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:
- Banking/Insurance/Financial products/credit cards
- Real Estate
- Education
- Health
- Consumer goods and automobiles
- Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT
- Tourism and Leisure
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:
- Dialling the toll free number 1909; or
- Sending an SMS to 1909
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:
- Dial 1909 and select the option for registering the complaint through the customer care executive.
- Provide the details of the unsolicited commercial communication to the customer care executive including:
a. Particulars of the telemarketer;
b. The telephone number from which the unsolicited commercial communication originated;
c. The date and time of the unsolicited commercial communication
d. A brief description of the unsolicited commercial communication. - The customer care executive will register the customer complaint and acknowledge the complaint by providing a unique complaint number.
- Preserve this unique complaint number for further communication.
- You will be informed of the action taken on your complaint within 7 days of the complaint booking.
REGISTRATION OF COMPLAINT THROUGH SMS TO 1909
- You may register a complaint regarding receipt of unsolicited commercial communications by sending SMS to 1909 in the specified format given below: “COMP TEL NO XXXXXXXXXX, dd/mm/yy, Time hh:mm” where XXXXXXXXXX – is the telephone number or header of the SMS, as the case may be, from which the unsolicited commercial communication has originated.
- The complaint will be registered and acknowledged by the access provider by sending a unique complaint number through SMS.
- You will be informed of the action taken on your complaint within 7 days of the complaint booking.
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.
Dear Sir,
On 18/2/12 at around 11am we received a call from 01409450154 on our landline We are based at Karaikal but originally from Kerala). My son (who doesn’t know Tamil) picked it up and was greeted with a volley of Tamil from a woman. My son was so flustered that he kept down the phone and informed us. Immediately another call from the same no. 01409450154 came and this time I picked it up. Again a woman started speaking in Tamil asking who it was who picked up the phone earlier. I (knowing some Tamil) responded, asking her to introduce herself. However she just instructed me (again in Tamil) to teach the earlier person some manners & how to respond to calls and then she herself cut the call before I could explain the situation.
Kindly advice to whom should I complain?
@Ajeeth XP,
Police station.
PHONE NO>:01409450154
Its whose no. can anybbody tells us. I am getting lot of missed calls from this no on my landline.
I HAVE REQUESTED FOR DND ACTIVATION SERIAL NO.1-21605272864,ACTIONED BY 02-0=10-2012 AT 8-00 PM. BUT TO MY AVAIL I AM GETTING CALLS FROM1. INDIAN ARMY ON 2ND JUNE AT 1.23PM. 2. HIMALYA 917208302627.3.TATA PHOTON 9192122419338 AT 11.59AM ON 14 FEB 2012. SAUNA BELTFROM 917428591658 AT10-59AM ON 27JUNE 2012. WHEN I HAD ACTIVATED DND ,THEN WHY THESE CALLS ARE COMING YO MY NUMBER.
CUSTOMER CARE EXECUTIVE at 1909 informed me that they can not do any thing if the call received from mobile phone. They could do some thing only if it is land lain. He asked me to complain in TRAI web site. I could not locate complaining facility in TRAI web site. Could anybody advice?
Thanks in advance
@Janardhan
Please read this page for more information: https://www.facebook.com/notes/pankajbatracom/how-to-register-complaint-against-unwanted-calls-and-sms/381766509945
Dear Pankaj Batra,
My problem is 1909 is not responding if the telemarketer use mobile phone. They told that they have provision only for calls from land line. But most of the telemarketers are using mobile phones.
@Janardhan
You can even complain for calls/sms from mobile phones. There is no such rule which says you cannot complain against mobile phone calls.
I am on Vodafone network and have been complaining for calls/sms from mobile and Vodafone is taking action against them.
I am getting a call from a number starting with 14092470 but the last two digits after this number are not the same suppose 1409247098 another number after that 1409247019 like this. The caller basically changes the number from time to time. Incidentally while I try to call back the number, it says the number does not exist.
Tie the fone wire around their neck n kill them ! haha if i just got hold of them- callers from -1409247098,7099
I received 2 calls from 01409450154 stated that she is from chennai and asked my mobile no. who is this..
i hv found this Do not Disturb app for TRAI specific format very useful.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.webshrub.moonwalker.androidapp
With this app you can now block spam call/sms just in one second
Hi Pankaj,
I lodged a complaint and the respective telemarketer was blocked via Airtel. Can you tell me how do I receive compensation against this complaint?
@Nikhil
As per TRAI guidelines, you won’t receive any compensation. If telemarketer is fined, TRAI would get the fine.
How to complain after dnd i have ricve some call
@Farooq
You can send complaint SMS to 1909.
Dear Sir,
i am using Reliance GSM mumbai.
from last month VAS has been activated form there side .which i was not aware about it. as i received msg from service provider that you have been charged for some of 4 rs for Value Added Service (VAS) i tried to call them on there complaint number 198 but unable to connect with customer care executive person and i could not complaint or waiver about it. i was very busy in my daily schedule i could not visit the gallery since everyday i used to try to call on 198 but no response from there side. one day i was lucky got chance to talk with Customer care agent and complain about this stupid stuff and he said he able to check the details for last three days and he can waiver only 4 rs which is deducted yesterday from my account.
kindly suggest how can i get waiver of remaining deduction and to whom i can complaint about the same.
thanking you in advance.
@Shreyash
You can complain to higher officials.
Check their contact details here: http://www.rcom.co.in/Rcom/personal/customercare/appellate_authority.html
Hi,
I’m using Aircel post paid connection. I’m into real estate business and for that we sometimes send messages to clients and they’re genuine. Anyhow some of the client has complained about this & TRAI has deactivated my connection. I’d like to know about the process to reactivate it. Please help.
Regards/Nitin
sir,can anybody install new tower in residential area.if no then where a comp. Can be lodged regarding it
my DND fully blocked but regularly am getting promotional SMS, in this regard i given 11 complaints to service provider Tata telservices but not solved, i already given complaint to Appellate also but not taken any answer or reply. Further i want to proceed Legally, To whom may i proceed to complaint?
@Srinivasulu
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do.
I am filing almost a complaint everyday on 1909, but nothing happens.
I have filed closed to 1000 such complaints, but nobody got fined ever. I only get responses like subscriber disconnected, record does not match etc.
I registered my 3 numbers for complete DND on NCPR on 28 th August 2015. It was activated on 30 th August. Since then I haven’t received a single commercial call or message in any of my 3 numbers. So what do you feel, DND has started to work or happy days are going to end soon ? Love to hear from you.
TRAI is useless. We need a very strict measure to stop this non-sense
how to register my number in trai?
@Rajesh
Send an SMS with the message START 0 to 1909 OR Call 1909
I have activated DND service but after activation I have received teli marketing call and sms. My telicom orater aircel
And 1909 no not conting from my aircel no
Please help me
I had activated DND the day the announcement regarding this was made.
I’ve been using both prepaid and postpaid numbers.
Still getting marketing calls and messages on both the numbers even though full DND is activated. I have made n no of complaints and got so many complaint numbers too. Still i continue getting marketing calls n sms. On approaching vodafone they say that they are helpless and can only provide me a new vodafone number.
This is a very surprising reply.
Kindly guide me how shall i escalate this issue with TRAI so that proper actions can be taken by vodafone.
Dear trai,
I ravinder singh
Someone complete in my number for Promotional call .Hence my number is temp disconnected
Kindly suggest how can I activate my number