Bengaluru: While many companies advertise their washing machines to be clothes-friendly, one Bengalurean fought and proved that the machine he bought, wasn’t as friendly as he thought.
Shashi Kumar KR, a resident of Mahalakshmi Layout sued a well known home appliances company after the washing machine he bought from them damaged his clothes over a period of one year. He won the case in a city consumer court and the company was ordered to either fix the appliance or refund the amount to the consumer.
Kumar purchase the washing machine on April 7, 2014 which was a front load model, from a home appliance retail store in Indiranagar. A year later he noticed that his expensive designer shirts and trousers had holes in them. Assuming that this damage was due to some infestation in his wardrobe, he had the whole thing disinfected. After this was done, he was horrified that the holes in his clothes that were once tiny, were only growing in size. He finally realise, after some intensive examination, that his washing machine was the cause of the damage. Luckily for him, it was still under warranty.
On June 9, 2015 Kumar called up the company’s customer care and filed a complaint with them and a technician were sent to his home to examine the machine. The technician told him to change the washing mode and assured Kumar that the problem would be fixed if he followed the guidelines. To his dismay, the technicians suggestions did not make things any better. In fact, they had no affect as the condition of Kumar’s clothes only got worse. This prompted Kumar to file another complaint with the company on August 13, 2015.
Technicians were sent to Kumar’s home again and they found that there was a problem with the machine. According to Kumar, the technicians assured him that he would either be provided with a new upgraded machine or a refund, however he later received an email from the company asking for the machine to be taken to the factory for testing.
Kumar stood his ground and demanded they either give him a refund or a new machine and when the company refused, he approached the Bangalore Urban 4th Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum and file a complaint against the company and the retailer on September 8, 2015.
After a long legal battle that spanned 32 months, the court finally ruled in Kumar’s favour on May 5 and apart from ordering the company and the retailer to pay Rs 1000 towards Kumar’s court fees, the ordered them to either replace the drum of the washing machine free of cost or refund the money (after deducting 10% since the machine was used for a year by the complainant).
