HYDERABAD: The district consumer dispute redressal forum on Friday asked the e-commerce platform, Snapdeal, to pay a compensation Rs 40,000 to a consumer for refusing to take back a faulty product, a Samsung Gear S2 smart watch, purchased on the platform.
The complainant, E Bhanu Prakash, 26, a resident of Sanathnagar, had ordered a Samsung Gear S2 smart watch on Snapdeal for Rs 19,500 in 2017. The complainant had raised an issue with the quality of the product and wanted to return the product to the opposite party.
Officilals at Snapdeal initially did not object to it and even sent a customer service engineer, P Rajesh, to the complainant’s house. Days later, the engineer reached the complainant’s house he inquired about the product but did not take it back, stating that another official will come to take the product back in the next few days. However, no other company representative came again. Following this, when the complainant contacted the opposite party, he received no response.
Denying the allegations, the firm claimed that they did not sell any product to the complainant as it is only an intermediate party between the seller and purchaser. It further stated that Spontaneous Communications Pvt., Ltd., the company that had sold the watch in question to the complainant, was liable to redress the consumer’s grievance.
Holding the firm guilty, the forum observed that the opposite party did not properly specify to the opposite party that the product is exempt from the return policy, which is untenable.
It also said that the engineer who was sent to the complainant’s house for quality check also reported about the poor quality of the product and so the consumer is entitled to compensation.