CHENNAI: After about 20 months and over 150 calls to the mobile phone manufacturer, a city resident who was sold a defective phone was awarded Rs 50,000 as compensation by a consumer forum here.
K Ponselvan had purchased a Xolo A 500 mobile phone manufactured by Lava International Limited, Uttar Pradesh, that carried one year warranty for the handset, and six months for the battery, charger and headset. As the equipment developed problem within six months of purchase, Ponselvan approached Univercell Telecommunications India Private Limited’s Ambattur branch from where he had purchased the mobile. There, he was redirected to approach F1 Info Solutions and Services Private Limited at Kilpauk, the authorised customer service center for Xolo mobiles. The service center received his mobile on September 16, 2013, and after 12 days, returned it with an assurance that the problem has been rectified.
But within a month, the mobile developed problem again — this time the handset was dead. After he received poor response from the customer center, Ponselvan approached one Senthilnathan of Xolo, who promised to rectify the defect. But soon after that, he remained unreachable and failed to respond to more than 150 phone calls made by the complainant. In the meantime, the warranty of the mobile expired. Ponselvan sent a complaint about the issue to Dinesh Harjani, CSD - head, Xolo business division. As all his efforts proved futile, he approached the forum for compensation for mental agony suffered and to return the cost of mobile.
The North Chennai District Consumer Forum, comprising president K Jayabalan and member T Kalaiyarasi, passed an ex-parte order, as none of the opposite parties appeared or filed reply to the complaint. Holding that there is a deficiency in service and the mobile phone was also not returned to the complainant, the forum held that the complainant was entitled for refund of the cost of the mobile, and also a compensation for mental agony. The forum directed the opposite parties to jointly and severally to refund the cost of mobile Rs 6,700 and to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation, besides Rs 3,000 as cost of the complaint.