Dhaka, August 16 (bdnews24.com) — The telecoms regulator has moved to ensure free customer care calls for mobile phone customers.
The regulator has also issued a number of specific directives regarding basic services to mobile phone customers.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has directed mobile operators to switch to a common toll free number 121 for customer care services by October and also asked not to charge for calls or text messages to that number.
At present, the operators charge between Tk 1 and Tk 2 per minute for calls made to customer care services.
The regulatory commission, in a directive of August 4, also set certain benchmarks for the quality of customer service in an effort to "protect social and economic interest of the customers".
Operators are obligated to respond within 90 seconds by a call centre agent. In case of electronic response it is 20 seconds.
"The initiative aims to reduce hassles of the consumers; there are cases when a subscriber has to wait for long for a response," a BTRC official said preferring anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the press.
Despite several attempts, BTRC chairman Zia Ahmed could not be reached for any comments.
According to the directive, consumers will be able to lodge complaints with the commission if respective companies fail to address their problems.
The regulator has also reserved the provision to issue a compulsory enforcement order to the telecom operators in such cases.
Operators will have to maintain a database system of such toll free calls including related information of the complaints from customers and disposals of the complaints.
It also asked to record details of officials handling the grievances, so that proper action can be taken in case a customer is not satisfied with the service.
Operators will also have to submit a quarterly report to the BTRC, where the number and type of complaints received and the actions taken against it have to be included.
The reports have to be sent to the BTRC with 15 days from the end of each quarter, reads the directive.
It also asked operators to settle all refunds like, deposit, credit, waiver or adjustments within a month of billing or charging.
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