Have a grievance that needs attention?

My brother was talking to me today and informed that he was not happy with the Nokia phone that he recently purchased. He complained of overheating and operating system issues. This is not the first time I hear something like this on Nokia phones. Few even have mentioned that the service centers provide worst service. So, I was looking for an escalation chart for Nokia customer service and did not find any information. Instead found that there are many people like me who are looking for some or any information on the redressal mechanism.

Let me share some information that I found while looking up for what I needed. Firstly, let me share the information that I already knew. TRAI and RBI had already imposed a rule stating that every telecom operator and bank respectively should have customer grievance redressal mechanism. I know for sure that most (I am not sure if all) telecom operators and banks have second level escalation (Nodal Officer) and a third level escalation (Appellate Officer). I have escalated issues to Hutch’s (now Vodafone) nodal officer and the issues were addressed on the next business day. But, I did not get any response from a nodal officer of SBI Credit Card. How do we go about resolving those issues where you don’t get response from?

I found few NGOs and (state and central) government organizations who deal with redressing consumers’ grievance. Let me share two NGOs which I came across, International Consumer Rights Protection Council (ICRPC) and Consumer Guidance Society of India (CGSI). They help users in dealing with consumers’ rights protection. They first try to get an off court settlement and if it doesn’t work out, they will help you in preparation of your consumer court case papers. All this service at no cost (absolutely FREE). You may check more details about their organization on their website. One other method of finding some solutions would be http://www.complaintsboard.com, http://www.complaints.com, http://www.mywoes.com, etc…. These are sites where people write about their issues with anything and everything they buy, use, etc…. You might probably find some answers which are really useful. In case if you have some issues with regards to the telecom operators in India, you may also contact the registered NGOs mentioned in the TRAI website.

Even the government of India has formed multiple organizations and Acts that protects consumers’ rights. For every kind of complaints, you may approach National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC). They have an awesome website with information about the commission and a list of judgments as well. One of the complaints launched was for a call made to a customer despite registering to the Do Not Call registry. I never thought that this will happen in India. Every state has similar Dispute Redressal commission which deals with issues locally. All these are available for private bodies, what do we have to do if someone in the government institution does anything wrong?

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances has launched a website which will let you lodge complaints against any government department including the CBI and the Prime Minister’s office itself. Though this site has been launched a while ago, not many people really knew about it. There are almost 1550 cases pending as per the information available on the website. The final destination for you would be the Right to Information Act, 2005. I guess most of us know about this since media has publicized this act than the government itself.