Do you check the MRP and expiry date of each & every product before buying?
Sometimes we are in too much hurry or perhaps feel too lazy to dig for the price and expiry date of a product before purchasing. Instead, we ask the shopkeeper or the cashier and pay the amount we are told. There have been cases when people later on realize that they have been overcharged or sold an expired product. But often we shrug it off, ignoring the rights that we have as consumers. Many businesses take advantage of this unconcerned behavior of us as consumers and go on with their unfair practices making huge profits. Charging a Rs. 5 extra for a product from you may not seem a very big issue. But if a shop charges that extra Rs. 5 to Rs. 100 customers in a day, it will make a profit of Rs. 500 in a single day by unfair means, which is a serious matter.
To highlight this serious issue and make consumers aware, a concerned consumer strive to lift this lid off for 6 years.
All thanks to his efforts, a restaurant in Mumbai now has to pay a huge price for overcharging him back in 2014.
Six years back, a restaurant in Mumbai Central charged a customer Rs10 more than the MRP for a packet of Ice-cream. The customer, Bhaskar Jadhav, turned out to be a man of uniform. Sub-inspector Jadhav took up the issue with the restaurant which was unfortunately dismissed. He then submitted a complaint before the South Mumbai District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum in 2015 with the help of an activist Prakash Seth.
In defense, the restaurant argued that the extra 10 bucks was for services related to storing and cooling the ice-cream. Countering this argument, Seth explained that if a customer is sitting inside the restaurant and asks for a bottle of mineral water, the waiter serves it a glass for him/her. That is a payable service.
However, Bhaskar didn’t enter the restaurant. He puchased the ice-cream brick from the counter. The district forum too noticed that Jadhav was not served by any waiter. Also, he didn’t use any service of the restaurant. Neither he consumed the ice-cream in the premises of the restaurant nor used any of its cutlery. Hence, the District Consumer Forum held the restaurant guilty of engaging in unfair trade practices.
The restaurant now has been levied with a fine of Rs. 2 lakh which is to be deposited within 45 days to the Consumer Welfare Fund.
“In order to curb such unscrupulous trade practices by restaurants and shops and for the benefit of customers, the principle of fear of deterrence must be addressed”, the forum said.
As reported by News18, Jadhav has expressed his happiness over the victory of his 6 year long fight. He believes that this incident will be a lesson and hopes that eateries and shops would stop engaging themselves in such unfair practices.
