[Resolved]  Samsung India — defective washing machine

Address:

Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, 500049

I purchased a Samsung front load washing machine on 9/12/2013. It suddenly stopped working, not even turning on. I raised a compliant, no [protected], for the same and paid 472 as service charges. An engineer came in to diagnosis and mentioned to us that it PCB is gone and need to be replaced. The reason he mentioned is that it is due to power fluctuations. He gave me the rough estimation of 8000 for part replacement. I started calling samsung then he changed is word saying it will cost Rs 4850/-. I checked wit customer care there is a website or place where I can seethe price of the parts and order them. But they mentioned I have to with what ever the service center says and there is no such website to check the prices of parts.

I was not convinced as there are no other appliances have issue at my home where my TV & Fridge powered on 24/7 without any stabilizer. Most importantly, samsung advertised on the washing machine that it can with stands up to 400V, then how come the PCB gone due to power variations.

I called samsung customer care and claimed this as a product defect as there is no physical damage to machine or to the PCB and there no burn signs any where on the PCB or machine.

They say since it is out of warranty they can't help but can ask for Q&A. I though it is a quality assurance department that verifies PCB to confirm whether or not it is product defect. The same engineer have come back to take the photos of the PCB to send them to Q &A. They said they need 24 hours to come back to me with feed back.

It took more than a week and I had to call them at least 4 times to check what happen with Q &A . In my last call I understood that Q&A mean Question and Answer, and the feed back I received is that the product is out of warranty and I need to bare all the charges for product replacement and the service cost. I don't understand why Q & A has been raised and I was waiting for it more than week and making calls to customer care? just to confirm that my washing machine is out of warranty and I have to base all the replacement and service charges?

They created a nice trap with this washing machines warranty terms. I got 10 years of warranty on motor but only 2 years on the whole machine. The PCB gone in 4 years and new PCB comes with only 6 months warranty. This means I have to base 5000 or more every time when PCB dies till next 6 years until warranty voids on motor as well. And the PCB may die any time between 6 months to 4 years.

Another horrible thing with samsung customer care is that they done log the conversation into the complaint and I had to explain the whole story every time I called them. They are least bothered about the customers concerns and logs the info what they are comfortable. Then I don't understand why they have the customer care.

I hope at least from this forum I may get a better resolution to my washing machine.

Please consider that this is a product defect as there are no physical damage to machine or to the board and also there are no burnt signs or any other damage signs on the board. Request you to arrange me the part replacement at no cost to me.

Please let me know in case if you need any further information.

Thanks & Regards,
N.Amarnath