I have purchased a FABER Cooking Range FH6490DX, bearing Chasis No. 091019847 from Ms. Vijay Sales, Mumbai on 21st October’2009, vide Invoice No.: 05-OH10-09SIAO 1616 dated 21-10-2009.

A few days back, when my mother was using the same, as soon as she lit the flame and was about to put the vessel in the range, there as a loud mini-explosion and the internal glass burst and was shattered to pieces. Very luckily and fortunately my mother escaped getting seriously hurt / injured and had she not been alert, possibly could have damaged her eyes, maybe even permanently. She could have even sustained burns and related injuries, which could have proved to be fatal.

Just for perspective, we have been using cooking ranges over the years and hence there is no question of any inexperience or negligence which could have caused the mishap. The bottom line is that the Range supplied to me is by all standards faulty and defective and cannot be trusted for any future use.

When we contacted Ms.Vijay Sales and narrated the incident, they sent a mechanic who inspected the machine and very nonchalantly told us that the broken glass will have to be replaced and we would have to incur an expense of Rs. 400/ for the same. We told Vijay Sales that we are not interested in using the same machine again, since as far as I am concerned it is nothing but a potential time-bomb which can once again explode the way it did this time. What is most surprising is that instead of getting at the root-cause of the problem, we are trying to rectify the same without realizing that this can be a serious hazard to life and limb. Since Ms. Vijay Sales was not able to see our point of view, we contacted one Mr. Ashish Patil at the Faber office, who too, surprisingly is also talking of the replacement of the glass @ Rs. 400/.

What Mr. Patil and Vijay Sales both are unable to understand is that the question is not of the Rs. 400/ but of the safety of my family members who are going to use the range. If
the internal glass can explode on its own once, it can happen again, since the machine itself has some inherent manufacturing problem. Hence, I have asked for either a replacement of the entire machine itself or a full refund if that is not possible. Mr. Patil has vehemently refused to give me a written undertaking that if I get the glass replaced, such an incident will not recur in future. This itself shows that even the Co. is not sure about the reliability of this machine.

I wrote a letter to the MD of the Co. to intervene and take action. I recieved a letter from Mr. Rakesh Gujar , Asst. Manager Customer Care, who too only offered the replacement of the glass (but without any guarantee of the incident not happening again) as the only solution. He even dared me to go the Consumer Court if I wanted.

Kindly help,
Vispi D Dotiwalla