My detailed experience with Samsung service-B'lore. Review on Samsung

I'll try and keep my experience detailed but to the point. Hope this helps you in your decision to purchase a Samsung product.

My Samsung refrigerator which was less than a year old stopped working and I immediately called customer support and explained the issue and they took the complaint and promptly gave a complaint number etc and informed me that I'd get a call from the service center. All good so far, polite customer care executive, complaint lodged, SMS received with all details, Think I'm all set.

A couple of days later, I receive a call from the Samsung service center allocated for my part of the city and they tell me that a technician would visit and diagnose what was wrong with my fridge and go on from there.

A couple of days later the technician visits, inspects the fridge, and lets me know that the compressor needs to be replaced. Well good, I have a 10-year warranty then or so I thought, while at the same time wondering how the compressor died within 12 months of purchase. In any case, who cares, as long as they replace the compressor, I'll be fine.

A few days later I get a call from the service center; a very well-spoken and polite lady named Priya lets me know that it would take a couple of days for them to order my new compressor as it was not readily available and that when it is ready, they'd send a technician and bammm! I'd be set. By now I'm actually excited that I'm getting a new compressor, planning a welcome party, and whatnot for the new compressor(implied sarcasm)

From here, my experience with the Samsung service center gets harrowing. One week passes and no response from the service center despite repeated calls to them. Okay, maybe the compressor is a sophisticated piece of tech and is getting carefully put together by engineers in sci-fi-esque jumpsuits and being transported by helicopter to the service station. Again few days pass by with melted ice cream in my fridge when the service center calls and tells me that my compressor is finally ready and they'd visit that very day and install it.

A technician(different from the first one) visits with my brand new compressor and is ready to install it. But now he tells me that my original compressor was actually working fine but apparently the "gas had escaped". I didn't know that gas did such things. like randomly "escape". Anyway, he said he needed to fill the gas back in and I had to pay for it(1, 700 bucks) as gas was not covered in the insurance. By now I just wanted to get the damn thing done with, so I pay and the gas is filled. He says it'll take about a day for the cooling to come back

24 hours later still no cooling. By now a shadow of uncertainty is slowly creeping over me and I'm wondering what was next. It was already 12 days and 1, 700 bucks since I lodged my complaint. Anyway, I call service-center-Priya again and explain the same and she parrots the same message "A technician will visit your place in the next 24 to 48 hours later and resolve your issue". Well okay then.

A couple of more days pass by and I don't hear from them. A week goes by and I don't hear from them. I repeatedly call the service center and no one seems to be answering the call. Maybe Priya's on vacation in Hawaii. Finally, someone does answer and tells me to note down an engineer's number and call him to visit. I remind them that it's their responsibility to send me the engineer and that I cannot be expected to call their engineers asking them to visit, to which he replies "no saar this is only my responsibility".

So I try calling the number they gave me and it turns me that it was the wrong number and went to a grocery store somewhere.

By now I was tired of dealing with the service center, so I call customer care again. They hear me out, read their apology script and register another complaint. I get another call from the service center. I tell them that the engineer is not reachable. They say that I'm probably not dialing right and insisted that the number was of the engineer. I had to go through this frustrating loop of calling customer care and the service center thrice. By now I was at my wit's end.

So I was googling for answers about how to deal with a big brand that tries to screw you over. Enter "https://consumerhelpline.gov.in". A govt website to file consumer affairs? I rolled my eyes and sighed seriously? A govt organization is going to deal with Samsung? The govt is more likely to scam me. Right? Maybe not in this case.

I lodged a complaint on this portal. This portal unlike other govt portals actually has a great user interface, loads fast, and was crisp. I filed the complaint, selected the correct options in the field, uploaded my invoice, and hit the "submit" button so hard the enter-key on my laptop almost broke. Jokes aside, I checked the progress of the ticket and It informed me that the complaint was moved to Samsung.

12 hours later at 9 am in the morning I receive a call from Samsung Customer Experience India about my issue. I explain my experience with the dodgy customer support and service center teams.

24 hours later I get another call from the central manager of the Samsung service center. He put Priya on the conference call where I narrated to him all that happened over the last 2-3 weeks. Well-spoken and polite Priya was not polite anymore. Now she was defensive and falsely claimed that she kept following up with me and even implied that I was lying. Clearly, she was caught not doing her job and felt cornered and was being defensive. I didn't press too hard on her as I didn't want to be the reason she gets fired or something. so I just told them that I could share with the central manager my call history with Priya and call history doesn't lie. The central manager apologizes on her behalf and tells me that It would be addressed the very same day. I anyway forwarded my call history to the central manager so he is aware of how honest his reporters were.

24 hours later, my issue was expedited, attended to, and fixed, no thanks to Samsung Customer Experience. no thanks to Samsung customer care and sure as hell no thanks to Priya who slacked at her job. and all thanks to the govt portal. Finally, service center Priya's villainous attempts at ruining my ice creams were quashed by a govt website. All hail the one govt website "consumerhelpline.gov.in" that works.

There is an important takeaway for me from this experience: The customer care/service centers mistake polite requests and calmness for weakness and assume that if it's a regular joe calling for a small house appliance that needs fixing, then they ignore them till they give up. I have come to learn that the only way to deal with wanton negligence and indifference is by using the language of fear and intimidation and threaten them with legal consequences. This time it worked.

I request all to firstly think twice about buying a Samsung product. The product is great in itself but the service is non-existent. They'll send you on a wild goose chase till you give up.