Battery dealer guilty of deficiency in service
Chandigarh, January 29
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, has directed a dealer to pay compensation and refund the cost of the battery of an inverter after it failed to give appropriate service within the warranty period.
Lalit Kumar Aggarwal, a resident of Sector 38, Chandigarh, approached the commission after the dealer failed to address his grievance.
In his complaint, Lalit said he purchased an Amaron Tubular Inverter battery for Rs9,500 on February 14, 2018 from a dealer in Sector 28, Chandigarh. In August 2020, the inverter started giving some problem and he filed an online complaint regarding the same on August 20, 2020. A person from the company checked the battery and told him that it was okay without checking its backup time.
He lodged another complaint again on March 24, 2021 when the battery started giving more problems. Instead of addressing the problem, the dealer said its warranty was over in February 2021 and asked him to pay Rs7,600 to settle the claim. The dealer told him that the battery was irreparable.
The commission said a notice was sent to the dealer seeking its version in the case. However, nobody appeared on his behalf.
After hearing the arguments, the commission held the dealer guilty of deficiency in service.
The act of the opposite party (dealer) in not providing proper services, not repairing the inverter’s battery as per warranty terms and conditions and not appearing during the proceedings of the present case proved deficiency in service and unfair trade practice. In view of this, the dealer was directed to refund Rs9,500 to the complainant, along with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum, and pay a compensation of Rs5,000 to the complainant for causing mental agony and harassment and cost of litigation, said the commission in its order.
