Consultation on the Protection of the Consumer from ROGUE or INCOMPETENT Operators

Sponge Bob

...shame this only happening in the UK though. Report on the Reg ...who else.

In a nutshell, the regulator wants to increase consumer protection by installing an improved early warning system to raise awareness of scams and misselling in the communications sector, backed by "quicker and more targeted action" to address issues of concern to consumers

This sounds good.

ensure that consumers benefit from increasingly competitive communications markets, are effectively protected from financial and physical harm, unreasonable annoyance and anxiety, and have the information and tools necessary to make informed choices."

Even better

Consumer protection is particularly challenging in the communications sector, because modern communications systems provide ineffective or dishonest providers with easy and efficient access to consumers

That last bit is Beautifully put is it not ?

and because new technologies can give rise to new forms of harm. Though desirable in other respects, the growth of competition can also contribute to consumer protection problems, as it can lead to a rise in unfair selling practices and may be associated with an increase in 'hit and run' behaviour by dishonest providers.

That sounds familiar too.

Even now, if there is a telecoms cock-up that affects large numbers of people who all complain to Ofcom, the regulator's response is that it will monitor the situation to see if there is a clear pattern of complaints. Under its current approach, it is only once a clear pattern has been identified - in the case of Bulldog, it took more than two months - that the regulator will consider investigating.

So Ofcom have admitted that they presently monitor complaints for 2 months, see a pattern and then Act. They also admit that maybe 2 months is a tad too long and that the situation must be improved so that they are geared to spot patterns and act faster than 2 months.

Its enough to make any Irish person weep ...especially when it can take 2 years to get a phone line here

The full Ofcom consultation document is Here, the consultation closes on the 19th of April should anybody wish to share their experiences of how bad things can get if there is no proactive regulation on behalf of the consumer .....like in Ireland for example !

If Ofcom come up with something more coherent than their already excellent system (by Irish standards) , and as the basis for the regulation of the industry is the same EU Framework in both countries, then Comreg have no excuse not to implement the same system here....about 1 week later I should think. The tragedy about the whole thing is that Comreg do not feel that the consumer in Ireland is as important in the regulatory stakeholder matrix as their peers in the UK.

We do know that Comreg appointed a CONSUMER PANEL a year back ....very very carefully ensuring that no IoffL riff raff were on Board and that lurking sponges were caught were flushed down the jax before the meetings started ....but including the Consumers Association of Ireland.

Almost a year later the SAME Consumers Association of Ireland released a damning indictment of the complete failure of Consumer protection in the sector ....even calling a Comreg Commissioner and his 'team' in to a meeting in CAI HQ this week. . Obviously the Consumer Panel was either not meeting , or ws not being called to meet in case they made Comreg do something , or was meeting and recommending and being totally ignored by Comreg !!!!!

The members of the self same and notably silent Consumer Panel are :

Mr. Ciaran Close Intel Ireland Ltd;
Mr. Gerry Finn Border, Midland and Western Regional Assembly;
Mr. Dermott Jewell Consumers’ Association of Ireland;
Ms. Angela Kerins National Disability Authority;
Mr. Sean Murphy Chambers of Commerce of Ireland;
Ms. Ursula O’Sullivan Health Services Executive - Southern Area

They should be asked , were anyone to see any of them , when they intend to produce their annual report seeing as they are about 1 year old now !!!!!

Watch this one.