Shocker! Nirma and keypad phone equal to iPhone priced at Rs. 48999?

It is no less than a shock to the system! A man ordered an iPhone online, but got a detergent bar instead. This bizarre incident occurred when a student Harsha S from the Koppal in Karnataka complained that he had ordered an iPhone from ecommerce company Flipkart back in the year 2021. Instead, he was sent a 'Nirma' detergent bar and a keypad phone, a PTI report revealed. The iPhone was worth Rs. 48999.

Now, the ecommerce website and the iPhone's retailer have been ordered by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission to pay compensation for deficiency in service worth Rs. 25000. Apart from this, the commission has also ordered Flipkart and retailers to pay compensation for deficiency in service and unfair trade practice of Rs. 10000. Not just that, the ecommerce website has also been ordered to pay Rs. 15000 as compensation for mental agony, physical harassment and cost of litigation of the consumer.

Luckily, the student will also get a full refund of the amount, Rs. 48999, that he had paid for the iPhone.

The commission said in its order that, “It is worthwhile to mention here that, now-a-days online shopping is spreading everywhere, because it is time and money saving, but the responsibilities of the companies cannot be over after selling of the product, as it is the bounden duty of the companies to satisfy their customers, because it does not give any liberty to usurp the money of the consumers either by sending wrong items/product to cheat the customers and to gulp the money of customer.”

However, this is not the first time an ecommerce website has messed up online products delivery. A few months ago, a man ordered an iPhone 13 from Flipkart but surprisingly while unboxing, he found the iPhone 14! Well, the situation turned lucky for him, but that has not been the case for this Karnataka student.