VLCC to pay up for not keeping promise

Giving false claim to a consumer has landed fitness chain Vandana Luthra Curls and Curves (VLCC) in trouble. It will have to cough up damages of Rs50,000 to a consumer, who could not shed weight despite following the diet schedule by the company.

A district consumer forum of Ghaziabad directed VLCC to pay Rs50,000 to Saurabh Tiwari for giving him false assurances that he’d be able to reduce his weight by 30 kg. Tiwari had paid more than Rs20,000 for the slimming programme but could not lose his weight.

Consumer forum president AK Srivastava and member Bhupendra Shukla remarked that often companies misguide people by advertising in newspapers, and the public also fall easy prey to them.

“People often waste their time and money to look beautiful. The behaviour of VLCC towards this customer was improper and caused him physical and mental agony,” they said in their order.

Tiwari, a resident of Kavi Nagar in Ghaziabad, had approached the Rajdhani Enclave, Delhi centre of VLCC April 30, 1999. He stated that the company had guaranteed to help him shed 30 kg weight within a brief period.

The company recommended a programme and gave him some medicines to help him slim down.

On the other hand, VLCC maintained that it had not given any false assurances to Tiwari and that he had failed to derive the benefit by not conforming to the schedule properly.