R Jeyprakash’s son celebrates his birthday in December. As part of the birthday celebrations, Jeyprakash purchased a one kilo cake from K.R. Bakery, located on Sathy Road. The cake turned out to be stale, and to his bad luck, the bakery owner refused to replace the cake or refund Jeyprakash’s money. A disappointed Jeyprakash approached the Coimbatore Consumer Voice, and within a month, he got his due justice.

The secretary of the Coimbatore Consumer Voice shares with us that the cake was purchased in the afternoon that day after Jeyprakash had his lunch. The birthday celebrations were in the evening, a few hours later. That was why he kept the box of cake in the refrigerator. That evening, when the entire family got together to cut the cake, the elders at home realized that the cake had already turned bad, despite keeping it in the fridge.

“The owner of the bakery was unwilling to refund the money or replace the cake. When Jeyprakash approached us, we sent a sample of the cake to the food safety laboratory in Salem for testing. The results of the tests proved that the bakery had sold stale cake to him. The baker was made to compensate,” N. Logu, Secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Voice, says.

The complaint was solved in 30 days.

The Coimbatore Consumer Voice is a non-profit organization that came into being in 1991. It receives complains from the public and ensures that the victims get their due justice. On a daily basis, the Coimbatore Consumer Voice receives a minimum of 10 complains, some of them against the Government departments too.

As a procedure, upon receiving a complaint the board members of this organization send an official notice on behalf of the victim. The grievance is sent along with adequate proof to the accused requesting the latter to settle the matter out of court. The accused is also given seven days time to react. As a grace period, the accused is given an additional three days time. Only when there is no response from the accused does the Coimbatore Consumer Voice file an official complaint in the court of law at the district level. If that doesn’t work, the organization moves to the state High Court, and above too.

So far the Coimbatore Consumer Voice has successfully solved thousands of cases.