TRAI, with a view to protect the interests of the consumers, issued the Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations, 2012 on 5th January 2012, laying down a revised frame work for addressing the complaints of consumers by telecom service providers for making the complaint redressal more effective.
TRAI had received a number of representations from consumer organisations regarding the need for further improving the existing complaint redressal mechanism. The key concerns of the customers were lack of awareness of the appellate authority and the procedure of appeal. Also there were concerns about accessibility of the complaint centers. Accordingly TRAI has released draft regulations for consultation of the stakeholders.
The highlights of the draft regulations are:-
a. Provision for lodging appeal to the appellate authority at the consumer care number of the complaintcenter.
b. Apart from communicating the details of the action taken on the complaint to the consumer, the procedure for appealing to the appellate authority is also communicated to the consumer.
c. Upon disposal of the appeal by the appellate authority, the details to be communicated to the appellant through SMS or e-mail or post.
d. Accessibility of the complaint center of the service provider to its consumers in person as well as through voice call, SMS, E-mail and post.
The draft Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2013 containing the above provisions is available on TRAI™s website www.trai.gov.in. Stakeholders are requested to offer their comments, preferably in electronic form, to Shri A. Robert J. Ravi, Advisor (CA &QoS), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Mahanagar Doorsanchar Bhawan, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, New Delhi 110002 (Tel No. 011-23230404, Fax No. 011-23213036, Email: advqos@trai.gov.in, by 14th August, 2013.
