Man awarded refund over faulty hair growth treatment

A consumer court has ordered a beauty care outlet to refund the money spent by a man who failed to regrow hair even after two years of treatment.

Sanjay (name changed) approached the consumer court after spending around Rs 1.8 lakh on a hair re-growth treatment at Vibes, an Alankar Group enterprise, in Sadashivanagar, did not yield any result.

The IV Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, headed by president S L Patil and member N R Roopa, passed an order on August 16, 2018, stating that since Vibes failed to provide the assured result, the complainant must be refunded. It directed them to pay Rs 1,98,628 to the complainant with an interest of 6% per annum along with Rs 3,000 for the litigation cost. The sum has to be paid within six weeks.

The treatment was quite painful. “Every time they injected, a little blood would come out. The derma roller was also very painful. People at Vibes had assured me that the hair on my scalp would slowly start growing with the treatment and I went to them for almost two years. I had often asked them for details of customers whose treatment had been successful. But they denied stating confidentiality. After two years I realised that Vibes was cheating their customers,” Sanjay told DH.

Vibes said the treatment varies for each of their customers depending on the individual body composition, health status, metabolism and other factors including diet and lifestyle. If the complainant has not followed the instructions, then the treatment may not yield good results.