This is to bring your notice that my case has been really mishandled with the second Geyser that I bought 6 years back.
The first instant Geyser I had already given up when it was handled so poorly that I had to spend more than the purchase price on it & finally last year I had to buy a new Bajaj Geyser which I found to be a really competitive price(nearly 2000/- less) & have more durability than AO Smith. Even if it fails I have some money saved & peace of mind.
And now the second karma of my life popped with the same company’s horizontal geyser last month, when this ’Fit & forget’ geyser which was used daily by two people only(excluding summer) started leaking in 6 hours which has a tank warranty of 7 years. Really, pity to see the overconfidence of this company AO Smith in giving the warranty.
I called up customer care. Logged the ticket & they told me about the service charges. I sent the photo to the technician & he told me that the geyser seems to be replaced. If it is in 7 years tank warranty then it will be replaced within 20 days. The time was long but I agreed to a visit.
Then the story starts, he came & asked for the warranty card that I showed. Then from 2/8/2014 till Dec 2020, they started counting as more than 7 years. I don’t know who taught them the counting.
Later, I had to put some pressure. Then I was asked to pay the service charge assuring that it will be replaced after sending pics & all. But it is not installed by their technician so I have to get it uninstalled & like a big shot, he will come only to take the pics & send them. OK! I agreed, I was at a loss. Then they started asking about bills as the warranty card won’t work which was shocking to know. Somehow, I had to dig it & later when I produced it, he visited again. After consulting the agency he said that you will have to pay 70% of the price of the new geyser’s MRP as you have used it for 6 years. I was shocked as there is nothing mentioned in the service warranty of such a pro-rata kind of thing. I asked him to send it is written to my email so that I can take further action.
Then I called the Area service manager. To my knowledge, that guy didn’t pick the phone & someone else named Kiran picked it & assured me that he will get back.
The next day, I called Kiran 2 -3 times. Neither the picked the phone nor called back. I called the service technician & he assured me that he would call Kiran & get back to me.
From the next day, the technician also stopped responding. Finally, we had no other option than to call customer care. And now the customer care is saying to write an email first which I am doing. Then, they will take their own sweet time to decide based on it. Most probably a new cylinder will be provided. But I have to raise another complaint after it & pay again for installation. I mean you think the customer has money-plant to pay you for such a ridiculous product which is so-called to be the internationally reckoned product that doesn’t have quality as much as a local Indian Geyser has. I had installed two & both were a failure. Rather an old Bajaj Geyser is working fine for 10 years with only replacement of heating element.
Let’s see how much harassment we have to go through.