Firm made to pay Rs 25,000 for failing to send limousine for wedding

AHMEDABAD: A consumer court ordered a travel company to pay a client Rs 25,000 for making a bridegroom wait for a limousine on his wedding day and then not sending it.

The case is from Borsad town in Anand district. Ghulam Rasul Vohra booked a limousine with Anand’s N Limousine International for the wedding of his son Shoeb, which was scheduled for November 20, 2016.

Two weeks before the wedding, Vohra paid the company Rs 5,000 to book the limo. The company was to charge Rs 24,000 for renting out the limo for a day.

On the day of the wedding, Vohra and Shoeb were kept waiting for the limousine, which failed to arrive. The wedding party finally went to the wedding destination in Anand in other vehicles. Miffed, Vohra dragged the travel company to the Anand District Consumer Court and demanded compensation of Rs 1 lakh for putting him in an embarrassing situation in front on his guests because of its deficient service. The claim included the Rs 5,000 booking amount paid to the company.

The company told the consumer court that the complainant came to its office a week after he had booked the limo and demanded cancellation of the booking and return of the booking money. The company had refused to return the amount and Vohra then got angry and created a ruckus in the office.

The complainant rebutted the company’s claims and asserted that he had never cancelled the booking and had kept waiting for the limo on the day of wedding. He alleged that the travel company had cooked up the story.

After hearing the case, the court said that the owner of the limousine had not supplied evidence to prove its claims of the booking being cancelled.

There must be a written request for it, but no substantiating material was provided to the court. The court found that compensation of Rs 95,000 for mental agony was excessive and ordered the travel firm to pay the complainant Rs 25,000.