NEW DELHI: The Maharashtra consumer commission has held Skoda and its local dealer liable for deficiency in service and directed them to pay Rs 3 lakh to a customer whose car sat at a service centre for nearly two months because the company could not fix a starting problem.What was the issueThe complainant, a practising lawyer from Mumbai, purchased a Skoda Superb Elegance car from Autobahn Enterprises, an authorised Skoda dealer in Mumbai. The car was delivered to him on June 4, 2013.Just five months later, the complainant found that the car would not start. He informed the dealer, who visited his premises the next day and confirmed the engine was not starting. After issuing a breakdown report, the dealer refused to tow the car to the workshop.The dealer managed to start the car on November 1, 2013 but asked the complainant to drive it to the workshop himself.The car was not returned until December 28, 2013 — 58 days after it went to the workshop. The dealer blamed the delay on imported spare parts that had to be sourced from abroad and supplied by Skoda Auto India.During this period, the complainant wrote several emails to the dealer seeking a replacement car or daily compensation. The dealer offered Rs 3,500 per day, which the complainant rejected, demanding Rs 15,000 per day — the market rate, he said, for hiring a car of the same standard. Skoda Auto India responded saying it had taken up the matter with the dealer but went silent thereafter.The complainant then approached Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, which wrote to both the dealer and the manufacturer but received no response. He then filed a complaint before the Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in 2015, seeking a refund of the full purchase price of Rs 27.82 lakh and compensation of Rs 8.50 lakh calculated at Rs 15,000 per day for 58 days.What the commission saidThe bench comprising Presiding Member Poonam V. Maharshi and Member Dr. Nisha Amol Chavhan ruled against both the dealer and the manufacturer.The commission held that keeping a five-month-old premium car for nearly two months to fix a starting problem was simply not acceptable. It rejected the dealer’s argument that the delay was caused by the non-availability of imported spare parts, saying that internal supply chain problems between a dealer and a manufacturer are not the consumer’s concern.On Skoda’s defence that it had no direct contract with the buyer and could not be held liable, the commission said a manufacturer who extends a warranty cannot walk away when its own supply chain fails.“The manufacturer cannot compel the consumer to approach its authorised network for mandatory servicing to keep the warranty alive, and then conveniently hide behind a principal-to-principal clause when that very network fails due to the manufacturer’s own logistical defaults,” it said.The commission found the complainant’s claim of Rs 15,000 per day excessive and unsupported by actual bills or receipts. Instead, it used the dealer’s own offer of Rs 3,500 per day as a benchmark, which for 58 days worked out to Rs 2.03 lakh. It then awarded a lump sum of Rs 3 lakh covering mental agony, harassment and loss of use of the vehicle, along with Rs 25,000 towards litigation costs.The commission directed both the dealer and Skoda Auto India to pay the total of Rs 3.25 lakh jointly within 45 days, failing which it would carry interest at 9 per cent per annum until fully paid.
