Check against Delivery

Oftel welcomes the Helpline which will assist consumers to get complaints and queries about premium rate services resolved more quickly.

I am confident that ICSTIS, with their experience of troubleshooting in the field of Premium Rate Service regulation, are the right body to run the Helpline.

We are currently working with ICSTIS to give them more clout in the regulation of Premium Rate Services. The Helpline will support this work from the service provision end.

The Helpline will empower consumers, helping them get information about the premium rate services charged in their telephone bills.

When items are in dispute, due to misleading adverts, unauthorised use and less than transparent tariff systems, the customer who phones their telecoms company is often passed from pillar to post before they get to the right person to assist them with their complaint.

The Helpline Code of Practice will lay down procedures to assist the customer services departments of telecoms companies to offer guidance and contact with the people who can help.

As Oftel’s main aim is to get the best possible deal for customers, we see the Helpline as a way that customers can achieve redress over disputed items more quickly.

Although most of the PRS industry is run by responsible business people who know that it is in their own best interests to provide good value services to the customer, it is also true to say that it is a market that attracts some unscrupulous operators.

Oftel and ICSTIS have recorded a higher number of complaints in the past six months due to the activities of one service provider.

With the new Helpline, people with queries related to the operation of such services will be referred to the service provider.

Customers will be able to put their views directly to the service provider, and ICSTIS and Oftel will have a further source of information about complaints.

If a service is likely to generate a lot of complaints, service providers will need to have in place adequate lines and resources to deal with them.

This means that service providers must look to providing adequate advertised details of their services so that consumers are not mislead.

We will be on the lookout for complaints being referred back to the main Helpline by consumers who feel that their complaints are not properly handled.

To protect the customer and to protect the integrity of the majority of PRS providers, we need to ensure that the information and entertainment services provided by the majority are not tainted by the bad practices of the minority. Customers should have their complaints dealt with fairly and should be confident that calling an 09 prefixed number will not involve them in unexpected charges or unexpected content.

It is up to providers and carriers of PRS to ensure that, for the health of the industry, there is a commitment to measures that protect the customer.

If the simple rules of the Code are followed there will be fewer complaints.

There have been complaints about the quality of customer services in the press which is also evident from Oftel’s own statistics on consumer issues.

Customer Services staff for all the network operators need to be trained to guide customers to the Helpline.

I understand that there is guidance from ICSTIS on dispute handling for virtual and live chat services – which I advise the service providers to note.

ICSTIS will play a pivotal role in the success of the helpline.

Their long experience of dealing with the PRS industry, its users and players will be feeding through to the customer support services of network operators and their counterparts on the service provision side.

They will be informing me how well the Helpline is performing and whether it is meeting the needs of customers. And if they need my support, they will get it!

They will also be feeding this information back to the industry players.

I hope they will be acting on ICSTIS’s advice - it is the way to get the Helpline to work most effectively in the interest of both