The Seller Won't Refund You: The Free Route Most People Never Use

The product arrived broken. The service was never delivered. The airline kept the money. The photographer stopped answering. Customer support has now sent you the same templated apology four times. Most people stop here, and that is exactly what the system is counting on. India has a consumer forum you can use yourself, online, and for most claims it costs nothing to file.

The thing almost nobody knows

Under the Consumer Protection Act 2019 you can file a complaint against a seller or service provider without a lawyer. Filing is online. And at the District Commission there is no filing fee at all for claims up to five lakh rupees. Above that the fees remain modest — of the order of two hundred rupees between five and ten lakh, and a few thousand at the top of the District Commission's range.

The reason this matters is not that you will necessarily litigate. It is that the company knows this too. A customer who mentions the consumer commission with the correct particulars is a different proposition from one who threatens vaguely to "take legal action", because the first one has a cheap, realistic next step and the second does not.

Where to file, by value

District Commission — value of goods or services up to fifty lakh rupees. This is where nearly every ordinary complaint belongs.
State Commission — above fifty lakh and up to two crore.
National Commission — above two crore.

The portal has changed name. Filing moved from the older e-Daakhil system to the unified e-Jagriti portal, which now carries the migrated cases and user accounts. Older guides still say e-Daakhil; the current portal is e-Jagriti at e-jagriti.gov.in. Verify the live address before you file, because government portals are moved more often than articles about them are updated.

The two-year clock

Section 69 of the Consumer Protection Act 2019 requires a complaint to be filed within two years of the cause of action. That is shorter than the general three-year limitation period for civil suits, and it is the single most consequential fact in this article, because people assume they have three years and lose the forum entirely.

Two nuances. Delay can be condoned for sufficient cause recorded in writing, so being out of time is a reason to move fast and take advice, not to give up. And the cause of action is not always the purchase date — for a continuing deficiency, or a refund that was promised and then never paid, it can arise later.

What to do before you file

Filing is the last step, not the first. The sequence below resolves the large majority of cases before the forum is ever involved.

Build the file. Invoice or order confirmation, proof of payment, the product or service description as advertised, photographs or video of the defect, the full support chat and email trail, and any recorded promise.
Make one written complaint to the company's grievance officer. Under Indian e-commerce and IT rules most platforms must publish one. It is not the chat agent, and that is the point.
Use the government grievance portals. The National Consumer Helpline (1915 and consumerhelpline.gov.in) and, for a public body or public sector service, CPGRAMS. These are free, generate a tracked reference number, and produce results more often than their reputation suggests. For a bank or insurer, the relevant RBI or IRDAI ombudsman is a genuinely effective route.
Send a legal notice. A dated demand stating the defect, the amount, and the deadline. Many refusals turn into refunds here, because the letter goes to the registered office and reaches someone whose job is to close it.
Then file. With every step above attached, your complaint tells a complete story: what was sold, what went wrong, what you asked for, and how many times you were refused.

What you can actually claim

A consumer complaint is not limited to the refund. Commissions routinely order the refund or replacement, compensation for the loss and mental agony caused, and the costs of the proceedings. Be specific and realistic. A well-documented claim for the value plus a modest compensation is far more likely to succeed than a headline-grabbing number, which mainly signals that the complainant is not serious.

Where the consumer forum does not help

Being honest about this saves you months. The consumer commission is for a defect in goods or a deficiency in a service you paid for. It is not the forum for an online scam by an anonymous stranger, for a dispute with an employer, for a purely private loan, or for a purchase made for commercial resale. If you were defrauded by an unknown party online, the right first call is the cybercrime helpline 1930, not a consumer complaint.

Key takeaways

You can file a consumer complaint yourself, online, with no lawyer.
No filing fee at the District Commission for claims up to five lakh rupees.
District up to fifty lakh, State up to two crore, National above that.
Two years from the cause of action, not three. This is where most claims die.
Filing is on e-Jagriti now; e-Daakhil has been retired and migrated.
Grievance officer, then helpline or ombudsman, then legal notice, then file. Most stop early.

Agreements.co.in is a technology platform, not a law firm, and this article is general information about how the process works in India, not legal advice on your specific facts. Amounts, deadlines and forums differ by state and by the exact wording of your documents. For anything large, contested, or already in court, speak to an advocate.