NCC, telcos hold virtual meeting on consumer complaints

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday held its bi-annual meeting with Senior Executives of telecommunication companies on the management of consumer complaints.

The meeting was held (for the first time) virtually, in compliance with COVID-19 management protocols, and focused on consumer relations and complaint management processes.

A statement signed by its spokesperson, Ikechukwu Adinde revealed that the NCC and the telecom service providers at the meeting agreed that the compensation policy should be revisited and complied with always.

“This is to ensure full compliance with the new Complaint Categories and Service Level Agreement (CC/SLA) consented to by the NCC and the service providers in the telecommunication ecosystem,” Adinde said.

It was decided at the meeting that the Commission and telecom service providers will hold follow-up discussions on “Fair Usage Policy” on unlimited data bundles/data rollover, in order to provide a clearer explanation and a better understanding of the processes and procedures of the policy for the benefit of the consumers.

“The Commission hereby wishes to restate that its direction of June 2018 to service providers to commence implementation of data rollover from 26 June 2018, remains in force.

“In other words, a subscriber’s unused data must be rolled over to his/her subsequent data subscription. Therefore, the Commission urges service providers to continue to inform and educate subscribers on the procedures and processes for data rollover,” the statement read in part.

Service providers at the meeting agreed to ensure that senior-level customer relations officers support their respective complaints management teams, to resolve complaints that were not resolved to the satisfaction of the consumers when such complaints were first reported.

The service providers also promised to ensure that complaints are resolved in both the letter and spirit of the recently-reviewed Service Level Agreement (SLA).

“With respect to services subscribed to through third parties (such as banks), which are not rendered, the meeting resolved that telecom service providers should explore initiating service level agreement with banks to ensure uniformity and speed in the resolution of complaints relating to billing.

“All parties to the meeting equally agreed that telecom service providers will carry out pervasive consumer education and enlightenment campaigns about their products and services to ensure their subscribers have the information they require to make informed decisions and get value for money spent.”

The NCC assured that it is determined to continue to work closely with the service providers and other stakeholders in the Nigerian telecom sector in order to improve on the quality of service, and by implication, the quality of consumer experience.