The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has announced that consumers can now file their complaints online using the e-Service portal.
Acting National Consumer Commissioner, Thezi Mabuza, said consumers often complain about the manual process when they file complaints with the NCC.
“As South Africans are now accustomed to online transactions, we want to make it easier and more convenient for them to file complaints from the comfort of their homes or on the spot. The portal also makes it easy and possible for consumers to log in and view the status of their complaints without contacting the NCC,” she said on Monday.
The NCC is rolling out its first phase of the digitised complaint handling process.
The https://eservice.thencc.org.za portal is live and is replacing the manual complaint form.
The Commission said the portal is a seamless consumer complaint-handling process empowered by workflows in the back end and instant notifications to the consumers.
Consumer registration is verified through the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and as such, consumers are urged to use correct names and ID numbers as they appear in their ID books.
“Consumers may experience intermittent connectivity during the verification process due to interface with DHA and are therefore advised to be patient with the process. The NCC is on the other hand enhancing the registration process to take the burden of ID verification from the consumer,” the Commission said.
Consumers can follow these easy steps to create a profile online:
- Consumers should be in possession of an ID/Passport number, email address, and mobile number.
- Visit www.thencc.org.za/complaints or select the e-Service & OORs tab on the home page.
- The page will take you to the e-services portal to create a profile.
- When creating a profile, make that your names appear as they are on the ID or Passport (if you are a non-South African consumer).
- The ID or passport number will be verified with the Department of Home Affairs.
- Once your profile is verified and approved, you will receive confirmation with your login details via email.
- Only then can you log into your profile, change your password, and file a complaint. You can lodge as many complaints using the same login details.
The Commission has arranged to accommodate consumers who do not have access to the Internet or an email address.
Mabuza said these consumers can still contact the Commission.
“To ensure that consumers enjoy their right to be heard, we encourage consumers who do not have access to the internet to utilise our contact centre for assistance. Our agents will create a profile on behalf of the consumer and file the complaint,” she said.
The complaints handling process is explained further on the website: www.thencc.org.za/complaints or contact our contact centre at 012 428 7000. – SAnews.gov.za
