BENGALURU: A woman allegedly injured her back after washing clothes by hand for two months as the washing machine for which her husband had paid annual maintenance charges (AMC) became defunct. When repeated complaints to the manufacturer went unheard, the husband sued the manufacturer in a city consumer court and recently won a compensation of Rs 15,000 apart from refund of the AMC with interest.
On January 28, 2011, Varthur resident Purushothaman Patteri, 53, purchased an IFB front-loading fully automatic washing machine for his home. He paid AMC of Rs 5,015 for 2018 to 2020 as his family was regularly using the machine. Towards the end of 2019, it started malfunctioning and Patteri and his wife noticed that the inside of the door had melted following overheating and clothes were damaged.
On December 31, 2019, the couple lodged a complaint with IFB and a technician reached their home and took some photographs of the machine before leaving. With no update from IFB customer care on the matter, Patteri reached out to them via phone and email in vain.
He then went to IFB’s office in Whitefield with the damaged door only to be told that washing machine spare parts cannot be shared with customers or unauthorised agents. Patteri came up with the plan of posing as a new customer lodging a complaint. Concealing the AMC deal, he contacted IFB from a new address in Varthur, only for an authorised technician to arrive and fix the damaged washing machine door after charging Rs 562.
Enraged by the fact that IFB was cheating customers who opted for AMC, Patteri approached the Bengaluru Urban 2nd Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Shantinagar in December 2021 with a complaint against the managing director of IFB Industries Ltd.
Patteri told the court his wife suffered a back injury as she had to hand-wash clothes since the IFB customer care team failed to respond properly.
On May 25, 2022, judges of the consumer forum noted that the customer had been left in the lurch despite paying AMC for servicing. They ruled that the company’s MD must refund Patteri Rs 5,015 paid towards AMC with interest. The manufacturer was asked to pay an additional Rs 10,000 as compensation and Rs 5,000 towards Patteri’s court expenses, all within 45 days from the court order.
