Study of Consumer Disputes of Electronics Market in Maharashtra

 

Dr. Manojkumar Jyotiram Gaikwad^1*, Parikshitkumar Hiralal Kate²

¹Former Head, Dept. of Economics, Vasantrao Naik College of Arts and Science, Shahada, Dist Nandubar (MH)

²Ph. D. Research Scholar, North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon (MH)

 

ABSTRACT:

The Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum has been established under the Consumer Protection Act 1986 by the Government of India. Forum avails in protecting the interest of consumers with respect to disputes, grievances and litigants while having different trading activities. Online retail is major paradigm shift in Indian business environment. A satisfied customer can drive business economy faster than any business strategy. So Customer satisfaction is at the center of any business environment. Customer response is vital for any service provider especially when they experience poor service. From years traditional retail has witnessed lots of consumer disputes and same has been observed in online retail also. In view of this background the paper studies cases field in consumer redressal district forums with special reference to electronics market in Maharashtra. After studying the complaints filed in district forums researcher has identified different variables. And by analyzing them researcher has proposed several suggestions for effective complaint resolution and customer satisfaction. For successful prosperous business environment of online retail, the study endeavors to identifies intricacies on macro level and suggest suitable ways to mitigate them for business and consumers.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Information technology has played an instrumental role in shaping things around the world. Indian market is one of the most diversified business markets. In traditional retail environment lots of consumer disputes were happening. So for fending the interest of the consumers establishment of Consumer Protection Act 1986 has done. With emergence of online retail number of disputes arising from it is on the elevate. An efficient and well equipped system needs to be in place for successful inclusion of online retail in diversified Indian market. Rapid expansion and acceptance of online retail makes it’s possible for businesses to expand market and reach to a large number of e-consumer groups.

 

Like traditional offline transaction online transaction also lead to disputes. For making a successful online commerce it is necessary that a trustworthy ecosystem needs to be in place which will not inhibit consumes from purchasing online, and companies from entering into online retail. For effective, low cost resolution of disputes and to obtain monetary compensation for their losses Consumer Protection Act 1986 is a milestone for protecting the interest of consumers. It provides better protection to consumers and also leads to establishments of consumer Dispute Redressal forums called District Consumer Forum at District level, State Commission at State level and National Commission at National level. Consumer plays a major role in the magnification of any economy; so it is mandatory to protect its interest. So the act protects consumers from any unprincipled, duplicate, defective, branding, misleading treatment by seller and business men. The act has been amended few times for extending its coverage and for increasing powers of redressal agencies. Effective complaints management of customers has direct impact on brand image of product. Complaint management refers to the strategies used to resolve disputes and to improve ineffective products or services in order to establish a firm’s reliability in the eyes of customers¹. Complaint data is a key component in the process of problem correction and increased performance¹.

 

LITERATURE REVIEW:

In traditional markets, customer complaints are considered an important source of information². Since complaint management is recognized as being central to customer satisfaction, any measure of complaint behavior should consider the degree and quality of the underlying customer satisfaction³. Effective complaint management has a dramatic impact on customer retention, deflects potential word-of-mouth damage, and improves profitability^4,5. Traditional markets have learned that customer complaints are affected by individual customer characteristics, customer’s perceptions of the sources of their dissatisfaction, outcome expectancies, product type, and the costs associated with complaining^6,7,8.

 

Figure 1: Process of customer complaint

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

·         To study the cases filed in District Consumer Forums in Maharashtra with respect to electronics goods.

·         To identify the gap that leads to disputes in buying environment.

·         To provide suggestions for minimizing and speedy resolution of customer complaints.

 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Researcher has studied consumer complaints of electronics goods filed in all the District forums in Maharashtra. The data has been accumulated by the researcher from consumer forum’s official website⁹. Researcher has taken only those cases which got resulted from the period of January 2016 to December 2016. Total numbers of consumer complaints studied by researcher are 94.

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Researcher has analyzed the collected data on the below identified variables.

·         Insurance claim

·         Irresponsible customer service

·         Service fault in warranty period

·         Failure of delivery of product

·         Misleading customers on service/ advertising

·         Service fault of local mobile shop

·         Misleading customers on product features

·         Settlement done

Below table shows percentage of cases transpired because of different identified variables.

 

Table1: Analysis of customer complaints

Variables	Nature of Actual Complaint	% of complaints
Insurance claim	Insurance company not passing claim; Unclear terms of insurance company	13
Irresponsible customer service	Unresponsive to service request; Waiting time is more than average time	71
Service fault in warranty period	Not giving free service in warranty period; unresponsive service processes	67
Failure of delivery of product	Wrong product delivery	3
Misleading customers on service	Inappropriate after sale service - not as promise during the sale	49
Service fault of local mobile shop	Inappropriate service/guidance after product failure	6
Misleading customers on product features	Failure in conveying right features of products	2
Settlement done	Parties made settlement on their own	11

 

Many customers buy insurance for their electronic gadgets. But there is lack of conveying insurance terms and conditions to customers from insurance company. Also it is observed that insurance company is not supporting customers for claiming their insurance. When product mis-behaves the service centers becomes first point of contact for customers to approach company for solving their problem. But according to the study service centers are not responsive to consumer complaints. Also average waiting time for any customer for getting response from the service center about their product repair is more than average time. Service centers are bound to give service to customer in warranty period but on many instances it is observed that service centers are irresponsive in handling customer complaints. Though companies are spending huge amount for marking product features for attracting more customers; it is expected that at the time of selling any product company should educate customers with respect to features of that products. Every company doesn’t have authorized service centers at all the places/ districts. So if any product fault rises in non-service center area then its responsibility of local mobile shop to direct that complaint to respective service center. It is observed that local mobile shop are irresponsive in handling such complaints; which leads to further delayed in the process and poor customer service.

 

RECOMMENDATION:

·         Misleading advertisements, marketing, and retailing practice pose new challenges to consumer protection and will require appropriate and swift executive interventions to prevent consumer detriment.

·         Educating the customer in different cases such as product features, warranty/ guarantee conditions, steps needs to be taken in case of any product fault is important.

·         There is need for increasing the numbers of service Center Company should deploy.

·         An interactive online customer complaint service mechanism needs to be in place.

·         Online tracking of customer complaints through all the stake holders before going to consumer disputes forums will improve complaint resolution.

 

CONCLUSION:

Customer is backbone of any business economy. Customer satisfied business economy is considered as omen for developing economy. As more and more players are entering the business complaint resolution is efficacious to implement for businesses to magnetize more customers. Service providers should remember that market is full of players and if they compromise on their service part some other company will attract their customers. Taking complaint management solemnly will directly impact quality, customer adhesion and business magnification.

 

REFERENCES:

1.        Tax et al., “Customer Evaluations of Service Complaint Experiences: Implications for Relationship Marketing,” Journal of Marketing. April 1998; 62: 60-76.

2.        Tse, D. K. and Wilton, P. C., “Models of Consumer Satisfaction Formulation: An Extension,” Journal of Marketing Research. August 1988; 24: 204-212.

3.        Cho et al., “An Analysis of Pre- and Post-Purchase Online Customer Complaining Behavior,” Proceedings of Conference on Customer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. June 2001.

4.        Fornell, Claes, and Westbrook, R.A. “The Vicious Circle of Consumer Complaints”, Journal of Marketing. 1984; 48: 68-78.

5.        Kelly S. W. and Davis, M. A., “Antecedents to Customer Expectations for Service Recovery,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Winter 1994; 22: 52-61.

6.        Day, Ralph L., “Modeling Choices Among Alternative Responses to Dissatisfaction,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Thomas C. Kinner ed., Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research. 1984; 11: 469-499.

7.        Singh, J. and Howell, R. D., “Consumer Complaining Behavior: A Review and Prospectus,” Proceedings of the Conference on Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Ralph Day and Keith Hunt, eds. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1985.

8.        Yi, Y., “A Critical Review of Consumer Satisfaction,” in Review of Marketing. Valerie A. Zeithaml, ed. Chicago, American Marketing Association, 1990.

9.        http://cms.nic.in/ncdrcusersWeb/search.do?method=loadSearchPub

 

 

 

 

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