IDBI bank fined for issuing a unwanted card

The Mumbai Suburban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum on Tuesday held IDBI Bank Ltd. guilty of deficiency in service for issuing an 'ATM-cum-debit card' instead of an exclusive ATM card to its customer and charging him for it.

The forum directed the bank to pay Rs 25,000 to the complainant, Juhu resident Krishna Pandey, as compensation and costs of proceedings.

This is surely a good news for customers who are charged for unwanted services by various companies and multinationals. The most notorious in this regard are the mobile operators. Next time you are charged for a service you haven't subscribed for, cancel and ask for refund. Read the complete story on Times of India

SMS alerts on electricity bill

In a move to keep electricity consumers posted about their monthly bills and due date of payment, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) will start sending SMS alerts soon.

A spokesperson of the government owned DHBVN said that contract for this has already been given to a private firm.

The spokesperson said that each SMS will include the information about bill amount and due date of payment. This will be in addition to delivering a hard copy of the bill to consumers.

Consumers would get three SMSs; first to intimate them about the bill amount, second to remind them 48 hours before the due date for payment and the third SMS will be sent after receiving the payment.

In addition to this, DHBVN will provide email bills to those consumers who have registered themselves for the online facility. DHBVN has already provided a facility to its all consumers to lodge billing and metering related complaints on its website www.dhbvn.com.

This surely is a good move and will benefit the consumer, and it should be implemented all across the country as soon as possible.

Fiat dealer to make a refund for defective car

The Mohali District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has ordered the refund of total price of a Fiat Palio car, which was found to be defective. Besides over Rs 4.31 lakh, which included insurance premium as well, a Chandigarh-based Army man will also get Rs 5,000 as litigation cost.

Allowing the complaint filed under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, the Forum full bench, headed by its president BS Mehandiratta and comprising two members Dr SS Dhaliwal and HK Ghuman, Wednesday directed the Director, Hind Motors (India) Limited, Mohali, and Director, Fiat India Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, to refund to the complainant Rs 4,26,299 sale price of the car besides refunding Rs 4,817 on account of insurance premium and other charges collected from the complainant at the time of selling the car, with 9 per cent interest per annum interest.

The court asked to comply with the order within one month, failing which the opposite parties shall be liable to pay interest on the sale price at the rate of 9 per cent per annum from the date of the order till the date of actual payment, ordered the Forum. To read the full report visit IndianExpress.