Gobind is giving TM one month to prepare a report on ways to address issues faced by Streamyx customers.
PUTRAJAYA: The seven telecommunication companies (telcos) which have signed the Consumer First Pledge must comply with the proposed General Consumer Code of Practice, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
The code of practice prioritises complaint resolution and customer service quality.
The seven telcos are Celcom Axiata Bhd, Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd, Telekom Malaysia Bhd, TIME dotcom Bhd, U Mobile Sdn Bhd and YTL Communications Sdn Bhd.
The code underlines, among others, the need for 60% of the complaints received to be solved within three working days; 90% within five working days; and 95% within 15 working days, he added.
Gobind said it was an improvement over the existing standard, of which 90% of the complaints had to be solved within 15 working days and 95% completed within 30 working days.
“I hope with this pledge, the problems faced by service users can be addressed urgently and the number of complaints regarding the quality of service will be reduced,” he said in a statement on Friday.
The seven companies pledged to implement various improvements, including providing a more transparent mechanism for users to check the status of their complaints; promoting a more accessible complaint-handling process; and enabling a fair and reasonable complaint resolution.
According to Gobind, the use of fixed broadband service had shown an increase of up to 21.7% over the past six months through the reduction of prices by 49% and the increase of speed, but still many complaints were received about the service.
According to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s (MCMC) statistics, more than 18,000 complaints were received on broadband service problems in the last quarter of 2018, while 14,000 complaints were received in the first quarter of this year. — Bernama