Finds deficiency in service, orders compensation and timely repair
S Gopal Puri
Dharamshala:
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at Dharamshala in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh has ruled in favour of Vijender Kumar, a resident of Thural, in a consumer complaint against Asus India Pvt Ltd and its service provider, F1 Infosolutions & Services Pvt Ltd, at Nadaun in Hamirpur for what it found to be a clear deficiency in after-sales service.
Vijender Kumar, a resident of Haloon village under Thural tehsil in Kangra district, had filed the complaint (No. 191/2024) after facing multiple issues with the repair process of his Asus VivoBook K15 OLED laptop, purchased via Amazon in May 2022. The court has ordered the laptop to be repaired within 30 days and directed the companies to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation and Rs 5,000 towards litigation costs.
Dispute over inflated site visit charges
The conflict arose when the complainant reported a battery malfunction in February 2024, approximately 20 months after purchase. He was initially told by Asus’ customer service that a site visit would cost Rs 550, which matched the information on Asus’ official website. However, when the service was not delivered on time, a second request was raised and this time the site visit charges were inflated to Rs 1,500.
Despite his approval of the repair under the initially quoted rates, the service never occurred. The commission observed that Asus (registered office at 402 Supreme Chambers, 17/18 Shah Industrial Estate, Veera Desai Road, Andheri (West), Mumbai, Maharashtra) exaggerated the distance between Thural and its service centre to justify the increased charges, while the actual distance was less than 50 km.
Deficiency in service and harassment proven
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, presided over by president Hemanshu Mishra and members Arti Sood and Narayan Thakur held that the opposite parties failed to provide proper after-sales service and caused mental agony and unnecessary harassment by misleading the complainant and delaying the repair.
It was also noted that Asus incorrectly quoted the serial number of the laptop and failed to honour its service timelines. The court found the behaviour “an attempt to harass the complainant and avoid service obligations”.
In its final order, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission directed both Asus India and F1 Infosolutions (registered office at Maa Bagula Computer Care, near Tehsil Chowk in Nadaun, Hamirpur) to repair the laptop within 30 days of receiving the order, charge no more than Rs 550 for site visit and Rs 850 for service, recover only the actual cost of any parts replaced, pay Rs 10,000 as compensation and Rs 5,000 as litigation costs; and pay Rs 50 per day until the issue is resolved.
