How to write a complaint to a telecom operator: a detailed step-by-step guide

Date: June 27, 2021 | Updated: March 23, 2021 | Author: Moblie-man

There is no doubt that today every person uses cellular communication services. And if not everyone, then most people aged, perhaps, from 5 years. Everyone chooses a telecom operator based on personal preferences and requirements. Of course, each cellular company tries to satisfy the needs of all its customers as much as possible, offering a variety of tariff plans for every taste, additional options to diversify them, and services for remote control of your own number.

Do you like your operator?

Yes, everything is fine! No, I’m thinking about a change

Despite all this, some clients often remain dissatisfied with the services provided, having well-founded complaints. What the complaints against the operators may be, as well as how to properly file an official complaint to the telecom operator so that the company will consider it, how to correctly send or transfer it to the recipient, so that the operator is guaranteed to understand the situation, I will tell you.

Possible claims against the operator

Subscribers may encounter many different problems while using cellular communication services. However, most of them are often related to issues of connecting/disconnecting certain tariffs and services. You can solve them yourself using the official websites of cellular companies, our website, or contacting the call center. But there are other difficulties that are not so easy to solve. To resolve them, formal complaints have to be filed. And an approximate list of such difficulties and problems is as follows:

• Poor connection quality. This is one of the main problems on which subscribers can file complaints. It can apply both to the quality of mobile communications and to the speed and stability of the mobile Internet. Of course, sometimes, in some areas, premises, or in the metro, the quality of communication may be unstable, but if such a problem begins to become systematic, it is necessary to file a claim with the operator;
• Systematic debiting of money from the account. Subscribers often notice that funds are systematically debited from their account not to pay for the tariff plan and additional options, but for some other suspicious services. Such a situation should also be clarified by filing an official complaint;
• Spam and advertising via SMS messages. Not so long ago, SMS was the only way of text communication between mobile device users. Today, instant messengers have completely eclipsed them, and our phones only occasionally receive messages from live interlocutors. Often this is spam and advertising. And if such spam becomes too much, only a complaint to the operator will help get out of this situation;
• Paid subscriptions. Modern operators, one and all, have the “sin” of activating paid content services for mobile numbers without the knowledge of subscribers. Such services are fraught not only with an increase in spending on cellular services, but also with the subscriber receiving various content, which often looks more like spam, or weeks of information or entertainment mailings. You can often refuse such subscriptions and additional charges when filling out the appropriate application;

By the way, I wrote how to disable paid subscriptions forever, read it, it’s nothing complicated: MTS | MegaFon | Beeline | Tele 2;

• Unsatisfactory service, impolite consultants in the operator’s offices and call centers. As is the case with regular stores or state-owned stores. institutions, in a dialogue with representatives of a cellular operator, you may encounter unprofessional employees. In such situations, you can also defend your own rights only through an official appeal;
• Changing the tariff plan without the subscriber's knowledge. Some customers may experience automatic transfer of their number to another tariff without their desire. Unfortunately, this situation usually occurs when the TP expires, but you can always try to defend your position within the framework of an official appeal.

Legislation

1. Federal Law “On Communications” dated July 7, 2003 No. 126-FZ:

• Art. 44 - it is prohibited to connect any services and applications without the subscriber’s consent;
• Art. 44.1 - advertising can be sent if an agreement on the provision of such a service is concluded between the operator and the subscriber;
• Art. 45 - clients are notified of changes to the clauses of the contract 2 months before they enter into force;
• Art. 55 - procedure for filing claims;
• Art. 63 - correspondence and telephone conversations of the client can be made public only at the request of the court.

1. Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1342 of December 9, 2014:

• clause 24 - the user is notified of any changes to the tariff plan no later than 10 days;
• clause 4 - transfer of the client’s personal information anywhere is prohibited.

1. Law of the Russian Federation dated 02/07/1992 No. 2300-1 (as amended on 07/18/2019) “On the protection of consumer rights.”

Contacting the operator's contact center

To begin with, it is worth noting that you can always file an official complaint, but it will be much faster to try to resolve the issue peacefully through the support service. Fortunately, any operator today has a contact center number where you can contact if you have any questions.

Call center numbers for cellular communications in Russia:

• 0611 — Beeline support (all communication methods);
• 0890 — MTS support (all communication methods);
• 0500 — MegaFon support (all communication methods);
• 611 — Tele2 support (all communication methods);
• 8-800-1000-800 — support from Rostelecom;
• 8-800-550-00-07 — Yota support (all communication methods).

Calls to the above numbers are free for subscribers of the corresponding operators.

Of course, each operator offers its customers additional ways to contact support, which involve using the website, instant messengers, email, etc. You can find out more information about them by following the links to materials with all methods of communication. But I recommend solving questions and problems exclusively through live communication by phone with call center specialists.

Collection of information

If a person has discovered a loss of money due to paid services imposed on him, he must quickly take the following actions:

1. Go to the mobile operator’s website and view the entire list of services connected to the number.

2. Clarify their cost and compare it with your expenses.

3. If possible, disable some functions. Often such actions can be done independently.

4. If significant monetary losses are discovered, search for information about the possibility of returning lost money.

It should be remembered that the site does not always contain true information. In reality, for some connected free services, money is debited from your phone account.

How to write a complaint to a telecom operator

If it is not possible to reach an agreement with the company peacefully, you need to act more actively; there is only one solution - filing an official complaint. And you should not be intimidated by such a task, since, by and large, such an application is drawn up almost in free form.

Understand that any claim must be drawn up according to a specific plan, which looks something like this:

• Header located in the upper right corner of the claim sheet. It indicates the name of the company to which the application is being written, the position and full name of the addressee. Below is information about the person filing the claim, that is, about you. In addition to your full name, you must provide contact information.
• The “Claim” heading, centered just after the claim header.
• A centered subheading located immediately below the “Claim” heading.
• Text of the complaint.
• Requirements highlighted with the subheading “I ASK” and centered.
• If there are attachments, then it is necessary to list all the documents that are attached to the claim;
• Date of filing the claim, full name and signature of the applicant (without a date and signature, the claim is invalid).

Correct compliance with all these 6 points guarantees the correct completion of the application.

The text of the claim itself is drawn up in a fairly free form:

The main thing when drawing up a claim is to describe in as much detail as possible the essence of the existing problem or complaint about the quality of the services provided, and also, if possible, confirm all this with facts, documents, receipts, screenshots and other available information.

Claim to MTS for a refund

Let's figure out how to file a claim for a refund? It is important to do everything correctly, otherwise the operator can easily reject it. After all, no company likes unhappy customers.

The MTS claim form is available for download on the official website. In essence, the registration and sending process does not differ from those described above. Indicate the reason - refund. In the column where you need to substantiate your complaint, it is advisable to indicate the clauses from the contract that violated your rights. You can also indicate the current laws of the Russian Federation.

When writing, be sure to take into account the rules specified in Federal Law No. 59 of May 2, 2006 “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation.”

Describe your dissatisfaction in detail. Tell us what rights were violated. Don't forget about the law protecting consumer rights. If the operator really neglected the rules, then the client has the right to demand a full refund for the connected service. It is also possible to pay financial compensation for moral damages caused.

Remember - a letter with a claim from an anonymous person will not be accepted for consideration. This also includes complaints with obscene language and insults.

Samples of claims to telecom operators

• Sample application to Beeline for refund of erroneous payment;
• Sample application to Beeline to disable SMS mailings;
• Sample claim to MegaFon;
• Sample claim to MTS;
• Sample application to MTS for the return of an erroneous payment;
• Sample claim for an unreasonable bill for communication services (suitable for all operators);
• Sample claim for connection of paid services (suitable for all operators);
• Sample claim to Rostelecom;
• Sample application to Rostelecom for termination of the contract;
• Sample claim to Yota;

You can download and use all presented images of statements and claims for your needs. Choose what best suits your situation, download and fill out according to the instructions.

The completed document must be handed over to the operator correctly, in accordance with the law. This is important so that no one later says that they didn’t receive anything from you.

Reasons for filing a complaint

There are some statistics showing for what reasons clients contact us most often:

• Poor connection, disappears periodically.
• Spam messages are sent to your phone.
• Mailings that involve payment have been activated for you without your knowledge.
• The operator does not want to terminate the contract.
• The subscriber's rights were violated.
• The operator began to withdraw money from the balance, ignoring the laws.
• Internet speed is less than specified in the tariff conditions.

How to correctly submit (send) a claim to a telecom operator

In accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, there are two ways to correctly submit a claim to the operator (however, this works for any other case):

• Personally deliver the claim to an employee at the sales or service office;
• Send a claim to the operator by registered mail with notification and a list of attachments;

Almost all operators offer to send complaints to them by email. This, of course, greatly speeds up the transfer process, but know: according to the law of the Russian Federation, sending a claim in ways other than handing it over in person and sending it by mail to Russia is not correct. Sending a claim by email will not be taken into account in court. Send a copy of the claim by email simply to “duplicate” personally delivered or mailed.

How to personally deliver a claim to an employee of a telecom operator’s office

Print out (or write by hand) 2 (two!) identical copies of the claim. Sign both copies. Ask the office employee to accept one copy and sign the second copy upon receipt. Something like this: Received by manager Ivanov I.I., signature, date of reception, stamp.

By law, any employee of the telecom operator’s sales office is authorized to accept a claim from a subscriber. Any! If someone in the office tells you that he is not authorized to accept complaints, do not believe it. This is a lie!

If the claim is on two or more sheets, then you need to ask to sign on each sheet. If there are attachments to the claim (checks, documents, etc.), then you need to attach copies of these documents to the claim (keep the originals for yourself, as they will later be useful in court if the operator does not satisfy the claim) and also ask to sign the receiving applications.

I recommend this method of submitting a claim to a telecom operator, because... When communicating in the office, the operator’s employees, upon seeing an official complaint, often resolve the issue “on the spot,” but don’t be fooled by “don’t leave a complaint, we’ll quickly resolve everything by tomorrow, etc.” After all, before you started to “quarrel” with the operator, you probably already tried to resolve the issue “for good”, through the support service.

What to do if an employee refuses to accept a claim

• Find 2 witnesses (these could be other visitors to the office or just 2 of your friends, but not relatives, whom you asked to go with you just for such an occasion): On your copy of the claim, write that the office employee Ivanov I.I. (badges everyone now has a last name) refuses to accept the claim, and you leave a copy of it to the operator without an acceptance signature, which is confirmed by 2 witnesses, who also sign for the authenticity of your words. In parallel, the entire “process” can and should be filmed (this is legal, you have the right). You leave a copy of the operator on the manager’s desk/counter and leave.
• Send a claim using the second method - Russian Post.

How to properly send a claim to a telecom operator via Russian Post

When sending a claim by mail, as I wrote above, we must send the claim by registered mail with notification and a list of the attachments. Sending a simple letter will not allow you to track whether the addressee received the claim or not. Only registered letter with notification and inventory.

Plus, I advise you to send 2 letters to 2 addresses: one letter of claim to the legal address of the operator, the second to the physical address of the organization’s location. This will avoid the common problem that when a letter is delivered to a legal address, no one will receive it.

Reasons for return

Since the telecom operator is a seller of services, he does not have the right to impose them on the client without the consent of the person. Otherwise, it is a violation of the law.

To return their funds, the client needs to order financial details of expenses from the mobile operator.

Based on the data obtained, a person has the following options:

1. refuse services that were not ordered by him,

2. recover from the operator the funds withdrawn from the account.

All losses incurred by the client are legally returned by the operator in full.

Where to send a claim on Tele2

If you use the services of Tele2, and you decided to put everything “painful” in writing, you can send such a letter like this:

• At company offices in your city;
• By sending a letter to the legal address of the company (as always, a copy to the address of any office);

Legal address of T2 Mobile LLC (Tele2): 108811, Moscow city, Moskovsky settlement, Kyiv highway 22nd kilometer, building 6, building 1

• A copy of the complaint can be sent through the operator’s official website from this or this page.

Reason for tariff changes by operators

When receiving such notifications, some subscribers wonder whether operators have the right to change conditions unilaterally or automatically transfer people to another tariff package. But things usually don’t go further than hesitation; few users find the time to defend their rights.

Just a few years ago, all the major operators in the domestic telecommunications services market were waging an unspoken cold war among themselves, trying to lure subscribers away from their competitors. In most cases, to do this, develop tariff plans with very attractive conditions. However, most of these tariffs from different operators were almost identical, only the names of the packages differed. At the same time, due to price dumping, company profits were greatly reduced.

Several years have passed, and the ratio of the customer base of large telecom operators has remained almost unchanged. But, as before, dumping prices cannot bring companies the benefits they expected. That is why companies change the terms of profitable tariff packages or force their clients to switch to other tariffs, which only at first glance look attractive, but, as a rule, have a number of nuances.

Where to send a claim to Yota

Yota subscribers, although their number is not as numerous as those of the above-mentioned cellular corporations, can also often be dissatisfied with the services provided to them. In their case, you can send a statement describing unsatisfactory points using the following details:

• In Yota offices;
• By letter to the legal address (+ to the office);

Legal address of Scartel LLC (Yota): 27006, Moscow, Oruzheyny Lane, 41, office. 48

• A copy can be sent through the feedback page of the official website and by email;

When can I file a complaint?

First, let's look at the list of reasons for filing a complaint about the quality of service. Their list is very wide and varied:

• Poor mobile or internet connection;
• Lack of stable signal;
• Frequent communication interruptions, prolonged inability to connect to the network due to the fault of the operator;
• Inflating prices for services without prior notice;
• Connection failures, hissing, stuttering, signal loss.

All of these problems may well be grounds for filing a complaint. Now let's move on to where these requests can be sent. There are three places in total: MTS itself, Rospotrebnadzor and Roskomnadzor.

Where to send a complaint against Rostelecom

Finally, if you are faced with the task of sending an official statement of complaint against Rostelecom, you can leave the completed form not only at the company’s offices, but also in the following ways:

• Transfer through any Rostelecom office;
• Send a letter to the company's legal address;

Postal address of PJSC Rostelecom: 115172, Russian Federation, Moscow, st. Goncharnaya, 30, building 1.

• On the operator’s official pages on social networks, in Viber chat or through the feedback form on the website rt.ru.

Application addressed to the General Director

If it is not possible to fill out electronic forms and you need to contact them directly, as well as to draw attention to the problem at a higher level, you can write a letter of complaint addressed to the General Director.

The claim must be sent by letter to the address: 109147, Moscow, st. Marksistskaya, 4 or at the address specified in the contract.

If MTS employees are inactive, refuse to solve your problem and deny the very fact of its existence, you need to send a complaint to Rospotrebnadzor.

Deadlines for providing a response to a complaint

After sending a correctly completed application using the operator’s details, subscribers can only wait for a response. Fortunately, the deadline for providing a response is regulated by the current legislation of the Russian Federation and cannot exceed 30 days. During this time, the response will have to be provided to the counterparty details specified in the application.

Of course, this condition applies to sending a formal complaint through the company’s offices, since requests through other available methods of feedback to the operator can often remain unattended.

What disputes do consumers of mobile services have?

Disputes with a mobile operator can arise for a variety of reasons. What could these disputes be related to?

• ♦ The dispute may concern imposed additional services and options, which were initially provided free of charge, and later became paid.
• ♦ Provision of low-quality communication services and Internet access. Quite often, when you just connect to unlimited Internet, the Internet works fine for several months, and then the network stops receiving, the Internet does not work or the Internet speed is very low.
• ♦ The consumer may be provided with incomplete information on tariffs, which will lead to additional debiting of funds.
• ♦ The consumer may experience constant incomprehensible debiting of funds.
• ♦ Other types of disputes.

If the operator is inactive

In the event that suddenly, even after filing an official complaint, the operator continues to be inactive or does not even bother to provide you with an official response, your further actions may be as follows:

• Contact Rospotrebnadzor. Information about contact offices can be found on the official website. At the offices, you fill out a standard application form, which sets out information about your claims, attaches available documents, and proves the operator’s inaction;
• Contact Roskomnadzor. The application can be completed at the company’s offices, or submitted online on the corresponding page of the official website of Roskomnadzor (the “Generate an application” button);
• Contact the FAS. The Federal Antimonopoly Service can also help in solving existing problems and conflicts with the cellular operator. To do this, you must send a complaint to the territorial authorities. Detailed instructions with details for sending an application are available on the official website of the Antimonopoly Service;
• Going to court. Of course, to resolve disputes with mobile operators, you can also turn to judicial authorities, including the World Court. However, it is important to understand that for individuals, suing such large corporations as Russian telecom operators is, in fact, a losing proposition, so it is better to postpone the option of going to court until later, and try to solve the problems in other ways. If judicial “red tape” cannot be avoided, to file an application in court, you must contact the nearest judicial authority in your city.

These were all possible options for calm and not very calm settlement of disputes and claims against cellular operators in the Russian Federation. I hope that you will not have to use them, and if you do, they will help settle relations with operators quickly and “painlessly”.

How to terminate a contract with a telecom operator: step-by-step instructions

If they don't answer you

The deadline for responding to an electronic complaint to a mobile operator is not officially regulated, so you can wait a very long time for a letter or call with a solution to the problem. In the case of written claims, everything is different - they must be considered within 30 calendar days. If no response is received, this is considered a violation of the law. If within a month you have not received a response letter or call from the operator’s representatives at the specified contact details, you should file a complaint with higher authorities:

• Rospotrebnadzor;
• Roskomnadzor;
• FAS.

Here you will also need to make a written complaint. As evidence, you can attach your copy of the complaint with marks and date - this will be enough.

You can also take copies of documents to court.

An important point: before filing claims with higher authorities, make sure that the answer has definitely not been received. Check your spam box, scroll through the list of missed calls, study the contact information in your application. If a mistake creeps in somewhere, and you go to court or Rospotrebnadzor, the situation can be turned against you.