Mumbai woman wins Rs 8,000 compensation from Grofers after being denied refund: report

Kalpana Shah fell prey to a cyber fraud whereby she was asked to share a one-time password while trying to get the refund for the watermelon seeds, but lost Rs 5,000. (Representational Image).

A Mumbai woman won a compensation of Rs 8,000 from online grocery service Grofers after she was refused a refund of Rs 31, a Times of India report said.

The incident took place in January 2020 when the woman, identified as Kalpana Shah, was charged for a packet of watermelon seeds that went undelivered to her. Shah fell prey to a cyber fraud whereby she was asked to share a one-time password while trying to get the refund for the seeds, but lost Rs 5,000.

The woman said that after following up, the customer support team at Grofers told her that as per their records, all items had been delivered. Based on their response, Shah spoke to a Grofers "agent", who said she could either get a refund immediately or wait for two more weeks to get the watermelon seeds. The woman opted for the former, but lost Rs 5,000.

She approached the local consumer disputes redressal commission for help in 2022, who recently ordered the online delivery service to repay the amount at a nine per cent interest rate.

"In the said case, by showing their harsh approach towards complainant, we are of the opinion that the opposite party has rendered deficiency in service. Thus, it will be desirable to direct the opposite party to pay towards compensation for mental agony of Rs 5,000 and towards cost of litigation Rs 3,000," the consumer disputes redressal commission said.

The commission also declared that Grofers had given deficiency in service and deployed unfair practices to Shah.

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