Kinetic pulled up for deficient service

Kinetic Engineering Ltd, which sold a defective motorcycle to a customer in 2001, has been held guilty of 'gross' deficiency in service and unfair trade practice by a Delhi consumer court which also asked the company to refund him the bike's price.

". . . the respondent (Shashi Dhar Sharma) took his vehicle ('Challenger' motorcycle) to the appellant (Kinetic) on 10 occasions, the first being hardly 14 days of its purchase, but the appellant could not rectify the defect of wobbling," the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission said.

"This is not only gross deficiency in service, but also unfair trade practice," Commission President Justice J D Kapoor, Members Rumnita Mittal and Mahesh Chandra said upholding the Distrct Forum's order to refund him the cost of the vehicle with nine per cent interest.

Sharma said he had purchased the bike for Rs 41,970 on July 4, 2001 and alleged that it had a wobbling problem right from the beginning. He took the bike to Kinetic's dealer Rana Automobiles ten times between July 18, 2001 and June 1, 2002 but the defect could not be rectified.

He alleged that the bike's battery was already almost two years old at the time of purchase which the company hid from him. The battery stopped working in June 2002, he added.

Though Kinetic filed the appeal in the Commission saying the District Forum had not obtained technical expert opinion, the Commission rejected this contention saying it was for Kinetic to produce the expert in support of their arguments that neither there was any manufacturing defect nor the battery was an old one.