Fashion brand penalised for poor quality handbag

Chandigarh, July 12

The consumer forum has penalised Da Milano, a popular fashion brand, for having sold a sub-standard handbag. The lock of the Rs 17,999 bag came off after just four months and the forum refused to consider the brand’s argument that it had fixed the problem. The forum said the same problem could occur again and fined the company Rs 5,000 and asked it to either replace the bag with the exact same one or refund Rs 17,999.

A complainant was filed by Sector 21 resident Rajeev Gupta. As per it, he had purchased a handbag from the brand’s store in Elante Mall on June 14, 2017, by paying an amount of Rs 17,999.

Gupta said he was told the lock of the bag was of Amiet AG, a quality product from Switzerland and had a worldwide patent. However, within a short period of time, just after four months of purchase of the bag, its security lock came off and as a result, the bag became useless. He claims to have brought this matter to the notice of the firm and also sent a legal notice to them but they did not pay any heed.

In its reply, the firm said they were willing to repair the lock and replied to the legal notice as well saying that there was no defect in the bag or locking system. The same does not mean that the bag is of inferior quality, it added.

The forum observed that it was only alleged that due to poor workmanship, the lock of the bag was not properly fixed and as a result, it came off on its own. It added that the replacement/refixation of the lock would not completely resolve the problem as the question involved in the present complaint did not pertain to any defect in the lock, but a result of the poor workmanship used to fix the lock in the bag in question. “It is suspected that if the lock is re-fixed in the same bag in question, it might not last long and may again create the same problem,” reads the order. — TNS