Whirlpool India — Air conditioners

Address:

Sri Vijayalakshmi Refrigeration (Authorised Service Partner) (for Whirlpool), 1/3-0/A, Parameshwaran Street, Vetturnimadam, Nagercoil, Tamilnadu - 62

This mail is regarding the poor customer support from the authorized service partners of Whirlpool in the name of SRI VIJAYALAKSHMI REFRIGERATION operating from Nagercoil.
For you to understand the issue, I would like to brief you on my worst experience with the service people as noted below:

(i) Purchased in October 2020(Whirlpool, AC, 1.5 Ton 5 Star Split Inverter), I have paid Rs. 4450 towards installation and stabilizer costs on 27/10/2020. ( Though it was an inverter-based model, we were forced to have the stabilizer by the technician.)

(ii) Within two months of installation (07/12/2020), we had a problem, the technician visited and said that the insulation was not properly done during installation and charged us for repairing the same. Bill was Rs. 4200 ( includes a stand for AC worth RS. 2000). Installation fault within two months to be noted.

(iii) There was a problem again with cooling, so the technician came and said the Gas is lost and has to be filled. Gas loss within one year o[censored]sage to be noted. This was informed to the Manager of the concern (Sri Vijayalakshmi Refrigeration) and with his knowledge, gas was filled ( 20.08.2021) and the technician gave a guarantee for two years that refilling of gas would not be required.

(iv) Even before the expiry of the oral guarantee period, we faced the same problem (no cooling), informed the service partners and the technician came ( a different person). He informed us of the possibility of gas leakage either in the floor or in the coil and was not able to locate it exactly. He said only if the gas is filled, he can decide that..viz..if it didn't leak again - its a floor problem, and if it still leaks, there will be a coil problem. He asked us to go for direct replacement of coil, which would cost us around 11000 rupees on the safer side. I seriously doubt, without being sure of the thing that the problem is with the coil only, how are we being expected to spend so much on that? So, we asked him to fill the gas first and locate the issue. He did the same and charged us Rs. 3300 for this purpose (12.05.2023). This time, Once Gas filling is done, they claim the guarantee is only for 3 months.

(v) We were out of the station and came today (10.1.2024), again there was no cooling in the AC, (for the third time). When contacted with the service people, they sent the same person again today, he said again there is no gas in the outdoor unit. He wants us to fill the gas and replace the copper coil and was continuously giving pressure to go for 3 years AMC. He says that AMC will cover the gas filling charges too this time. I wanted him to do the needful mending this time free of charge ( because the previous filling was done only for him to get clarity on locating the fault) and said that we would go for AMC after a couple of months.
He never understood and denied the option. There was no use connecting to the technical manager as well. Furthermore, the manager was so reckless saying that, "wherever I go, I should come back to him only for servicing; since he is the only service partner available for Whirlpool in Nagercoil". Even after saying that, in such a case of worst support, I shall dispose the AC and go for another company also, he asked me to "go ahead". He wasn't bothered at all. And to my dismay, the technician today (10.01.2024) made an open statement that this kind of problem is very frequent with Whirlpool ACs. IS THAT TRUE?

I would like to make a mention here that I do have another Whirlpool AC in the same location which has not had any problems for these three years. Hence I understand that the real problem is with the initial installation itself of this unit and these technicians are not ready to accept it. Moreover, they are not able to identify the exact issue and they keep cheating the customer, trying with options of changing or repairing one after the other, and we are being charged highly as well, for all their mistakes. And now, as we are questioning them, as the final resort, they are forcing us to go for an Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC). The hidden reason which I believe is, that any fault they make, Whirlpool company will bear the charges, and we, customers are not going to question them.

Hereby, I would like to register a strong complaint against this agency in Nagercoil in this regard so that at least in future they will not be so lethargic in discharging their service. At the same time, I also would request Whirlpool to look into this issue from my side and get me the proper resolution. "Re-installation of the outdoor unit, free of cost" was my previous request to the company, but now, after my experience with their worst respone to the customer query, which is quite tormenting, I would request for a replacement of the entire unit or full refund of the purchased item, so that I shall not face any problems of this kind in the future I anticipate an early intervention from your side to settle this issue because, CUSTOMERS CANNOT BE TAKEN FOR GRANTED.

Though the above described complaint, mailed to the customer service team was acknowledged by them, no proper resolution is provided till date. They talk about the warranty terms, which has no meaning when the product itself is faulty. In spite of a continuous follow up and even after escalating the issue till the level of CEO of whirlpool, they do not care about the customer dissatisfaction.

Anticipate that this representation at least reaches the person concerned and provide me with a proper resolution.