Big Bazaar directed to pay Rs 8,000 relief for overcharging

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 23

Overcharging more than counter prices has cost Big Bazaar heavily. The District Consumer Forum has asked the store to pay a relief of Rs 8,000 for Rs 11 overcharge by a complainant in a case dating to July 2016. In a second complaint filed by the complainant for another incident of overcharging in June 2017, the store has been asked to pay up Rs 4,000 for an excess charge of Rs 3.04.

A resident of Saraswati Vihar, Sunil Ahuja moved a complaint saying that he had purchased four items from the store on June 1, 2017 for a total amount of Rs 244.11. One of the items, rajmah was purchased from the counter selling loose grocery items where the rate of each item is on display.

He said that he made the payment and handed over a cash memo for the items purchased. On reaching home, the complainant found that he had been charged Rs 46.11 at the cash counter for 0.435gm of rajmah, instead of Rs 43.07 as printed sticker on the packet put up by the sales staff. By charging Rs 46.11 at the cash counter for the item the store had charged the item at Rs 106 per kg against the displayed rate of Rs 99, thereby charging Rs 7 per kg more than the displayed rate of the unit.

The complainant alleged that he been charged Rs 3.04 extra for 0.435gm of item in question. He said he had sent a notice to the store but he got no reply. No one from the court represented Big Bazaar.

The forum directed the store to return Rs 3.04 with interest of 9 per cent per annum from the date of purchase while also paying Rs 4,000 as compensation for mental and physical harassment to the complainant.

In another complaint by Sunil Ahuja, he said that he purchased a pack of 2 units of Closeup deep action (Red Hot), comprising two tubes of 150 gm each for a sum of Rs 147 on July 27, 2016 along with some other items. “The system of the sale in store is that you pick up stuff from display shelves and then take the same to cash counter for payment. The bar code of the item is scanned and customer is asked to pay the price of the item. After payment is made only then the item is delivered to the customer along with retail invoice. After reaching his destination, it was found that the said pack had an offer price of Rs 136 including all taxes as printed on the pack and not Rs 147 as charged by the store. When the matter of this overcharging was brought to the notice, I received no suitable reply, except that the prices to be charged are uploaded in the computer from head office and cash counter charges accordingly. 

This clearly showed that store had charged Rs 11 more than the printed MRP of Rs 136. 

In this case too, the Big Bazaar has been asked to pay a compensation of Rs 7000 to the complainant for mental harassment and agony. It also directed the store to pay litigation expenses to the tune of Rs 1000,” said the complainant.