Jun 11, 2010 08:06 PM
3862 Views
My dad bought a Samsung 1.5T split AC this summer, to stay cool - which turned out to be an irony of sorts, with the "world's greatest" Customer Support of Samsung India. He bought the AS183TGA 3 star model - which was recommended by the dealer, mainly because of its revolutionary S-UTR compressor. The unit cost him 27000 INR(includes installation, but comes without stabilizer)
We got the AC delivered on the same day we bought it and were told that the installation would happen the next day. The installation people never turned up, apparently because they were very "busy" with other installations. They finally turned up after 2 days and installed the AC in the most unprofessional manner one could imagine. The installation folks never used the wall template for drilling holes; instead, they simply took a pencil and started making marks all over the newly painted wall. After drilling haphazardly for 15 minutes, they broke the plastering of the exterior wall and finally shuffled the indoor unit in place. The sad(or funniest) thing was that the person taking measurements was holding the measuring scale at an angle to the roof / ground! After some hammering and jerking they finished installing the AC in about 1 hour(I still cant believe they took only 1 hour to install the full unit, including the outdoor unit).
Thankfully, the crazy'uneducated' installers were not the problem(or so I believe!). The real problem started after 15 days of use - the'air-swing' panel(which moves to-and-fro to circulate cool air) stopped working. The panel was stuck in the open position, even when the AC was off. This was a major problem as the panel was stuck at such an angle, that the AC blew cool air directly onto the face while sleeping. So, my dad called up customer support. There! That was the beginning of hell!
Upon calling C/S, he had to wait 15 mins and listen to music with the all-so-familiar "all our C/S executives are busy; please hold - your call is very important to us". Finally, after speaking to a human, my dad was given a complaint number and was told that "someone would come and take a look at the issue". The AC booklet proudly displays a service graphic, which says "one hour response, one day service, one visit solution". This is probably, the world's biggest joke! No one called us for over a day, forget one hour. We never got the one day service, and as I will explain in the coming lines, it was clearly not a one visit solution.
My dad kept calling them for over a week now, and each time, they put that 15 minute hold music, wasting precious time! On each call, he got the same response - "someone will come and have a look". Nobody came. My dad finally got frustrated and went personally to the Samsung service center, and met the chief service manager/engineer and told him about the issue. Even that person told him "someone will come and have a look". Fortunately, someone did come after 2 days. Unfortunately, we had a power cut and could not demo the problem the to person. He simply came, looked at the AC from far and told us that the swivel / swing motor was malfunctioning and needed replacement.
As this was updated in the complaint, the next 2 weeks were spent in trying to get hold of someone to install a new motor. Conveniently, it was "out of stock". This was enough to take us over the edge. We went to the dealer and told him about our issue - we were a regular at the dealer(for over a decade) and hence, he took prompt action by calling up Samsung and threatening to do a "stop payment" for all Samsung products and in future "block" all Samsung requests by customers. The dealer also told them that they will not get payment for the AC unit that we purchased and that they can come and take it away. Within 10 minutes of this, my dad received a call from the Samsung service chief engineer(some top level guy) and he promised that something will be done by end of day.
The day passed and nothing happened - the next day we got a call from a technician that he is on his way to solve the problem and also, he had a motor with him that was meant for our AC. Fortunately, we had power when the technician came - and surprise surprise - the motor was fine! It was the panel - it had broken loose and could not be fixed. Tiny grooves(on which the panel sits) were broken(faulty installation perhaps!).
Now that the REAL problem was identified, the technician told us that he will have to get the panel from the warehouse. He called us after 2 hours and told us that the panel was also "out-of stock", and it had to come from Noida and would take 4 days to arrive. We went to the dealer again, who blasted the Samsung guys(I don't know whom he talked to)! He told us that they would come and install the new panel in 4 days. After a week or so, the technician finally came with the panel and replaced it!
Overall, it had taken us over 5 weeks to get a simple "air-swing" panel to be replaced! Also, the surprising thing was that the technician who came to replace our panel had about 5-6 panels with him. Upon enquiring, he informed us that it was a "common problem" and he was on his way to replace more panels on AC units bought by other customers. Turns out - it was a faulty design too.
I was really aghast to see how pathetic Samsung customer support is. I would definitely not recommend Samsung products to anyone, specially ACs - Customer service is almost non-existent and whatever exists, is utterly useless. Their technicians are absolutely "rugged" and look uneducated. They try to solve problems like street mechanics - tapping, tinkering, jerking, rough handling, pushing the unit as if it were a 1950's Jeep.
You're better of trying to stay cool without a Samsung AC, as buying one will make you vent with anger, frustration, desperation and helplessness.
