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.

US to launch official database of consumer complaints

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is preparing to launch a Web site consisting of complaints filed with the commission by consumers. The new site, www.saferproducts.gov, is scheduled to launch March 11.

Critics have noted that various sites have been doing that very thing for more than a decade, and that online consumer complaint of products and services are now so commonplace.

US Congress voted overwhelmingly in August 2008 to beef up the CPSC, giving it a bigger budget and more authority to take action against unsafe products.

But that doesn't mean that industry groups aren't keeping up their campaign against the public release of consumer complaints.

"We're not opposed to a database," Rosario Palmieri, vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), told The Washington Post. "We're opposed to a database that's full of inaccurate information."

But consumer advocates say making public information public is only logical. "This is all about transparency," said Ami Gadhia, policy counsel with Consumers Union. "Commission staffers have worked very hard to ensure that the database is fair to everyone."

Consumers who files a complaint must provide his identity but the information will not be published and will be available to manufacturers only if the consumer agrees.

The agency will publish only complaints concerning safety – not complaints about reliability, price or quality. India too need a official complaint database on the same line.

Electric cars soon to get cheaper

Electric cars may become cheaper by up to Rs 1 lakh with manufacturers expected to pass on to the consumers the benefits of the Rs 95-crore incentive package extended by the Government to the industry.

The main beneficiary, however, is expected to be two-wheeler manufacturers, which have a larger consumer base. There are four-lakh electric two-wheelers on the road, with around 85,000 units being added annually. At present, the large electric two-wheeler makers include Hero Electric, Yo Bikes, Avon and BSA, though most are making losses.

In contrast, the electric car market has only one player at the moment — Mahindra Reva EV Ltd — with total sales of 3,700 units since launch in July 2001, of which 50 per cent was in the domestic market.

Others players such as car market leader Maruti Suzuki and General Motors have also been working on such technology and may now be eager to enter the segment.

Tata Docomo launches 3G services

Tata Docomo, the GSM arm of Tata Teleservices Ltd, today became the first private operator to launch its 3G services in the country.

Announcing the launch Tata Teleservices Ltd Managing Director Anil Sardana said the services would be available from midnight tomorrow in all the nine circles--Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, UP (West), Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra.

He said the 3G network, set up with the assistance of NTT DOCOMO, supports high speed internet access with speeds of up to 21.1 Mbps.

Mr Sardana said that the present customers with 2G at present can shift to 3G and avail free service till November 11 as Diwali gift.