My parents have a 35-year old Godrej which has been repaired just once, and giving mostly trouble-free service. Looking at this, I decided to buy a Godrej for myself. I bought a Pentacool 2-door 240 Litre model in May 2006 from a dealer in Pune.
First off - the dealer told me that he would give me a brand new piece, but after payment he said that the stocks have finished and I would have to take the display item home - left with no choice, I did that.
The fridge worked fine till 2010, when suddenly all cooling stopped. The service guys told me that the compressor has gone kaput and would need to replaced. Now since the compressor had a warranty of 5 years, you would assume that the repair should be free, but I was charged Rs. 2800 on the pretext of ’service charges’ and the ’new’ compressor packing said ’Godrej repaired compressor’.
Now in 2012 the freezer stopped working - the refrigerator section was tolerable. I called up the service center guys and they said that someone would attend to the complaint within 1 day - nobody called.
Next day I called again - they said they’ll escalate the issue. The next day a guy appears - by asking me if there was electricity - while he was at the ground floor of my building. Two guys came - I told them the freezer is not ok - even at full, they said ’itni garmi mein aise hi chalta hai!’ (its not working fine because of the heat)
When I insisted they checked the fridge and said that there are multiple leakages and it needs to be sent to the service center for plugging everything. Also they will check if a part called condenser coil is available or not. They charged Rs 350 for the visit. I called after 2 days - the condenser coil was not available and complaint had been closed.
I registered another complaint and talked to the service center guy - he said that he is responsible for the issue now and it would be sorted. I got a call from a guy saying that the fridge needs to be picked up for repair. When asked if the spare part is available, he replied in the negative. I asked him to pick-up the fridge when the part is available.
Then I stopped getting calls and I assume that the complaint was once again closed.
I called up a local fridge repair guy - he charged 1600 and repaired it twice (no extra charge for 2nd visit) without changing the condenser coil. The fridge is okay now. I asked him why the old fridge at my parents’ place is okay while this one went down so soon? He said - ’Sir wo quality ab kaha!" (Sir, you don’t get the same quality anymore)