The complainant, Ravi Kumar, has sent the legal notice, seeking Rs 224 as refund, and Rs 50,000 as damages.
A Chandigarh resident sent a legal notice to a car dealership in Chandigarh, alleging that he was wrongly charged Rs 224, towards hygiene labour and some flimsy interior protection covers.
The complainant, Ravi Kumar, has sent the legal notice, seeking Rs 224 as refund, and Rs 50,000 as damages. Kumar stated in the legal notice that he was charged Rs 14.83 for the interior protection covers and Rs 175 as “hygiene charges.” The amount was added with 18 per cent GST. The counsel for the complainant, advocate Pankaj Chandgothia mentioned in the notice that Ravi Kumar took his Maruti Celerio ZXI car to the auto pace dealership for a routine service check on May 21 and was assured that there would be no charge payable as the vehicle is under warranty. However, when he returned to collect the car, he was handed an invoice of Rs 224. When he protested, the officials said, charges will have to be paid as these were towards hygiene labour and interior protection covers, as per the dealer policy.
The counsel submitted that charges do not have legal sanctity and no such charges are authorised by law or by agreement. Moreover, the said internal protection cover is a flimsy paper type covering of the driver seat, which is used by people at their own level. “The use of sanitiser spray is not chargeable from a customer. He has not been sold the said spray in a packaged form… The use of sanitisers has been mandated by authority under Disaster Management Act for all industrial establishments like yours…,” read the notice sent to the dealership.
Owner of the dealership, Salil Mehan said, “It is a standard protocol to sanitize vehicles and is charged as hygiene labour.”