Consumer Rights under TRAI Act

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Welcome To A Talk on

• Consumer Rights under TRAI Act
• By
• K.B.BRAHMADATHAN B.Sc ( Engg), M.Tech, F.I.E.T.E
  ,ITS
• Chief General Manager-Chennai Telephones-BSNL

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Competition.

• Opening up of telecom sector to competition, with
  licences for a number of services being granted,
  the telecom sector has seen a tremendous growth
  in the recent past both in terms of number of
  operators,and subscriber base.
• Along with this growth, there are, of course,
  problems for the stakeholders, including the
  consumers.

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TRAI Consumer..

• TRAI does not deal with the direct
  responsibility of redressing consumer grievances
  rather it sets standards
• Standards for quality of service are fixed by
  TRAI.
• Service provider measures Quality of service.
• TRAI also appoints independent agencies for
  Quality Measurements.
• Consumer interests are thus protected.

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The Current Scenario
Lets fly by Night!!
I have the capacity to carry any thing !
competition
Which way to go?
Freebees, Freebees
Free unlimited talktime
5
How to Sell These Days
Special Golf ball

• A golfer, playing a round by himself, is about to
  tee off, when a salesman runs up to him and
  yells, Wait! Before you tee off, I have
  something really amazing to show you!"
• The golfer, annoyed, says, "what is it?""It's a
  special golf ball," says the salesman. "You can
  never lose it!"

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How to sell these days

• "Whattaya mean," scoffs the golfer, "you can
  never lose it? What if you hit it into the
  water?"
• "No problem," says the salesman. "It floats, and
  it detects where the shore is, and spins towards
  it."

Magic Golfball
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How to sell these days
Beeping and glowing ball

• "Well, what if you hit it into the
  woods?""Easy," says the salesman. "It emits a
  beeping sound, and you can find it with your eyes
  closed."
• "Okay," says the golfer, impressed. "But what if
  your round goes late and it gets dark?"
• "No problem, sir, this golf ball glows in the
  dark! I'm telling you, you can never lose this
  golf ball!"

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Sales !

• The golfer buys it at once. "Just one question,"
  he says to the salesman. "Where did you get it?"
• "I found it.
• Moral.. Never believe in tall claims about a
  product.

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What is best?

• While buying a new product do not expect to buy
  the best every time with all facilities.
• Todays best is tomorrows Antique.

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What Is Best?

• Like choosing a PC or Life partner.

• We always feel that, having chosen one ,if one
  had waited for a bit longer youd have got a
  better model!

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Todays Nifty Products ..

• During the heat of the space race in the 1960's,
  NASA decided it needed a pen to write in the
  zero gravity confines of its space capsules.

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Todays Nifty Products..

• After immense research astronaut pen was
  developed at a cost of 1 million. The pen worked
  and also enjoyed as a novelty item back here on
  earth.

• Do you know what Russians did?
• Used a pencil

• Moral.. Choose a product for your need.

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Quality....

• An astronaut in space was asked by a reporter,
  "how do you feel?""How would you feel," the
  astronaut replied, "if you were stuck here, on
  top of 20,000 parts each one supplied by the
  lowest bidder?.
• Moral. Quality has a price.

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TRAI Regulations..

• The TRAI came out with two regulations namely -
• (I) regulation on quality of service of basic and
  cellular mobile telephone service, 2000 (2 of
  2000) on 5th of July, 2000
• (Ii) regulation on guidelines for registration of
  consumer Organisations/non-government
  Organisations (NGOs) and their interaction with
  TRAI,2001 (1 of 2001)

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The Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

• Under the act, TRAI is supposed to lay down
  quality of service standards and TDSAT(Telecom
  Disputes settlement and Appellate tribunal) is
  supposed to adjudicate disputes between a service
  provider and a group of consumers.

What a nice TV
My lord !my Tv was not repaired
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Present Interactions by TRAI

• By and large,Consumer Organisations NGOs with
  sufficiently long background in the telecom
  sector, were permitted to be registered with
  TRAI.
• The authority (TRAI) interacts with these
  Organisations on regular basis and it is
  at-least twice in a year.

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What TRAI Is Doing..

• A number of workshops, seminars, and interactions
  have been organised for building up the capacity
  of these organisations.
• These were done with a view to create awareness
  of the intricacies of the telecom sector amongst
  the consumers.

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What TRAI Is Doing Contd...

• By virtue of the provisions of sub-clause (v) of
  clause(b) of sub-section (1) of section 11 of
  TRAI act, 1997, TRAI is supposed to
• Lay-down the standards of quality of service to
  be provided by the service providers.

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What TRAI Is Doing..

• Ensure the quality of service and conduct the
  periodical survey of such service provided by the
  service providers.
• Protect interests of the consumers of telecom
  services.

Consumer
Service provider
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BSNLS Customer Care..

• Customer contacts service provider mainly for
• Fault clearance
• Dial xxxx1198 ( IVRS)
• Dial 1500.( Call center)
• Meet staff, executives DGM, GM.CGM
• Commercial complaints
• Customer service centre.
• Commercial officer
• Billing complaints
• AOTR
• DE exchange
• DGM, gmCGM

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Complaint Booking..

• Fault registration at
• Exchange/CSC.
• SSA HQ
• Circle Office..
• Corporate office
• DOT
• DPG
• Through internet

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Customer Care
DOT
DPG
Corporate Office
CGM
DGM/GM
FIELD
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Chennai Telephones Customer Grievance Mechanism
Every Complaint received by CGM, Chennai
Telephones is acted upon.For minor complaints the
customers are spoken to, and for any major
complaint, reply is given in writing
CGM
GM
GM
CAO, DGM
DE,DGM
FIELD
FIELD
TECHNICAL GRIEVANCE
BILLING GRIEVANCE
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System Overview
GRIEVANCES
F A X
T E L
L T R
EMAIL
IN PERSON
PG CELL (BSNL/Circle/SSA/Any other Place)
Dkt. No.
Ack. Slip
REGISTRATION
Data Validation
Docket
REPORTS
EDIT
Sub Level Users
Managers
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Main Types of Grievances

• Telephone/Telecom service faulty
• Delay in shifting of telephone
• Excess billing
• Non-receipt of bill
• Wrong disconnection
• Refund of deposit

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Main Types of Grievances .

• Corruption
• Miscellaneous grievance
• STD booth
• Urban/Rural dispute

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Grievance Classification

• Receipt-source wise
• Mode-wise

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Source of Grievance List

• CMD / Directors BSNL / MTNL
• BSNL Officers
• Govt. Organizations
• VIPs
• Reputed Private companies
• BSNL Customers
• General Public
• Press
• Others

• Honorable PMs office
• Honorable MOC
• Honorable Cabinet ministers
• Honorable MPs
• State govt. Ministers
• MLAs
• Cabinet secretariat
• TRAI
• DOT PG cell
• BSNL PG cell

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Receipt Mode of Grievance

• Commercial Cell
• Direct by hand/In person
• E-mail
• Fax
• By Post
• 1094 / 1095 service
• Phone Office No.
• Telegram.
• Exchanges.
• Customer service center.

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Summary Reports

• All grievances registered during a given period
• Pending grievances registered during a given
  period
• Disposed grievances registered during a given
  period
• Grievance Analysis Daily, Weekly, Monthly

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Additional Avenues Available for Redressal.

• The Indian Telegraph Act 1885 provides for the
  appointment of an arbitrator to go into
  complaints and grievances under sec 7B.
• Consumer protection act 1986 looks into customer
  complaints.

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The BSNL Initiative
Adalats

• The telecom Adalats at the circle level are
  headed by the chief general manager (CGM) and
  that at the district level are headed by the
  concerned secondary switching area (SSA) heads.
• The information of holding Adalats by CGM and SSA
  head are being given wide publicity through local
  newspapers and electronic media.
• During Adalats cases are settled across the table.

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The BSNL Initiative

• This is an internal arrangement only available in
  case of a public sector operator.
• As per available information similar
  arrangements do not exist for private sector
  operators.
• Our working is so transparent that we are
  criticised for the same.

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TRAI Benchmarks Initiative ..
PARAMETER VALUE
Provision of Telephone 7 Days where there is no waiting list.
Fault incidences per month per 100 Telephones 3
Percentage of faults repaired by next day More than 90
Mean time to Repair Less than 8 hours
Billing credibility Disputed bills not more than 0.1 of bills issued.
Repeat faults Less than 1
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The Magical Name.

• One way of ensuring fairness to consumers is
  through establishment of an office of ombudsman
  for the telecom sector.

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Ombudsman In The Telecommunication Industry

• Australia
• The Australian government had appointed the
  telecommunications industry ombudsman (TIO) in
  1993 as a body independent of the industry, the
  government and the consumer organizations.
• Ombudsman has responsibility for the day-to-day
  operations of the scheme.

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Ombudsman In The Telecommunication Industry

• This an industry-funded scheme, deriving its
  income solely from the members who are charged
  fees for complaint resolution services.
• Members consist of telecom carriers,telephone
  carriage providers and internet service providers.

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Ombudsman In The Telecommunication Industry

• A member is charged complaint handling fees if
  the TIO receives a complaint from one of its
  customers funding system acts as an incentive for
  members to keep TIO investigations to a minimum
  by developing and maintaining effective.

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Ombudsman In The Telecommunication Industry

• United kingdom
• In U.K., The communications act, 2003 sets out
  the powers of the regulator, Ofcom (office of
  communications).
• The telecom ombudsman, known as Otelo has been
  operating since January 2003.
• Otelo is independent of the communications
  industry and the regulator.

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Ombudsman In The Telecommunication Industry

• It is managed by a council, which comprise people
  who, in most cases are not from the
  communications industry.

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The Ombudsman in the Indian Scenario

• The ministry of finance has appointed an
  ombudsman for the insurance sector.
• The reserve bank of India has also appointed 15
  ombudsmen for the banking sector.

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The Ombudsman in the Indian Scenario

• Insurance sector
• All the expenses on the establishment of
  ombudsman and his staff is to be met by the
  insurance companies who are members of the
  insurance council.

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The Ombudsman in the Indian Scenario

• To have a formal method of customer grievance
  redressal especially for issues related to
  private operators one of the solution is the
  ombudsman.
• The role of TRAI as regulator must be on
  enforcing quality of service and penalising
  operators for slippages in target.

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Towards Timely Consumer Redressal

• Empowerment to enforce punishment on the operator
  in case of unsatisfactory remedial measures.
• Enforcement of transparent complaint escalation
  procedures for all operators.

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Thank Youfor Your Patient Hearing !