Consumer forum pulls up service centre for refusing to repair phone

The Central Mumbai District’s consumer dispute redressal forum recently pulled up an authorised service center of Sony Xperia phones for demanding money to repair a phone that was under warranty.

The forum, while reprimanding Orbit Electronics, said that it cannot withdraw from its promised services and that it was mandatory to provide free services or replacement as promised.

In its defence, the service center cited its disclaimer note that mentions certain conditions that help it evade promised services owed to consumers. To this the forum said, “By merely writing some conditions in small letters, the company cannot run away from the advertisement published on the website. The device is waterproof as assured by the company on the website, so it is liable to repair or replace the mobile if it is damaged.”

The firm said that the warranty was not applicable if damage to the phone is caused by the consumer’s negligence and thus it refused to pay for the repair charges. The forum, however, held the service center and mobile stores guilty of negligent behavior and asked them to pay back the entire cost of the phone along with Rs 10,000 towards mental agony and Rs 10,000 towards litigation charges.