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Consumer Court Guide
for Consumers

A complete guide on consumer court process.

Based on book “Consumer Court Guide for Consumers“ - A guide to help, protect & fight for Consumer rights.
You can buy Paperback book at
Amazon, Flipkart.

Acknowledgements

We express our heartfelt gratitude to all the members of our team, lawyers and dear friends, who stood with us through thick & thin to seek the completion of this book.

Our special thanks to all the consumers who believed in Voxya to resolve their complaints and who have also contributed their stories and inspiration for writing this book.

Also we would like to thank all known and unknown resources on the internet for providing valuable insights on the subject matter.

Lastly, we want to thank the almighty God for providing us an opportunity to become a change maker in the society.

- With love from Voxya.com

Book Chapters

When can I approach Consumer Court?

The consumer can file a case against the seller or service provider if he has suffered loss or damage due to...

What relief can I get by Consumer Court?

The Consumer Forum can give direction to: Remove the defects from the goods; Replace the goods; Refund the price paid...

Approaching Consumer Court

You can approach consumer court within two years from the date on which cause of action arises. Before approaching the...

A. Preparation

If you have decided to file a case against a service provider or seller and want to fight for your consumer rights, first of all...

B. Sending Legal Notice

A legal notice means a letter written in clear and straight-forwarded words to a person or an organization to do or not...

C. Preparing Case Documents

The next step in approaching Consumer court is to prepare required papers to file a written consumer complaint...

D. Filing Case

Consumer Protection Act empowers consumers to file their consumer complaints by visiting the Consumer Court at the district, state or national level along with...

How to stay safe and protect yourself?

Prevention is always better than cure. In this chapter we will provide tips to stay safe and protected from mis-happenings...

How to identify fake websites?

It is really difficult to identify fake ecommerce websites in India. We, at Voxya.com, receive a lot of consumer complaints...

How to get refund from unresponsive seller?

Are you someone who bought the wrong product or service? And now the company is refusing to give you a refund...

Tricks to resolve Consumer Complaints

In this chapter we are sharing some of the best tricks to resolve your consumer complaints. They are compiled by...

Success Stories to inspire

There are hundreds of success stories where consumers won the fight with the brands. We are including some of...

Consumer Court Guide for Consumers
is a must-have book for taking legal action
against brands in India.

Who
We are

Voxya Logo

We are a team of tech geeks and lawyers who are working tirelessly with you to get the resolution you want.

We are ordinary people but with extraordinary zeal to use technology, business network, and legal framework to help, protect, and fight for people in India.

After Covid, we have gone 100% remote and can be reached through email, phone, and WhatsApp.

Content List

  1. Introduction
  2. Who is Consumer?
  3. When can I approach Consumer Court?
  4. What relief can I get by Consumer Court?
  5. Approaching Consumer Court
  6. A. Preparation
  7. B. Sending Legal Notice
  8. C. Preparing Case Documents
  9. D. Filing Case
  10. How to stay safe and protect yourself?
  11. How to identify fake websites?
  12. How to get refund from unresponsive seller?
  13. Tricks to resolve Consumer Complaints
  14. Success Stories to inspire

1. Introduction

Consumer Court is a special purpose court that deals with consumer complaints, disputes and grievances. The Consumer Court is also called as Consumer Forum.

To safeguard the interests of consumers, the Indian Government established the consumer courts under the Consumer Protection Act of 1986. The Consumer Protection Act of 2019 has just superseded the Consumer Protection Act of 1986, which had been in effect for three decades.

Consumers can file a case against a seller or service provider if they feel cheated or exploited. The purpose of establishing a separate forum for consumer disputes was to ensure speedy resolution of disputes with minimum inconvenience and expense to consumers.

Simplicity in procedure was the motive of establishing consumer courts or consumer forums.However, in the absence of proper information, the consumers are wary of approaching the consumer courts. Through this book, we are trying to answer common questions that concern a common man when he wants to file a complaint with a consumer forum.

2. Who is your consumer?

As per the Consumer Protection Act, only consumers are eligible to file consumer complaints.

The Consumer Protection Act says that "consumer" means any person who:

1. Buys any goods for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes any user of such goods other than the person who buys such goods for consideration paid or promised or partly paid or partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment, when such use is made with the approval of such person, but does not include a person who obtains such goods for resale or for any commercial purpose. 2. Hires or avails of any service for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes any beneficiary of such service other than the person who hires or avails of the services for consideration paid or promised, or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment, when such services are availed of with the approval of the first mentioned person, but does not include a person who avails of such service for any commercial purpose.

In layman's language, anybody who buys a product or avails a service for a consideration (partial / full payment or a promise to pay), either for his personal use or to earn his livelihood by means of self employment, is a consumer in the eyes of law and so he is eligible to file a complaint.

It is to be noted that it is not necessary that the consumer himself has to file the complaint. Even a spouse, relative or a legal representative can also file a complaint on his behalf.

3. When can I approach
Consumer Court?

The consumer can file a case against the seller or service provider if he has suffered loss or damage due to:

1 Defective product
2 Deficiency in service
3 Unfair or restrictive trade practices
4 Harmful goods or services
5 Excess price charged
According to Section 2(1)(g) of the Consumer Protection Act 1986, “deficiency” means any fault, imperfection, shortcoming or inadequacy in the quality, nature and manner of performance which is required to be maintained by or under any law for the time being in force or has been undertaken to be performed by a person in pursuance of a contract or otherwise about any service.

According to Section 2(1)(o), “service” means service of any description which is made available to potential users and includes, but not limited to, the provision of facilities in connection with banking, financing insurance, transport, processing, supply of electrical or other energy, board or lodging or both, housing construction, entertainment, amusement or the purveying of news or other information, but does not include the rendering of any service free of charge or under a contract of personal service; “spurious goods and services” mean such goods and services which are claimed to be genuine but they are not so.

4. What relief can I get by Consumer Court?

The Consumer Forum can give direction to:

1. Remove the defects from the goods 2. Replace the goods 3. Refund the price paid 4. Remove the defects or deficiencies in the services 5. Award compensation for the loss or injury suffered by the complainant 6. Discontinue and not to repeat unfair trade practice or restrictive trade practice 7. Withdraw hazardous goods from being offered for sale 8. Cease manufacture of hazardous goods and desist from offering services which are hazardous in nature 9. Pay for sum (not less than 25% of the value of defective goods or services provided) 10. Issue corrective advertisement to neutralize the effect of misleading advertisement 11. Provide adequate costs to parties

According to Section 2(1)(g) of the Consumer Protection Act 1986, “deficiency” means any fault, imperfection, shortcoming or inadequacy in the quality, nature and manner of performance which is required to be maintained by or under any law for the time being in force or has been undertaken to be performed by a person in pursuance of a contract or otherwise about any service.

According to Section 2(1)(o), “service” means service of any description which is made available to potential [users and includes, but not limited to, the provision of] facilities in connection with banking, financing insurance, transport, processing, supply of electrical or other energy, board or lodging or both, [housing construction,] entertainment, amusement or the purveying of news or other information, but does not include the rendering of any service free of charge or under a contract of personal service; “spurious goods and services” mean such goods and services which are claimed to be genuine but they are not so.

You have limited time
to file a case

Don't wait too long,hire a lawyer
to file case in Consumer Court

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5. Approaching Consumer Court

You can approach consumer court within two years from the date on which cause of action arises. Before approaching the consumer forum, you first need to send a Legal Notice to the opposite party and give them 15-30 days to resolve the dispute. If they ignore your Legal Notice and do not reply or resolve within time, then you can file a case in consumer court.
For the sake of clarity the entire process of approaching Consumer Court can be divided into below steps:

A. Preparation
B. Sending Legal Notice
C. Preparing case documents
D. Filing case

A. Preparation

If you have decided to file a case against a service provider or seller and want to fight for your consumer rights, first of all you should collect names & addresses of all the opposite parties.

You can easily get contact details of the opposite party from the invoice or bill which you might have received from it.

Though it is not required to engage a lawyer to file a case in Consumer Court, but it is always beneficial to hire an experienced lawyer to get professional guidance and support in your case. Hiring a lawyer online is still new for many but this can be the first step towards adapting to the new technological world. Online legal consultation is similar to offline legal consultations.

Instead of going to the offices of the lawyers, one takes the consultations over the phone on audio or video calls. The lawyer giving advice via the internet has the same level of qualification & experience as any off-line lawyer you may find in your locality. Infact, it is easier to get better qualified & experienced lawyers via online platforms like Voxya.com than actually finding them in your locality.

The online lawyer will also have the same obligations and constraints, including professional secrecy.

Before moving to the next stage of your case, you also need to collect and arrange all the relevant evidence in your case to prove your point. You should include evidence for each relevant point in your complaint.

For example if you are claiming that seller made false promises to you while selling then you should include his emails, chat messages or any other written communication to prove your point. Similarly, if you are saying that you received a defective product, you should include pictures of delivered product and provide un-boxing video which can be produced as evidence in the court later.

B. Sending Legal Notice

A legal notice means a letter written in clear and straight-forwarded words to a person or an organization to do or not to do certain acts, failing to which the sender can file a lawsuit against the receiver. It is an act of communicating formally between two or more parties that the sender intends to take legal action against the receiver(s). It is the first step while filing a lawsuit.

The person who sends the notice is called the sender, whereas the person or organization that receives it is called the addressee.

The sender provides some time to the addressee to resolve the issue or present his side in court. The receiver needs to visit the court if he fails to do whatever the notice says.

Though it is not compulsory to send a legal notice before filing a case in court, but it is always a good practice to send it. The sender can easily express his grievances in the notice with the help of a lawyer. It gives some time to the addressee to resolve the issue before he visits the court.

Why send Legal Notice

Sometimes initiating a legal action can be confusing and sending a legal notice can be the beginning of the journey. Sending a legal notice gives a clear intention that the sender is serious about the problems and will file a lawsuit to resolve them. There are various benefits of sending a legal notice and some of the major ones are:

Get Attention

A Legal Notice is a legal document so you get the attention of the opposite party when it is sent.

Force Timely Response

With Legal Notice you can force the opposite party to reply as soon as possible.

Put Pressure

Legal Notice can put pressure on the opposite party to resolve a dispute.

Reach Decision Maker

Legal Notice is usually received by someone who is a decision maker so you will most likely get resolution.

Show Seriousness

Sending Legal Notice shows that you are really serious about your rights.

Get Quick Resolution

If a Legal Notice is sent through a lawyer, it has gravity and you get a quick resolution.

How to send a Legal Notice?

Sometimes initiating a legal action can be confusing and sending a legal notice can be the beginning of the journey. Sending a legal notice gives a clear intention that the sender is serious about the problems and will file a lawsuit to resolve them. There are various benefits of sending a legal notice and some of the major ones are:

Step 1

Get connected with a good lawyer and explain all the details of the case to him. Details may include the names of parties involved, addresses, dates, challenges, and issues. Make sure that you are providing all the correct details to the lawyer as the wrong details may increase the trouble for you.

Step 2

Once the lawyer is done with all the information, he/she starts drafting the legal notice. The notice is usually printed on the Lawyer’s letterhead and signed by the lawyer.

Step 3

The Legal Notice is sent in hard copy to the opposite party through Registered Post and a delivery acknowledgement is needed to prove that it was in fact delivered to the opposite party. Usually, the advocate and the client keep a copy of the legal notice.

Step 4

The legal notice always contains some time period or ultimatum to get the issue resolved faster. Usually, a time of 15 to 30 days is provided to settle the issue either by negotiating or by agreeing to the demands of the other party. So, you need to wait for a resolution or response from the opposite party during this time.

An experienced lawyer can be costly, costing anywhere from Rs.3500 to Rs.10000 for drafting and submitting a legal notice on his letterhead. But if you can’t find your budget with a trained lawyer, then Voxya is there for you.

Voxya can help you send a legal notice at the comfort of your home without the hassle of finding a lawyer that is in your budget!

How to draft a Legal Notice?

A well drafted Legal Notice should have these essential points in it:

  1. Name, description, address of the office or the place of residence of the addressee
  2. Name, description, address of the office or the place of residence of the sender
  3. A detailed explanation of the goods / service purchased which caused all the trouble
  4. Details of the issue
  5. The relief claimed by the sender
  6. Amount to be claimed as the compensation
  7. The time within which the addressee can resolve the issue

Best practices on sending Legal Notice

  1. Always keep copies of the notice with you
  2. If there is a logo of the lawyer, prefer colour printouts of the notice
  3. Contacting a lawyer to draft notice is recommended
  4. Make sure the notice is drafted and sent on the lawyer’s letter pad
  5. Post the notice in the envelope that has the lawyer’s logo on it, ask the lawyer to provide you with such an envelope
  6. Send Notice through Registered Post with delivery acknowledgement

TIP: Keep the copy of delivery acknowledgement with you safely as it is required later if you want to file a case in Consumer Court.

Frequently asked questions

C. Preparing Case Documents

The next step in approaching Consumer court is to prepare required papers to file a written consumer complaint (also called as case) in the forum.
For preparing required papers, you must determine the jurisdiction of the complaint, compensation to be claimed and relief wanted.

Jurisdiction

You need to ensure that your case falls within the jurisdiction of the particular District / State commission where you are planning to file the consumer case. Usually, you should file a consumer complaint in the district where the goods or services were sold, or where the office of the opposite party is located. However, as per new guidelines now the consumer can file a case even from the place where he resides or works.

Apart from determining jurisdiction on the basis of the location, you also need to ensure the correct jurisdiction based on the value of goods/services in the case :

a. If the value of goods or services is less than 1 crore, the District Forum at District level has the jurisdiction to entertain the case. Each District in India has a District Forum.

b. If the value of goods or services is more than 1 crore but does not exceed 10 crores, the State Commission at State level has the jurisdiction to entertain the case. Each State in India has one State Commission.

c. If the value of goods or services exceeds 10 crores, the National Commission at National level has the jurisdiction to entertain the case. The National Commission is located in Delhi.

Get monetary compensation
and legal expenses

Hire a lawyer to file case
in Consumer Court

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Reliefs you can demand

If you are filing a consumer case in the consumer court, you can demand different reliefs from the opposite party to settle the dispute. Let’s see some of the most popular demands that are made:

An apology letter from the company official

This is one of the most basic demands that you can ask for. In this, the company provides a written apology for the trouble that you faced after buying its product or service.
An apology letter is a physical document or email that admits to making a mistake, expresses regret, and asks for forgiveness or patience from the letter recipient. They are useful because they create a physical or digital record of admitting to a mistake or disappointment and it usually satisfies the ego of the complainant.

Get a refund or credit for the purchase

If you bought a faulty product or service, you can ask for a refund from the seller. People receive a refund only if the product that they bought was defective.
Nowadays eCommerce companies are offering Credit in the wallet instead of providing a refund.

TIP: Not every company has a refund policy so before buying anything from any store check if they have a refund policy. Not every product falls under the refund policy so take a look if your product/service falls under the refund policy or not.
Sometimes there are deadlines on the refund policy that you can ask for a refund only within 7 days of buying that product or service. Also, take a look at the deadlines for the product or service for which you are asking for a refund.

Get Replacement or Repairs for free

If for some reason you are not eligible for a refund, you can ask the company to fix the product or replace it for no additional cost.
Product replacement policy also has its rules and regulations so make sure you check them once. Generally, a company will try to avoid replacement and will offer repairs/fixes only but you as a consumer have every right to reject repairs in a new product for which you have already paid.

Get damages for financial loss and mental agony

This is the demand that most of the people wish to avail and this is also the one from which most of the companies run from.
Most of the time companies avoid providing damages for the financial loss and mental agony. If you wish to take this from a company you have to stay persistent and not lose hope.

How much Compensation?

There are no specific guidelines regarding how much compensation should be demanded in a consumer case. You can ask for any amount of compensation but you will have to deposit the appropriate Court fee on the compensation demanded.

As a general rule, the total amount of compensation should include the value of goods/service (refund amount), any reasonable amount to compensate for the agony & harassment caused to you and the cost of litigation (court fees, legal expenses, lawyer's fee etc).

You can also claim interest on the compensation asked till the date of realisation of the whole compensation amount.

D. Filing Case

Consumer Protection Act empowers consumers to file their consumer complaints by visiting the Consumer Court at the district, state or national level along with the documents required for filing the complaint.

As the Act has provided a very simple procedure for filing the complaint so anyone can do this. Thus, you do not need any lawyer to file a consumer complaint in the consumer court.

You can approach consumer court within two years from the date on which cause of action arises. As we have told earlier, before approaching the consumer forum, you first need to send a Legal Notice to the opposite party and give them 15-30 days to resolve the dispute. If they ignore your Legal Notice and do not reply or resolve within time, then you can file a case in consumer court.

For filing a case in a consumer forum, you just need to mention all the details of the case, attach annexures and submit it in a few copies. Normally three copies of these documents are required to be submitted - one for court, one is forwarded to the opposite party and one is for the complainant.

In case the number of opposite parties is more then additional copies of the case documents are required. Along with these case documents, you also need to deposit the required court fees for entertaining your consumer case.

First of all you should collect names & addresses of all the opposite parties. As mentioned earlier, you can easily get this information from the invoice or bill which you might have received from them.

Your complaint should explain the problem which you have faced and clearly state the relief which you are seeking. It should also mention the compensation, damages, cost, refund or interest amount.

However, if you are too lazy to draft your complaint yourself then you should avail the services of Voxya.com to draft and file a professional complaint on your behalf.

As per law, there is no defined format for a consumer complaint so that any common man can file a complaint without the assistance of a lawyer. However, there are a few requirements that should be included in a complaint :

1. The contact details of both the parties - legal name, postal address, telephone numbers 2. The statement of complaint - facts of the complaint, details of the product/service bought, details of the deficiency/defects, how you have suffered 3. Annexures - Supporting documents like Invoices, Receipts, Letters, Email communications etc referred to or relied upon in your complaint 4. Consumer Complaint should be signed by the complainant and supported by a notarised attested affidavit 5. Required Court fee - Demand Draft in favour of the respective consumer forum 6. Application for condonation of delay, if you are filing a case after two years. 7. Required number of photocopies of the entire complaint set

Time Limitation

It is important that a consumer complaint should be filed within two years from the date on which cause of action arises.

If you are filing a case after two years, you should apply for Condonation of delay to allow you to file the case by ignoring the delay in filing.

Court Fee

You need to deposit the required court fees for entertaining your consumer case in different courts. The amount of court fees is determined on the basis of the total value of goods or services and the compensation claimed.

For District Forums

Up to Rs.100,000 : Fees is Rs.100
Between Rs.100,000 – Rs.500,000 : Fees is Rs.200
Between Rs.500,000 -Rs.10,00,000 : Fees is Rs.400
Above Rs.10,00,000 and up to Rs.20,00,000 : Fees is Rs.500

For State Forums

Above Rs.20,00,000 – Rs.50,00,000 : Fees is Rs.2,000
Above Rs.50,00,000 – Rs.100,00,000 : Fees is Rs.4,000

For National Commission

The fees is Rs.5,000

TIP:If the case is decided in your favour, the Court will direct the opposite party to compensate you including legal costs, such as court fees and lawyer fees.

Procedure of Filing Case

Once your written complaint is ready, you have options to file a case - online or offline.

If you want to file a case online by using the internet then you should visit the website www.edaakhil.nic.in which provides a platform to file cases in almost all the consumer forums in India and pay court fees online. It is an initiative of the Department of Consumer Affairs to digitize the functioning of the Consumer Commissions at all the three levels - National, State and District.

In order to file a case, the consumer has to first create his account. He can then upload complaint documents and pay fees online. A unique case number is allotted for every new case.

You can anytime check the status of your case by using edaakhil portal. Even the portal will also send you email/SMS notifications of every important update in your case.

However, there are a few drawbacks of using the online portal for filing consumer cases.

Firstly, the entire proceeding of court is still not online so you may have to visit courts physically, which basically defeats the purpose of online filing.

Secondly, online filing does not involve any litigation pains like visiting courts, following up lawyers, checking replies & status etc, which is good for you but at the same time it is beneficial for the opposite party as it will not experience any problem in dealing even multiple cases at once, which can not be good from a customer's perspective.

For offline filing, you can either hire a lawyer or can do it yourself. For hiring competent and professional lawyers, you can also take Consumer Case filing services from Voxya.

If you decide to file a case yourself then you should visit the appropriate forum and submit the complaint documents along with the required court fee to the receiving clerk in the consumer court who will provide a reference number and date for the first hearing.

At the first hearing (also called as Admission hearing), you will be informed whether your case is fit for admission or not. If the case is accepted, you will be given a date for the next hearing in your case.

Immediately after admitting your case, the court will send a notice to all the opposite parties, asking them to attend the hearing and file their reply within 30 days.

The hearings will continue till the matter is finally decided by the court. The final order is usually sent to all the parties involved by the registered post.

Too busy to take action?

Save your time and hire a lawyer to
file case in Consumer Court

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How to stay safe and protect yourself?

Prevention is always better than cure. In this chapter we will provide tips to stay safe and protected from mis-happenings like frauds and scams.

Debit Card

  1. Never share your 16 digit card number or CVV with anyone.
  2. Only make payment using debit cards on reputed estores, otherwise opt for COD.
  3. Do not share your PIN with anyone.
  4. Remember to check your bank statements every month and immediately report if you find any problems.
  5. Always keep your debit card in a safe place.
  6. If you receive a replacement card, be sure to destroy the previous card.

ATM

  1. Do not share your PIN with anyone and certainly do not write the PIN on the card.
  2. Always use your body and hand to shield the keypad while entering the PIN at the ATM.
  3. Make sure that you are the only person inside the ATM while making the transaction. Also, be vigilant and ensure that no one is lurking around to see your PIN.
  4. Remember to destroy the receipt if you do not need it.
  5. Always press the cancel button after your transaction is completed.
  6. If your card is stolen or lost, immediately file a complaint at the police station and get it deactivated.
  7. Remember to collect your ATM card after completing the transaction.

Insurance

  1. One should not get influenced by an insurance agent. An agent should only provide the pros and cons of all the policies, however, it is up to you to decide which policy suits you best.
  2. Always remember to read every little detail mentioned in the terms and conditions thoroughly.
  3. Keep a note of all the receipts issued by the insurance company.
  4. Always remember to pay the premium regularly.
  5. If you have any doubts regarding your policy, clarify them immediately.
  6. Always preview the entire Insurance document before signing it.
  7. Always fill the form yourself and certainly do not let the agents fill it.
  8. Ensure that there are no hidden costs/terms involved.

Jobs

  1. Check the Employer website firstly, as a fraudulent company will always have either some grammatical errors or will have low quality images.
  2. No company will ever ask you to pay anything for getting a job in the company; if it does, it is most likely fake.
  3. Always do your research on the company. If it has no website or no social media page it is likely fraudulent and it is best to look elsewhere.
  4. Always make sure that the company has a valid address and if they insist on telephonic interviews, be sure to visit the office address physically.
  5. No company will ever offer a job directly to you without meeting you in person or virtually on camera.
  6. Read the entire terms and conditions in the offer letter and do not sign on anything if it looks suspicious.

Online Shopping

  1. Shop only from authenticated/trusted websites.
  2. Beware of major discounts. If a company is offering a whopping discount, it is most likely fake.
  3. Do not save your card details on the website.
  4. Always check the reviews of the product and especially the seller/shop.
  5. Do not use public wifi as you can get hacked easily.
  6. Always remember that a trusted website will always have COD as an option; if not, it is better to look elsewhere.
  7. Ensure that you get a proper receipt/invoice after purchasing anything. The invoice should contain the address of the seller.

Medicine

  1. Always buy medicines from a licensed chemist only and ensure that you get a proper receipt as well.
  2. Always check for expiry dates.
  3. Always check the medicine for any possible allergies / side effects.
  4. Always check the MRP on the medicine as some shopkeepers try to charge extra.
  5. Always first consult the doctor then proceed to buy the medicine.

Food Safety

  1. Always check the expiry date on packaged foods before purchasing it.
  2. A VEG food will be labelled as Green while a non-veg package food will be labelled as Red.
  3. Always check the packaged food for any possible defects.
  4. Always check the MRP on the packaged food as some shopkeepers try to charge extra.
  5. Always check the packaging for FSSAI Number.

Education

  1. Choose the institution wisely after properly investigating all the previous records and talking to a few Alumni.
  2. Always prefer registered / Government aided institutions.
  3. It is essential to understand the entire fee structure before registering into the institution.
  4. Always ask for a receipt for every payment.
  5. Make sure to check the qualifications of the teachers as the future of your child is bestowed in their hands.

Real Estate

  1. Selecting the right agent can make all the difference in the world; therefore, it is advised to do thorough checkup of all the agents and then decide.
  2. After doing proper research in that area, learn to negotiate accordingly.
  3. Don't settle on a home just because it's cheap; instead, do a proper home inspection and then come to a conclusion.
  4. Ensure that the design offered is earthquake resistant.
  5. Before buying a property remember to check the clear title of deed, certificate of non-incumbent i.e free from all disputes such as water bill, electricity bill, etc.

Electricity

  1. While taking a new connection, ensure that the service provider gives all the details and provides the list of all the necessary documents required along with the security amount.
  2. It is the responsibility of the consumer for maintenance and safeguarding the electric meter.
  3. If you are purchasing a new property, ensure that all the previous electric bills have been cleared to avoid any problems in the future.
  4. If in any case you fail to pay the bill within the due date then the electric company will give you a 15 days notice after which they can disconnect the connection.
  5. In case of burning of the meter, the electric company has to provide electricity within 6 hours of complaint.

Mobile Number Porting

  1. Send a message to PORT <space> Mobile Number to 1900 Ex: PORT 9876543210 and send this message to 1900. You will be sent a UPC Code in the message. This code is valid only for 15 days.
  2. Now go to the customer care store of the operator you want to shift to and fill the form. You will be required to submit your identity, address proof, photograph, etc.
  3. After this process, the operator will give you a brand new SIM which will be operated after 7-9 working days after you call on the given number.
  4. After calling on the given number for ex. 59059 in the case of Airtel, your identity verification will be complete and your SIM card is now ready to be inserted in the mobile.

Investment

  1. Before investing your hard-earned money in any investment market, make sure it's worth your money.
  2. Make sure that the Investment Adviser has a valid registration certificate.
  3. Ask all the relevant questions and clear your doubts with the Adviser before acting on the advice.
  4. Do not get carried away by market rumours and luring advertisements.
  5. Do not fall prey to limited discount offers.
  6. Make sure that the Investment Adviser you are dealing with is SEBI registered.

Telecommunication

  1. When choosing a telecommunication provider, ask yourself, can they provide all the services that you or your business needs.
  2. Ensure that the provider you are choosing has an 'always-on' policy and will always answer your calls.
  3. Ensure that their plan best suits and at the same time it is not too costly.
  4. There is no point in going for a cheap deal if there is no service, so ensure that there is a good signal strength at your workplace/home.
  5. Make sure you know how much average time the provider takes for fixing a fault.

How to identify fake websites?

It is really difficult to identify fake ecommerce websites in India. We, at Voxya.com, receive a lot of consumer complaints against fake ecommerce websites running in India. These websites are online scams that offer very exciting deals to lure customers at their online shops.

Once a customer decides to buy something from these websites and makes payments, they will simply vanish with the money or will deliver a very sub-standard product. Their modus operandi is to simply grab the money and do nothing or deliver a duplicate/fake/low quality product against the money charged.

Though these fake websites are in large numbers, but the problem is that you can not do anything against them. Firstly, some of these websites will not have any contact details available so there is no way to contact them.

Moreover the money lost is somewhat low so you will forget the scam and move-on with your life very soon.

Secondly, some of these websites are smarter than the rest. Instead of doing nothing, they will go one step further and will send you very cheap & zero value products. This makes the problem worse. Now you can not claim that they did not deliver the product you ordered and there is almost no way to prove that what you received was actually sent by them! They are smart so they know that if somehow they will get caught, they can prove that they delivered the goods to you. And in their defense they can always say that the courier company was the culprit who changed the goods somehow.

Having said this, we believe that the best solution is to identify fake ecommerce websites early and not to buy from them because prevention is always better than cure. So, lets see how we can easily identify these fake websites by closely looking at them :

Low Quality Product Images

If the website, from where you are planning to buy, is using low quality or generic product images then that’s a bad sign. Usually, good ecommerce websites will always use high quality product images to present their products nicely. But using small, old or distorted images for products is a clear sign of danger.

Similarly, if the images are having watermarks of some other brand/website then also it shows the un-professionalism of the website.

Unbelievable Cheap Prices

If the prices displayed on the website are too low compared to other similar websites then it could be a scam. Normally, prices can not be lower than the market price and so every ecommerce website will be selling at about the same price.

Also, sometimes these fake websites will show you special deals that are too good to be believed. For example if you buy a t-shirt for Rs.500 you will get headphones worth Rs.900. These kinds of deals are apparently scam and so it makes it easy to identify fake ecommerce websites.

No Social Activity

If you are unable to find any link to their social network accounts like Facebook, Instagram, Google+, then chances are that they are fake. Now-a-days, ecommerce is not possible without social validation. Every company uses social media to promote their products and get viral. If they do not have social presence or they have very few likes on Facebook or only a few tweets on Twitter then chances are they are not genuine.

But beware, sometimes these websites will “buy” fake likes and can have a large number of likes showing on their page. Once again, a very large number of likes, not in-parity with their brand size, shows something is fishy.

Missing Contacts

You can identify fake ecommerce websites, if you are finding no information about them at their website. There are no contact forms, no support phone numbers or customer support area provided at their website? This means something is not right. We suggest that you should try to contact them by whatever is listed on their website, in order to verify them. If you are unable to reach them before buying from them, then that is a clear sign that you will not be able to contact them if something goes wrong after you buy from them.

Cookie-cutter Website Design

There is also a very easy way to identify fake ecommerce websites. Most of them will use cookie-cutter web design at their website. They will use pre-made free templates with some free Content Management System like WordPress. You can identify them by closely looking at the texts in their important pages like privacy policy, refund policy, about us, terms & conditions etc. If you find dummy texts in their pages, making no sense, then that means you are at the fake website.

Bad Customer Reviews

Before buying any product from any website, try to search for them on the internet. What do you see? Are you seeing a lot of hate posts and reviews in Google and Facebook? That is a clear sign of a problem.

Also, you should check customers reviews / comments at Facebook that will give you an idea what kind of problem you should expect after buying from them. If they are genuine, they will reply to almost all complaints posted against them. If people are complaining more about wrong delivery, no delivery or duplicate products then it’s time to leave such websites.

Lastly, if you have already been cheated by these fake ecommerce websites then do not forget to post your consumer complaint at Voxya.com. You can raise your voice and get support from other customers by posting your complaint at Voxya. We will do everything to get the attention of the brand & customers to resolve your issue.

Disclaimer: We have compiled this list based on the consumer complaints filed at our platform and based on our experience dealing with them. Please note that exceptions are always there. Use your judgment in deciding when to buy, what to buy and from where to buy.

How to get refund from unresponsive seller?

Are you someone who bought the wrong product or service? And now the company is refusing to give you a refund or is not replying to your calls or messages?

Don’t worry you are at the right place! In this chapter, we let you know how you can get a refund from an unresponsive company/seller.

A lot of times people are charged for stuff that they shouldn’t be charged for, it can be a mistake in the payment procedure or can be a whole lot more but not getting your money back is one of the worst feelings to have.

Let’s take a look at how you can get your refund from an unresponsive company/seller:

File a formal complaint with the company

The first step in resolving your problems is to file a formal complaint with the firm. The majority of these businesses have a complaint section on their website or mobile app.

As we are talking about an unresponsive company then there is a very high chance that you may have already filed the formal complaint but if you are just starting the procedure and haven’t filed a formal complaint yet then filing one is a good practice.

Email your complaint to the company

If you can find the email address of the company’s top officials or management, you can give them an email describing your issue. As these higher officials are the ones who make the decisions, your problem will be resolved this way.

However, how can you find the right contact information for the decision-makers at the organization you’re working with? You can find this information with a little internet research, but it will take a long time.

Voxya can assist you in saving time if it is something that you struggle with. Without putting in any effort on your part, Voxya will assist you in reaching out to the industry’s top officials as they already have the contacts there.

Request for a Charge Back

If you have used your credit cards to shop for the product or service then you can request a chargeback. In a chargeback, the bank is asked to reverse the charge in which the bank takes the money from the merchant and puts it into your account.

This may seem like a forced refund but a chargeback is an extremely serious process. You should request a chargeback only if you have a serious dispute with the business and the business is refusing to resolve the issue.

If you request a chargeback the refund will depend upon the terms and conditions that you have signed with the company. The company can use the terms and conditions as a defense so make sure you read all the conditions once.

Request Payment Gateway company

Most of these times the company uses third-party payment options. The main motive of these companies is to provide seamless payments.

You can try reaching out to the customer support of the payments company to resolve your issue. This trick works for a lot of people.

Send a Legal Notice to the company

If the company has not responded to your emails or social media posts, the best choice is to submit a professionally written Legal Notice to the company, requesting that they fix the problem as soon as possible, or you can proceed to sue them in court.

You may employ an experienced advocate or lawyer to draft and deliver this legal notice on your behalf to the company. The company will have 15-30 days to respond to the legal notice.

As mentioned earlier, an experienced lawyer would usually charge between Rs.3500 and Rs.10000 for drafting and submitting a legal notice on his letterhead. However, if the service in your region is out of your price range, Voxya will assist you in sending a legal notice from one of the best legal advocates from the comfort of your own home.

If you want, Voxya will also send you a hardcopy of the notice to your address, along with a tracking number that you can use to track the notice’s delivery to the company.

File a case in Consumer Court

If you haven’t received a response from the company after submitting a Legal Notice, it’s time to take your case to Consumer Court. If you have not got the required resolution from the company for your complaint, you can also go to the Consumer Forum.

You may not need to hire an attorney or lawyer to file a consumer complaint against the company. Simply draft Case papers outlining the issue, including evidence, and requesting the resolution you need.

To file a consumer lawsuit, you must submit an affidavit as well as the necessary court fee. If all of this is too much for you, you can hire Voxya to prepare Case Documents for you.

Tricks to resolve Consumer Complaints

In this chapter we are sharing some of the best tricks to resolve your consumer complaints. They are compiled by our experts working at Voxya.com.

Presales pressure

Before actually buying any product or service, convey a strong message to the salesperson that you have doubts about the after sales service of the company and so you do not trust them completely. You should ask him, in case of any problem, who will solve your issue?

Tell him that you hate running to the support center or being in queue. This presale strategy may not fully work but this will put enough pressure on the sales guy. In the process of convincing you, he may end up giving his own number or something extra, that can make you feel “special” later.

Over React

Assuming you have purchased the item and something is not working within the first few hours or days as it should have been. Now is the time to overreact! Yes, you have heard it correctly. Over reacting on a small defect may put enough pressure on the seller or company to resolve your complaint quickly. It is one of the best tricks to resolve your consumer complaint.

Just remind the seller that you were already aware before buying the item that this would happen as you do not trust the brand. In such situations, normally he will do everything to make you comfortable.

Talk like a Lawyer

If all the above tricks to resolve your consumer complaint have failed then you should start talking legal, even if you do not know anything about consumer rights.

Ask the company or its support executive to furnish every detail about the customer support process of the brand. Get details like company address, distributor name & address, company officials, nodal officers etc.

Contact Support &amp; follow up

Lodge a complaint in the call center of the company for support and properly note down the date and complaint ID. Ask the support agent what would be the expected turn-around time for such complaints.

Do not follow up before the expiry of that turn-around period. If they do not resolve the issue within time, then you should call customer support again and update your complaint saying this is the second time you are calling.

Please note that updating the same old complaint ID is very important. Usually the customer agent will insist on closing the old complaint and creating a new complaint ID. But you should insist on updating the same old complaint with new details.

Repeat calling & updating your complaint till you get relief from the brand.

Shout without doubt

In our opinion this strategy is one of the best tricks to resolve your consumer complaint. If repeatedly updating your complaint and calling them again & again does not resolve your issue then you should start over-reacting once again on the support call. Start yelling and showing that you are frustrated enough to take strict action against the company.

But remember, do not curse the agent but curse the company!

Once you have put enough pressure on the agent, ask him to connect you to his supervisor on the phone.

In most cases, the agent will deny connecting you to a supervisor and will tell you that there is no supervisor available at this time. But don’t get fooled by this. Keep on insisting that you need to talk to his supervisor.

Also, before starting this pressure game, tell the agent that you are already recording the entire conversation on your phone which can be produced as evidence later. This would be enough pressure for him to connect you to the authority.

Reach higher

If you are dealing with telecommunication, banking or insurance companies and if registering your complaint with the Supervisor does not fetch the desired results then your last resort in customer support would be to contact a higher authority like Nodal officer in your region.

Generally you can meet a Nodal Officer personally or contact them through phone or email. However, the phone number of these Nodal officers will almost never work and you will never get connected to the officer.

So, you should try sending email instead. It has been seen that sending a complaint through email to a Nodal officer generally gets some attention.

But please note that the Nodal officer will not entertain your complaint if you have not tried other support channels first.

Recently, the Government of India has mandated all eCommerce companies to appoint a Nodal Officer to ensure compliance with the new rules on consumer protection as per Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules 2020.

So now you are able to reach out to Nodal Officers in the eCommerce stores also, if you are not satisfied with the progress in your complaint.

Start legal action

When all the tricks to resolve your consumer complaint have failed and if you are still not satisfied with the resolution provided by the Nodal officer, then the probability is that your complaint is complex and you may have to further pursue it to get better relief.

At this stage, you can send a well drafted legal notice to the company through your lawyer. The legal notice is usually sent to the company’s registered address.

When you send this notice through a lawyer, it puts enough pressure on the brand and conveys a message that you are seriously considering other options.Usually, you will get some response (positive or negative) after sending a legal notice to a company.

Go to Consumer Court

If even sending a legal notice does not work then there is a strong possibility that the brand is not ready to hear your complaint and is not interested in resolving the issue.

The only option left for you now is to approach the Consumer court or consumer forum in your matter. You can approach the consumer forum online and file a case here.

When a case is filed in a consumer forum, it sends a very clear signal to the company that the consumer is willing to go the extra mile to get resolution.

Nobody wants to waste time & energy in fighting a case in court and the same is true with the company as well. So, mostly the company will try to settle the dispute out of the court which puts you in a better position to negotiate.

Please note that it is not required to hire a lawyer to file a case in the Consumer forum and you yourself can represent your case in the forum. But there is no doubt that in spite of knowing these smart tricks to resolve your consumer complaint, hiring an experienced & qualified advocate will get you better results.

If you do not have time to follow these tricks to resolve your consumer complaint yourself, then there is Voxya who can help you to get resolution in your consumer complaint. You can file a complaint and get resolution in your complaint easily.

Success Stories to inspire

There are hundreds of success stories where consumers won the fight with the brands. We are including some of them to inspire you.

Rapido Complaint

Rajani Kanth from Hyderabad availed Rapido bike service but on his way to destination, he noticed that the driver was driving very fast. He told him repeatedly to drive slowly but the driver did not listen and the bike met with an accident, resulting in BONE DISLOCATION AND FRACTURE on his left leg. As per Doctor's advice, he had undergone Surgery and was advised by the doctor to take 2 months rest.

As the ride was booked by his wife, when she raised a complaint with Rapido for compensation, it was denied saying that the person who books the ride will get compensation if met with an accident, which caused severe mental agony to him.

Due to Rapido's driver negligence, his entire family was suffering because he was a contract employee and had to attend office every day. Being completely at bed now, he was losing daily pay and his wife had to work and go through mental trauma due to this accident.

He decided to file a complaint at Voxya and our team sent a Legal Notice to Rapido. Soon after receiving notice, Rapido acted quickly and resolved the dispute by reimbursing the medical expenditure and compensation.

"I would like to thank Voxya for helping me in the resolution process. Rapido agreed to reimburse the expenditure amount and paid as well."

- Rajani Kanth

Pepperfry Complaint

Anubhav ordered a Queen-size-storage-bed from Pepperfry.com. But things turned upside when the bed arrived. He noticed that the bed seems to be completely different from what he actually ordered from the website. Although for a storage bed, it’s necessary to attach the bed with a fixed base so that it can be used for storing things in that area but the manufacturer did not provide any fixed covered base and instead there were rubber mats. The bed which was delivered to our client was neither a storage bed nor the bed which was displayed at the website while ordering. In fact, the product description was completely different from what was actually delivered.

This was a moment of shock and disappointment for Anubhav as he paid Rs.10394 to purchase this bed online and the delivered product was not expected at all. So, he visited Voxya.com and filed a complaint against Pepperfry.

We looked into the matter and contacted Pepperfry through all the channels. Soon after this, Anubhav received a call from Pepperfry’s CEO office and the issue was resolved within a day’s time! Pepperfry initiated the refund to Anubhav the very same day!

“I posted a complaint at Voxya and then posted the link on Pepperfry’s Facebook page. I got a call from Pepperfry CEO office and they initiated a refund quickly.”
- Anubhav Guha

Dell Laptop Complaint

Ananya purchased a Dell laptop as she was a second year college student and wanted to use the laptop for her studies and exam preparations. But within a few weeks of purchase, she started facing a blue screen issue on her laptop. She raised multiple complaints with Dell and tweeted customer care @Dellcares on twitter but got no fruitful response. She reinstalled the Operating System twice and performed every step possible the team asked her to do, but nothing worked. For six long months, the Dell support team repeatedly told her the same things again and again and wasted her time and efforts.

Having no other alternative, she filed a complaint at Voxya and our legal team contacted Dell for resolution. Within a month's time, she received a resolution and she was extremely happy with her decision to approach Voxya.

"Great work, I liked the efficiency of the process and the fact that my complaint got resolved in less than a month, while I had been trying for the last 6 months."
- Ananya Jindal

Swiggy Refund Issue

Avinash had ordered a pastry from Swiggy and had made the payment online. But the food never reached his doorstep and to his surprise the order was cancelled. He immediately raised a complaint in the Swiggy App asking for a refund but they kept providing him with automated responses. A week had gone by, and Avinash did not receive his refund. Moreover what angered him was that his complaint had been marked as closed by Swiggy! Seeing this Avinash got frustrated and decided to file a complaint against Swiggy at Voxya.com.

Our team looked into the matter and started a social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) campaign as soon as they received the complaint. We also sent an email to Swiggy requesting them to resolve the matter as soon as possible. Soon Avinash received a call from Swiggy and the complaint was marked as resolved!

“Thank you so much Voxya I am fully satisfied with your quick service.”- Avinash Kumar

Oyo Rooms Complaint

Nithindas had booked a hotel in Ooty through Oyo Rooms. About 30 minutes later, he got an email that his booking has been cancelled due to some issues and the full refund will be processed. To his surprise, he had booked a room for a total of Rs.3758 but only Rs.2819 were refunded in his account, which caused severe mental agony to him.

Being frustrated that the full refund was not provided, Nithindas decided to file a complaint against OyoRooms at Voxya.com. We looked into the matter and sent an email to Oyo Rooms. Soon he received a call from OyoRooms and they agreed for a full refund and the complaint was marked as resolved.

“The amount has been refunded by OYO. Thanks for your service. I rate it excellent.”- Nithindas K For reading many such inspiring stories, visit https://voxya.com//story/success-stories

Disclaimer: This book does not constitute legal advice.

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