In 2007, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) set up National Do Not Call (NDNC, also called as do not disturb, DND) Registry to curb unsolicited Commercial calls. i.e. any call/message, through telecom system promoting any commercial transaction for goods, investments or services, which a subscriber does not wish to receive.
It failed to help customers and in 2011, TRAI came up with new policy with name National Customer Preference Register (NCPR) and it became operational on 27th Sept, 2011.
Mobile phone users who want to register their phone number for Do not call registry may dial 1909 or SMS to 1909 with keywords ‘START 0‘ for registration and ‘STOP DND‘ for de-registration. Requests will become effective in 7 days from the date of request.
Partial Blocking: Apart from normal full blocking of telemarketing calls, subscriber now will also be able to opt for partially blocked mode, which will allow to receive promotions for specific categories like real estate, education, finance, entertainment, health and tourism etc. This seperate list will be now called as National Customer Preference Register (NCPR). By default, all subscribers will be moved to fully blocked mode. For partial blocking, SMS needs to sent to 1909 will be ‘START Option-Code’ and ‘STOP Option-Code’ . Once changed, preference cannot be changed for next 3 months.
Option code for each category is provided below:
So if you want to receive messages relating to only Banking products, then send SMS “START 1” to 1909. Similarly, for receiving messages relating to Health and Education, send SMS “START 4,3” to 1909.
How to complain: In case subscriber still receives call/messaes, he should complain to mobile service provider, mentioning the caller/sender telephone number, date/time of the call and details of message. All complaints must be actioned upon within 7 days.
If you receive any unsolicited commercial communications seven days after registration of your telephone number in the NCPR, you may register a complaint by:
It is important to note that: The complaint has to be registered from the telephone number on which unsolicited commercial communication has been received. Your complaint must be made within three days of receipt of the unsolicited commercial communication.
A. REGISTRATION OF COMPLAINT BY DIALING 1909:
Dial 1909, listen to the instructions and choose one of the following to register your complaint: Through customer care executive or Through IVRS(Interactive Voice Response System)
A1. REGISTRATION OF COMPLAINT THROUGH CUSTOMER CARE EXECUTIVE:
REGISTRATION OF COMPLAINT THROUGH SMS TO 1909
Click here to check your complaint Status
TRAI has announced to minimize unsolicited calls by penalizing telemarketing firms and operators with hefty fine.
From Sept 2011, all telemarketer’s calling numbers will start with ‘140‘. All telemarketing must get special phone numbers starting from ‘140’ series, so that mobile phone user may decide to accept or reject just by looking the caller phone number. If some telemarketer calls from any other number (not starting with 140), he may be fined with hefty penalty.
TRAI has proposed fine from 25,000 upto 2.5 lakh (depending on number of times complaint has been registered) on telemarketing firms against whom complaints have been received.
Mobile service provide maybe fined upto Rs 10 lakhs, if there are four times complaints.
Mobile phone subscribers (non tele-marketers) can now only send maximum 100 SMS in a day. It will stop marketers to use mobile numbers not registered as tele-marketers and will force them to get a separate marketer number.
Every telemarketer will have to deposit 10,000 (9,000 for customer education and 1,000 as registration fee) for registration. Also a security deposit of Rupees 1 Lac, also will have to deposited. Any fines on telemarketer will also be deducted from this security amount.
Commercial messages can only be sent during 9am till 9pm only.
Mobile phone operator will be managing customer preferences at their end and filter out SMS/Phone calls based on subscriber registration status.
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Next time an insurance agent calls threaten them for legal action. It worked for me.
However suppose you have an ICICI account, your mobile number will be with them and banks use it for cross selling creditcards, insurance etc. You can put an end to that by calling their customer care.
If things are getting worse, file a case with the consumer court.
Also make sure you dont give your mobile number to those guys who stand outside every mall promising free vacation/holidays.
I already have done all these things.
3 times filed complaint with consumer forum.
Have registered with all major banks for DND separately thru their website.
Supreme court rightly says that this country needs Do-Call Registry and not a Do-Not-Call registry.
Every time I complained to Vodafone, I got following reply:
We have registered your concern regarding the unwanted solicitation calls received on your Vodafone number. As per the TRAI guidelines, the details shared by you will be forwarded further to the telecom operator brand from where the call has been initiated to take the necessary actions. We would request you to provide us with the next 21 days for the same.
After reading many posts about second income calculator your article gave me the right thoughts i was searching for.
vodafone is such a bastard .. every day they send me a sms
any way .. do any one kno any mobile service provider who do not disturb by default ..
@XYZ,
There is no provider who provides DND by default.
If anyone of you is from Delhi, lets get together & take some legal action & get some compensation. Contact me on roxx_gagan@yahoo.com
sir i am a vodafone cutomer and i am getting advertise continue through sms add of carrer launcher , so what to do plz help me how to do stop on that or complaint on CL
@Sudheer
You must call Vodafone customer care @ 111 and complain to them providing the sender details, content and time of messages.
still getting calls after registering.....
what to do ?
Hi Pankaj,
I have lodge a complaint in Consumer court as my DND service is still not activated aftre 1 yr. Is it mandate to invlove TRAI as a party? My service provider has replied that case should be dismissed due to non involvement of mandate party i.e. TRAI.
Kinldy reply
Rgdrs
BRV
@Bharat
Service provider generally activates DND services and adds the number to registry maintained by TRAI. You can file a case against your service provider and there is no need to involve TRAI as a party as you are not directly interacting with TRAI.
Hi Pankaj,
Thnx for your reply. So can I directly reply that TRAI is not a mandate party in DND case as said by IDEA advocate. Can you please give me some clause or case number of DND in which consumer won and TRAI was not a prty so that as an example I can show the same in my next hearing i.e. 29 dis month.
Rgards
BRV
@Bharat
There is a famous case of Nivedita Sharma. You can search same on google.
Here is link to high court case: http://delhicourts.nic.in/Jan10/Cellular%20Operators%20Vs.%20Nivedita%20Sharma.pdf
Hi Pankaj,
Being as a lay man I am not able to undersatnd all the mention points in case. I am sorry to disturb you again but Is this mean that any consumer can file a case in consumer forum against service provider without including TRAI as a party. Sorry for so much quetions but its really important for me. and thanx for your time and patience in advance..
Rgards,
BRV
@Bharat
Like you, I am also a common man and have little knowledge of law. I am actually a software engineer and share knowledge to spread awareness.
However, I have tried to understand the case, there are 3 cases in it. One each against cellular operator, TRAI and telemarketer. So case can be filed against any of the 3.
Dear Panka,
You are not alone ,I am also suffering with this problem I registered for DND 3 years back & regularly getting calls from telemarketing ,It is true that there is no solution to it.
The best way is "Don't reply them when they call"
I get around 450 sms within a week & now I have stoped reading sms.
Also tell me the solution if you get.
Ravi RAnjan Sharma
09810033631.
@Ravi
Even don't reply to than is also not a solution as not all unknown numbers are tele marketers.
SMS are a huge problem now-a-days with bulk sms cost going down to 3-4 paisa and mobile database available for cheap.
I keep sending these phone numbers to my provider (vodafone) in complaints, but they are unable to take any action.
Now thinking for filing a case against Vodafone, TRAI and some marketers.
In india laws are always made with enough loop holes...read Nivedita's case. ?
@ Pankaj,
Whats happening about your plan for case? I think provider should not get 500 Rs from telemarketer. There should be some option that customer get that money. We are wasting our time and we have to call provider to complain. I never saw an online option to give complain about telemarketer in any provider.
Also being a user doesnt means I can be called for their advertisements. For example, I have a airtel landphone doesnt means they can send notifications from airtel to my mobile or I should have an option to opt out.
May be lot of people will be able to join together and give a case. Let me know if i can help you anyway if you going for this case.
@Vinod
I did complain into consumer forum and after that the numbers of calls have dropped significantly. However the number of spam SMS (specially for properties etc.) I receive is still huge and is a big concern.
After bulk SMS price has dropped to 1-2 paisa, it has made life difficult for a mobile user.
I had registered complaints n number of times to my connection provider (Vodafone) for these SMS with exact details. Every-time they take 20-25 days and then come up with details like some of them have been fined, some of the line has been disconnected and some had denied that they even sent message.
Its the issue of policy/law enforcement in India. Its high time that we all wake up, change our-self and fight for our rights.