Consumer Aggrieved by Online Shopping Entity Provided Relief by the Court

The online world has take over with all of us preferring to order everything (even groceries!) off the internet, preventing all the hassle involved in actually stepping out of the house. No matter how easy the internet has made things for us considering how everything is a click away, there is always room for error. Out of every fifty online placed orders, one turns out faulty. It could be late delivery, delivery of the wrong product, or no delivery at all. This is where the law comes in at the aid of the aggrieved consumers. In a recent case on similar lines, Amazon was ordered to provide refund with interest to an aggrieved consumer by the court.

Amazon Consumer Complaint Tricity
Amazon Consumer Complaint Tricity

Facts of the case
The complainant, Baljit Singh Dhillon, aged 61, was a resident of Sector 27, Panchkula. He bought an iBall tablet on amazon back in January, 2017. On receiving the product, the complainant realised that the tablet had display problems and he informed the firm about the same and requested a refund. The firm accepted the request and assured to refund the amount on receiving the tablet. But instead of the refund, the company issued him gift cards. The complainant approached Amazon for the refund a lot of times but in vain.
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum penalised Amazon Sellers Services Private Limited for sending gift cards instead of money as refund for the faulty tablet.The court held that the company was liable to refund the entire amount paid by the complainant. The forum said, “Instead of refunding the amount, insisting and forcing the complainant to buy another product by way of crediting the amount to Amazon account against the consent of complainant is unfair trade practice on the part of the opposite party”. The firm is to refund Rs. 17,029 along with interest at 9% per annum. The firm was also ordered to pay Rs. 5,000 for mental agony and another Rs. 5,000 as cost of litigation to the complainant.

Legal path available to consumers
The consumer should never hesitate to approach the court in case the online entity fails to provide the services as promised. The District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum deals with complaints involving costs and compensation less than Rs. Twenty Lakh. There also exist State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at the state level and the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at the national level for higher amounts.

You may also take expert legal advice from best/top/expert consumer advocates/lawyers in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula for any of your specific grievances against online shopping sites or entities like Amazon, Myntra, Flipkart etc for not fulfilling their duties and obligations.

The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 is the legislation that governs the rights of the consumers and provides protection of such rights of the consumers. It enables ordinary consumers to secure less expensive and often speedy redressal of their grievances.

For more adept legal help or information, please dial 7888-356908.