Trai mulls monitoring system for customer grievances

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is considering introducing a grievance monitoring system to ensure proper redressal of the customers' complaints.

"We are looking at a grievance monitoring system where the regulator will seek update from the service providers on those complaints of customers which have not been addressed for a reasonable period of time," Trai chairman J S Sarma told PTI.

He said the system will be set up after consultations with the service providers to protect interests of customers.

But the initiative will not be done through any 'heavy hand' rules, rather it would be a facilitating move to serve the customer better which is a win-win situation for everybody, Sarma said.

At present, there is no such system to know if the customer's complaint has been addressed or not, if not why, once a user lodges complaint with a service provider on any issues ranging from billing to quality of service.

It is left to the telcos to look at complaints and act on it and sometimes there are long-pending complaints which go unadressed for a long time or not looked into at all and the customers become helpless and stop pursuing the solution.

Trai has put in place a number of mechanism to protect consumers from any harassment or exploitation by the telcos but in absence of any follow-up action to ensure the redressal, it becomes a fragile assurance.