Rs 15,000 relief for 3 who got faulty power banks

HYDERABAD: A district consumer forum here has directed an e-commerce website to pay a total of '15,000 as compensation to three customers for selling them faulty and damaged power bank devices.
Lured by the online offers provided by 'bookmyoffer.com', three persons from Sangareddy namely Mohd Owaisuddin Owais, MA Zaheer and Mohd Amjad Khan placed an online order for power banks (MI or Samsung power bank 20400mah) and paid '748 each.When the said power banks were delivered to their places, all the three portable devices were found to be defective and faulty.
The three immediately brought the matter to the notice of e-commerce authorities and made several complaints on the service number and email ID provided as well as on the website of the company. No action was taken by the company side to replace the faulty devices. Vexed with the company's indifference, Owais, Zaheer, and Amjad approached the forum for justice and compensation.
The opposite party was served a notice of appearance but since it failed to appear before the forum it was declared to be exparte.
During the trial, the bench said, “It is observed that nowadays it has become common for e-commerce websites to the follow unfair trade practice and deliver wrong or damaged goods to customers. Lately, innocent customers are falling prey to the tactics of big fraudsters. In the light of such fraud cases, the custo merscomplainants have to be careful enough before entering into such e-commerce websites in future.“
In the end, the bench passed an order in favour of the complainants and asked the e-commerce website to pay a total compensation of '15,000 (i.e. '5,000 to each complainant) for the mental agony and hardship caused along with cost of the three power banks which came to '2,244 '748 for each device). '1,500 ( was also awarded as cost of the complaint.
(by Nirupa Vatyam)