Power in your hands


Regulatory Authority's Executive Director, William Fagan speaks to the Peninsula


 AGGRIEVED mobile phone customers in Qatar will for the first time be able to lodge complaints against their service providers and seek help in getting disputes resolved.

The Peninsula can reveal that telecommunications regulatory body ictQATAR will launch a web based system for unresolved complaints.

In an exclusive interview, ictQATAR Executive Director William Fagan revealed that for the first time, customers with unresolved grievances with QTel will be able to register complaints at consumervoice@ict.gov.qa

"The customer only has one place that they can go to for complaints," Mr Fagan said of the current situation.

But, he said the newly established regulatory body has set up a special unit to take complaints which have not been resolved through QTel's complaints procedures.

"We want people to come with general inquiries (about competition) and unresolved complaints," Mr Fagan said.

"We want people to follow the customer complaints procedure with QTel in the first instance and if it is unresolved, then come back to us." "We will look at each of these, we will respond to each individual." But, Mr Fagan said ictQATAR will not deal with complaints that should go "directly" to QTel.

With Vodafone expected to launch Qatar's second mobile phone provider by the end of the year, ictQATAR is finalizing licence conditions for the consortium.

"We would expect operators to set up their own complaints handling and their own complaints resolution systems," Mr Fagan said.

"In the event that there is failure to reach accord and they come to us and we can act as arbitrator of it or we can appoint somebody...under the law we can do either.

"It is important that the operators themselves resolve disputes. You should be capable of going to an identified, single person at an identified telephone number, at an identified office, who can deal with you in your own language and who can readily call up your records and deal with your complaint."

Mr Fagan said the right to have your complaint dealt with fairly as well as the right to switch operators put Qatar mobile phone users in a good position. "This is an important power that has been transferred to the customer through competition," he said.

Mr Fagan also said that competition will benefit mobile phone users in Qatar, by forcing existing operator QTel to improve customer service.

"They (QTel ) are anticipating competition and have some way to go...but we are aware of this and they are aware of this," he said.

Mr Fagan said in any competition setting, an existing operator must lift its' game to ensure it remains competitive.

"That is where they will lose customers, if they don't provide as good service, if they don't provide as good quality," he said.

ictQATAR is currently reviewing all of QTel's customer contracts to "ensure an even balance between the supplier and the customer".

"It is standard practice that we would do this," Mr Fagan said.





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