Court orders/fines due to consumer dispute

[Gaurav_S]

There is a need for a thread that can track consumer redressal issues where consumer/customer/client has gone to court/redressal forum etc. as there was defect/negligence in the service or product bought from local or international company in India. These companies can be either private or government entities like banks, telecom, ISP, retailer, airlines, insurance company and list can go on. There is hardly a day when you don't see any news where any company or entity failed to deliver service/product and consumer was taken for a ride until matter landed in court or consumer forum. This thread will track such instances from cities, towns and villages where companies were slapped with fine for poor product/service.

If there is any thread that this thread can be merged/edited/moved then bradmins please do so.

Below is the link to National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission with district forum contact details.

http://ncdrc.nic.in/

Below is link to India Consumer Forum where consumers can post their issue and ICF tries to get is resolved.

http://www.indiaconsumerforum.org/

[Gaurav_S]

DJB to pay Rs 15K compensation to customer for wrong billing

HP to pay Rs 1.17L compensation

LIC can't make consumer pay for its mistake: NCDRC

New Delhi: The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) cannot make a customer pay for its employees' mistakes, the apex consumer commission has said and asked the PSU to pay Rs 11,000 compensation to a customer for demanding additional premium from him 12 years after he had bought the policy.

The LIC had raised the demand on Sunil Kumar Paliwal, a resident of district Narsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh, when it realised that due to a typographical mistake in two policies issued to him, it was collecting premium from him annually instead of half-yearly.

"Even if there was a typographical mistake the same was committed by the employees of the petitioner (LIC) and cannot be used to the disadvantage of the complainant (Paliwal) by unilaterally changing the terms of the contract after a gap of 12 years ," the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) said.

[Gaurav_S]

65-yr-old goes to consumer forum, wins back Rs 50

In today’s world, fifty rupees will not buy you much. Yet, a 65-year-old took a leading national telecom company to consumer court and won a refund of Rs 50. “It was not just about the money. It was a fight for my rights and what is right,” said Pravin Soni, a resident of Ghatlodia.

“It was not just about the money. It was a fight for what is right,” said Ghatlodia resident Pravin Soni

The retired government employee had taken Reliance Communications Infrastructure Ltd to court for not repaying his deposit of Rs 250. The firm then offered him Rs 200 as out-of-court settlement. But Soni refused to back down.

[Yogi_G]

Also National Consumer Helpline --> National Consumer Helpline

I recently threatened to drag my battery dealer to consumer court and then pat came the service. Good thread this one.

If I am not wrong, irrespective of whether the company being dragged to court is guilty or not they have to pay some 10,000 rupees or so. Correct me if I am wrong here, this is to ensure they have an internal resolution process and not allow everything to be dragged to the consumer court. BTW, I recently heard that consumer courts have stopped taking in complaints on mobile services and the civil court is to be approached for this.

A. Raja's denial to have a mobile ombudsman is another big scam I feel which is leading to the fleecing of customers at the hands of mobile companies.

[Gaurav_S]

IMO Ombudsman is especially required for airlines, telecom and ISP's. It is real apathy of this country that we have such a massive educated working middle class which consumes/uses so much of stuff from the market but when it comes to customer service we are zero. Would be interested in knowing if anyone on BR had any good experience with any company where he/she found product/service faulty and requested a refund. Let us not dwelve into comparing standards of customer service/customer relations with any western country as their standards will be different and likely won't suit us. But to be honest IMO, we don't even have any standard leave alone what western countries do. Its time people ask questions and demand right thing. At the same time providers need to pull their socks up and start giving some level of service. As India progresses further more and more people are going to do air travel and buy mobile phone. Internet penetration is going to only increase.

Personally, I have found Reliance Comm to be nasty when it comes to providing service or processing refunds.

[Gaurav_S]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/AP-high-court-slaps-Rs-5000-fine-on-Vizag-officials/articleshow/14792255.cms

HYDERABAD: Taking a serious view of negligence of authorities in filing counters, the AP high court on Monday imposed a penalty of Rs 5000 each on the municipal commissioner, vice-chairman of urban development authority, district collector and officials of the R&B department for their failure to keep the court informed of the action taken in response to a petition alleging inaction in checking haphazard proliferation of statues in Visakhapatnam city.

The bench, comprising acting Chief Justice P C Ghose and Justice C Praveen Kumar, made this order while dealing with a petition filed by Ch Ayyannapatrudu, a former minister and TDP leader who complained about the proliferation of statues of various political leaders in various areas of Visakhapatnam. "Busy area, roadside lanes and even the green belt areas are not being spared and it is causing a lot of inconvenience to the people in the form of traffic congestions," he said.

The bench observed that the authorities of the GVMC, urban development body and the municipality had not bothered to file their counter so far despite them being repeatedly granted time. "We do not know when will the sleeping stage of your authorities will be over," the bench observed while addressing the government counsel representing the matter and imposed the penalty on them and directed them to file their counter within a week.

Good one, hit them hard where it hurts most in their pockets.

[Gaurav_S]

Consumer forum awards one-month jail term for bank manager

BARNALA: Finding him disobeying its earlier orders and that of the state commission to compensate a consumer, who was defrauded of Rs 40,000 at a bank ATM despite alerting the bank officials, the Barnala District Consumer Forum has sentenced the chief manager of Barnala branch of State Bank of India to simple imprisonment for one month.

The bank has also been asked to pay Rs 5,000 to the consumer, which the bank authorities complied with immediately after pronouncing of judgment on Monday evening.

The sentence has been awarded for disobeying the orders of the state commission, wherein the bank's appeal was dismissed and the bank official had been asked to obey the district forum order.

On August 17, 2010, Surinder Kaur of Barnala had gone to withdraw some money from the ATM of SBI's Barnala branch. As she failed to withdraw the amount, a conman, claiming to be a bank employee, reportedly asked her to complete the transaction but fraudulently changed the card and left the ATM. Seeing other consumers successfully transacting at the ATM, Surinder Kaur approached the bank authorities and got to know that her card has been changed. She requested for blocking the account but authorities allegedly took time in doing so. In the meantime, the conman withdrew Rs 40,000 in two installments from her account from some other ATM.

Deciding her case, Barnala forum had on February 10, 2011 directed the bank to pay Surinder Kaur Rs 40,000 and compensate her with Rs 5,000 as fine. The state commission also rejected the banks review appeal on March 14, 2012 and asked it to pay the consumer. The bank paid only Rs 23,300 but not the remaining amount. On this, Surinder Kaur again approached the district forum on July 4 with contempt proceedings against bank officials.

Taking up the case, the forum headed by president Sanjeev Dutt Sharma and member Karnail Singh on Monday awarded one month's simple imprisonment to SBI's Barnala main branch chief manager Paramjit Singh Sodhi. It also accepted a bail bond of Rs 50,000 with one surety for the same amount, whereas the bank authorities deposited the fine amount of Rs 5,000.

Surinder Kaur said that she was waiting for the compensation since long and is satisfied with the orders. Bank authorities however said they will file an appeal against the order.

[Gaurav_S]

Sony Ericsson fined Rs 34,500 for defective mobile

Insurance company told to pay car cost

The forum stated that the investigator appointed by the insurance company could not even ascertain who was driving the vehicle and had advised the repudiation of claim on mere presumption. It also said the company should have investigated the matter properly and established the non-existence of effective valid driving licence of the insured. Thus the company is deficient in rendering proper service towards the complainants.

Water is must and cannot be abruptly cut off: Consumer Forum

Thane, Jul 18 (PTI) The Thane District Consumer Redressel Forum has held that water connection to any consumer is essential and civic corporation cannot abruptly cut it off. The forum came down heavily on Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation (MBMC) and ordered it to restore the water connection to the Bhayander-based Sai Anusuya cooperative housing society within 72 hours. The society filed a complaint against the MBMC when its water connection was cut off because at the time of making an application for water connection, it had not informed the corporation about a civil suit pending in court against MBMC. On April 24, 2012, the MBMC issued a notice stating that the society had in its application for water connection concealed the fact that there was a civil case pending against the corporation. Therefore, it had betrayed the corporation and hence cut off the water connection to the society. However, the society, while approaching the forum on May 22, 2012, submitted before it that the suit was between the builder and the corporation and the society was not aware of it and informed about the hardships being faced by them and prayed for restoration of water supply. The forum said the respondents ought to have obtained full information from the complainant before providing the connection. It had provided the connection based on the application and the agreement and the corporation was passing on the blame on the society and disconnected the water supply, which was illegal. The MBMC cannot cut off the water connection, the forum said in its order issued on Monday. As the corporation has for a long time without any action kept the supply going, therefore till the complaint is finally disposed off, it should keep one of the supplies on as it is an essential and emergency service, the forum said. PTI COR GK

SpiceJet to pay Rs 79,000 as damages to Delhi consumer

“We are of the opinion that the decision of the opposite party (SpiceJet) of offloading the baggage should have been justified by valid reasons. In the instant case, no reasons have been explained. The airline has only stated that due to technical reasons, the baggage could not be sent by the same flight. The explanation given by it is not satisfactory,” the forum, presided by Mr Narendra Kumar, said.

{So tomorrow they will offload anyone's luggage as toilet flush in the aircraft didn't work}

Some of these hard ships could have been avoided..what a waste of time and money.

[chetak]

=Personally, I have found Reliance Comm to be nasty when it comes to providing service or processing refunds.

Forgive them, onlee.

The ADAG have a seven billion $ debt to service, every penny counts

[Gaurav_S]

Surcharge scam in petrol pumps busted

NEW DELHI: A car owner unsuspectingly gifts a surcharge of 2.5% to a private bank on every purchase of petrol or diesel from a retail outlet just because the oil company insists that the dealer install that particular bank's credit card swipe machines at the petrol pump.

The customer pays this surcharge because the oil company enters into an agreement with the private bank and forces dealers to install credit card swipe machines of that bank and remove those of others.

The Competition Appellate Tribunal has now come to the rescue of consumers by quashing the agreement between Hindustan Petroleum and ICICI Bank, terming it as restrictive. The tribunal bench headed by Justice V S Sirpurkar also imposed a cost of Rs 2 lakh on the oil PSU and the private bank for entering into such an "unfair" agreement.

Pune-based Federation of All Maharashtra Petrol Dealers Association through advocate Neela Gokhale told the tribunal, "If the customer uses any other credit card, then he pays 2.5% more than the actual cost of petrol. This is because of Hindustan Petroleum's decision to monopolize the services of ICICI Bank at the retail outlets by removing from the field the competition by other banks."

After hearing parties, Justice Sirpurkar noted that HP had insisted on setting up only ICICI Bank terminals at retail outlets even if the dealer did not want to do so. "Insistence on the part of HP in giving exclusive status to ICICI Bank terminal is, in our opinion, completely unjustified," the tribunal said.

HP's counsel could not refute Gokhale's statement that if any other bank card, other than that of ICICI Bank, was used for purchase of petrol and diesel from an HP retail outlet, the customer had to give 2.5% as bank service charge.

The tribunal said, "The result of insistence on part of HP would therefore be an insistence vis-a-vis consumers to use ICICI Bank card only in order to escape the excess payment of 2.5%. That would deprive him a facility to use other credit card at any other terminal of other banks. This will also result in denying an opportunity to the outlet dealer to transact with any other bank even if such transaction is beneficial for him and therefore amounts to a restrictive trade practice."

The federation said it would be satisfied if the oil PSU did not insist on removal of credit card swipe machines of other banks from petrol pumps. But HP surprised the tribunal by refusing to accept this offer and insisted on finding some other solution.

The tribunal said, "The direction to remove all other terminals excepting the terminals of ICICI Bank and insisting on consumers to transact only with ICICI Bank would, apart from affecting the competition, impose unnecessary surcharge on the consumers using credit cards other than ICICI card in as much as they would have to shell out 2.5% of the actual cost on petrol or diesel.

"The direction clearly amounts to restrictive trade practices which under the MRTP Act would be deemed to be prejudicial to the public interest... HP shall cease and desist from insisting upon (dealers) to remove all other banking terminals at the site of retail outlets."

Nothing less then goonda-gardi by HP. Only consumer to loose..not sure if this agreement between HP and ICICI is nation-wide.

[Gaurav_S]

Air India staff penalised for asking student for bribe

BTW, HT has got wrong heading of the article. Should have used AI penalised and not AI staff penlised.

PVR told to pay Rs 10K compensation

She incurred expenses on transport apart from valuable time of the two persons... Taking all the facts and circumstances into consideration, we award a sum of Rs 10,000 as compensation to her," the bench presided by N A Zaidi said.

10K compensation for not being able to watch movie as advertised is bit too much.

[Gaurav_S]

Consumer Forum notice to HDFC Bank in car loan case

NAGPUR: The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Delhi, on Monday issued notice to HDFC Bank in an appeal against non-compliance of car loan case filed by a city consumer.

Presiding member K S Chaudhari and member Suresh Chandra issued notices on the appeal by Shrikant Prabhune. Prabhune had taken a car loan of Rs2.44 lakh at 11.5% interest in July 2006 from the bank. In July 2007, the bank representatives gave some misleading information to Prabhune and converted his 'car loan' into 'car overdraft account' by obtaining his signatures on blank documents.

On receipt of the bank letter in August 2007, Prabhune was shocked to find that he would be charged 19.5% interest. "I realized I would pay an additional Rs1.75 lakh compared to my earlier loan. I requested the bank to restore my earlier loan account stating that I was misled but the bank did not listen," said Prabhune.

Prabhune moved the District Consumer Forum for justice. On July 17, 2008, the forum upheld Prabhune's complaint and directed the bank to comply with its order within 30 days by restoring earlier car loan account by transferring all the payments made in car overdraft account since August 2007 and close the car overdraft account.

The forum also asked the bank to pay Rs10,000 as compensation for mental and physical agony to Prabhune and pay Rs2,000 as costs for the complaint. However, as the bank did not comply the orders, in September 2008 Prabhune filed an execution application before the forum under Section 27 of the CPA.

Thereafter, the matter dragged up to June 2009. Finally, the bank complied with the orders in June 2009 after 305 days as against 30 days. The District Forum upheld the execution application in favour of Prabhune and confirmed that his say and objections were correct.

However, the forum did not impose punishment of minimum Rs2,000 fine and 30 days imprisonment or maximum Rs10,000 fine and three years imprisonment as specified under Section 27 of the CPA.

Prabhune's request for awarding adequate costs against the bank was also not considered. The forum ordered the bank to pay Rs1,000 as cost of execution application.

Not satisfied with the verdict, Prabhune approached State Consumer Commission (Circuit Bench), Nagpur, but here too his application was dismissed. Therefore, in June 2012 he approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.

[Rahul M]

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes ... umer-court

Consumer court makes Honda pay for defective bike

PANAJI: The Goa State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed a scooter company to pay a consumer a sum of 60,000 for a defective vehicle.

In an order passed on April 27, 2012, president Justice N A Britto and member Jagdish Prabhudesai have directed Honda Motor Cycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd to refund John Fernandes 20,000 as part of the cost price of the vehicle as well as a sum of 30,000 towards compensation. A Further sum of 10,000 has been ordered to be paid towards (legal) costs of the complainant. The amount is to be paid within 30 days after which interest of 9% will be applicable.

Fernandes had purchased a Honda Eterno in July 2005, of which 20000 was financed by a bank. Within 15 days of purchase Fernandes began hearing engine noise while riding and also found that the handle of the vehicle was not straight. Besides, the clutch lever was vibrating, front suspension rattling, seat lock was defective and there were other vibrations.

The order states that the defects pointed out were never rectified even in the warranty period to the satisfaction of the complainant. The commission further stated that since the complainant made considerable use of the vehicle, he was not entitled to refund of the entire cost or replacement of the vehicle by a new vehicle.

[Gaurav_S]

Consumer forum wants Gujarat government to penalise BHEL

AHMEDABAD: The city based Consumer Education Research Society (CERS) want government of Gujarat to penalise Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) for poor performance of its equipments supplied for Kutch Lignite Thermal Power Station (KLTPS). Commissioned in December 2009, a 75 mw station reported around 30% plant load factor for two consecutive years.

Earlier, state utility Gujarat State Electricity Corporation (GSEC) stated that the plant had new technology and has teething trouble. However, CERS did not agree. It want GSEC to penalise for for poor performance which and additional burden on consumers. "CERS requested Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission to direct GSEC to recover this amount of loss from BHEL for not conducting Performance Guarantee Test for two years. Somehow the Commission in its order in June 2012 did not pass any order for recovery of this loss and transferred the burden on consumers of Gujarat," read CERS' letter to energy minister Saurabh Dalal.

CERS is arguing that government of Gujarat should follow an example set by Karnataka that imposed penalty of Rs 250 crore on BHEL for supplying inferior quality of equipments which delayed generation of power for one year. "This will also set an example for all original equipment manufacturers contractors to shoulder responsibility of poor performance," said CERS.

[member_21074]

Hi all,

Need your advice on one issue.
Recently, one of my family member was duped by an employee of "Aditya birla Money Ltd".
He had a demat account in this company and was serviced by local agent in ranchi.

The agent started option trading in his account without his permission. He never received
any statement of equities from the company. Recently he checked my demat account
and found that following equities are missing from demat account.

On interrogating the agent we found that he had used fake email address and non existing mobile number for these transactions.

Please advice what steps we should take.
We are contemplating filing an FIR against the agent and company, but would like to know if there is any better way to deal with it.

Thanks

[Rishirishi]

Air India staff penalised for asking student for bribe

BTW, HT has got wrong heading of the article. Should have used AI penalised and not AI staff penlised.

PVR told to pay Rs 10K compensation

She incurred expenses on transport apart from valuable time of the two persons... Taking all the facts and circumstances into consideration, we award a sum of Rs 10,000 as compensation to her," the bench presided by N A Zaidi said.

10K compensation for not being able to watch movie as advertised is bit too much.

well, they had travelled all teh way from Noida (time and money). Indians companies must become more accountable and honor their pledges. If you have a contract with a German plumber, he has to honor his commitment. Else he has to pay for damages. It is a very important part of any prosperous economy.

[Rishirishi]

Hi all,

Need your advice on one issue.
Recently, one of my family member was duped by an employee of "Aditya birla Money Ltd".
He had a demat account in this company and was serviced by local agent in ranchi.

The agent started option trading in his account without his permission. He never received
any statement of equities from the company. Recently he checked my demat account
and found that following equities are missing from demat account.

On interrogating the agent we found that he had used fake email address and non existing mobile number for these transactions.

Please advice what steps we should take.
We are contemplating filing an FIR against the agent and company, but would like to know if there is any better way to deal with it.

Thanks

Have you discussed with the company? FIR is good, but also try to get some media attention. All financial companies are very very dependent on their reputation.

[chaanakya]

Hi all,

Need your advice on one issue.
Recently, one of my family member was duped by an employee of "Aditya birla Money Ltd".
He had a demat account in this company and was serviced by local agent in ranchi.

The agent started option trading in his account without his permission. He never received
any statement of equities from the company. Recently he checked my demat account
and found that following equities are missing from demat account.

On interrogating the agent we found that he had used fake email address and non existing mobile number for these transactions.

Please advice what steps we should take.
We are contemplating filing an FIR against the agent and company, but would like to know if there is any better way to deal with it.

Thanks

Have you asked the Company? What was their response? Maintain the documentation.

Apart form FIR you have the following options.

1. File a case against the company in Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum. Claims up to Rs 20 Lakh in District forum and upto one crore in State forum. You will surely get favourable order. If you/your relative has time defend your case by yourself.

2. File Complain with SEBI.
3. File complain with Registrar of Companies .
4. While filing case with Police include the Senior manager of the company who was responsible for supervising your accounts. and Ensure that charges of cheating and forgery and sections under IT act are included. Here you may need a Lawyer. You have the option to file Civil suit as well. If police fails to act you can approach the court asking for a direction to them to register the case.

I would advise to first go through first route while simultaneously giving complain to SEBI and Registrar.

[member_21074]

@Rishirishi & @chaanakya
We had filed a complaint with SEBI on friday and today we received a copy of notice sent by SEBI to Aditya Birla Money. SEBI has given them 4 days to reply.
Also, today we received call from the company's local office which was brief and mostly limited to one question "did we authorize the broker for the specific tradings in question?"

We have already communicated our stand to company by email and by post.
along with the SEBI complain, we are also going to file FIR against the company and broker.
However, the station incharge's opinion was that such cases are dealt by SEBI and was not sure if he will be able to take action once the FIR is filed.

I also think it will be better to verify our stand rather than replying on my family member's, just to be sure we are not at fault.

Please advice me if we have any members here who can help with the legal aspect of this case or should i go for services of financial adviser.

[chaanakya]

I don't think you should discuss the case as such online. I feel , however, that if your documents are in order you should have no difficulty. The only thing that Company would like to prove is that you authorised that agent to trade. If that is not the case it would be decided in your favour. I strongly advise you to file a case in Consumer forum and claim losses and compensation. Don't need a lawyer there. Simple application with copies of all documents are enough.

BTW tell that SHO to file a case of Cheating against that Agent. FIR would be handy to you.

After SEBI , inform Registrar. These remedial actions are not mutually exclusive and you can persue them.