ARCHIVED - Telecom - Commission Letter - 8665-C12-200307365 - Consumer Bill of Rights, Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2003-6

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Letter

Ottawa, 24 October 2003

File No: 8665-C12-200307365

By fax and e-mail

Mr. David E. Palmer
Director, Regulatory Matters
Bell Canada
105, rue Hôtel-de-Ville
6ième étage
Gatineau, QC J8X 4H7

Dear Mr. Palmer;

Re: Consumer Bill of Rights, Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2003-6

Pursuant to the process set-out in Consumer bill of rights, Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2003-6, 13 June 2003, attached are the Commission's interrogatories.
The Companies identified in the letter of 27 August 2003 from Denis Henry, are requested to provide responses to the attached interrogatories to the Commission and to serve copies on all interested parties, no later than 26 November 2003. Responses are to be actually received, and not merely sent, by this date. Where interrogatories request proposed wording for the Consumer Bill of Rights, the Companies are reminded to provide it in plain language.

Yours sincerely,

original signed by

Mario Bertrand
Acting Director,
Consumer Affairs

Attach.

Telecom Public Proceeding CRTC 2003-6
Consumer Bill of Rights
The Companies (CRTC) 27Oct2003

CRTC Interrogatories

For all interrogatories requesting proposed wording for the Consumer Bill of Rights, the Companies are reminded to provide wording in plain language.

101  Would there be a benefit in including a definitions section in a Consumer Bill of Rights that would provide a brief description of key terms?

a. If not, why not?

b. If yes, please propose the terms and associated wording for each definition to be included.

102  Propose revised wording for a Consumer Bill of Rights section on privacy rights that divides this section into two sub-sections of:

a. callers' privacy rights

b. called parties' privacy rights.

103  Propose revised wording for the termination or disconnection of service in separate sub-sections for:

a. consumer initiated termination of service

b. telephone company initiated termination of service.

104 
a. Provide your views on whether the Consumer Bill of Rights should apply to both business and residential customers or to residential customers only. If your view is that the CBOR should also apply to business customers, to what extent should it apply? If not all businesses, to which ones should the CBOR apply? Provide a definition of the "business customer" to whom the CBOR should apply. Provide full rationale for your views.

b. Provide the changes, if any, that you would make to the draft CBOR you have submitted if it were to apply to:
i) all business customers
ii) any more limited category of business proposed in a. above.
105 In the following sections the Consumer Groups refer to specific charges:
i) section 1 "Consumers have the right to reasonable access to basic telephone service";
ii) section 4 "Customers have the right to privacy of their personal information";
iii) section 9 "Consumers have the right to pay up-front charges of $45 or more by instalment; and
iv) section 19 "Consumers are entitled to have disputed 900 service charges waived the first time they dispute such charges".<

Provide your views, with full rationale, as to whether the Consumer Bill of Rights should include specific amounts or a reference to a tariff or other source. If the latter, specify the reference(s).

106  Propose the different methods by which the Consumer Bill of Rights could be made available to consumers.

107  In the section titled "Access to services" provide a complete list of the features and services that consumers are entitled to as part of basic telephone service.

108  In the section titled "Access to customer records and privacy concerns" the Companies have proposed wording that states that they would make information available on how consumers can contact the Company to access their records or raise any privacy-related concerns. Provide details on how this information would be made available to consumers.

109  The terms "reasonable" and "reasonably" are used throughout the Companies' proposed Consumer Bill of Rights. Provide a detailed explanation of the range of actions that would be considered to be "reasonable" in each instance where either of these terms is used.

110  Assume that the final Consumer Bill of Rights is approximately 2,000 words in length. Could a paper version of such a document be provided to customers as a bill insert?

a. If so, would there be any limitations to such a bill insert such as, for example, font size? Provide full details.

b. If not, why not? Provide full details.

c. If not, suggest alternative means of publicizing the CBOR.

Date Modified: 2003-10-24

Date modified: