Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 36 of 2005)RegulationsICASA Code of Conduct for Premium Rated Services Regulations16. Complaints procedure |
| (1) | A premium rated service provider must have a complaints procedure in place that will enable its end-users to lodge complaints regarding the services provided. |
| (2) | In the event that an end-user of a premium rate service has dispute or compliant regarding the premium rate service, the end-user should notify and file the compliant with the relevant premium rated service provider prior to approaching its network service provider. |
| (3) | The customer service contact number that end-users are to use for queries and\or complaints must be a South African number, as per the Numbering Plan Regulations. |
| (4) | The customer service contact number shall be a toll free number as defined by the relevant Numbering Plan Regulations. |
| (5) | A premium rated service provider shall ensure that the customer care contact number operates during normal local business hours at a minimum. |
| (6) | A premium rated service provider must, in addition to the customer care contact number, provide other means for end-users to reach them, such as via e-mail or fax. |
| (7) | A premium rated service provider shall provide the network licensee with its customer care contact number, e-mail and/or fax for its premium rated service, so as to enable the network operator, to direct end-users to these modes of contact. |
| (8) | A licensee must ensure that it investigates and addresses all complaints received regarding premium rated services accessed on its network within fifteen (15) working days after receiving it. |
| (9) | If more time is reasonably required to complete the investigation, the premium rated service provider must inform the complainant of the additional amount of time that will be required for resolution of the matter and in any case, resolve the matter with all reasonable speed. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing herein must preclude a premium rated service provider from agreeing to resolve disputed charges within a shorter period of time in its contracts with its billing network operator. |
| (10) | Failure to rectify the service within the time period contemplated in subregulation (8), a licensee must cease and bar access to the service on its network. |
| (11) | A licensee must advise the originator of the complaint received, on the outcome of its investigation and where applicable the action that was taken to rectify the situation. |
| (12) | In all cases where a dispute arises as a result of a charge and a premium rated service provider is notified by the person charged, whether directly or through its billing network operator, the premium rated service provider must take all necessary action to carry out a full and complete investigation at its own expense on the disputed charge, including but not limited to: |
| (a) | Verify that the charge is correct based on the premium rated service provider's records; and |
| (b) | verify the accuracy of its records against the records of the network operator through which the premium rated service was provided. |
| (13) | A premium rated service provider must in relation to a person who pays a charge but who subsequently chooses to dispute the charge, afford such person the period of two (2) months starting from the date of the bill to dispute the charge. |
| (14) | A premium rated service provider must keep an accurate, and complete record of all complaints and disputes raised by any person in relation to its premium rated service for a period of five years (referred to in this section as the "record of complaints") containing the following information: |
| (a) | particulars of the person raising the complaint or dispute; |
| (b) | the date and description of the complaint or dispute; and |
| (c) | description of the action taken by the premium rated service provider to address the complaint or dispute. |
| (15) | The Authority reserves the right to inspect and to make copies of the record of complaints at any time and the premium rated service provider must produce the records to the Authority within 5 days of receipt of the request. |
| (16) | The Authority may, on its own initiative, commence an investigation against a relevant licensee where there appears to be a contravention of these regulations by such licensee or its third parties. |
| (17) | The Authority may at any time require a relevant licensee to provide it with any information or documents which it may require for the purposes of investigating a contravention of these regulations. |
| (18) | Any failure by a licensee to comply with the Authority's requests for information, or any destruction, disposal, falsification or concealment of requested documents, constitutes a contravention of these regulations. |
| (19) | If the information required by the Authority is subject to an existing confidentiality agreement between the licensee and any other party, such information shall be provided to the Authority in terms of section 4D of the ICASA Act. |
| (20) | A licensee must ensure that all information provided to the Authority, related representations or any other submissions, is complete, truthful and accurate. |