CONSUMERS DON’T HAVE TO KNOW LEGISLATION, THEY SHOULD KNOW WHERE TO APPLY WHEN SUFFERING DAMAGES

arminfo
2008-05-14 09:08:00

ArmInfo. Consumers don’t have to know the legislation, they should know
where to apply when suffering damages, Chairman of the Association
of Consumers of Armenia Armen Poghosyan said at public hearings
dedicated to the situation in the Armenian telecommunication market,
Tuesday. "Like any other sphere, telecommunication needs accurate
legislation. But a consumer doesn’t have to know the legislation,
he/she should know where to apply when suffering damages", he
stressed. According to Poghosyan, insufficient elaboration of the
legislative field and the citizens’ low awareness of the legislation
have caused serious financial losses. He recalled that in 2005-2006 as
a result of wrong phone accounting which included non-existent phone
conversations, consumers suffered losses worth 140 mln AMD. "Our task
is to prevent similar things in the future, but there is a serious
danger of it now", he noted. Speaking of the legislation in this
sphere, Poghosyan said that the legislation needs to be seriously
reviewed as it has not been renewed for 10 years.

According to Poghosyan, one of the key problems is ArmenTel’s
qualitative billing, i.e. receiving of information about the current
account by consumers. "The legislation should have a provision
allowing a consumer to demand disconnection of his telephone right
after exhaustion of the account’s amount, not 12 hours later as now",
Poghosyan said. He thinks that the billing system introduced in August
2007 doesn’t prove its worth. "Over the past month the Association
received a new wave of complaints about untimely billing and phone
conversations ascribed to consumers", he said.