BENGALURU: A consumer who had been attempting to get an authorised service agency fix the problems in his washing machine for the past two years had reasons to celebrate after the fourth Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum directed the agency to restore the machine to its working condition without collecting an exorbitant fee.
The consumer, Jaishanker Balakrishnan of Malleshpalaya, had purchased a washing machine in 2016. Soon he realised that his washing machine was not working. A junior engineer from the authorised service centre, Op Services, attended to his complaint and took the machine to the agency’s office.
After repeated telephone calls, a week later, the agency handed over a washing machine which belonged to someone else. When Balakrishnan got it, he found it was not working. As he had spent more than `2,500, he felt cheated when the problems in the washing machine were not fixed. After waiting for over 16 months, he filed a complaint with the consumer forum seeking a compensation of `80,000.
When the agency did not pay heed to the notice from the forum, it decided to conduct exparte hearing. The forum said non-filing of any written version for the complaint was equal to admitting the allegations in the complaint.
The forum directed the agency to extend the warranty period by six months. It also directed to pay `2,000 as litigation expenses to the consumer.