Mobile dealer caught in costly deal

KOLKATA: The now ubiquitous cellphone had not seen the light of day in 1986 when the Consumer Protection Act was framed. But that didn’t protect a mobile dealer who tried to overcharge an unsuspecting buyer.
A consumer court in Kolkata recently hauled up one such dealer in cellphones for charging extra for a Nokia handset. Last year, Tarun Banerjee took a great deal of care while choosing a Nokia 3310 handset from a city-based dealer.On June 11, he paid Rs 4,699 for the handset and was under the impression that he had managed to get a great deal.
But he was in for a shock when some of his friends told him that he had been grossly overcharged and taken for a ride. Banerjee made a few enquiries with other Nokia showrooms and realised that his friends were right.
The price of the model was Rs 3,400 at the most. So he lodged a complaint with the state consumer affairs department. The department fixed four hearings on September 2, September 23, October 11 and October 25 last year. One employee of the showroom appeared on the day of the last hearing and claimed that the dealer had charged the price printed on the box of the mobile set.
B a n e r j e e then filed a c o m p l a i n t with the Calcutta District Consumer Redressal Forum Unit-I and sought a refund of the excess amount charged and Rs 3,000 as compensation. The dealer who sold him the set failed to justify why he had charged Banerjee more than the going rate.
Banerjee produced the cash memo and price-lists of different handsets of the same model and managed to establish that the model he had bought should have come much cheaper.
A three-member forum — headed by president P.N.Bhadury — passed an order last month, directing the dealer to refund Rs 1,399 (the excess amount) and Rs 1,000 as compensation. The forum also chastised the dealer for indulging in unfair trade practices.