National Consumer Helpline 1915: how it works

Written and verified by the Grahak Mitra research team — an independent project documenting digital consumer self-help in India.

Last updated: 3 October 2026

The National Consumer Helpline (NCH) is a government service that takes up your consumer complaint and pushes it with the company on your behalf — you reach it by calling 1915, through the NCH app or the UMANG app, or on the consumerhelpline.gov.in portal (its complaint-handling system is called INGRAM). It works by facilitation and mediation: it logs your grievance, forwards it to the company, and follows up. It is not a court. That is the one thing to be clear about: the helpline does not sit in judgment on your case, it does not pass a binding order, and it cannot guarantee you a refund. What it can do is get your complaint in front of the company through an official channel and chase it — which resolves a great many disputes.

If your matter needs a binding decision — an order the company must obey — that is the job of a consumer commission, and you reach one by filing a formal complaint on e-Jagriti (formerly e-Daakhil). The helpline and the commission are two different things: the first mediates, the second adjudicates. Read on for exactly what the NCH can and cannot do, and the channels you can use to reach it.

What the NCH can do — and what it cannot

This table is the honest scope of the helpline. Use it to set your expectations before you call: the NCH is a strong, free first step, but it is a facilitator, not a forum that hands down a verdict.

The channels — how to reach the NCH

There is one helpline and one portal behind all of these; use whichever suits you. You can register a complaint in 17 languages, including Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.

• Call 1915 — the National Consumer Helpline number, 8 AM to 8 PM, all seven days except national holidays. The helpline also still lists its older toll-free number, 1800-11-4000. You speak to an agent who logs your grievance and can guide you.
• WhatsApp or SMS to 8800001915 — the same helpline, by message.
• The NCH app, or the UMANG app — the government app for consumer complaints (the NCH service is also available through UMANG, the government's single app for many public services). You can register and track a complaint from your phone.
• The consumerhelpline.gov.in portal — the official website, which the government calls INGRAM. How to use it is set out step by step below.

Whichever channel you use, it is the same service: have your order details, invoice, payment proof, and any earlier complaint reference from the company ready, so the grievance you register is complete and easy to push. If money was taken from you in a cyber fraud, this is the wrong helpline — the NCH itself directs those cases to 1930.

INGRAM: filing on the consumerhelpline.gov.in portal

INGRAM stands for Integrated Grievance Redressal Mechanism. It is not a separate body — it is the name of the Department of Consumer Affairs' complaint portal at consumerhelpline.gov.in, the system every NCH channel feeds into. The department describes it as a platform that brings consumers, companies, regulators, ombudsmen and government agencies together in one place, and as a pre-litigation step: a way to settle a dispute before anyone goes to a consumer commission. So "INGRAM complaint", "NCH complaint" and "consumer helpline complaint" all mean the same thing.

Checklist: filing a grievance on the portal

1. Sign up once. On consumerhelpline.gov.in, choose sign-up and give your name, phone number and an email address, and set a password. The portal verifies you by email, so use an address you can open, and check the spam folder for the verification mail.
2. Log in. Use your user ID and password, or log in with a one-time password (OTP) sent to the phone number you registered.
3. Fill in the grievance and attach your documents. Describe what you bought, what went wrong, what you have already tried with the company, and what you want. Attach the invoice, payment proof and screenshots of your exchange with the company.
4. Note the docket number. When you submit, the portal gives you a unique docket number. This is your reference for everything that follows. Keep it with your own record of the dispute.
5. Track it without logging in. The portal's "Track your Grievance" page needs only the docket number and the phone number or email you registered.

The portal will not take up everything. It says it cannot treat these as consumer grievances: RTI matters, matters already in court, grievances against a foreign government, religious matters, and suggestions.

Convergence companies: why some complaints move faster

Under the NCH's Convergence programme, companies sign up voluntarily and free of charge to receive grievances from the portal directly. NCH's Convergence page says more than 2,000 companies and organisations have joined (as checked on 29 September 2026), that grievances reach them in real time, and that their responses are expected within 30 days. A complaint against a company that is not a partner is still sent on — the NCH says grievances go to the concerned company, agency, regulator or ombudsman and that these are reminded at set intervals. You can look up whether a company is a partner on the portal before you file.

On timing overall, the NCH says a grievance may take up to a maximum of 30 days to reach a conclusion. Treat that as the helpline's target, not a promise of a result: a conclusion can be that the company refused.

How a complaint through the helpline actually works

1. Register your grievance — by phone on 1915, or on the app or the portal. Describe plainly what you bought, what went wrong, and what you want (a refund, a replacement, or the service fixed).
2. The NCH takes it up with the company — it forwards your complaint through an official channel to the seller, brand, or platform, and follows up. Note your complaint reference.
3. The company responds, and the helpline mediates — many disputes settle here, because the complaint now comes through a government channel the company is expected to answer.
4. If it isn't resolved, escalate — the helpline mediates, it does not rule. If facilitation doesn't get you there, the next step is a formal complaint to a consumer commission, which can pass a binding order. Commission complaints are filed online on e-Jagriti (e-jagriti.gov.in), the system that has included e-Daakhil since January 2025.

Honest about what the helpline is

The National Consumer Helpline is not a court, and calling it does not guarantee a refund. It is a facilitation and mediation service: it takes up your complaint and pushes it with the company through an official channel, and that alone resolves a large share of everyday disputes at no cost to you. But it does not adjudicate, and it cannot order anyone to pay you. When a matter needs a binding decision, that comes from a consumer commission — you reach one by filing on e-Jagriti (formerly e-Daakhil), and it helps to first know what the Consumer Protection Act lets you seek. If you're weighing that formal route, it's worth knowing what a consumer-commission case actually costs in time and money.