Shopclues told to cough up Rs 10,000 for overcharging Rs 30
Aneesha Sareen
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 10
An online shopping firm, Shopclues, has been penalised with Rs 10,000 towards compensation and litigation costs for charging a city resident Rs 30 more for a product.
In an order passed today, the UT Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum directed Shopclues, with its office in Gurgaon, to pay a compensation of R 5,000 on account of unfair trade practice, deficiency in service and causing mental and physical harassment to the complainant, and Rs 5,000 towards litigation costs.
The complainant, Surya Sharma, a resident of Sector 37, had ordered a product, “Kitchen egg white separator holder sieve divider egg yellow separator from white”, from the firm. The item was delivered to him on January 10, 2015.
The price of the aforesaid product, as displayed on the website of Shopclues, was Rs 75 after discount while the list price of the product was displayed as Rs 188. The total cost at which the product was delivered to the complainant was Rs 105, which included Rs 30 as shipping charges.
It was alleged that on receiving the product, it was found that the MRP of the product was printed as Rs 45 only and thus, he was charged Rs 30 extra on the MRP.
The complainant contacted the opposite party asking it to either take the product back or refund the excess amount charged from him, but to no avail.
The shopping network representative failed to appear before the forum and hence, proceedings were adjudged ex parte.
The forum observed that significantly, the complainant has argued that after getting the court notice, the shopping network refunded Rs 105 to him by transferring it to his account on April 28, 2015, after a delay of nearly three and a half months, even as the complainant had requested for the refund immediately through e-mail.
“The online shopping network has caused immense physical and mental harassment to the complainant without any fault on his part. There is every possibility that Shopclues has been frequently indulging in such an unfair trade practice and cheating innocent customers. Further, who knows how many customers like the complainant can spare time and money to come forward to highlight the unfair trade practice adopted by the opposite party,” observed the forum.
