[Resolved]  Samsung India — microwave mishandling during servicing by authorised service center

Address:

Gurgaon, Haryana

I placed this complaint with samsung customercare for repair of my microwave "i had placed a complaint with your customer care dept. For an e-21 error on my microwave oven and was visited by your engr. On 16 sep 17 the first time. He checked the oven and since it was not showing the error at that time he mentioned that it could be due to a temp sensor malfunction and that i should call if it occurs again. After a few days while making the second pizza the error reoccured and the oven stopped functioning. I realized that till it got hot for awhile beyond a certain temp it continued to function normally. I called to complain and was visited again by your rep from the same servicing centre milap enterprises but this a different person came who did not bring a spare sensor and so returned without doing anything though he too found the oven to be working fine and would show the error only after it got quite hot. It would be pertinent to mention that both these engr. S handled the oven with due care as required for an electronic equipment. Now since the complaint was not resolved i put a complaint again. The person who came the third time however was a disappointment as he was not familiar with opening the body of the oven nor closing it. He had bought the sensor so he went about opening the screw fasteners and did the change however since he did not know how to put back the cover he kept hitting the cover to fall into the slot. Seeing this i even told him to be more careful as the same cover after removal by his predecessor engr. S from milap had smoothly fitted the same without any banging. At this he told me that this is not a problem and that this is how it is fitted. To my utter grief once the oven was switched on after assembly it failed to even come on with the internal light and rotation of the turntable with the operating panel coming on as it normally would. I immediately understood his mishandling of the delicate equipment would have caused this new unserviceability. He then went back and opened the cover again and now brought out that the magnetron and pcb may have also be spoilt, and removed the sensor he had fitted and said if i was ready to bear the expenditure for all that he would ask his office to do the needful. I had contacted your customer-care and requested that an experienced engr. For the complaint and was given the name of mr altaf who is the owner of milap for the visit. However the same old engr. Again returns to do the repair and i tell him that mr altaf was to make the visit to which he talks to ataf who says that he is busy elsewhere. Not wanting to take a risk i maintain that i need an experienced engr. To do the repair as well as tell me how so many components suddenly became unserviceable. My last complaint no. Is [protected]. I am still waiting for the repair to be done." after this i kept contacting the customercare online chat multiple times and also through emails. I was then contacted by an official ms monica from samsung to whom i explained the complete sequence of repair and that it was functioning intermittently with error 21 comming on after the oven got hot. I also wrote about non identification of the error by the service engineers who kept checking and identifying different components as unserviceable when the error code should have easily identified the unserviceable component. On checking an online user manual for the microwave i found that the e-21 error was for thermistor
Open error e21 one long beep for 2 sec
Thermistor sensor which is supposed to sense the temperature of the cavity inside does not work properly. (Thermistor sensor open)
Unplug the power cord and wait for more than 10 seconds. Plug the power cordagain. If the symptom persists, contact the nearest service centre.
Thermistor short error e22 one long beep for 2 sec
Thermistor sensor which is supposed to sense the temperature of the cavity inside does not work properly. (Thermistor sensor short)
Unplug the power cord and wait for more than 10 seconds. Plug the power cord again. If the symptom persists, contact the nearest service centre.
However the same could not be rectified straight away by the engineers and to compound it the mishandling caused other components to be spoilt, expenses the company now wants me to bear.
I persisted with my complaints as it was a clear case o[censored]sing untrained engineers who did not have basic repair knowledge and information. I was now contacted by ms monica senior exec, customer experience who heard my complaint and said she will investigate and do the needful. She calls me back and explains that my microwave was found to have a faulty pcb (Which the last engineer had told me after he saw nothing to be working after his mishandling) rnd that if was ready to bear the expenses she would have the pcb replaced. I was taken aback as i had thought that from the facts told by me brought out that the mishandling had caused the pcb failure and initially my microwave had a problem of only thermister sensor malfunction. I wrote back to the senior exec and also the chat helpline for email id of higher levels of customer care officials but both have not given me any details and have maintained that i need to pay for the pcb. The kind of response has made me think wether they are trying to tire me out and pay for the repair and forget the mishandling since it is going to be four months and even after making numerous calls chats and emails the response is negative. I request that this may be taken up at the appropriate level so that this kind of callous behaviour is stopped and the customer is protected from such practices by the company in future.