I try to stay positive, and send positive energies, and have tried to do the same and failed with LG. If this comes across as a load of negativity being downloaded, please excuse. I just think this should be shared in the interest of larger good, and making LG take note.
I have purchased an LG AC on 26th Jan 2014, which came with free installation and one year’s warranty for product and service. I chose LG because I believed in the promise of the brand as I was able to relate to it, my friends had bought LG ACs in Mumbai and are happy with the service and LG has been internationally successful in bringing the best products and service to customers.
Unfortunately, my experience with the service team in Chennai has been completely to the contrary and I am now at a point where I find it my duty to spread the word about the abysmal experience that awaits those who trust LG.I have summarized my experience with LG below:
While purchasing the split AC, we very clearly told the showroom(Girias, Anna Nagar, Chennai) that the wall on which the external unit would have to be installed does not have a balcony or other supports, so they would have to bring their own equipment to install the outdoor unit. They agreed and said installation was still free. When the installation team(with no uniform or ID) came for inspection, they said since additional equipment was required, we would have to pay for the installation and the installation was not free anymore.
They asked for 1100 to be paid additionally, we agreed to it as there was no other option. They were supposed to come at 11am the next day. They came at 4pm and started the installation. After installing the indoor unit partly, they came to us saying they didnt have equipment to install the outdoor unit and that they would come back in a few minutes, came back after a couple of hours, after dark, did part of the installation, and refused to complete the same citing lack of visibility.
We offered to bring more lights so they could complete it. They refused to complete both the indoor and outdoor installations. The units were removed from the packaging and left exposed. They left debris all over the place on the terrace and inside our home and demanded that we pay them 1100. We refused and sent them away.
We called the service center the next day and told them about our experience and instructed them to send another team which is more competent. They did after 2 days. This new team told us that the aluminium tubes were all damaged and the unit has been tampered with, but they managed to fix it and install the AC. We paid them Rs. 600 for this supposed free installation. The fan was very noisy after installation.
There was a service call after the installation, we told them of our experience, and the noise, the agent promised that action would be taken. One service person in uniform visited us a few days after and informed us the noise will be there as we had purchased an energy saving model which has some jet propulsion mechanism which makes it noisy.
We were not informed of this disadvantage at point of purchase, he said it was common knowledge, so we just left it at that.First Service: By the time we were due for the first service, there had been a murder of an old lady in our neighbourhood. The local police authorities visited every apartment in the area, collected list of service providers and also warned us not to allow unauthorized personnel without ID or uniforms into our homes.
LG sent its service team, lo and behold, without uniform or ID. So I told them they would have to come back with uniforms and ID. They refused and called their CCO, one Mr R Prabakaran instead. This person very helpfully informed us thus “I am the CCO for your area, and I’m telling you these are LG service people. If you want service allow them to do work, otherwise we will cancel your service call”. Being in a non-combative state of mind, we let them do the service.
It is unfortunate that I have to even talk about the events that occured next, but I feel this is absolutely necessary. These two well meaning service personnel, went to the bedroom where the AC was fixed and asked for a stool to reach the indoor unit, we provided one that was available at home. It was not high, but they tried to make do.
The person who got up on the stool, was not suitably dressed, and his pants kept falling off(inadvertently) and he continued to expose his rear throughout the service! His friend standing right next to him did not inform him, after a point, we had to leave the room although there were valuables in there! At this point I would like to emphasize that there was no intention on the part of your service team to put us through this, but providing them uniforms that fit, could have saved all of us a lot of embarrassment. When we buy an LG product, we expect professional service, and are not looking for indecent exposure in our bedrooms by your service people.
Anyways, this experience is also done and over. There was an agent who called after service, we we informed her(without bringing up the indecent exposure) that hey simply have to provide uniforms and IDs to their service people. Again we were assured action would be taken, we don't know if it was.Second Service: This time, we again insisted that they send people with uniforms and IDs, as we did not want to live through the horror of the previous service. They assured us this would happen.
When the service team landed up, we found 2 little boys, looked like school going kids, one with a uniform and the other without. Both did not have IDs. They showed us job sheets instead. We had had enough. We showed them where the AC was installed, stayed out of the room. We told them there was water leak and low cooling. They said they finished service 10 minutes later, and all issues were fixed.
Took a copy of the invoice and left. The cooling was still low after, but the thought of having to deal with the service center dissuaded us from bringing it up. Again there was this service call, we told the agent about the uniforms, the ID and the low cooling, again she said she would get back. No one got back.
Third service: We received SMS reminders saying service was due, and the cooling by the AC had gone really low, so much against our better judgement, we decided to avail of the service, as the warranty would anyways expire in end Jan 2015. The service center called, we took time to explain that there has been a murder, the local cops expect IDs and uniforms and the whole deal.
They assured us they would send senior people who would have uniforms. But LG has still not given them IDs so we cannot expect service people to produce IDs! But we, the customers, have to handover proof that product is still under warranty. We agreed as we did not have a choice, the team came, in uniforms but no ID, checked the AC and said the gas in the outdoor unit has leaked.
We were surprised, as this is extremely rare for a unit less than a year old. We suspected that faulty installation, product or service may be the issue, given the level of competence we had seen from LG and told the team so. They were not able to comment, they said the outdoor unit would have to be removed and taken and they would service and bring it back.
When the service team called to co-ordinate collection of the outdoor unit we informed them that as we were expecting guests for the holidays, we would appreciate if they could either do the gas filling on-site(other brands are known to do this), or return the repaired AC within one day or give us a replacement for the time they take the AC. They refused to do all three.
They said they would take 5 days to complete the service(god only knows why!) and if we do not want to give the unit for 5 days, they will cancel our service call! We then spoke to the call center, who gave us the number of the previously helpful CCO, Mr. R Prabakaran. True to his style, he refused to listen, from the word go, he kept saying we will have to give the AC for 5 days and there was no other option and the product was fine, our environment was the problem. He arrived at this conclusion, without having laid eyes on the unit, despite other brand ACs in our home like Hitachi and Logicool and Whirlpool, earlier, running without an issue for several years.
Then the service center called us with an ultimatum - take the service in our terms or we will cancel the call. We refused to those terms and tried the call center again, this time we were given the number of Area Service Manager, Mr. Srinivasan. Initially his phone was switched off, then there was no answer. He has not called back since. So we called the call center and informed them of the same. They said they would speak to the service team, and get back to us in 2 hours.
They didn’t. So we called back and asked for the matter to be escalated to some senior personnel at the head office. They said there was a VOC request they would take, post which the matter would be escalated and some senior person would call back within 24 hours. This was on Saturday(20th Dec). We called back on Sunday, they said some one would positively call us on Monday, as the VOC was in process, but Sunday was a holiday.
One hour later on Sunday, we received an SMS saying our complaint was closed due to “no response from customer”. We called the call center, they transferred us to an assistant floor manager called Ms. Sudar. She kept insisting the matter was closed as we were not available. We kept asking her to look at the records for the number of times we had called. She looked then said service center has closed the call they cannot do anything about it without speaking to them.
Then we asked her about the VOC. She says, VOC also got cancelled as the request was closed. We asked her to take another VOC request, she refused. We asked her to re-open the closed request. She refused saying it was not possible. We then told her we would have no option but to take legal action and publish a recording of the call we were having with her online.
This bothered her, she suddenly changed her tone and pleaded with us to give her one more chance to resolve the issue. She also took a VOC request, which she refused previously, and gave us the request ID. She said the SLA for VOC was 48 hours. When we told her VOC SLA was given as 24 hours by previous agent, she finally agreed to that too. She still refused to reopen the complaint, then she agreed to take a fresh request.
We told her that we would like to lodge a complaint against her for initially refusing to take complaints, she refused to transfer the call to her supervisor, or take any service deficiency complaint. This morning, we have again received a call from the service center stating they can only do the service in their terms - 5 days minimum, we stated out position saying, product is clearly defective, if you are taking it for 5 days give us a replacement for those days.
They refused, we ended the call. We have taken a lot of flak for trusting LG, we believe it is time LG pulled their socks up and resolved this issue. We will be, for our part, informing the general public and online consumer forums of the perils that awaits LG AC buyers in Chennai, by sharing a copy of this document.
An update as of 28 Jan 2015, I can confirm that LG has replaced the faulty AC and the new AC is working fine thus far
- Thank You! We appreciate your effort.