Denied refund as he used new pair of shoes to ‘identify’ defect, buyer wins Rs 7,000 payout | Legal News
5 min readNew DelhiJul 22, 2026 01:00 PM IST Observing that consumers cannot be denied a refund merely because they used a product to identify a defect, a consumer body in Uttarakhand held a footwear company, Red Chief, guilty of deficiency in service for allegedly refusing to replace or issue a refund for a pair defective shoes purchased online. Finding no evidence to support the company’s claim of accidental damage, it directed replacement or refund of Rs 2,009, along with Rs 5,000 compensation. A bench of president Ranjna Goyal and members Amaresh Rawat and Gagan Kumar Gupta of the Haridwar District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission also awarded litigation costs of Rs 2,000, noting that the complainant’s assertion that the shoes tore within a month remained unchallenged. “It is a matter of common sense that when a consumer purchases a product such as shoes, some use of the product is necessary to determine whether it is defective. If a defect becomes apparent within a short period of use, the company cannot refuse to replace the product …









