Chandigarh: Man sold defective sports shoes gets refund of ₹18,000

Karan Singh Sidhu, a resident of Sector 19, approached the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-2, complaining that he had purchased a pair of shoes from the Nike store at Elante Mall on June 28, 2021.

But due to a manufacturing defect, the shoes got damaged after a few days of use. Although he received a replacement pair from the store, the new pair also suffered the same fate.

Sidhu said he contacted the store a second time in September 2021 to lodge a complaint, but the store rejected it. He repeatedly asked the store to refund the money paid for the shoes, but to no avail, which he said amounted to a deficiency in after-sales service and an unfair business practice.

Before the commission, the opposing parties argued that the complaint was false and inadmissible.

They claimed that the first pair of shoes was replaced by the Elante store on June 28, 2021. Although the complainant claimed that the new pair of shoes was damaged after a few days of use, he did not provide the exact date of the damage.

Following complaint, examination of the photographs submitted by the complainant conclusively revealed that the product was externally damaged and exhibited excessive wear that could not be attributed to a manufacturing defect.

The Commission observed that goods purchased by the consumer must be of merchantable quality and have at least a normal shelf life.

In the present complaint, the opposing parties have rejected the consumer’s claim on the grounds that the shoes were externally damaged and exhibited excessive wear and tear, but have failed to prove the same by way of any expert report after examining the shoes in question.

“It is observed that the opposite parties have failed to rectify the defect in the shoes or refund the price thereof, which constitutes an unfair trade practice,” the commission further observed, while ordering that the entire amount paid for the shoes be refunded.

Company fined for selling defective headphones

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-2 has ordered Harman International (India) Private Limited to pay ₹5,000 as compensation and reimbursement ₹$899 for a defective pair of headphones sold in 2019.

According to the complaint filed by Raj Kumar of Sector 24, he had purchased JBL earphones on June 10, 2019 from an authorized Harman International store in Jhajjar, Haryana. He had purchased it for ₹899 with one year warranty.

But the headset stopped working on January 28, 2020, during the warranty period. When he approached the authorized repair center in Sector 22-C, they refused to repair it, citing physical damage, even though the product was not damaged, which is an unfair business practice.

Since Harman International India and Jhajjar Retail Store did not appear before this commission, they were prosecuted ex parte.

The repair center, through its attorney, filed its response, claiming that the current complaint was not admissible; the product was no longer under warranty because the earphones were physically damaged and the complainant was informed that the earphones were no longer under warranty because they were physically damaged. They denied all the allegations made against them and requested that the complaint be dismissed.

The Commission found that the complainant had recorded in the minutes his sworn statement that the product was not damaged. The service center did not produce any “test report” proving that the product had been physically damaged. The burden of proof was on the opposing parties to prove that the product had been damaged by means of an expert report or a test report, and their argument was not admissible.

Accepting Kumar’s complaint, the commission observed: “Since the product stopped functioning within the warranty period, the opposite parties are liable to replace the product or refund the cost of the product.”

It therefore ordered that the amount be repaid and that an additional lump sum compensation of ₹5,000 will be paid to the consumer.