Cellular firm fined for failing to replace SIM card

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, January 12

For failing to issue a new SIM card to a doctor and keeping him bereft of mobile services, the District Consumer Forum has ordered Tata Docomo to pay a total of Rs 30,000 for harassment and as litigation cost. The doctor, a resident of Panchkula, had suffered losses in business as he used that particular number to communicate with his patients.

The doctor had been using a prepaid CDMA number of the company since 2010 and the number was mentioned on his visiting cards and prescription slips. On May 9 last year, the company sent a message to the mobile number of the complainant that they were shutting down the CDMA services in the area and the complainant should get his CDMA SIM converted to GSM by May 15 as after that there would be no CDMA network coverage available in the area.

The doctor went to a Tata Docomo store in Panchkula the same day but was asked to visit another store in Mani Majra. The store there re-directed him to Chandigarh for the lack of new SIM cards. The doctor had to make multiple visits to these three stores even after submitting documents and paying the fee but the service were not started.

The complainant then contacted the customer care and mailed the head office but for three weeks, the mobile service remained suspended, which caused losses to the doctor as well as to his patients. The forum found the company guilty of deficiency in service and ordered it to pay Rs 20,000 as compensation for mental agony and harassment, along with Rs 10,000 as cost of litigation.