We haven’t even had the new IFB 8.5 model for a year, yet there was a terrible odor and smoke coming from the washing machine due to power troubles. My wife requested a visit from IFB service staff to check on the situation. He arrived and discovered that the capacitor and censor had failed due to high voltage power following the apartment and surrounding area’s power outage.
The service technician had to return to some location to obtain the replacement parts, which were actually secondhand removed from another washing machine, as mentioned by the service technician himself, and quoted the price of the capacitor at 2500 rs and the censor at 2850 rs.
I contacted my cousin, who owns a showroom, and he said he would fix it for a small fee, replacing the identical original parts. I asked the service technician to return his parts, and I agreed to pay his service visit expenses as well as the filter candle charges, which totaled roughly 700 rs.
However, I rewarded him 1000 rupees for his hard work and time spent. I’m not sure if one of his coworkers or his employer threatened that if the parts were locally sourced and changed, the machine’s other warranties would be null and invalid if an event occurred again. He also lied about the visit charges, quoting me 2500 rs over the phone.
When I replied that I’d phone customer support to find out about the service charges, the guy who had visited suddenly revealed that the genuine prices were only 500 rs for a visit. The other guy on the phone likewise modified his terms, saying that I was quoting the discount amount rather than the service charges.
After a while, the other guy, who appears to be the superior, calls back my wife and demands 1500 rs as the service charge because the service guy had visited our place three times for repair, which is a complete lie; he only came twice because he had to go get the parts that needed to be replaced, which, as previously stated, were second-hand and taken from another washing machine.
This is one of the strangest encounters we had with IFB service personnel. If we receive any further calls from IFB service staff, or if they deny future repairs or replacements under warranty, we will have to respond legally, and we take this very seriously.