Customer receives laundry soap rather of an iPhone; Flipkart, the store, is required to make a Rs. 25,000 compensation payment

A buyer who received a bar of dishwashing soap and a little keypad phone instead of the iPhone he had bought has filed a complaint with the Consumer Protection Commission, which has ordered the e-commerce giant Flipkart and the store to pay Rs 25,000.

This reimbursement would be made in addition to the Rs 48,999 refund that was given to customer Harsha S, a student from the district capital city of Koppal in Karnataka, for the iPhone. In order to protest about receiving a little keypad phone and a "Nirma" soap instead of the Apple iPhone he had bought online from Flipkart Online Private Limited and Sane Retails, Harsha went to the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Koppal.

In his lawsuit, which was filed in 2021, he claimed that he had paid Rs 48,999 and wanted a refund as well as compensation for the subpar treatment and emotional anguish he received.

The complainant said that upon opening the package he had received, he was astounded to see a little keypad phone and one 140-gram bar of detergent in place of the ordered Apple iPhone 11. (Green 65GB).

The Commission stated in its order from last week: "It is worthwhile to mention here that, now-a-days, online shopping is spreading everywhere because it saves time and money, but the responsibilities of the companies cannot be over once they have sold the product, as it is their bounden duty to satisfy their customers, because it does not give any liberty to usurp the money of the consumers either by sending wrong items/product to cheat the customers and to gull It said that even after charging the full price for the merchandise, Flipkart and its reseller were still guilty of unfair trade practices since they sold or sent the incorrect item rather than the one that had been bought.

Flipkart and Sane Retails "are jointly and severally liable to pay compensation of Rs 10,000 towards deficiency in service and unfair trade practice and Rs 15,000 for mental agony, physical harassment and cost of litigation," according to the Commission, which was made up of the President A G Maldar, Woman Member G E Sowbhagyalakshmi, and Member G S Patil. Moreover, they had to reimburse the phone's purchase price of Rs. 48,999 within the next eight weeks.