[Resolved]  Samsung India — samsung led tv and soundbar

Address:

Kolkata, West Bengal, 700157

Dear customer service head,
Samsung

I had purchased a samsung led tv (Model no. Ua49mu7000 from fundamental electronics pvt. Ltd., ballygunge phari, kolkata - 700019 for rs. 1, 15, 001 on the 30th november, 2017. At this exclusive samsung showroom, the sales team made a very energetic and forceful pitch for this particular model, offering a free samsung soundbar as an attraction.

I decided to purchase the tv and made a full payment for the product (Invoice no. Febg/17-18/04694 dated 30th november, 2017). I am narrating below the problems and issues i have encountered after purchasing the samsung product from this showroom. Strangely, the problems relate to the delivery and installation of the samsung soundbar, which as i said was held out as an attraction for purchasing this model and in fact influenced my decision to do so.

1. The tv set was delivered on the 1st december, 2017, the day following my purchase but the soundbar was not.

2. There was no intimation about the missing soundbar from the showroom. Upon enquiring from them, one of the sales persons who had sold the tv to me said in a very matter-of-fact manner that they did not have any stock of the soundbars and that the "company" would send one in due course, perhaps in a couple of weeks. The change in tone from the sales staff was remarkable. It was : now that the sale was done and the funds received why would we need to bother with the customer?

3. I waited for a fortnight and since i had still not received the product nor had i received any intimation about its status, i called up the showroom and i was informed that the company had not yet sent any stock of soundbars and that it would take a few more days to be delivered.

4. I must emphasize that the stance and attitude of the people in the showroom went from bad to worse. They sounded irritated by my calls and were no longer interested in listening what i had to say.in fact, at no point during the nearly six weeks that it took for the soundbar to be delivered did the showroom call me to give me any update about the delay.

5. The article was finally delivered to my residence on 16.1.2018, 47 days after i had purchased the tv! I was travelling at the time and when i saw the box upon returning home, i was shocked to see an old, shabby box with a cello tape across the lid. It was clearly not a company-sealed product!

6. I was naturally curious to see the state of the contents and therefore opened the box. There was no user manual, nor any list of the contents but i found the soundbar, an adapter, a remote control device and a woofer (With a corner of the wooden box chipped in one corner). I am quite sure what was delivered to me was not new and had at least been handled earlier.

7. Nevertheless, i called the samsung helpline to have the soundbar installed and their team visited my residence yesterday. After struggling for more than an hour, the technician said that certain parts of the unit were missing... These were:

A. An optical cable
B. Wall-mounting bracket / clips
C. Sub-woofer power supply / adaptor
D. User manual

8. I called up the dealer, fundamental electronics immediately and asked them about the missing parts. One of the sales personnel who was part of the team selling me the product (Mr. Anupam) denied my submission outright, asserting that he had personally packed the box that had been sent to me and had seen all the missing parts referred to. Really? My question is : why should open a company-sealed box to ensure that all the contents were present?

9. The showroom's basic contention was that i should not have opened the box and since i did, they were no longer liable. I would then ask: why did the dealer open the box (By his own admission) to check the contents?

10. Secondly and pderhaps more importantly, the insinuation that i was lying and that i had either misplaced or kept aside these few items is humiliating in the extreme. Forsomeone who has spent rs. 1.15 lacs on a tv set and to allege that he was resorting to falsehood for a few thousand rupees is hurtful and insulting. What is truly incredible is the apalling attitude of the sales staff once they had sold the product!

11. The matter does not end here, however, and i need to point out the inconsistencies and the completely unprofessional behavior of the showroom staff. Mr. Anupam subsequently said that there was actually no optical cable included because the free soundbox i was supposed to get was an older model and did not have this attachment! He simply retracted what he had been insisting upon without hesitation. I demanded an apology because he had earlier asserted that the box had been packed by him personally and that it did contain the optical cable.

12. Today, another technician visited my residence from the samsung service center and again reiterated that the parts referred to in point no. 7 above were missing and the installation could thus not be completed.

13. He also pointed something quite interesting: the soundbar billed in the tax invoice on the 30th november, 2017 was hw-k350 whereas the one delivered to my residence was hw-k360. Further, the box in which the soundbar was delivered also stated that it included a soundbar.

14. We were back to square one and the more i questioned the dealer, the more they tied themselves in knots. They now said that because i had been insistent about receiving my soundbar, they delivered what they had in stock - a hw-360 instead of the hw-350.

15. It is now beginning to make sense to me and i now realize what must have happened. The dealer must have had an old soundbar (Month and year of import: august 2016) lying around, pderhaps returned by some customer which they decided to palm off on me.in doing so, they must have opened the box and either removed items like the optical cable or because it had been iopened by someone else earlier, were probably missing!

16. I have no way to prove this but if you looked at the chain of events and contradictory statements by the dealer, it becomes clear as to how they are cheating innocent customers. This needs to be viewed seriously and investigated.
Spending a few thousand rupees in purchasing the missing implements is not the issue. If i could spend more than a lac of rupees in buying the tv, i can certainly spend 3 or 4 thousand rupees to replace the missing items. However, i will not do so.

17. It is a matter of principle and a matter of seeking redressal for the humiliation i have suffered because your showroom staff implied that i was not telling the truth about the missing items. It is also about the issue of misselling and cheating customers by holding out the attraction of free gifts they never really intend to fulfill.

What i want to know from samsung is whether this is what their customer service stands for. I also wish to know whether indifference to customers once they have purchased a product is part of samsung's values and organizational ethos. Does meeting sale targets override ethics in the company? Can you also let me know whether you will tolerate the behavior of a dealer who can damage your goodwill and name in the market?

I have decided to make an issue of this episode and warn gullible customers from becoming victims of such unscrupolous dealers, particularly samsung's dealer fundamental electronics, in future. I am hopeful that you will take cognizance of my complaint and do something about it. If not, i will use the full force of the social media, and take up the issue with the consumer forum and samsung's management till i get full redressal.

Towards that end, i need an unqualified apology from the dealer and i need the soundbar replaced immediately. Meanwhile, i would urge you to depute someone to my residence to examine the box and the contents.

Regards,

Somnath sengupta
Email address: [protected]@gmail.com
Mobile: [protected]
Samsung pfroduct request : [protected] (Since cancelled by samsung)

Address:

Flat no. 11/12. D2. Aria i, greenwood elements,
Shrachi, rajarhat,
New town, kolkata - 700157