FILE PHOTO: The Sony logo is displayed outside the company’s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan February 16, 2023. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
| Photo Credit: Reuters
A consumer panel in Assam has asked a mobile phone company to repair the handset of a Guwahati-based woman about nine years after it was damaged.
In its order on July 30, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (DCCRD) of Kamrup district also asked Sony Mobile to pay within 45 days ₹40,000 along with 10% interest to Nina Boiragi for deficiency in providing service.
In her complaint in 2016, Ms. Boiragi said she purchased a Sony mobile handset for ₹52,990 from a franchisee in Guwahati on August 10, 2015. The phone was damaged a month later after she dropped it accidentally.
The service engineer at the service centre told her that it was impossible to repair the handset’s model and the only option for her was to get a replacement for ₹25,000. Ms. Boiragi then communicated with the firm’s service head in New Delhi through emails, but her issue was not resolved within 48 hours as assured.
She then filed a case at the DCCRD through advocate Ajoy Hazarika, the secretary of the Guwahati-based Consumers’ Legal Protection Forum, Assam. The case was disposed of in July with the DCCRD directing Sony Mobile to repair the mobile handset within 45 days of the directive.
The handset was damaged almost nine years ago.
Apart from the compensation prescribed, the commission directed the mobile phone company to pay ₹10,000 to Ms Boiragi as the cost of the proceedings. “…if the decretal amount is not paid within 45 days, then the company will have to pay 12% interest on the decretal amount till realisation,” the certified copy of the order, received on Thursday, said.
