Monday, July 30, 2012

Suing For Harassment – Consumer Rights!

Suing For Harassment – Consumer Rights!

Read this quote somewhere – “People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.”




Okai, jokes apart. Do you have issues with any service provider? Frustrated? Helpless? Don’t know what to do & how to deal with the situation? Here, harassment can be of any form – deficient services, unauthorized actions (charges, penalties, payments etc) or whatsoever.







Well, there are many social forums where you can complaint against that service provider, where your concerns will be listened and suggestions are given, few of them will even contact service provider asking justification. In situations, you can issue a legal notice for deficiency of services and claim damages, and even can file a case in the district consumer forum/ court. Few forums needs a basic registration (account creation), with contact details. Share it, what’s the big deal when you have a genuine cause for the complaint(s). Few are even paid, yet worth, services where you get immediate and useful advices/ help from registered lawyers. Don’t worry if you are not aware of Consumer Protection Act and related things, you just raise your voice and watch what happens!





While posting complaints in such forums, you just need to make sure few basic things:



*** Do complain ONLY when you are done dealing with - exchanging communication with the service provider (emails/ any written form), gave them enough time to react to your issue(s) and yet there is not response/ action taken by service provider with regards to your concern(s).



*** Do NOT opt to file an FIR/ police complaint if you have any civil issues. It’s rather recommended to send a legal notice first through a lawyer, give them some time to respond and file a case against them in a district consumer forum appropriately after that time frame.



*** Do NOT write anything which looks like defaming the other party, but write all the “facts” which you can prove, when questioned.



*** Select a relevant category while lodging a complaint, else it may not be considered.



*** File a case in District Consumer Forum/ Court (local to the dispute state/ city) ONLY if there is no response to your notice from the service provider, even after given time frame (usually 7 – 15 days).



Well, there are various Consumer Forums where you can lodge a complaint. Below are few and not limited to:





1.Grahak Seva

2.Consumer Complaints In

3.Consumer Court In

4.Complaints India

5.iComplaints In

6.Consumer Forums

7.Akosha

8.Consumer Court Forum

9.Indian Real Estate Forum (Spefcific to issues with builders/ developers etc)

10.India Consumer Forum

11.Lawyers Club India

12.PathLegal In

13.Consumer Law

14.Consumer Daddy

15.Consumer Redressal

16.National Consumer Helpline





Just posting complaint(s) is not all about it, try sharing it on your social networking channels – facebook/ linkedin/ twitter etc. You may also opt to post a complaint in your own blog, share it with all your social networks. Trust me, it really helps in some or the other way, showing a way to proceed further.



Feel free to add your points/ thoughts here, which would be really helpful to people around.







PS: The pictures used in this post are randomly taken over from web, I do not own them.

Sunday, July 15, 2012