Notice before filing complaint under the Consumer Protection Act of 1986 (68 of 1986)

Dear Sir,

I, Shri. Devdatta Rivonkar, son of Shri. Vishnu Sridhar Rivonkar, working as Pega Business Architect at PayPal India, residing at Flat No: F-1, Aranya Apartments, 138 Elcot Avenue, Shollinganallur, Chennai. 600119, am hereby sending you this notice as follows:

That I am an active subscriber of The Times of India, Chennai Edition, vide subscription No:0032487256.

AND WHEREAS, on 7th April, 2016, we intimated The Times of India, Chennai CRM team (Henceforth referred to as CRM Team in this notice) of the change in my subscription address, through email, and which was duly acknowledged by the CRM team on 7th April 2026. The newspaper was to be delivered to the new address from 1st May 2016.

AND WHEREAS, on 31st May 2016, we informed the CRM team that we are not receiving the newspaper at the new address. Since then we have sent multiple emails to the CRM team, but the issue has not been resolved. We have got multiple "standard assurances" that the issue will be resolved in 3 working days, however, till date, the CRM team has not bothered to resolve the issue.

AND WHEREAS, on 31st May 2016, we got a call from the CRM team and they assured us to look into this matter. They were inquiring if we had received the Change of Address voucher. We informed them that we were not aware of any such voucher and we had not received the voucher till date. On their request, we requested the CRM team to resend the Change of Address voucher, however, till date we have not received the same.

AND WHEREAS, on 1st June 2016, we got a call from Mr. Arvind from the CRM team and he assured me to look into this matter. Though he informed us that he will be visiting my residence on the same day, he did not turn up. He visited our residence on 2nd June and called the local TOI agent Saravanan at 9003036120, who assured that the newspaper will be delivered from 3rd June, however, the same has not been delivered till date.

AND WHEREAS, we sent you the final reminder, vide email dated 6th June, 2016, to inform you about the breach of contract on your part since you had neither started the subscription as per delivery conditions, nor informed us about any changes in the delivery conditions. We further informed you about our intention to seek suitable legal remedies including cancellation of the subscription and compensation for the same, in case our complaint is not resolved to our satisfaction. The same was acknowledged by your office, vide email dated 6th June, 2016 informing us that the matter will be resolved within 3 working days. However, neither the concerned executive nor the vendor nor the concerned area manager got in touch with us and the issue is not resolved; and the subscription did not commence.

Given the above circumstances, The Times of India has indulged in the following as defined under the Consumer Protection Act of 1986:
1. 'Unfair trade practice' by first committing to deliver the product and not delivering the same.
2. 'Restrictive trade practice' by delaying delivery of the product beyond the standard delivery period thereby denying us the opportunity to buy the product or similar product from another source.

From the above facts, it is evident that The Times of India has failed to provide us with a product/service within the decided timelines and location and has further failed to resolve our complaints. As such we are left with no other option but to approach the proper court / forum seeking appropriate remedy at your cost, risk and consequences.

We are giving you a time limit of 5 calendar days from the date of receipt of this notice to settle our grievances, by providing us with a Full Refund of the Subscription Amount paid to you along with Rs.2000/- towards Compensation for Inconvenience caused, Compensation for Mental Agony, Compensation for having to miss news and entertainment updates, and also Compensation towards expenses incurred for seeking Legal opinion; failing which we will file a complaint against you with the Consumer Court as we are protected under the Consumer Protection Act of 1986.

Kindly note that the same shall be in addition to any and all other rights and remedies that may exist at law.

This notice is sent to you via email/electronic medium, since the INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000 provides legal recognition for messages sent by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication.

Thanking you.

Yours sincerely,
Devdatta Rivonkar

Disclaimer: The complainant reserves the right to post the contents of this Notice or parts thereof, with or without masking, on Internet websites, not limited to Social Networking websites and Consumer Grievance portals.