World Consumer Day: Consumers of services often short-changed, says Assocham

Survey effectively cites some points related to the response time of service providers, redressal by regulators and poor follow up by service providers

On World Consumer Day today, majority of Indian consumers polled by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said they were often short-changed by providers of services like telecom, electricity, toll roads and education than merchandise goods.

The survey conducted among 2,500 consumers across 10 major cities showed some points related to the response time of the service providers, lack of immediate relief and redress by regulators and  poor follow-up by service providing companies.

“The most common complaint against the providers of the government services was the apathy of the staff, no redress at the senior level, lack of automation. The worst performers in terms of consumer satisfaction among the government departments were the transport licensing authorities, house tax payments, property transactions and electricity connections and billings”, reveals DS Rawat, Secretary General of Assocham.

The private sector companies, thanks to information technology applications, fared far better in the areas of mobile telephony, credit cards and in some cases electricity (where it has been privatised). But the main problems even in the private sector pertained to over-billings, no follow-up, over-promising by the sales staff and delays in installations and commissioning.

“Consumers’ calls are kept on hold and they are made to press one button or the other – for language synchronisation or service matching”, reveals the ASSOCHAM poll report.

The worst problem among the private sector service providers is the lack of connect between the regulator and the consumers, who do not really know how to go about filing a complaint. “Besides, the procedures are complicated. Several regulators are kind of quasi-judicial bodies, the consumers fear them as much they fear court proceedings”, the report said.

As far as the Consumer Forums of the state governments and the consumer courts are concerned, the problems are that of delays and costs.

Consumers feel they are charged tolls but the quality of roads is not up to the mark, and in several cases the motorists end up paying toll even for the roads which are under constructions. “Over-crowding at the toll gates is a major irritant and the service providers have got themselves a bad name from the motorists across all the cities ,” the survey showed.   

Unfortunately, there is a trust deficit in the mind of consumers even for regulators. For instance, many of them asked why the telecom regulator has not been able to crack a whip on the unsolicited phone calls and SMS. Likewise, complaints against companies offering medical insurance have not been fully addressed.

The problem in the education sector is that no single authority has been named since it is a state subject. “Mushrooming of universities pose a different problem. Earlier if a student has an issue he/she could approach a university. Now virtually each college is a university in itself. All kind of false promises are made to students in terms of placements and not delivered. The consumer in the education sector is paying the most,” the Assocham report says.

As for the merchandise, the grievances are related to over-promising, sub-standard service of products. The report shows that a lot of work needs to be done at the state government level.

The poll was conducted among the age group of 18-65 and the services also included insurance, pensions, mutual funds and monthly income schemes of different financial intermediaries. The cities covered were: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkatta, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Pune, Chandigarh and  Lucknow.

They included college students, young professionals, blue-collar factory workers, housewives and senior citizens. The coverage not only included the services offered by the private sector companies but also the government organs and bodies like municipal corporations, banks, insurance companies and the power utilities.