Bharti Airtel asked to pay Rs 38,5000 for deficient service

Telecom major Bharti Airtel has been directed by a consumer forum to pay Rs 38,500 to a Delhi-based couple for not providing them Internet TV and broadband connection even after receiving the payment.

Central Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, presided over by Justice Rakesh Kapoor, asked the telecom company to pay the total sum – Rs 25,000 compensation, Rs 10,000 towards litigation cost and Rs 3,500 as refund – to AC Mohan and his wife Alka Mohan.

“It appears to us that exasperated by the ‘devil may care’ attitude of the opposite parties (Airtel), the complainants (couple) have approached this forum with the present complaint,” the bench said, noting that the company neither replied to the letters sent by the couple, nor did it attend to their grievances.

The court noted that the firm failed to explain why it did not refund Rs 3,500 immediately to the couple when no service was being provided to them. “It speaks volumes about the matter in which amounts are being collected from the customers without any service being provided to them. We cannot help observing that a number of such customers may not have approached this forum for redressal of their grievances,” the forum said.