MUMBAI, JAN 15: The Mumbai Electronic and Appliance Dealer Association (MEADA) has said that after-sale service of electronic commodities is the responsibility of the manufacturing company and not that of the dealers. The statement comes in response to several complaints the Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, a Mumbai-based consumer grievances forum, and the dealers themselves have been flooded with. The MEADA is now planning to take up programmes to educate consumers on the issue.``We wish to take up this issue seriously,'' said a senior member of the MEADA, J P Vaghani of JP Electronics, Borivli. ``Customers need to know that if their electronic appliances begin to malfunction within the warranty period, it is not the dealer they should rush to but the appliance manufacturers,'' said Dilip Keskar of MEADA referring to instances of consumers stopping payment of instalments to the member dealers after they were refused after-sales service.The association, felt if there was any problem with any appliance it wasthe ``moral responsibility of the dealers to provide service, but it cannot be binding on the dealers.'' It pointed out that companies do not provide them with any spare parts which they could use in after-sale service. The warranty card of the appliances is also an understanding between the consumer and the manufacturing company.``The terms and conditions of warranty say that the product should `in no case be attended to by any unauthorised person/s except the company's personnel.' ``This clearly absolves the dealers of any responsibility of after-sale service,'' says the association's information brochure.Both, Vaghani and Keskar were critical of the attitude of most leading electronic goods manufacturers towards after-sale services. ``While the response to our orders for more goods is very quick, most of the companies are extremely unenthusiastic when it comes to providing technicians for servicing in case there is a problem,'' said Vaghani.
