BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, KAITHAL.
Complaint Case No.230 of 2019.
Date of institution: 07.08.2019.
Date of decision:30.12.2019.
Ashwani Kumar Goel, Advocate son of Sh. Ved Parkash, r/o House No.1530, Gali No.12, Rishi Nagar, Kaithal.
…Complainant.
Versus
- Johnson Control Hitachi Air Conditioning Ltd., 9th floor, Abhijeet Mithakali Six Road, Ahmedabad-380006.
- Johnson Control/Hitachi Controls India Ltd., 301, 3rd floor, DMRC Building New Ashok Nagar Metro Station New Delhi-110096.
- M/s. Bhawani Enterprises Opposite Khurania Filling Station, Dhand Road, Kaithal0-136027.
….Respondents.
Before: Sh. D.N.Arora, President.
Sh. Rajbir Singh, Member.
Smt. Suman Rana, Member.
Present: Sh. Naman Goel, Advocate, for the complainant.
Sh. Dheeraj Sachdeva, Advocate for the OPs.No.1 & 2.
Op No.3 exparte.
ORDER
D.N.ARORA, PRESIDENT
The complainant has filed the present complaint under Section 12 of Consumer Protection Act, 1986, with the averments that the complainant purchased a refrigerator make Hitachi R-VG-540-PND3-GBK having Sr.No.550390100158 vide bill No.82 dt. 18.10.2017 from the Op no.1 for the sum of Rs.53,000/-. It is alleged that after some time of its purchase, the working of the refrigerator was not upto the mark as there remained always leakage of water on the inner walls of the refrigerator specially during the rainy season when the moisture level remained high and several times, the food items in the refrigerator were damaged. It is further alleged that the complainant lodged a complaint through his son Naman with the Hitachi Service Centre at Kaithal and the complainant also got lodged several complaints with the Hitachi Customer Care Centre vide complaint No.18010503372 dt. 05.01.2018, complaint No.18072701925 dt. 27.07.2018, complaint No.18082502843 dt. 25.08.2018, complaint No.18091405489 dt. 14.09.2018 and a person from Hitachi Service Centre has visited the premises of complainant only once, who told the complainant that there is manufacturing defect in the refrigerator and an expert can redress the grievance. Thereafter, in the month of July, 2019 the complainant again lodged two complaints with the Hitachi Customer Care vide complaint No.19071001672 dt. 12.07.2019 and 19071001620 dt. 13.07.2019 but both the complaints were closed unattended without assigning any reason. So, it is a clear cut case of deficiency in service on the part of Ops and prayed for acceptance of complaint. Hence, this complaint.
2. Upon notice, the OPs No.1 & 2 appeared before this Forum, whereas Op No.3 did not appear and opted to proceed against exparte vide order dt. 24.09.2019. Ops No.1 & 2 contested the complaint by filing their joint reply raising preliminary objections with regard to locus-standi; maintainability; cause of action; that as per the complaint, the complainant purchased one refrigerator from the Op No.3 on 18.10.2017 in good and sealed packed condition after having full satisfaction with the said product; that the said product carries a warranty for a period of one year, however, the compressor carries a warranty for a period of ten years; that as per the warranty policy, if there will be any issue/problem with the said product, then the company shall repair the same free of cost; that the answering Ops were continuously approaching the complainant for the inspection of said product from the day first when the complainant approached the answering Ops but it was the complainant who never allowed the technicians of the answering Ops for the visit and inspection of the product; that there is no deficiency in service on the part of Ops. On merits, the objections raised in the preliminary objections are reiterated and so, prayed for dismissal of complaint.
3. The complainant tendered into evidence affidavit Ex.CW1/A and documents Annexure-C1 to Annexure-C and thereafter, closed the evidence.
4. On the other hand, the Ops tendered into evidence affidavit Ex.RW1/A and documents Annexure-R1 to Annexure-R and thereafter, closed the evidence.
5. We have heard the learned Counsel for both the parties and perused the record carefully.
6. Undisputedly, the complainant purchased a refrigerator in question vide bill No.82 dt. 18.10.2017 from the Op no.1 for the sum of Rs.53,000/-. According to the complainant, after some time of its purchase, the working of the refrigerator was not upto the mark as there remained always leakage of water on the inner walls of the refrigerator specially during the rainy season when the moisture level remained high and several times, the food items in the refrigerator were damaged. The grievance of the complainant is that he lodged several complaints with the Hitachi Customer Care Centre vide complaint No.18010503372 dt. 05.01.2018, complaint No.18072701925 dt. 27.07.2018, complaint No.18082502843 dt. 25.08.2018, complaint No.18091405489 dt. 14.09.2018, complaint No.19071001672 dt. 12.07.2019 and 19071001620 dt. 13.07.2019 but the Ops did not resolve the grievances of complainant.
7. It is pertinent to mention here that the complainant had moved an application alongwith the main complaint on 07.08.2019 for expert opinion and the said application was allowed by this Forum vide order dt. 08.11.2019. The expert namely Sh. Anil Kumar Dhull, Expert/Mechanic, Govt. I.T.I., Kaithal submitted his report Annexure-A in this Forum on 04.12.2019. We have perused the said report wherein the expert has mentioned that he checked the functioning of refrigerator and found that the refrigerator has not been working properly due to following reasons:-
“1. There is a big dent on the left & back side of the refrigerator body.
2. Due to this dent, the refrigerator doors are not in proper position or dislocated from the guanine position & there is always a gap between door gasket & inner body frame.
3. Due to the above mentioned gap, the air of the outer room goes continuously inside the freezer & refrigerator & the evaporation happen (the chilled air mix with outer air continuously & form water particle inside the freezer & lower cabinet.
4. There is ice formation inside the evaporator & air flow vent that start melting or breaking near by evaporater parts & make annoying sound.
5. Above mentioned fault cannot be repaired.
During the course of arguments, the complainant has admitted that the refrigerator in question has been purchased by the complainant on rebate basis because there was a dent in the refrigerator. Due to this reason, the complainant has purchased the refrigerator in question for the sum of Rs.53,000/- as per the invoice Annexure-C1. The complainant has also admitted that the actual price of the refrigerator is Rs.75,000/-. The grievance of the complainant is that due to defect in the refrigerator, initially the complainant has made the complaints to the Ops as per Anneuxre-R2 on 05.01.2018, 27.07.2018, 25.08.2018, 14.09.2018, 25.09.2018, 07.07.2019 and 10.07.2019. It is mentioned in the Annexure-R2 that the nature of complaint Drain Tray Over Flow and Sweating in Veg. Compartment. Meaning thereby, there is a complaint of complainant of the such nature not related to the dent. We have perused the Annexure-R2. The complaint mentioned in the Annexure-R2 is regarding drain tray over flow and due to this reason, there was moisture in the veg compartment. So, we are of the considered view that above-said defect is not due to the dent but for the other reasons also as mentioned above. In the facts and circumstances of the case, it is clear that the OPs have not resolved the grievance of the complainant as per the Annexure-R2. Hence, the OPs are deficient in providing services to the complainant.
8. Thus, in view of above discussion, we allow the complaint partly and direct the OPs to repair the refrigerator of the complainant free of cost. It is further directed that the service engineer, who will repair the refrigerator in question of the complainant shall submit a repair certificate to this Forum about repairing the refrigerator in question after obtaining the satisfaction note from the complainant. No order as to costs. All the OPs are jointly and severally liable. Let the order be complied with within 30 days from the date of preparation of copy of this order. A copy of this order be sent to the parties free of costs. File be consigned to the record room after due compliance.
Announced in open court:
Dt.:30.12.2019.
(D.N.Arora)
President.
(Suman Rana), (Rajbir Singh)
Member Member.
