to telecom companies to address bill related complaints of mobile users, which Trai hopes to reduce.
Right now, telecom firms have one week’s time to repay customers, post complaint resolution — Trai has invited comments as to whether these timelines could also be reduced. The regulator has started an overall review of the consumer redressal regulations, which would make life easier for subscribers.
On premium calls, such as those made to TV shows for participation in some lottery programmes, Trai has asked consumers as to what methodology should be adopted so that the consumer who is making the call knows before hand that it will charged much at a much higher rates than a normal calls.
One of the important way of consumer redressal mechanism is call centres. However, Trai found that in some places the awareness about call centres is as low as 31 per cent. The awareness about call centres is low in places like Chennai and Assam.
Trai said that since the call centre is the first level of complaint redressal, awareness about the call centre number is important and urgent steps are required to be taken to create such awareness.
The regulator has invited suggestion on how awareness about call centres could be further improved. It has proposed alternate methods like using regular SMS to convey the call centre numbers to consumers.