Grahakjago (S.K.Virmani)©

Volvo Cars have come out with an advertisement in The Times of India dtd. 04/12/2014 with following terms which are subject matter of this blog. The main attraction of the title of the advertisement is "100% Luxury. 0% Interest rate." 1. Interest Free Loan for First two years 2. Insurance Free                                                                                                      Times of India dtd. 04/12/2014 The author of the blog has been raising up the issues with Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) on both terms being used by other industries. However, ASCI could not find any objections to such terminology in the advertisement. The main objections found by the author are: 1. Interest Free Loan or prominently advertised as "zero percent EMIs" as there could not be     any finance schemes without any interest as it is common logic that the Financial companies are not doing business for charity. There is a reason to bel

It has always been a trend to mislead the consumers. The company offers attractive schemes which practically do not exist. Some of the misleading advertisements in the recent times have been offering sale of product and services at deferred payment terms without interest, free insurance schemes by Automobile companies, Real Estate, Builders, fairness cremes, speak English fluently, get rid of Wrinkles etc. etc. The consumer also become victims of such advertisements etc. There is a sudden spurge in the recent times about such misleading advertisements as basically the industry is without any regulator despite being billion dollar industry. However, Advertising Standard Council of India referred as ASCI which seems to be a remedy to address such issues. ASCI is a voluntary self-regulatory organization, registered as a not-for-profit company under section 25 of the Indian Cos. Act. The sponsors of ASCI, who are its principal members, are firms of considerable repute within Industr

Chevrolet has come out with an advertisement in The Times of India dtd. 27/11/2014 for their "Beat" model.      The Company offered following benefits through the advertisement: 1. Insurance @ Re.1/- for 3 years (benefits upto Rs. 47,000/-) plus 2. Accessories worth Rs. 20,000/-  is misleading on several counts plus 3. Cash benefits Rs. 10,000/- plus 4. Loyalty Bonus Rs. 20,000/- plus 5. Corporate Offer Rs. 3,000/-  It states in bold box "Total Benefits Rs.1,00,000/-" I am just giving below an analysis of the above discounts and offers as such offers are fashion of the day as it suits companies, traders, dealers etc. I am confident that the analysis could be of informative for all those who have already purchased or those who are likely to purchase the vehicles with such kind of offers and discounts. I am just wondering if those who have already purchased "Beat" model, could relook as to whether they got real benefits of Rs. 1,

Whether advertisements like "Free Insurance" not misleading advertisements? Now a days there is flood of advertisements by Automobile companies offering free insurance. Even there is a recent  advertisement which offers free insurance for 3 years. Now lets see whether it is really a free insurance or is being paid by you and still you being mislead through such advertisement. 1. One of the condition for any product to be covered for insurance is payment of premium. Hence there is no term like free insurance. Insurance is a matter of risk and no risk is covered unless and until a premium is paid. 2. I have every reason to believe that the prices are build up with insurance premium and offered to buyer as free insurance. I have negotiated with the dealer who offered free insurance at the first instance and then later on agreed to give an amount of Rs. 18,000/- if I do not accept their offer of free insurance. It clearly proves that the price of the car was built up wit

An article titled "Do the charges for SMS services being charged by State Bank of India are ethical?" was written on the blog on 5th April 2014. A copy of the article was mailed to State Bank of India. However, the amount got refunded. Such unethical charging for SMS Alert Services is not only by the SBI but almost all banks with exception of UCO Bank resorting to. While most of the banks are charging Rs. 15/- per qtr., UCO bank is just charging Rs. 0.12 per SMS for transactions. All the consumers are facing the same problem and even the consumers may not be aware of such money being deducted from their account.  It is understood that the matter was taken up by  Department of Consumer Affairs  with Department of Financial Services of Ministry of Finance. The view points were concurred by the Ministry of Finance. It is learnt that Ministry of Finance has also directed all the Banks and RBI and IBA to ensure that RBI's directives are implemented immediately and furthe

I have brought two articles on the subject of misleading advertisement by EMI Free car Pvt. Ltd as:                                                                                        Misleading Advertisement by EMI Free Car Ltd   1.    Points that need to be taken care of while dealing with www.emifreecar.com http://jagograhak.blogspot.in/2014/05/points-that-need-to-be-taken-care-of.html 2.  EMI Free Car Pvt. Ltd. has not got any permission to display advertisement on the cars/ vehicles- Revealed under RTI- Perspective buyers need to be careful.   http://jagograhak.blogspot.in/2014/07/emi-free-car-pvt-ltd-has-not-got-any.html  Both articles  were referred to Advertising Standard Council of India as these advertisements were misleading the consumers. In addition to the misleading advertisements, the company is also resorting to illegal business in the way that the display of advertisement on the side body of the car (which is the key to the misleading the con

A copy of the complaint on illegal charging of VAT on discount sales by SRS Parivar                                                                                                                                 Dt. 20/08/2014 SRS Value Bazaar (a unit of SRS Ltd.) SRS Multiplex City Centre, Sector-12, Faridabad (NCR Delhi)-121007 Sub: Illegal charging of VAT on purchase of items (Peter England) being sold under discount sales. Dear Sir,             I had a chance to visit SRS Multiplex City Centre, Faridabad on 18/08/2014 at an outlet offering Peter England Garments. It was glad to see 50% discount on MRP being offered to the customers. I had purchased a shirt whose MRP was Rs. 999.00 and the discounted price offer 50% discount becomes Rs. 499.50. It was surprised that the outlet charged an amount of Rs. 26.22 on the sale price of Rs. 499.50. Since the price of Rs. 499.50 already includes a VAT at Rs. 24.92, the additional charging of Rs. 26.22 becomes illeg