I bought quite a few items from Reliance Digital - Hyderabad. I have had a pretty decent experience.
I can’t comment on fixing broken appliances but here is a brief list of what I liked and what I didn’t like:
Liked -
1. Really large range of products - especially flat panel TVs and home theater stuff.
2. Large range of all kinds of stuff and sometimes I bought stuff which I didn’t even knew existed.
3. Periodic great deals - bought a Phillips 42" LCD for~ Rs. 55k, compaq turion laptop with 2GB RAM for 34k.
4. Friendly sales but just about OK tech knowledge.
5. Much better customer service than other competitive priced stores like BAJAJ electronics.
Don’t like:
1. Billing seems to take a lot of time.
2. They try to push expensive’extended warranty’. Not aggressive pushing but still pushing.
3. Very less seating in the store - Its a huge store and a lot of products, if you get tired and want to relax for a while - no luck.
There are a few things I observed about buying consumer electronics and white goods:
1. We cannot expect the store sales team to be tech wizards. If they were, they would be working in tech companies. They have just about enough knowledge to answer basic queries.
2. ACs - especially split ACs are a major source for headaches. The installation itself takes a lot of time, the technicians do not take care and do shoddy installations and if the AC stops working, you will never get good technicians to fix it. For our Onida 2 ton, I had to spend almost Rs. 15k extra because of shoddy workmanship during the initial install. Even the 2nd time round, the technicians did a bad job. It took the 3rd set of technicians to fix everything. The AC itself cost Rs. 25-30k I think.
3. Wherever you are buying from, buy only those brands with a reputaton for excellent after sales service.
4. Always keep your bill and warranty card. Pay with Credit card if you can.
5. Filing a case in conusmer courts is not very difficult. It can be done without the help of a lawyer. It takes just 1 day to prepare the case.
If you want good service, be prepared to fight for it - but instead of shouting at the store people - most of whom either do not have the authorisation or do not care, you should look at consumer courts.