Noting IMEI number helps customer win case against store

President of the Forum P D Goel and Members Rajinder Singh Gill and Dr Madanjit Kaur Sahota have also directed the opposite parties to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation to Singh for the harassment caused to him,and Rs 2,000 as litigation costs.

The order was delivered by the Forum following a complaint filed by Singh against the company’s authorised store,and the dealer.

In his complaint,Singh had stated that he purchased a Sony Ericsson mobile handset (Model K-10) for Rs 10,400 from the dealer in March 2009.

In February 2010,the phone developed some problems. Since it was within the warranty period of one year,Singh approached the dealer to repair the fault or change the phone. He was told to take the phone to the company’s authorised store. Accordingly,Singh gave his phone at the company’s store on February 5. It was returned to him after ‘repair’ on February 27.

Singh suspected that his phone had been changed with another handset.

He checked the IMEI number of the phone given to him,and found that this was different from the identification number mentioned in the bill given at the time of purchase. Singh stated that his original phone was not returned to him despite repeated requests. Aggrieved,he filed a case in the Forum. Despite the notice served by the Forum,no representative of the company’s store turned up in the court to present their case.

In its reply,the representative of the dealer said there was no deficiency of service on its part,and the case against it should be dismissed.

After considering the case,the Forum decided that the complainant had indeed been cheated in this case,and directed the opposite parties to compensate him accordingly.