Hope someone from Onida(product Marketing/sales folks) will read this:-)
I bought Onida washing machine mainly because it’s an’Indian’ product. Quite frankly it didn’t disappoint me for last 5 years and we’ve been using it daily for washing clothes. Trouble came when it’s motor became weak and was struggling to take even the modest of loads. There started my trouble.
It’s hard for me to say whether a motor replacement within 5 years of usage is a good or a bad thing since this is our first automatic washing machine. What disappointed me though was the extremely poor service I received. It took them weeks to confirm back that they have the motor compatible with the model we have(they claim that beyond 5 years, the motor spare availability isn’t guaranteed!). They took our machine to replace the motor and brought it back. But, guess what, the motor started making noise while operating as if there is a factory inside my house. We called them and their initial response was’Sir, it’s a new motor and after a while the noise level go away’! Quite a pathetic explanation.
Upon several follow ups they came, made two visits and took the machine back again. It’s been 4 days and still they haven’t returned. Everyday we hear a new reason as to why the machine isn’t delivered.
Onida does not even have an escalation path in their service network to report poor service experience so that they can hear and respond to issues.
I think this is where Indian companies get edged out in MNCs. Any product sale to a customer is a’relationship’. It’s important not only to have a great product(btw, I’m not saying this is a superlative product!) but also have a great(or at least satisfactory) service experience so that customer don’t feel bitter or annoyed about the product going bad.
Hope someone in Onida will listen:-(
Regards,
Prashanth