Dell asked to compensate woman for faulty laptop with US-only warranty

The South Mumbai District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has asked popular laptop manufacturer, Dell to compensate a resident of Mumbai for selling her a “defective” laptop with a US warranty, reports The Financial Express. Nivedita Jana purchased a Dell laptop in 2011. While the laptop had been purchased in the country, it offered a US-only warranty. The piece sold to her turned out to be defective. She then approached Dell service centres in Mumbai only to be sent back saying her warranty was not valid in India. Accusing Dell of having indulged in an unfair trade practice, forum president S B Dhuman and member S S Patil in their verdict stated that the laptop was sold without a valid warranty, and subsequently asked the company to compensate Jana in a month with Rs 32,500, the amount Jana had paid to buy the laptop, plus Rs 12,700 for causing her mental agony. 

Asked to pay compensation

Recently, following an affidavit filed by a Haryana-based doctor, the South West District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum asked Spice Mobile to pay a fine of Rs 18,000. The mobile phone manufacturer, as alleged in complainant Dr Asha Sharma’s affidavit, failed to fix or return her mobile phone that she had given to the company's service centre for repairs.

Haryana-based Dr Asha Sharma reportedly bought a Spice mobile for Rs 5,000 on June 4, 2012. In her complaint, Sharma elaborates that the handset developed several faults that included the device hanging and stopping automatically while charging. She added that the device stopped functioning altogether. On September 20, 2010, Sharma gave her phone at the service centre for repairs. In her complaint, Sharma alleges that the service centre did not return the mobile, after which she went ahead and issued a legal notice, seeking refund of the phone's price, notice fee, compensation and litigation cost.

A bench presided by Narendra Kumar has now directed the company, Spice Mobile, and its service centre to either jointly or otherwise pay the complainant the specified amount.

South-II District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum also held Nokia India guilty of indulging in unfair trade practice, recently following a complaint by Delhi resident Rohan Arora. Nokia India was directed by the forum to pay Arora a sum of Rs 67,000 for allegedly selling Arora a defective phone, and also failing to either repair the device or refund its cost. Arora had returned the phone to Nokia in 2007 to either have it repaired or replaced. He, however, claims that the defective handset was replaced with an old instrument riddled with the same problem. Arora added that Nokia India refused to refund the cost of the device. The case against the company moved ahead ex-parte, since it had appeared only once before the forum.