Post Purchase Litigation Among Consumers An Analytical View In India

Abstract

Consumer is the starting point of all economic activity and plays a pivotal role in the world of commerce. Business activities are carried out to satisfy the wants of consumers and it makes the consumer as king to commercial world.

There is a wide spread exploitation of consumers and unfair trade practices like charging higher prices, supplying poor quality or even by adulterated goods, cheating in the weight and misleading advertisements make them even more vulnerable and more susceptible to exploitation. Customers are most often are ignorant of their basic rights of safety, right to choose, right to be heard and right to information.

There are psychological factors also at play. A purchase decision basically involves what, how and where but not every purchase decision is planned. A consumer’s perception also plays a role in decision-making. This post-purchase dissonance occurs immediately following a purchase. Consumers start having second thoughts as to the wisdom of their purchase. This naturally affects how a consumer evaluates a product which in turn, leads to her level of satisfaction. In other words, it can be safely presumed that post-purchase dissonance and consumer litigations are directly related to customer satisfaction (Longenecke, 2014)