Firm told to pay Rs 5k for selling faulty water filter

The suburban district consumer forum has penalised Hindustan Unilever Limited for selling a faulty water filter to a customer. The company has been asked to pay the customer Rs5,000 and replace the filter with a new one.

The case dates back to August 2011, when Kadir Khan, a Malad resident, bought the water filter worth Rs1,000. In his complaint, Khan said since the filter was a faulty one, he couldn’t use it. He tried to get in touch with the company a number of times, but the company failed to respond.
Aggrieved with the company’s attitude, Khan filed a complaint against HUL with the consumer forum in December 2011.

In its reply, HUL claimed that they had deployed personnel to attend to the complainant’s problem a number of times, but as the personnel couldn’t find anyone at the complainant’s home. The forum added that since HUL had circulated a faulty piece in the market for sale, a compensation of Rs5,000 would have to be awarded to the complainant, apart from replacement of the faulty appliance with a new filter.