We bought a PAL-to-NTSC converter from a Ritchie Street vendor in Chennai. He told us that he can only give us a 'testing warranty', meaning that we can take it home and try it out, and if it doesn't work, bring it back. He also told us that that was the best we can get, as these things are in general not very reliable and nobody else there gives any warranty at all. We paid Rs. 4300 for the converter including a 2% surcharge for using ICICI VISA card.

Sure enough, we bring it home, and the converter does not work. My dad takes it back, and both the shop owner and the salesman tell him that they never told him that he can get his money back. This is clearly a rip-off and the transaction was purely meant to deceive us. Moreover, now they tell us that there is a Universal converter that we need and it will cost us Rs 2100 more, and this is the only way we can make the converter work.

I am not interested in giving this dealer more money, as he can keep playing this game. If this new converter doesn't work, he will tell us that we need something else for a lot more money to make this work. I tried calling ICICI bank, the issuer of the credit card, and they have no protection against fraud. I am being told that they cannot block pament of the money.

Can someone please tell me what my options are to retrieve my money? How can I take this guy to consumer court. I can scan and post the transaction receipt to this forum, if required. This incident happened yesterday, 6/6/09.

Thanks,
Shankar