Chennai: Among the various grocery items P Jotheswaran purchased at a retail chain’s outlet in Perambur two years ago was a 1kg packet of sugar. But the packet worth 199.50 had something he didn’t bargain for: Two strands of hair.
These have now cost Spencer’s Retail Ltd and a repacking unit 10,000, which is the compensation awarded by the district consumer disputes redressal forum to Jotheswaran for deficiency and negligence in service.
In his complaint, Jotheswaran said a despite a legal notice seeking explanation for the presence of hair in the packet, Spencer’s did not give a reply. An analyst at the King Institute in Guindy, where the packet was sent for examination, confirmed the “packet had extraneous material.” Had the sugar in the packet been consumed, it would have been “hazardous to health,” the petition said and sought a compensation of 50,000.
Spencer’s said it had only marketed the sugar packed by Venketesh Repackers of Seevaram and, hence, it was not liable to pay the compensation. It said “the analyst’s report was vague” and there was no possibility of the packet having human hair. The customer did not produce the packet before Spencer’s and it had sent a reply on receiving the complaint. “As the complainant did not sustain any health problems, the complaint was filed for monetary gain,” it said.
The bench comprising president R Mohandoss and member A Dayalan said Spencer’s should have been more vigilant. “They cannot wash their hands off saying they had nothing to do with packaging,” it said. It pointed out that the analyst’s report proved the presence of “alien particle” and the purchase of such a product would have caused “severe mental agony” to the customer.
No comments:
Post a Comment