As a consumer you never know the true quality of a product until you use it. For this reason some vendors can take advantage of the consumer by producing low standard items. However, the consumer court came up in India to prevent such practices from working against the advantage of the consumers. The consumer court ensures that all the products merchants avail to consumers are up to standard failure to which legal action may be taken against the company. Consumer complaints in these courts are handled with a lot of clarity. The consumer forum also assists in protecting the rights of the consumer and to prevent traders from misusing their power.

The main advantage of using the consumer court is that you will not have to pay legal fees. The government acts as the lawyer and deliberates cases on behalf of the customer. There are also a number of reasons why the consumer forum was organized. For starters, imagine the kind of hoarding and black marketing that would be around were it not for this court. The consumer court has come a long way in preventing uncontrolled food shortages and corruption of various products in the market. These courts deal with customer complaints in an impartial manner to prevent exploitation of customers.

The consumer court in India can be divided into three categories. The first and highest ranked court is the national consumer court. This is followed by the state and district consumer courts. In case the customer complaints require a compensation of more than 20 lakhs the case is taken to the district consumer court. If the consumer is dissatisfied with the settlement, he/she can take the case to a state consumer court.

There are three main methods of compensation granted to customers. After logging the customer complaints the company can either be ordered to give an equal or higher valued replacement of the product, a refund or to repair the defective item for free. Regardless of the outcomes of the consumer forum, the main aim is for justice to prevail. Before taking any case to the consumer forum, you should first obtain legal advice on whether the case will be fruitful.

The consumer forum can be found online. You will find various customers expressing their grievances after using various products or services. If you find other customers complaining about the same product on the consumer forum then this might raise an alarm that indeed the product is defective. Make sure you check and find out the number of customer complaints available regarding that particular product.

There is a lot that the company or a trader can do to prevent consumer complaints from being taken to the consumer forum. For instance the company should try to handle the consumer complaints timely before the consumer sees it as a violation of his/her rights. The company should be able to evaluate whether the complaint is valid and if so prepare the necessary compensation to avail to the customer. If the company fails to do this the customer should take the matter to the consumer forum. Consumers should always know that the consumer court is there to prevent their consumer rights from being dishonored.

Mark is the author of this article on Consumer court. Find more information, about Consumer complaints here