Had an issue with a Product or Service?
If you are having any issue with the product or services with any seller, shop or manufacturer online or offline and not listening to you. Then don’t worry.
Now, there is a better option to deal with.
The Indian government has a service called “Consumer Helpline“. Which is designed to deal with such issues.
This service was launched long before, but most are unaware of it.
I was unaware of it until I had an issue with Ola Cabs in 2021.
Here is what happened in my case.
On 28-11-2021, I booked Ola Auto. Instead of the driver coming to the spot, he called me on the phone and asked me for OTP.
I never gave OTP; instead, I informed the driver to come to the pickup spot.
He disconnected the call and never showed up. After some time, the booking was also auto-cancelled.
It was not cancelled by me.
After a few days, I tried to book another auto. That time, I noticed Ola charged a cancellation charge of ₹15. It was wrongly charged to me.
I couldn’t complain about Ola because 48 hours is already over. They didn’t alert me in any way of this charge.
The only way to know the charge is when you try to book next time.
But at that time, you won’t have any option to contact customer care if 48 hours have passed.
In my case, it’s already done.
I had no option to reach Ola support. So, I was left with no option.
While researching online, I learned about this service called https://consumerhelpline.gov.in, where we can raise complaints on such cases.
Initially, I didn’t take that service seriously. Many users said they got refunded up to ₹50,000 from different services they had issues with.
After seeing all such responses, I decided to raise a complaint/Grievance about my issue.
Within 15 days of raising the complaint, I guess I got a call from Ola customer care service, and they refunded my ₹15 that was wrongly charged to me.
This service worked for me.
Thanks to the Gov’t of India for having such a service. It did help me.
Consumer Helpline Didn’t Work on this Condition:
After seeing the first successful refund, I had another issue. This time, it was quite different.
The reason is this time, it was shopped on a fake website where there was no way to contact the seller.
Here is what happened in this case:
My mom, without informing me bought saree online by seeing online ads.
The seller sent a piece of towel instead of a Saree. I think my mom paid around ₹800 for it. It was ordered in Cash on Delivery.
A duplicate product came, they paid the courier boy, and he left.
When my mom opened it, it was a piece of cloth. Not the saree that they ordered.
When this happened, my mom informed me about this issue.
When I was checking about this site, I learned that it was a fake website. Many others complained about similar things on that website.
I tried contacting the seller on various methods; all his contact details are fake.
Finally, I gave it a try again at https://consumerhelpline.gov.in.
But whatever the seller’s contact details I provided there is not reachable. So, in this case, the consumer helpline didn’t help me.
Anyway. If you have an issue with a valid business or person, this service will be helpful.
If you shop on a fake website like my mom did in such cases, it won’t be helpful.
