No match, matrimonial site asked to pay

TNN | Mar 16, 2020, 04.05 AM IST

Chennai: The consumer grievances redressal forum has ordered Bharat Matrimony to pay Rs 1.2 lakh as compensation to a man from Kochi who had sued the site for not finding a right match within one year as promised.

The complainant, E V John, subscribed for ‘Elite Premium Package’ by paying Rs 1 lakh on May 5, 2015. The matrimonial firm in its email assured that if customers were not satisfied with their services and were unable to provide a suitable match within one year from the date of subscription, the amount would be refunded.

Between May and July 2015, John claimed that he was bombarded with a lot of “unsuitable profiles” which were not verified and some had incomplete details. John complained that the relationship manager had failed to look into details of profiles before forwarding them to him.

Though John received 23 profiles in the said time period, only one was suitable and there was no response from that profile too when contacted for further enquiry.

Irked with the quality of service, John asked Kerala Matrimony, unit functioning under Chennai-based Bharat Matrimony, to refund the subscription amount. But there was no reply from the firm. He approached the North Chennai consumer forum seeking compensation.

Bharat Matrimony in response said the complainant initially paid Rs 10,000 to get personalised assistance by using advances tools in finding matching members from thousands of profiles. Later he upgraded to ‘elite’ category which aimed at catering to needs to rich, affluent families from business or industrial background, professionals and similar customers who want to finish search for prospective life partners soon, said the matrimony’s counsel in response.

The counsel added that elite service neither guarantees positive responses from prospective brides all the time nor marriage within the service period. Their only obligation was to search, shortlist profiles based on members’ preferences and share it later and the same was done without any deficiency.

On hearing it, the forum on February 18 ordered Bharat Matrimony to pay Rs 1,00,000 towards subscription paid with 6% interest from complaint date (February 2017) to till date and another Rs 22,000 as compensation and litigation expenses.