Update 2012: Here I am again. I had an AMC that was expiring on 03 December. During 3rd week of November, I requested for a service. The person came and said everything is fine and he has done the cleaning. However, when I noticed some dirt in the filtered water container a few days later (after 3 December 2012), I called them again.
This time they said that candle needs replacement. When I asked them why this was not done 3 weeks back when the product was in AMC, they had no answer. Anyway it was no point discussing with the technician who had come visiting, so I dropped it then and paid for a candle replacement and the service. I also bought AMC for the next year. When the tank again filled with water, we discovered that the tap was leaking. So I lodged another complaint on 13th of 14th of December. Today is 19th of December. I have called up their helpline multiple times to remind them and have been assured that it will be fixed on the same day. Of course, no one has turned up till date.
Today I asked for the number of a manager, and I was given one. I spoke to the person and he too assured me that it will be fixed on the same day, but nothing has happened. I looked up their website and discovered that you can escalate only those requests through the website that have been raised on the website in the first place. So much for customer service !!!
Update: Apr 20, 2010:Response to the previous 2 service requests have been prompt and have been addressed on the same day.The Aquaguard has also been reliably performing after they replaced the circuit board. I find the storage thing and the automatic cutoff very handy. It also switches off the Aquaguard when there is no water supply.Changing the service and support to 4 from the earlier 2, changing the durability to a 3.Changing the style and design to 4 and the overall product rating to 4.Update: Aug 25, 2009
I put in request for service on 24 June, 2009. The number is 54463024. After 2 months of wait and a few followups, its still not fixed. I’m still waiting for them to respond. Changed service and support from 3 to 2.
Orignial Review:
I bought an Aquaguard Sensa Blu G in May 2008.
Product Use: has 3 modes:
Intelligent - chooses between RO and UV depending on the quality of water input
RO - Will always do reverse Osmosis
UV - Will always do UV filtration and no RO.
I had a nice honeymoon period with this purifier for a few months after I bought it. The water tasted much better and I wanted to have more(can you believe it - I wanted to have water for its taste).
Problems
One day, it malfunctioned. It suddenly switched over from Intelligent to UV mode, and the water was not tasting as good anymore.They came and fixed it, and it worked for a few months and again without warning it stopped working again.It took Eureka Forbes 2 months to fix the problem (which I hope has been fixed for good now) - They had to replace some circuit board.
The main problem I have with this kind of failure and lead time in repair are as follows
1) No one at the Eurohelpline told me thatI could now be getting impure water, so I might have had water with high TDS for the last few months whenever it malfunctioned.
2) The product has no inbuilt failsafe mechanism that shuts it down altogether or atleast conspicuously indicates that the water coming out of the purifier is impure.Since neither of these 2 happened, I am inclined to think that I and my family have had impure water (with high TDS) for atleast the last few months. I don’t know how much harm it has already done, but I was certainly not expecting to be left doing this guesswork when I paid around Rs.17000 for this premium product from Eureka Forbes.I have heard that initially this product shipped with a defective Circuit board that malfunctioned after some use. What I am left wondering is why Eureka Forbes took such a long time to fix it even after my complaint instead of proactively doing a product recall / repair - were they just trying to save some cost even at the risk of the health of my family? That’s upto the reader to decide - I will keep my opinion to myself about this.
Conclusion:I did not expect this kind of failure from a Eureka Forbes Product and feel let down.I would recommend that people are better off choosing the non-automatic model (that does RO all the time irrespective of whether it is required or not)- you may use more water and have water that is low in essential minerals but you can alway take supplements for that. I’m not sure there is an equally simple alternative for getting rid of the illnesses that one may acquire as a result of using an Aquaguard Sensa Blue G with a defective circuit board.