In the latest example of consumer empowerment, a district consumer forum has directed the e-commerce giant, Flipkart to pay Rs 15,000 in order to compensate for selling a faulty charger to a customer. Dr Ahmed AQ Irfani, who reportedly purchased a mobile charger from Flipkart in January 2016 for Rs 259, damaged his smartphone in the first charge cycle itself. Ahmed claims that soon after he plugged in his device for charging, the phone caught fire and was damaged immediately.
When filed a complaint with Flipkart, Ahmed reports that the e-commerce giant agreed to replace the charger but refused to pay for the damages caused to the handset.
Ahmed said – “When I complained to Flipkart, they offered to replace the faulty charger, but declined to compensate for the damage caused to my phone. They suggested that the device could have been damaged because of the surge in power,”
However, he then filed a petition with the district consumer forum who has now favoured the customer and ordered Flipkart to pay Rs 15,000 for the damage.
A statement from consumer forum read – “Flipkart cannot shirk their liability on the grounds that they did not charge any consideration from the complainant. The complainant purchased the product through Flipkart and therefore there exists a relationship between a consumer and the service provider between the two.”
Further, the phone charger reportedly could handle a power fluctuation ranging from 110 volts to 240 volts which a lot when we consider usual power surges. Hence, the forum ordered the e-commerce giant to compensate for the damages as well.