savramesh 37 Report post Posted June 8, 2009 (edited) Bharti Airtel To Pay Rs 20,000 For Sale Of Defective Blackberry Handset Indian Express.com Monday , Jun 08, 2009 at 0507 hrs IST Chandigarh: The UT State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed Bharti Airtel to pay Rs 20,000 as compensation after they were found guilty of selling a defective Blackberry phone handset to a customer. It was in response to the directives of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum to pay Rs 20,000 as compensation for harassment and Rs 5,000 towards litigation costs, that the company had moved the commission. The complainant, Anil Malhotra, an advocate and resident of Sector 16, purchased a Blackberry handset from Sector-8 outlet — The Radius — for Rs 24,909 in August 2008. The handset was under a one-year warranty period and it was averred that any problem regarding the set shall be attended to at Chandigarh. After the trackball in the handset developed a fault, the complainant reported the matter in January 2009, stating that the trackball was functioning sideways only and not up and down. The complainant stated that on contacting the Airtel outlet here, he was denied help on the pretext that the outlet only dealt in bill payments. The complainant further alleged that the facilities offered by Bharti Airtel for Blackberry phones are not available in Chandigarh. In its reply, Bharti Airtel pleaded that they neither sell nor manufacture Blackberry handsets. The Blackberry support team had assured the complainant that a replacement of the defective set would be done in Bangalore without any charges, during which he would be provided with a standby set, contended Bharti Airtel. While dismissing the appeal, the commission held: “The repeated emails, correspondence and on-record copies of these, prove that the complainant wasted a considerable amount of time and energy in contacting various officials.” Edited June 18, 2009 by savramesh Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted June 9, 2009 Times of India 9 Jun 2009, 0327 hrs IST, TNN CHANDIGARH: When he was charged Rs 10 per day for utilizing dada.net services, Ranbir Singh, a Sector-34 resident, moved consumer court against the telecommunication company. Holding that Bharti Airtel Limited had wrongly charged him Rs 10 about 15 to 20 times, UT consumer forum directed it to reverse all entries of Rs 10 debited from Singh?s account and also to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation and Rs 1,100 as litigation costs. Deciding the complaint, the forum, headed by Jagroop Singh Mahal, said, ‘’It is generally seen that a message is flashed by mobile service providers without mentioning as to what the monetary liability to the consumer would be in case he opts for a particular service.’’ Airtel was also asked to maintain records regarding the consent given by consumers for a particular service and it was added that in the absence of these records, it would be presumed that no consent of the subscriber was taken. An Airtel subscriber, Singh allegedly received regular messages saying he was being charged Rs 10 for availing ‘Dada’ services since November 2008. He brought this matter to the notice of Airtel with a request to stop the service forthwith, but to no avail. He alleged that whenever he got his cellphone recharged, the telecommunication company arbitrarily deducted Rs 10 per message, owing to which, he finally stopped getting his cellphone account recharged. Denying allegations in its reply, Bharti Airtel Company pleaded that Singh had sought activation of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)-based service through which the subscriber could browse the dada.net library and choose from top Bollywood tunes, international chartbusters, latest wallpapers and screensavers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted June 10, 2009 Court orders SIM service providers to pay damages Times of India 9 Jun 2009, 2314 hrs IST KANPUR: The consumer protection forum of Kanpur Nagar on Tuesday ordered Bharti Televentures and Sai Communications of city to return Rs 11,678 along with interest at the rate of 10% per annum to the complainant within 30 days of its order. The presiding officers, A K Agarwal, Shailendra Uttap and Sumanlata also observed in their order that the defendants had to pay a sum of Rs 2,000 as legal expenses and damages to the complainant, Neeraj Arya. Neeraj Arya in his complaint had urged that he had paid a sum of Rs 10,000 for a VIP number 9936111111 for his mobile phone on March 31, 2006. At that time, Sai communication had assured that the allotted number would be activated by evening. But the connection was not activated. He made several visits to Sai Communications office situated in Raina Market, Nawabganj to get his SIM activated but could not get it activated. Meanwhile, in the hope that his VIP number would eventually be activated, he got printed his visiting cards with the new VIP number on it. The defendants failed to activate his SIM in three months' time, Neeraj Arya submitted. The complainant, thereafter, lodged a complaint before the consumer protection forum and claimed the allotment and activation of his VIP number and damages for non-activation of SIM. The presiding officers after hearing the arguments observed that Sai Communications and Bharti Televentures both were liable to pay the principal sum of Rs 11,678 to the complainant due to deficiency in service. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted June 18, 2009 Mobile phones trigger a ‘young revolution’ in consumer courts of Chandigarh Indian Express Thursday , Jun 18, 2009 at 0033 hrs IST Chandigarh: Long considered the favourite hangouts of the elderly and the retired, consumer courts would witness them pacing up and down with their grievances. But that view is changing. These days, young people make a beeline for these courts. Besides increased awareness and speedy disposal of cases, the telecom revolution has drawn these youth to consumer courts. After the advent of mobile phones, complaints related to the telecom sector jumped from 88 in 2006 to 634 so far in 2009. Majority of complainants in these cases are youngsters. An official at the consumer forum said more than 50 per cent of the telecom-related complaints are filed by youngsters. These complaints range from overcharging, change in the SMS package without notice, defective mobile sets and non-functional games, among others. “Initially, young advocates dragged telecom and mobile companies to consumer forums. Soon, senior citizens, who otherwise also constitute 90 per cent of our litigants, started trickling in. And gradually, youngsters started coming in with their mobile-related complaints,” Major General (retd) S P Kapoor, presiding member, UT State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, said. “Now, the scenario is such that telecom complaints are mostly filed by the youth.” Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted July 15, 2009 Airtel directed to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation Source The District Consumer Disputes Redressal forum has directed Bharti Airtel to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation for adding “illegal charges” in a consumer’s bill. The company has been directed to remove the charges from the bill and pay Rs 2,200 as cost of litigation to the complainant. The complainant, Sukhjit Singh Bains, who lives in Sector 48, got a landline telephone connection of Bharti Airtel, which was under a combo offer with Internet DSL. As per the plan, the Internet DSL was free after 9 pm. However, when Bains got the bill for July 2008, he found that Rs 1,068.66 and Rs 2,927.18 were charged for using the Internet after 9 pm. He went to the Sector-34 office of the company to complain, but no action was taken. Then he moved the consumer forum. In its reply, Airtel said under the DSL TOPUP 49 plan, the benefit of free Internet after 9 pm was applicable only if the consumer logged in after 9 pm. But as per complainant himself, the company said, he had logged in before 9 pm and continued to use the Internet after that. However, the forum, headed by its president Jagroop Singh Mahal, said Airtel was unable to produce any such instructions on record. “The company never informed their Internet users about the timings for usage,” said the forum, adding that Airtel was adopting an unfair trade practice to earn wrongful gains. The forum also maintained that the company may be earning lakhs of rupees every month by “dodging” thousands of customers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
