Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Dear Sir,
Serious Complaint on IFB Washing Machine
I would like to lodge a complaint with the following facts:
1. I had purchased the IFB fully automatic washing machine T2900DX from Spencer Plaza, 769, Anna Salai, Chennai 600 002, vide their invoice No. 4975 dated 10th February 1995.
2. The washing machine was working satisfactorily for so many years since its purchase and had never given me any major problem.
3. On the advice of IFB service engineers from time to time, I entered into an annual maintenance contract (hereinafter called AMC) with IFB, contract AMC No 001898 dated 16th June 2004 for a period of one year upto 15th June 2005.
4. After entering into the AMC in June 2004, there have been not less than fifteen or more complaints with machine not working in one way or the other. During this period from June 2004 till date, every time an engineer would come and inspect the machine and advice replacing a part. This has resulted in replacing the drum, motor, valve and other major parts. I have today only the washing machine outer cover remaining with literally all original parts of the machine replaced by defective and sub standard parts.
5. Since 2004, the IFB machine was been literally rendered hopeless for any operation by the so called service engineers, who to my surprise, include even some little boys whose age may be only around 12 or 15. Some of these boys who lacked the basic training even have damaged the rubber lining of the drum with a hole, while attempting to fix the rubber with the outer case. All the original parts have been replaced and none of the parts seem to work well and the machine shows its inefficiency after a couple of days of its rendering the service.
6. I have therefore made up my mind to lodge this complaint and would appreciate a compensation for the machine which was working so well for so many years till 2004. I only hope in this country there are some good consumer caring agencies like your esteemed organsiation who can come to our rescue. I have so far been managing with the machine for the past 4 years.
7. My last complaint a couple of weeks ago was that the IFB machine was leaking and there was water all round the place. No one ever seemed to answer my call, inspite of my religious calls (almost 5 calls a day), when I had to literally shout for them to act. Even after this there was no communication or updates on the spare parts and all of a sudden they show up today the 3rd June 2008 to again look at the machine. I am tired of these service engineers and have therefore decided to call it a day with IFB.
8. MY HUMBLE AND SINCERE REQUEST TO CONSUMERS AT LARGE IS NEVER EVER THINK OF BUYING A IFB WASHING MACHINE IN YOUR LIFE..YOU WILL BE RUINED
9. IFB service team and the managers running the show are totally indifferent to any complaint lodged and the standard reply is that there are no spares.
10. If IFB cannot maintain spares in their stores, why then they are entering into any AMC contract with the customer? I have never heard of IFB coming up readily with any spare and the standard reply is the spare is out of stock.
11. I sincerely feel that IFB should close down their shop immediately and I would request your forwarding this mail to the concerned authorities. I am sure many customers are suffering like this wondering what to do.
12. Please do let me know if I can take this up with any other higher authorities for immediate resolution, if you are not able to handle it for any reason.
13. Please reply to my email [protected]@gmail.com
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
K.S. Ramachandran
Residence: "Amritha", 2nd Floor, E58A, 21st Cross Street, Besant Nagar, Chennai 600 090, India. Res Tel:[protected] /[protected]; Mobile:[protected]; Email: [protected]@gmail.com; [protected]@gmail.com;
Couple of days back when the machine was on and wa sin drying mode suddenly the machine started making a loud unusual sound. I ran up to see whats happening but within seconds the machine popped out from the stand and fell down. Luckily my wife escaped from any injury as she was standing next to the machine.
I logged a complaint for the same (complaint number 3162966) and a technician did visited my home and after opening up the complete machine he told me that it will cost me around 6000/- bugs to get the machine repaired (since its shockers, drum, heater coil and some other parts have been damaged). When i asked him that my machien is still under warranty why am i supposed to pay for any damage / fault appearing while the workign of machine but of no use. I even talked to couple of their senior persons in the company but no one is ready to accept the fact that i should get the benifit of the warranty.
Infact when i argued with the technician who visite my house he made a statement that had i purchased the IFB stand with machine (and not used my own stand which i have been using with my other machines and coolers from many many years) than all my repairs would have ben done free of costs.
Does that means the warranty of machine is valid only i[censored] buy the IFB tand too ... i couldn't found any such conditions written any where in the warranty document.
Now i'm in big messy state of what to do since the IFB technician left the machien in open state with all its parts out from the cabinet and since then its been 3 days no one else from IFB has visited us and no one is ready to help us. The only option i'm seeing is to accept what ever IFB person is saying and pay them a big amount to get my machine repaired.
I feel like being cheated and feeling like an for going for a Big brand who do not have any after sale service or costumer satisfaction / delight once their product is sold.
Can any one suggest wht to do ?