We purchased a Eureka Forbes Aquaflo water purifier from Reliance Digital in May last year. After about 8 months, the water started getting a bit smelly. Now, I have the same Aquaflo model at my parents’ home in Vadodara since 7-8 years, so I know that the carbon block needs to be changed twice or at least once a year. So I decided to call up the Eureka Forbes service center.
We got the number of the Koramangala service center (080-25522333) in Bangalore from the Eureka Forbes website. My wife called them yesterday and told them explicitly that we have purchased it from Reliance Digital. The guy said that a service person will come the next day (i.e. today) between 11 AM to 2 PM.In the evening, the service person gave us a call and confirmed the address and time. I asked him to make it earlier so I could then go to office.
Next day, this fellow didn’t turn up at the house even by 2 PM. My wife called them up at the same number and this time it was a lady. She gave her another number and asked her to call on that (??). When she called on that number, the person said that this is not the service center and asked us to call again on the first number on which we had called earlier. Now she got frustrated. She told her that those guys only asked us to call here. Then the guy said OK and told that he’ll send a person as soon as possible.
After 1 hour or so, one person named Vijay landed up at our house. I escorted him to the kitchen where, as soon as he saw the model, he said that he can’t do the servicing for this model!!! I was totally irritated. I asked, are you from Eureka Forbes or not?
His reply was amazing! He said that yes he’s from Eureka Forbes, but that he’s not responsible for servicing the Aquaflo model. He said they have a separate wing for the Aquaflo model as it’s sold through retailers. He gave us 3 or 4 mobile numbers and asked us to call them, which luckily we did in front of him. None of them worked. Finally, he asked us to call back on the first original support number (080-25522333)!
So we called there and explained the situation to the lady. She told, why didn’t you tell earlier that you had bought the model from Reliance Digital! My wife said that she had very clearly specified that we had bought it from there. That lady kept arguing until my wife gave up and asked why the person who’s come can’t service this model. To this, she told that he’ll do it if you insist. So we told him what she said. He maintained he can’t service it because later there will be some "inter-departmental issues." So we told the customer care lady to send the right guy and send him as soon as possible. She agreed and said she’ll call back shortly.
Now of course she didn’t call back. After a couple of hours, my wife called them again another couple of times. Finally they buckled and arranged for someone to come to our house. This person came late in the evening (around 8 PM).
This person (named Mr. A Selvam) was very decent and good and changed the carbon and cleaned the prefilter block and even cleaned the unit with a wet cloth. I felt happy with his work and gave him Rs. 50, though he was declining to accept the same saying that the service was free.
Finally, while leaving, he asked me for a "satisfaction letter." It seems these guys have to get a letter from customers stating that they are satisfied with the servicing done. It might be due to the list of complaints that have been pouring in about the after-sales service in Bangalore. Anyway, I gladly wrote a letter and gave it to him.
After considering all the above things, I decided to go in with a 3-star rating for the product and a 1-star rating for the service.
UPDATE (2010): The situation has worsened in Bangalore now. Since last several months, we have been requesting Eureka Forbes service persons to come and service it, as it is long overdue. But the people who come for service say that this is Forbes, not Eureka Forbes, and we cannot service it!
I bought the product just 2 years back from Reliance Digital. Why is Forbes selling the product when they cannot service it and neither can Eureka Forbes??