Consumer Protection Commission Probes DSTV’s Abuse of subscribers Rights

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines Monday, August 3rd, 2015

Ayodele Afolabi, Abuja – The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) has begun sitting in its investigation into the operations of the Digital Satellite Television (DStv) based on complaints of alleged consumer rights violations against the pay-television firm.

A four-person team, led by the firm’s Regulatory affairs Manager, responded to questions from the Council’s investigating Panel, comprising of selected relevant staff of the agency and a team of consultants.

CPC’s Director General, Mrs. Dupe Atoki, who at the weekend flagged off the commencement of the investigation at the headquarters of the agency in Abuja, said the investigation has been instituted on the strength of series of complaints received by the Council on the services of the pay-television firm.

According to her, the investigation would afford the Council the opportunity to know the challenges the firm may be facing in the discharge of its services with a view to proffering solutions for the enhanced welfare of its consumers.

The Council had, in a notice of commencement of investigation recently served on Multichoice Nigeria Limited, a pay-media company which offers the DStv service, disclosed that it has been inundated with a barrage of consumer complaints, alleging wide-range abuse of subscribers’ rights.
It asserted that despite its earlier interventions in form of meetings with the satellite company, telephone and written correspondences with a view to ensuring that the company addressed the issues and developed quality standards for the safeguard of the interest of consumers, complaints have been pouring in unabated against the company.

The Council declared in the notice that “these complaints in effect allege that the DStv service does not conform with international best practice and is specifically designed to exploit Nigerian consumers who have suffered loss by not being able to fully enjoy or receive the benefit or actualize the full purpose for which they purchased or subscribed to the service”.

According to the Council’s notice, the consumer complaints against DStv include “poor quality of service such as incessant disruption of service without compensation while subscription is current; wrongful abrupt disconnection of service during subsisting subscriptions; monthly subscriptions lasting less than 30 days; and poor redress mechanism and customer services”.

The first sitting of the investigation was witnessed by a delegation of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the Specific Sector Regulator.