I have grown up with atleast 3-4 godrej appliances products in my house... and I’ve had a soft corner for this brand while making any white goods purchase... so one could say I am one of the loyal customers of Godrej... But my recent experience of the Smartcare service has left me questioning my own decisions....
I purchased a Godrej washing machine (GDF1201) in October 2003 and I was promised a 5 year warranty (no strings attached) for an additional payment which I made promptly... after all.. what could have gone wrong?? But well... The PCB of the machine went bonkers in Jan this year... so I called up Godrej and asked them to correct the problem... I was asked a visiting charge of 350 bucks and I didn’t mind that... but when the service representative came, I was informed that my warranty had expired...
I was a bit shocked since there was a sticker still pasted on the washing machine that had a 5 year warranty written in bold red letters... but the engineer (I hope he was one) said that the 5 year warranty had been discontinued by the company in 2002... I cursed without mouthing obscenities and promptly showed him the bill for the washing machine and the extended warranty... He left promising to come back again... I waited... Being a little pissed off and adamant, I went to the dealer’s shop, caught hold of the Godrej representative, creayed a ruckus and ousted out the phone no. of the service in-charge of South Delhi... About a dozen calls later, I was promised a new PCB (but was reminded the payment of 350 bucks) The service engineer visited in a few days... and started banging on the washing machine with a hammer and a chisel (believe me....) (and that’s why I said I hope he was an engineer) I was shocked and asked him what the hell was he doing... He responded that the screw was stuck so he was breaking the area... and anyways "ab to toot hi gaya hai"... felt like strangling the guy...
the PCB had a short circuit and the contacts were burnt... so he cut the wires and joined the new PCB directly without a contact plug.... the machine again came to life (the scar at the side where the screw was stuck was ugly) And now the real story starts In April 2008, the water inlet valve of the machine stopped working... and I called up the Godrej Smartcare on the 26th of April and registered the complaint (ref. no. 151356) The call centre assured me that the complaint would be attended to within 24 hours ... "please pay Rs. 350 for the visit" After 9 days (thats 216 hours... way beyond the 24 hours commitment)... I called up the call centre again and asked him why the complaint wasn’t attended... "no one came to your house???!!" the call centre agent sounded more astonished than me... promised 24 hours again... 3 days later I call again... promised 24 hours again... went to the dealer’s place... almost shouted at the godrej reprentative again... he called up the call centre himself... promised me 24 hours again....
By now I had known better... I asked for the no. of the service in charge... to my surprise... it was the same name as 6 months ago... I called him up and explained my problem... He was polite but promised 24 hours... 22nd May ... (its almost a month since I had logged in my complaint)... I called up the service in charge and asked why is my complaint this big an issue... He told me the warranty has expired... I said no.. he said yes... I said I have the bill... he said no.. I said I would have to go to press... He said he’ll send a guy... the guy visited the next day and found that the inlet valve had malfunctioned because of the PCB and that since the PCB was joined directly it was not replacable... ( felt like strangling this guy too... was turning into a maniac I guess)...
I somehow manged to calmly tell him that it was one of them who did this in the first place... he was not ready to listen... I refused to let him leave till I talk to the in charge... the phone rang continuously... I kept calling ... again and again... finally he picked up and I made him talk to the technician... I was handed over the phone and he told me that the PCB was not replacable... I said your guy did it... I even had the name of the technician written on the older bill... He then agreed and asked the guy to replace the PCB and the inlet valve. they were rplaced and while checking .... the new PCB also short circuited within 2 minutes... thankfully, it was the technician who was testing the machine... the 24 hours promises and the wait began again... The same day, I got another message on my phone thanking me for logging in a complaint with a new reference no. I kept wondering who did it on my behalf...
The incharge stopped picking up my calls... but adamantly, I kept calling and after 23 calls.. he picked up and apologized (politely again) for the work not being done... but still he could not give me any update I started calling him daily hoping that he might feel ashamed and get the work done... I guess it worked... 2 days later I was told that they would change the PCB ... but I must pay for the wiring... thinking of not stretching this further, I asked them to just finish this off... So after 1 full month, the machine was working again.... The guys were polite but what good is politeness when you can’t get the work done.... I guess in a bid to outsource, Godrej has failed to maintain the minimum service levels required ... I would not recommend Godrej now.