We have a Samsung double door refrigerator(RT44MAEW) bought seven years ago. It is a good machine and has given us great service, breaking down a couple of times since we bought it. It was all iced up once and we just had to shut it off for a while before it got going again. The second time required a change in the freezer motor as far as I recall. Service was prompt and all was well with the world until now.
The workhorse showed signs of flagging with frozen stuff in the freezer going soft and the ice melting though not completely. We registered a complaint(BP number 8436127545) on September 29 and were told that an engineer would come round before the day was out. This did not happen so we called a number of times to egg them on to come and do something.A service engineer finally sauntered in around 24 hours after we had registered our complaint on September 30. After a desultory look, he declared that the gas had to be refilled. When I asked when this would happen, he gleefully said this was not his specialisation and some other team would come by, by and by.
A number of calls later, the "gas team" arrived 24 hours later(48 hours after we had first complained) on October 01. After tinkering around they declared there was nothing wrong with the gas and the compressor needed to be changed. I asked how much that would cost and they said Rs 6, 000. I asked what sort of guarantee/warranty were we looking at and they said ONE MONTH. When I questioned this, the engineer said it was "company policy". When I asked him how much his cellphone cost he said Rs 1500. I asked him what guarantee did it carry? He said one year. So I said how come something worth Rs 6000 was guaranteed for a month and something else worth Rs 1500 carried a year’s guarantee? He said "company policy" sounding more and more like a loyal soldier of the East India Company.
His service manager echoed the inviolability of "company policy." So I turned to my last weapong: my wife, a senior editor in a major national daily. She called someone very very senior in Samsung and then I got one call offering me a thousand bucks off the price of the compressor. I said no since the guarantee was still unshakable at one month. I got another call offering a six month guarantee which I gladly accepted.
And then nothing happened until today October 04 when I got a letter from Service Manager Yogesh Bindlish whose English needs much to be desired. Bindlish informed me that my request for a one year warranty was "improptiate at this time" since the ubiquitous "company policy" allowed for just one month. My refrigerator, he declared, was "above 5 year, that’s why compressor is out of warranty it is chargeable and the warranty for the replaced compressor will be 1 month according to(here we go again) the company policy and can not be given." I never asked for a free compressor to replace the old one all I wanted was a guarantee for the new one but it seems for Bindlish and his team there is no such thing as new wine in old bottles!
Meanwhile I called my local guy who keeps my aircons running servicing them every summer and mothballing them in winter. He came round promptly, declared there was nothing wrong with the compressor and said the timer needed changing. He changed the timer and apologetically gave me a mere 3 months guarantee assuring me it would last way beyond that. The cost? Rs 1200!
This Diwali I shall begin mourning the imminent demise of Samsung, "sit Shiva" as the Jews would call it. A great refrigerator done in by people either incompetent or venal or both.