Highlights AIRTEL FINED `30,000 FOR WRONG SIM DEACTIVATION
FLIPKART ACQUIRES MOBILE AND IT PRODUCTS SERVICE CHAIN F1 INFO SOLUTIONS
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Highlights AIRTEL FINED `30,000 FOR WRONG SIM DEACTIVATION
The Hyderabad District Consumer Forum imposed a fine of `30,000 on Bharti Airtel for wrongful deactivation and porting of a SIM card without the consent of the consumer, Mr Raghavendar Rao, a resident of Balkampet, Hyderabad. The SIM card of Rao, who had been an Airtel user since 2010, was terminated in 2015. However, the card was reactivated within a week but terminated once again within two days.
Rao claimed that the termination of his card cost him a loss of `16 lakh, and therefore, he lodged a case of cheating and intimidation against Airtel. Considering Rao’ s complaint, Airtel informed the forum that when the company had offered to reactivate Rao’ s connection, he had demanded a fancy number along with a compensation of `10 lakh. Airtel said that they were not directly liable as a smaller outlet which represented it had caused the problem.
According to Airtel, the forum had limited jurisdiction in the matter which came under the purview of the Telegraph Act, 1885 and the consumer would have to approach an arbitrator appointed by the Centre.
In response to Airtel’ s statement, the forum cited a judgment given in 2012 by the Maharashtra State Consumer Commission to state that it had the jurisdiction. It took note of the fact that Airtel had offered the consumer means to have the connection restored, which the consumer had declined. Notably, the forum took note of this fact and also the fact that Rao failed to provide proof of the losses suffered and gave a decision partially in favor of the consumer. Considering all facts of the case, the forum thus reduced the compensation claim from `16 lakh to `30,000.
FLIPKART ACQUIRES MOBILE AND IT PRODUCTS SERVICE CHAIN F1 INFO SOLUTIONS
Flipkart, the Ecommerce major has acquired mobile phone and electronic products repair and services startup F1 Info Solutions as it seeks to enhance after-sales offerings. Flipkart has merged F1 Info Solutions with its subsidiary Jeeves, a third-party service provider for home appliances and furniture.
F1 Info Solutions co-founder and CEO, Shammi Moza will be joining Flipkart as senior director and will continue to hold responsibility for the business, as a part of the deal. He will report to Abhijit Upadhye, vice president at Flipkart and head of Jeeves.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart expressed that the acquisition is a big add-on for the company that would help the firm give its customers a comprehensive service ecosystem that takes care of repair and service needs.“ Flipkart is the top destination for mobile phones in India and having created the market for online smartphones from scratch, we’ re now taking our offerings several notches higher,” he said in a statement.
Flipkart claims to have 70 % market share in the online smartphone sales market with mobile phones being a hotly contested category among ecommerce players. With the acquisition of F1 Info Solutions, Flipkart’ s end-to-end capabilities in mobile phones would become a“ critical service differentiator” compared to other ecommerce firms, the ecommerce firm said.
Founded in 2012, Mumbai-headquartered F1 Info Solutions has a repair service network of 158 centers in 135 cities. The firm has close to 1,000 employees, including technicians, and handles more than 50,000 service calls every month across the country.
F1 Info Solutions, which was chosen as No. 1 in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India in 2015, recorded revenues of `76 crore and profit of `8 crore in financial year 2015-16.
November 2017 | Legal Era | www. legaleraonline. com