While choosing my Hitachi ac I took the help of MouthShut and found out that not a single company had the ability to satisfy all its customer with their after sales services, so I simply kept it aside and started to think in a different way.
I thought if I buy a quality product with good build then it may help in the following ways,
1. A good product will rarely break down, so the pain of after sales service will be less.
2. A quality product will save more money for me and in long term will be beneficial over others who give relatively good after sales services but build quality is not up to the mark.
I got some facts about Hitachi from Internet as follows:
When it comes to cooling, they have got no match. To give a strong competition to brand like O’General, they have ensured to offer their customer features like Super Cool which gives instant cooling on demand. These AC’s starts at high RPM to quickly reach the desired temperature and with lower power consumption as well. Also its Direct Efficient Technology adjusts the compressor speed and refrigerant flow to maintain the desired temperature
To lower down power consumption at a drastic rate, Hitachi’s premium ranged models have Twin Rotary Compressor which features a “Permanent Magnet Motor” to magnetize it without electricity, as a result it becomes 10% more power efficient than other conventional AC compressors.It has a inbuilt Power Active Module inverter system which suppresses electrical distortion to minimize power losses. This inverter works in combination of Pulse Width Modulation & Pulse Amplitude Modulation, which helps in minimizing the phase gap & draws more effective power. This technology is patented by Hitachi.
Its outer body has a great finish and the copper tubing which is connected with outdoor unit, is also of copper inside air conditioner.
After installing the ac I appreciate the following features:
- Though I was suggested to purchase 1.5 tons of some other brands, Hitachi 1.2 tons is sufficient for my room to efficiently cool in a short time.
2. I have a thermometer at my home and I checked that indeed the ac is able to maintain the temperature that I set +/- 1 degree.
3. At night it can be set almost noiseless mode.
4. It really saves my money when I compare with other relatives.
5. It has lots of features that really helps me to set the optimum temperature with just a button press. It can also assume the weather of my locality at the current date and set humidity, cooling, fan speed, etc., as per my requirement automatically to give me better feeling.
During delivery, some parts of the outer unit got dislodged and as a result when the installation done the ac did not start. So, I needed after sales service.
I called the customer care and I was really surprised when after couple of days the technician came and fixed the problem and I started to think Hitachi really has a good after sales service, but I was partially correct.
After six months the ac started malfunctioning and cooling was less to almost none. I again called customer care and made a complaint. Again, after 2 days the technician came and diagnosed that there is a leak in the tubing and the gas has escaped. He also told me that the whole unit needed to be taken to their service center and returned after repair.
When I asked when they would come to take it, they did not give any clear cut answer and I started to sense the cons of Hitachi. After a week when nobody came I called the customer care to forward the complaint again and throughout the next couple of weeks I called the customer care dozens of times for it, got the phone number of local service center and called them but nobody bothered to pick it up, called the technician who came previously but the only the response that I got was "the problem will be resolved very shortly."
After a month I was so frustrated that I started to think to go for consumer court. I really had no answer why this time the service was so poor whereas at the beginning it was quite good.
At that time, 2 technicians came, one of whom previously came, opened the ac and diagnosed that the inner unit copper coiling had a leak. They dislodged that part and took it away with them. The next day they returned with an new copper coil and fit it to the ac and filled the gas. The problem was solved.
I offered them tea and snacks and directly asked them the cause of this delay. They told me that customer care regularly followed with them regarding my case but it is not in their hands of which customer they will attend; actually it is their center-in-charge who actually allot them the jobs and the motto is to attend the problem which will cost least amount of time to solve. As in my previous cases the problems were minor and could be fixed on spot, so they attended it within 48 hours, but this case, as they thought the whole unit would need to be taken to their service center, required much more time, labor and hazard, so the center-in-charge was simply delaying it, but some type of audit from the head office was ahead of them so they could not delay it further.
Lastly, though I selected "Yes", I cannot give the reader any suggestion whether they should buy Hitachi ac or not. I shared my personal experience with you friend to make you understand where the actually problem is. I bought it for some specified reasons and what I feel the ac met my expectation at least 80%.