Hewlett-Packard told to pay for faulty laptop

The south Mumbai district consumer dispute redressal forum has held Hewlett-Packard (HP) India computers and one of its Crawford Market-based dealer guilty of providing a faulty laptop to its consumer and penalised them for it.

The forum directed the firms to pay back the total cost of the laptop to the complainant (Rs56,000) with nine per cent interest on the amount from July 7 2007. They have also been directed to pay additional amounts of Rs10,000 and Rs3,000 towards the complainant's mental agony and litigation cost.

According to VC Kothari, a Dadar resident, on December 26, 2006, he had approached the dealer of HP Computers, M/s Computer Shopee and purchased a HP laptop and accessories. The laptop stopped working because of mechanical and manufacturing defects.

After the complainant brought the issue to the notice of the dealer, he immediately asked a company's technician to attend the problem and report about the fault. The technician in his report claimed that the power connection to the said laptop was not functioning properly and that was the reason behind its failure.

"After the complainant realised that he was given a faulty laptop, Kothari wrote to the company asking for a refund. The company confirmed the fault and informed Kothari that they would either refund the money of replace the defective laptop with a new one. Accordingly, the complainant returned the defective laptop to the dealer on July 7, 2007.

When the company did not do anything for two months, Kothari approached the consumer forum.

The forum, after going through the complaint, asked the company to file its reply. The company in its reply claimed that it had asked its technician to attend to Kothari's problem and pleaded the consumer forum to reject the complainant's plea.

The forum, after going through the arguments, said the behaviour of both the company and the dealer amounts to deficiency in service and that the company is liable to pay compensation.