Consumer is King » Helpline

Car distress helplines

ashish — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:00:40 +0000

They sound like the answer to all your nightmares while driving. Normally, your car works fine, but consider the case when suddenly your car stops in the middle of the journey, leaving you totally helpless. This could be because of a puncture, could be because some other vehicle hit your car, or could be some other problem that is not yet diagnosed (at least, you don’t have the capabilities of a motor mechanic that you can quickly diagnose the problem). Now, you are stuck in the middle of nowhere, and you may not be able to figure out what is wrong with a car; you may not be even in a position that you can change the wheel of the car yourself. In such cases, there are now a number of car distress helplines that promise to help you quickly. Some of these (atleast in the Delhi / NCR region) are FastTrack, Race, Cross-Roads; and before you think that this is an advertising blog for them, this post is to point out a few problems in their functioning.
I have tried out a few of them, and performance has dipped badly in the last few years. Their promise is that they will be there within 30 minutes of filing a complaint; now the most common scenario is that of female family members and friends; if they get a puncture, it is not feasible for some of them to do the actual changing of the tyre. Further, you don’t know where it can happen, and if you have a service where you can get a tire replaced within 30 minutes, that is great.
Now, that was the promise. Unfortunately, the promise is not getting fulfilled. With 2 of these vendors (Race and CrossRoads), I have had a bad experience. In both case, there was a puncture, and a lady was waiting after calling them. They promised 30 minutes, but even 1 hour later, no trace. You call them again, and they were getting rude (Ma’am, they are coming, you need to wait). Finally, after 1.5 hours, we managed to make some local arrangements (the good part was that this happened at a place where it was crowded, so there was no safety issue). However, this is bad customer service – promising something that involved safety and convenience, and then not delivering. I will be very hesitant the next time they ask me for money for this service.
I wonder what the experience of other people with such kind of services has been like ?

National Emergency Helpline Number – 108

ashish — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:23:24 +0000

A few states in India have had an emergency helpline number for some time now – the number being 108 (followed by the states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Uttarakhand; and being pursued by the states of Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and MP). This is a toll-free number styled on the US style 911 toll-free emergency helpline. The idea of such a number is that this will be the medical emergency number which can be used for contacting in the case of a medical emergency – whether this be an accident, heart attack, stroke, criminal attack that results in injuries, etc. In all such cases, the chances of saving life are much higher if medical help reaches early, in fact, there is the concept of the golden hour when emergency medical help acts as a life saver.

After negotiations for almost a year, telecom minister A Raja has indicated in a letter to health minister Anbumani
Ramadoss last week that 108 is being finalized as the national toll-free trauma care number. “Once a caller dials 108, a 24-hour call centre will receive the information, locate an ambulance closest to the emergency spot through GPRS technology and dispatch it within the golden hour,” a health ministry official said.
Ramadoss said the Centre has already sanctioned Rs 732 crore for the National Emergency and Trauma Care Programme, which was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on December 13.

National Consumer Helpline – Toll Free No 1800 11 4000

ashish — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:09:48 +0000

“National Consumer Helpline” has been set in the University of Delhi with support from the Department of Consumer Affairs, Govt. of India and with financial assistance from Consumer Welfare Fund. A tool free number -1800 11 4000 (available from MTNL and BSNL phones) has been setup for this purpose. The project recognizes the need of consumers for a Telephone Helpline to deal with a host of problems arising in their day-to-day dealings with business and service providers. Consumers from any part of the country can dial the toll free number 1600 11 4000 from any BSNL or MTNL telephone line between 9 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. on all working days, according to the Commissioner Civil Supplies.
The Helpline advises consumers on dealing with problems related to defective products, deficiency in services and unfair trade practices. The Helpline helps in a number of different areas:
Service Sector: LPG, Electricity, Telecom, Banking, Insurance, Credit cards, Automobiles, Postal, Courier, water, Transport, Education and Medical etc.
Products: Domestic Home Appliances in the range of computers, handycam, Acs, Microwave, Television, Coolers, Fans, Washing Machines, Gas burner, Water Purifier, Mobile Phone, VCD/DVD/CD Player, Food Processor, Invertors and Shoes etc.

National Consumer Helpline exists to support consumers by performing the following task:
* Guiding consumers in finding solution to problem related to Products and Services.
* Providing consumers with all the desired information related to companies and Regulatory Authorities.
* Facilitating Consumers with all the steps involved in filing complaints against defaulting service provider.
* Empowering consumers to use Consumer Grievances redressal mechanism available to them.
* Developing the awareness among Consumers about their Rights and Responsibilities.

In addition, a Consumer Online Resource and Empowerment (CORE) project has been setup on the following site http://www.core.nic.in/. The mission of this site and project is: “To be an effective national coalition of consumer protection groups so as to provide thrust to common issues affecting consumers.”
Aims & Objectives
· Influencing policies, legislation and administrative framework towards promoting consumer interests.
· Empowering consumer protection groups to work towards strengthening the civil society in the democratic system of the country.
CCC has been involved both in the drawing up of appropriate Citizens’ Charters for various organizations, as also in the evaluation of their implementation in the Health, Telecom, Railways, Insurance & Banking Sectors. Address details:
Consumer Coordination Council
CORE Centre
NITS
A 20- 21, Sector 62,
NOIDA- 201307 (U.P)
Tel: 0120-2404273
Email: cccdel@del3.vsnl.net.in
director@core.nic.in
Web: www.core.nic.in