All of us have been in the shoes of a consumer several times in our life and we will easily be able to recollect situations whereby we have been wronged by the retailers who sold their products or services. Probably, they made empty promises about their products or services, charged extremely high price for a substandard product, sold a faulty product but never attended to our service calls, we can think of several such situations in our life. Often we feel helpless in these situations and let the retailers have their way. The best we could do was to stop going to them again and warn others of their poor services or products.
Very few people seek recourse to their consumer rights and try to get what is rightfully theirs using the arms of law. Every nation has laws protecting consumers from the unscrupulous vendors and companies that try to take advantage of their customers. Many of us think that it is too much of a trouble and it is not for them and leave these things to social activists. This happens mainly because of the ignorance of people. We receive very little education from our existing system about consumer rights and statutory rights. However, we cannot simply blame the system and suffer the loss. Ultimately, we pay the price so we should take initiative to understand our rights as a consumer. There are many resources available online that will educate us in dealing with retailers and service providers who take advantage of our ignorance in terms of our rights and privileges.
To have a valid claim against consumer rights you must be a consumer who purchased a product or a service for personal use and not for business use. Though we happen to be an individual whose rights were infringed, we need not be intimidated by the size of the business that we are dealing with. Law does not take into consideration the size of the business; law in principle should treat everyone equally.
You will be able to claim your statutory rights refunds under the civil law. However, if the retailer or the company that you are dealing with has committed a criminal offence and thereby infringing your consumer rights then you will not be able to go through civil law, but it will be escalated to the relevant authorities and punished as per the criminal law of the country. This will not fetch you any personal benefits like in the case of civil offence committed by the company or the retailer by infringing your customer rights.
Never approach the courts before understanding your rights clearly. This will save you a lot of time and it will save you from unnecessary mental tension. Before taking any steps through consumer forums approach the dealer first lodging a formal complaint. If they continue to ignore your complaint, you will have a valid claim. Your ultimate aim is to set right the wrong that you suffered and not taking the retailer to the court. Once the retailer sets right the problem from his end, you will have not any claim. So make sure you follow proper steps in exercising you consumer rights and statutory rights.
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