The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) marked World Consumer Rights Day yesterday by launching its official Twitter account - @CRAqatar - in an initiative to provide an additional communications channel for consumers to address their grievances against service providers.
CRA also announced plans to conduct regular audits about the status of customer complaints being handled and to launch a new satisfaction survey for business consumers.
Quality of service has always been a key area of focus for CRA and an industry consultation is slated to be launched in the coming days to ensure that the stakeholders are engaged to make this document more comprehensive and forward-looking, according to a statement.
While registering complaints or concerns about service providers, consumers will now be able to tweet directly to CRA’s Consumer Affairs Department. This will enhance the current channels, which include the 24/7 telecom hotline - 103, e-mail, fax, website and CRA’s mobile app - Arsel.
“As we have seen with the consistent usage of Arsel, social media seems to be the preferred communication channel for consumers. By creating a dedicated Twitter account, consumers will hopefully find it even more convenient to contact us to help resolve their pending complaints,” said Amel Salem al-Hanawi, consumer affairs manager.
“We are compiling the results of the recent consumer satisfaction survey and will be sharing the results in the next few weeks. Soon, we will launch a satisfaction survey targeted at business consumers. Together, the findings of these two surveys will help us adjust our strategies accordingly,” she added.
Investigating unresolved complaints against service providers is a key consumer protection initiative by the Consumer Affairs department. On average, the Complaints Section receives about 100 complaints every month against both service providers. Ranging from disconnections, billing, network coverage to other issues, each complaint is investigated and a mutually acceptable resolution is obtained, working with the service provider concerned, the statement added.
The Consumer Affairs department now plans to share the results of the unresolved complaints with the public.
“Service providers are usually co-operative in resolving pending complaints. However, to make the process transparent to the rest of the telecom consumers and industry stakeholders, we plan to publish the trends of complaints received on the CRA website annually,” said al-Hanawi.
The CRA booth at Landmark Mall featured several awareness-raising activities for consumers and activities for children to mark the Consumer Rights Day. The young visitors to the booth were enthralled by the star attraction - an 8ft robot - while their parents were eagerly discussing their concerns, and even compliments, related to their service providers.
The CRA team also conducted several awareness sessions and brief workshops at the booth to make consumers more aware about their rights and obligations, as well as to provide tips on interesting topics such as how to reduce roaming charges.
Consumer Affairs is now finalising new updates to Arsel, launched during World Consumer Rights Day last year, to make the app more user-friendly and provide a new experience to the users. Arsel will soon have its own website, too.
