HYDERABAD: On the occasion of World Consumer Rights Day i.e. March 15, a mobile phone service centre in the city was ordered to compensate a consumer more than the actual cost of the phone for deficiency in services.The Samsung Service centre in Dilsukhnagar was ordered by the Hyderabad Consumer Forum - III to cough up Rs 15,000 for a Samsung Galaxy Grand - 2 mobile phone, which currently costs about Rs 10,000. The forum also asked to replace the old device with a new one and pay court charges of Rs 2,000.
In its order on Thursday, president of the forum found that the service centre failed to inform the consumer about a repair in the device at the time of submitting it for service. The court even flayed the practice of service centres not informing customers about the problem in the device when they submit the phone for repair. Y Srikanth, a private employee, took his phone to the Samsung India Electronics in Dilsukhnagar with a complaint that its screen had gone blank and the phone was not getting switched on.
Though the issue was resolved at the first instance, at the second, the service centre kept the phone and informed Srikanth that he needed to pay Rs 5,170 for replacement of certain parts as the device was liquid-logged. Usually, it is a common practice across various service centres that problems/issues the device are not communicated to the owner immediately, but in the course of a 24-hour period. Informing about it, Srikanth complained that even though the device was in warranty period, his request for a replacement or repair without charging money was not heeded by the service centre.
Service centre argued the issue of waterlogging is not covered under the clause of warranty as such issues occur only due to misuse of the device. Taking notice of the “customer friendly” tag that the company promotes, the president of the forum said that it should deliver the promise.