Parliament Question: Denial of Warranty Claims and Poor After-sales Service for Consumer Durables

Government of India Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Department of Consumer Affairs LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5508 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.03.2026 DENIAL OF WARRANTY CLAIMS AND POOR AFTER-SALES SERVICE FOR CONSUMER DURABLES 5508. DR. M K VISHNU PRASAD: Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has received complaints regarding denial of warranty claims and poor after- sales service for consumer durables such as televisions, air conditioners and refrigerators and if so, the details thereof; (b) the total number of complaints received during the last three years, company-wise; (c) whether manufacturers are mandatorily required to provide doorstep service within a fixed time limit and if so, the details thereof; (d) whether penalties are imposed for unjustified rejection of warranty claims and if so, the details thereof; and (e) the steps taken by the Government to protect consumers from over charging by service centres and extended warranty providers? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI B.L.VERMA) (a) to (e) : The year-wise details of complaints received on the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) regarding denial of warranty claims and poor after-sales service for consumer durables such as televisions, air conditioners and refrigerators during the last three years are given at Annexure. Under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), an executive agency, came into existence on 24.07.2020. It is designed to intervene, to prevent consumer detriment arising from violation of rights of consumers, misleading advertisements, unfair trade practices etc. and to initiate class action(s), including the enforcement of recalls, refunds and return of products. CCPA has imposed a penalty of ₹ 1,00,000/- on consumer durable company (Sunflame Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.) for publishing a misleading claim of “Lifetime Warranty” for kitchen chimneys under the garb of ‘T&C Apply' and deliberately concealing important information for the actual period of warranty which was only 1 years for motor and 5 years for components. An inverter battery company (Luminous Power Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) claimed warranty of 36 months on the packaging box for their product (inverter battery). However, in the warranty card which is made available to consumer once the product is purchase, the company mentioned free replacement for 0- 18 months and replacement at 20% discount on the MRP for the period 19-36 months. CCPA found it misleading and directed to discontinue the advertisement and imposed penalty of ₹1,00,000/-.CCPA has notified the Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022 on 9th June, 2022. These guidelines inter-alia provide for conditions for an advertisement to be non-misleading and valid; duties of manufacturer, service provider, advertiser and advertising agency including on e-commerce platforms. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 provides for a three tier quasi-judicial machinery at District, State and National level commonly known as “Consumer Commissions” for protection of the rights of consumers and to provide simple and speedy redressal of consumer disputes including those related with unfair trade practices. The Consumer Commissions are empowered to give relief of a specific nature and award compensation to consumers, wherever appropriate. The Department has launched “e-Jagriti” portal on 1st January, 2025, which aims to enhance consumer grievance redressal through Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning integration and modern features like faceless onboarding and role-based dashboards. It unifies existing applications (OCMS, eDaakhil, NCDRC CMS, CONFONET) into a single, scalable platform, allowing users to file complaints seamlessly from anywhere with multilingual support. The portal is designed to provide a convenient, transparent and efficient means for consumers to seek redressal by enabling online complaint filing, digital submission of documents, online payment of fees and also supports virtual courtrooms, enabling the hearing of cases remotely and ensuring faster disposal while reducing dependency on physical infrastructure. These features address bottlenecks like geographical barriers, scheduling conflicts and manual interventions. Further, VC equipment for conducting hearing through video conferencing mode has already been installed and made functional at 10 benches of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) and 35 benches of State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (SCDRCs). The National Consumer Helpline (NCH) administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs has emerged as a single point of access to consumers across the country for their grievance redressal at a pre- litigation stage. Consumers can register their grievances from all over the country in 17 languages including Hindi, English, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Nepali, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Maithili, Santhali, Bengali, Odia, Assamese and Manipuri through a toll-free number 1915. These grievances can be registered on Integrated Grievance Redressal Mechanism (INGRAM), an omni-channel IT enabled central portal, through various channels- WhatsApp (8800001915), SMS (8800001915), email (nch-ca@gov.in), the NCH app, the web portal (consumerhelpline.gov.in) and the Umang app, as per their convenience. 1,398 companies, who have voluntarily partnered with NCH, as part of the ‘Convergence’ programme directly respond to these grievances according to their redressal process and revert by providing a feedback to the complainant on the portal. Complaints against those companies, who have not partnered with National Consumer Helpline, are forwarded to the company for redressal. NCH has successfully facilitated refund of ₹52 crore to consumers between 25th April 2025 and 31st January 2026. This significant redressal was achieved across 31 sectors including consumer durables and electronics products effectively addressing 79,521 consumer grievances related to refund claims. The Department has launched, the Right to Repair Portal India (https://righttorepairindia.gov.in/) to provide consumers with an easy access to information for repairing their products and enabling them to reuse it. A total of sixty-six (66) companies have been on-boarded on the Right to Repair Portal, India including major brands across four sectors: Automobile, Consumer Durables, Mobile & Electronics and Farming Equipment.The Department has been conducting country-wide multimedia awareness campaigns titled “Jago Grahak Jago” under the Consumer Awareness Scheme. The Department is adopting a multi-channel approach combining physical outreach, digital initiatives, and social media campaigns to raise large-scale consumer awareness against misleading advertisements, unfair trade practices, dark patterns, grievance redressal mechanisms and various other consumer related issues. To ensure physical outreach to the Consumers, the Department participated in Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 at Prayagraj, and Surajkund Mela 2026 in Haryana. To reach citizens without smartphones or internet access, the Department carried out large-scale IVRS voice call campaigns across the country with a focus on Scheduled Caste dominated areas in 2025 in which 23 crore calls were made. Similarly, the Department also conducted large-scale SMS campaigns in eleven languages in which 65 crore SMSs were sent to 15 crore PDS beneficiaries in first phase and 24 crore SMSs were sent to consumers in Scheduled Tribe dominated areas, in 2nd phase in 2025. The Department also generated awareness by playing consumer awareness jingles on All India Radio during ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 matches which was broadcasted over 24 Rainbows Stations, 66 Primary Channels & 86 Local Radio Stations of National & Regional channels of AIR. To strengthen awareness among young and rural consumers, the Department distributed Amar Chitra Katha comic books containing consumer-rights stories through ERMS schools. Digital copies of these comics were also uploaded on the Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya. At the grassroots level, the Department conducted weekly virtual sessions with Panchayats across various States and Union Territories during the year 2024, 2025 and 2026 wherein more than lakh number of Panchyats representatives attended the sessions. The Department also ran a digital banner advertisement campaign in February 2026 on the IRCTC website and mobile app, generating 78.7 crore impressions during the campaign period. *****ANNEXURE ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (e) OF RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.5508 FOR ANSWER ON 25.03.2026 REGARDING “DENIAL OF WARRANTY CLAIMS AND POOR AFTER-SALES SERVICE FOR CONSUMER DURABLES”. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Year-wise details of complaints received on the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) regarding denial of warranty claims and poor after-sales service for consumer durables such as televisions, air conditioners and refrigerators during the last three years. Category of Consumer Durable 2023 2024 2025 Television 3789 3453 3348 Air Conditioner 1469 2747 1412 Refrigerator 2265 2759 2120 *****