‘Consumer forums are not for greedy consumers’

Slamming a plea filed by a city resident against Amazon India, a district consumer forum here said that “consumer forums are not meant to enrich greedy consumers”.

In the complaint filed against Amazon Seller Services Private Limited (ASSPL), a subsidiary of Amazon India, the Maurice Nagar resident had alleged that the online portal had delivered two “fake” copies of the book “India’s Ancient Past” that he had ordered. Further, it was alleged that despite approaching the customer care and other government portals, he had received no response.

The complainant, further, went ahead and demanded a compensation of ₹50,000 for “the suffering caused to him”.

Mere ‘facilitators’

However, in their defence, the company contended that they were mere “facilitators” of the transaction between the seller and customers and were not involved in the sales.

“The opposite party is an e-platform for communication and it neither sells nor offers to sell any product but merely provides an online marketplace where independent third party sellers can list their products for sale and the sellers themselves are responsible for their respective listings” read the contentions put forth by the company.

The ASSPL, further, argued that the complaint was “misconceived, baseless, vexatious, not maintainable” and alleged that the complainant had not approached the forum “with clean hands”.

Coming down heavily on the complainant, the district forum said that “bald allegations not substantiated by cogent documentary evidence” would not be entertained.

“It is observed that the complainant has levelled allegations that the books purchased by him are fake. It is a settled law that one who raises an allegation has to prove it beyond doubt. Not an iota of evidence has been placed on the file by the complainant to substantiate his claim” the district forum said in its order dated March 28.

Willing to settle matter

Noting that the complainant had approached the forum despite Amazon India offering compensation of ₹3,000 for an invoice amount of ₹414, the district forum said, “The conduct of the complainant leaves no room for doubt that he had approached this forum not for seeking redressal of his grievance but for his enrichment. In view of this, the allegation of the complainant is not acceptable to us.”

The district forum, further, observed that the online portal was willing to settle the matter from the very beginning while it was the complainant who “prolonged the litigation”.

“The gesticulation of benevolence exhibited by the opposite party towards its clientele to maintain healthy relations with them and to maintain its goodwill should not be given a connotation of admission of deficiency in service” the consumer forum added.

The company has been asked to pay the complainant the amount of ₹3,000 that they had offered, “only after both the books are returned” by the complainant.