Ahmedabad customer buys smartphone but starts heating up in one hour, dealer refuses to repair or replace, the court gives compensation in 5 years.
When a consumer filed a complaint with the consumer court in Ahmedabad; the court compensated the consumer but only after delaying the verdict for five long years.
Ahmedabad-based Hitesh Khorasia bought a Panasonic smartphone in 2016 but when it started heating up in an hour he complained in the showroom just hours after the purchase.
The merchant merely updated the software without changing the phone. This didn’t solve the problem for Hitesh as the phone display kept getting hotter. As a consumer, he complained twice at the showroom to get the phone replaced or repaired but his efforts went in vain. When he failed to get any satisfactory response from the dealer he went ahead to take the matter to the consumer court.
The court ordered the dealer to provide a new handset or pay an equivalent of the price of the handset. The court ruled in favor of the customer that the mobile store and Panasonic Electronic had to fully repair the mobile handset within a month and return it to the plaintiff without charging any charges.
If they do not, they will have to replace the handset with a new one or pay the full price of the phone. In addition to the mental torture and hardship suffered by the complainant in the last five years.
The court also ordered the plaintiff to pay compensation for the mental torture and hardship inflicted on him in the last five years. The court said in its order that instead of harassing the customer, he would have to pay Rs 1,000 as well as Rs 1,000 as application costs.
The customer bought the mobile in the hope that it would last five years.
Advocate Anand Parikh said the court highlighted that the company should not run away by selling something in such a manner.
The court in this case has ordered the dealer and the showroom to pay the price of the phone or exchange the phone. Also ordered to pay compensation of 2000 to the plaintiff.
