[Resolved]  Whirlpool India — Charging for repair of part under warranty

Dear sir,

I am very sorry to tell you about my after sale service experience with whirlpool appliances. It is the worst experience of my life with any reputed or local company. Recently, my whilrlpool brand double door refrigerator stopped working/cooling. After inspection of the same, the technician told me that the compressor was not working and needed to be replaced. However, it was covered under a 10 years warranty. Technician told me that the compressor will be replaced free of cost, but i'll have to pay rs. 3150/-. I contacted your customer care number and they said we cant do anything about it and charges will be decided by the local whirlpool authorised service centre only. I tried a number of times to convince your customer care executive and technician of a local authorised service centre that the only fault is with the compressor of my refrigerator (As told by technician that there is no other fault) and it is under warranty, hence i should not be charged anything for repair of refrigerator. I also requested them to replace the compressor of my refrigerator and asked them that i ll get it repaired from the local market. However, they denied the same and said that the compressor will be replaced if and only if the refrigerator is being repaired by authorised service centre only and for that i ll have to pay rs. 3150/-. They took the advantage of the summer season and i was left with no other option. They took the refrigerator to their workshop and for this i paid an additional rs. 500/-. They took 4 days time to repair the refrigerator and asked me to make payment before delivery. I requested the local whirlpool authorised service centre to deliver the refrigerator along with the repair bill and assured them to pay immediately. But they said that you will have to pay in advance, only after that refrigerator will be delivered. They sent the technician to my home for payment and asked me to pay rs. 2850/-. I made the payment of rs. 2850/- in cash to the technician. When i asked for the bill, he assured me that the bill will be given alongwith the refrigerator. However, the service centre owner did not provide me the bill. I was regularly contacting him on the phone for the bill, but he was saying that the bill will be sent in the next 1-2 days. He did not give the repair bill and now he is not even attending my phone call.

Dear sir, as the fault was in the compressor only and that was covered under warranty. So i had to face the problem because of your low quality part/compressor fitted in the refrigerator, hence you were not supposed to charge me anything for repair. Moreover, you must be sorry because of the inconvenience caused to me due to the breakdown during the summer season. On the other side, look at your service, you were taking the advantage out of it. As during that time, it was tough to maintain eatables without a refrigerator, hence, customers want the refrigerator repaired as early as possible. So your service centre forced me to pay a heavy amount knowing the emergency requirement of the refrigerator during this season.

Dear sir, from the above you can easily understand the level of your after sale service. I am very sorry to say that even if your authorised service centre is cheating the customers, the entire responsibility lies with you. You are accountable for fraud by your authorised service centre. I was a very loyal customer of whirlpool. Few months back before this episode, i bought a whirlpool semi automatic washing machine. Now i am repenting on my decision to buy whirlpool products.

Hence i request you to take strict action against the service centre and refund me the money that i paid for the repair of the compressor which was under warranty.

I hope you will take care of the reputation of the company and will do the needful for a refund of my payment as early as possible.in wait for a reply from your side.

Reply:
Dear mr. Goyal,

Greetings from whirlpool…!!!

As per telephonic conversation we would like to inform you that we have discussed your case with our service team they confirmed us that below charges are collected and which is correct charges collect by service technician.

Please feel free to write us back in case of any further assistance you may require.

Gas charging 1550
Visiting charges 470
Replay olp 475
T/fuse 355

Thanks & regards,
Baljeet singh

Dear mr. Baljeet singh

Please refer to your email below, it is really surprising and shocking for me to receive such an email from a representative of a reputed brand. I am unable to understand whether you dont know the facts or are trying to fool me. How smartly you are justifying the service provided by your authorised service centre? When your technician visited my home, he said the fault is with the compressor only. Even before that, i got my refrigerator examined by a known private technician who said the same thing, that only the compressor is not working and apart from the cost of the new compressor, no other part needs to be changed & it will cost around rs. 1200/- including gas and labour charges. While your technician after examining the refrigerator said visit charges for this refrigerator will be rs. 350 only instead of rs. 470. Still they were demanding rs. 3150/-. When the dealer requested the owner of the service centre, they finally charged rs. 2850/-.

Dear mr. Baljeet singh ji, please clarify me and send me the detail of charges, if i would have paid rs. 3150/- instead of 2850/-, as demanded by the service centre before delivery of the refrigerator.. I am sure you can make detail for rs. 3150/- also and will justify the same. This is something which one can never expect from international brand or their representative.

My refrigerator was delivered on 5th september, while the service centre has not provided me the original bil till date and only after i made the online complaint regarding the same, they sent me bill through whatsapp only and that too was issued on dated 12th september, whereas my refrigerator was delivered on 5th september and i was forced to make payment before delivery of refrigerator. Why your service centre did not show me the job summary and got it signed by me? Where as it was also admitted by you that the service centre should have shown me the job card/job summary sheet.

Further, to my surprise, you is trying to justify what the owner of the authorised service centre has done. If the detail of the bill as you have mentioned is 2850/-, then why was he demanding rs. 3150/- instead of 2850/- before delivery. Only after request by dealer, he agreed to take rs. 2850/-. So from here i can understand, if i would have paid, rs. 1550/-, you must have said these are gas charges. If your centre is successful in getting rs. 4000/- for that, in that case also you must had justified your dealer by mentioning 2-3 other parts in the bill. When there was no fault other than compressor why replay olp (Rs. 475) and t/fuse (Rs. 355) have been replaced? Further, i am not sure whether these have actually been replaced or have been replaced in documents/bill only? Also the replaced defective parts like relay/fuse etc. Were not given to me.
I am surprised to observe how the things are happening even in case of such a reputed brand? It will bring a bad name to the company. Customers will be forced to aware new buyers regarding your after sale service by floating these kinds of incidents on the internet or other social media. It is really shocking for me that even after investing a good amount just for brand name, i am receiving this kind of service.

Sir, kindly look into the matter seriously and don't compel the customers to choose any other platform for filling a complaint regarding this instead of your company directly. If i ll receive this kind of service from your company, definitely i will not buy any whirlpool product in future and will have to aware my near and dear ones regarding this episode before they can take any decision regarding buying any whirlpool product.

I hope you will do the justice and will not compel me for taking legal advice on the issue or move to consumer court for justice.