Samsung India — Lackadaisical approach and total lack of support from samsung india

Address:	Bangalore, Karnataka, 560103
Website:	Post sale technical Service team

Dear sir/ madam,

We have been a thorough brand loyalist to samsung since 2004 and we have been putting immense trust on samsung. All the fmcd items in our house are from the stable of samsung and we have been very happy about the experience, till the time we bought our new refrigerator. What hurts us more is the lackadaisical approach that we have faced from samsung team.

Kindly find below a detailed account of this forgetful journey:

The last year, on 27th june, we had purchased the newly launched rt33jsrfesl samsung convertible series refigerator from reliance digital, sarjapur road branch, bangalore. The product was delivered on 28th june 2015. As there was a dent during transit we had requested for change of product. After series of mail exchange between reliance digital staff and samsung, the product was delivered on 2nd july, 2015. This time one of the glass shelf inside the refigerator was missing so reliance digital team helped procure the glass shelf by 19th july 2015. Despite the series of events we kept our calm.

However within 2 weeks of purchasing the product, the side panels which hold the fruits & vegetables basket developed cracks post which we had lodged a complaint with samsung customer care. We were completely taken aback as never till date we had any issues with the quality of products purchased from samsung in such a short span of time.

Samsung service engineer (Mr. Ghous shariff) attended to our complaint and installed side liners to avoid further cracking. This installation made the fridge look very clumsy from within and it also hindered free movement of the food and vegetable trays. The service engineer also assured that post installation of side liners we wont face this issue again. Further he voluntarily suggested that we can ask for a replacement if we were unhappy with such installation. Due to our trust in samsung we felt its a trivial issue to seek a replacement and hence didn't pursue it at that point in time.

In mar, 2016 we noticed that the other side panels which hold the glass shelf inside the refrigerator have also developed cracks from within. The plastic panel which holds the fresh room also has started to chip-off. Hence, we raised a complaint again with samsung customer care on 3rd mar 2016. Mr. Azam (Service engineer) attended to our complaint no. [protected]. Post inspection he stated that this is a manufacturing defect and very few percentage of samsung refrigerators have developed such issue. He took pictures of our refigerator from inside and stated that we can seek a replacement or complete cash back in this case. He further stated that someone from samsung shall connect with us and accordingly process replacement request or cash back request.

Few days later i received an automated message from samsung customer care that our complaint has been resolved and closed. Upon contacting customer care, we were informed that the complaint has been closed by mr. Ameen (Service manager). Upon contacting mr. Azam he directed us to speak to his manager. Mr. Ameen who told us that he had escalated our complaint to samsung head office and they outrightly rejected the request stating the damage has happened on account of customer negligence. This response was completely unanticipated by us.

Our point of contention is

1. We had already reported this issue within 2 weeks of purchase, at that point of time it was never attributed as customer negligence, then why now?

2. The damage has occurred within the refrigerator and across the side panels which hold the glass shelfs. How can such damage be caused by a customer?

3. One of the selling proposition of this refrigerator was big storage basket to facilitate more storage of vegetables and fruits. What's the point in providing a big basket when the side panels are unable to take such load?

During our discussion mr. Ameen, he stated that he is aware that this is a manufacturing defect but on account of pressure of from his head office he was forced to close the ticket. He said that he cannot stand by the customer as he has no say in such cases. He also stated that the email exchange and pics of the refrigerator have been uploaded by him while closing the ticket and we can speak to customer care team to take it up again.

Hence on 10th mar 2016, another complaint no. [protected] was raised. This time without any call or visit the complaint was closed again by mr. Ameen and team.

Post discussion with customer care team, our complaint was escalated and a senior official from customer support called us to assure that they shall escalate our concern to head office directly.

On 15th mar 2016, ms. Tripti called up from samsung head office in chennai ([protected], ext. 1650) and shared that she is personally looking up into our product concern and asked me to reach her directly and not contact anyone from customer care team. She also stated that she would positively get back within a week with resolution. After a week, we tried reaching her on the number flashed but all our repeated calls went unanswered.

Upon contacting customer care on 13th apr 2016, the executive stated that the previous complaint was closed on account of non receipt of warrenty card and product purchase documents. We would like to share that there was no formal communication from anyone asking for support documents so we were unaware of any such requirement.

Post discussion, on 13th apr 2016 another complaint no. [protected] was raised. This complaint again was closed without any resolution despite several marathon calls with multiple customer care executives and their supervisors.

On 27th apr 2016 raised another complaint no. [protected] which again was not attended.

Finally, on 5th may 2016 raised another complaint no. [protected] which this time was assigned to same service centre executive mr. Azam and his manager mr. Ameen. Both mr. Azam and mr. Ameen were reluctant to address this issue and mr. Ameen suggested that we escalate to higher authorities. He openly said he has no say and has no authority to challenge his head office decision and cannot stand by the customer as he does not have the liberty to do so despite acknowledging that its a manufacturing defect and such damage cannot be caused by the customer.

We would like to put on board that this entire sequence of events has left us extremely disappointed for the trust we have placed in samsung all these years. Never before have we experienced such humiliation.

Our sincere request to the higher authorities is to help us restore the faith we have put in samsung by positively addressing our concern and not penalising us for no mistake of ours.

Looking forward for your kind intervention regarding this matter.

Yours sincerely,
Rajni roy & pallab roy