Once upon a time I thought I should purchase an RO system. Having shifted to Gurgaon and become a father, I thought I should be doubly safe about drinking water and dunked my trusted filter for advanced technology. Being a loyal MouthShut’ite by then I diligently searched for reviews and found that most of the reviews were about bad service, faulty products etc. Then it struck me that we are most vocal when we feel cheated. If everything is hunky-dory why make a noise.
After reviews and discussions, I decided on purchasing a ZeroB product. It is manufactured by Indian Ion Exchange Company which claims to be the pioneers in water purification in India. I called up the company and scheduled a visit by its sales person. He showed up on time and the deal was signed.
Dealers and Company. The fun started after that. The next day I was called by a person saying he was calling from the Gurgaon office of Zero B and asked if I had placed an order. I confirmed and he said that I had mistakenly placed the order at the Delhi Branch and it should be transferred to Gurgaon branch. I said fine its an internal matter for the company, call up your delhi office and settle it. He started ranting about sales people cutting into territory for commission.
He wanted me to cancel the order and place a fresh one with them. I got suspicious and after disconnecting the phone, called up the delhi office and inquired about the process. They clarified that they do not have any sales office in Gurgaon, only a service centre. The guy pestering me was a dealer for the company. Then and there I made a mental note not to deal with these dealers.
Installation
The service engineer came at the allotted time with all the tools and finished installation in about an hour and a half. It was a clean install with no hanging wires and drippy pipes. It should be noted that an RO system discards 2 - 3 litres of water for every litre it purifies. It depends on the quality of the input but the point is it’s alot of water. Always store the water from the discard pipe and use it for gardening, cleaning etc. Pristine is a table top model so if you want it hooked on to the wall they will charge extra for the clamps. Its nominal but worth a mention.
Service
I have been using it for over an year now without any issues. Agreed the service engineers came just once instead of 4 times within the warranty period, but the machine in itself worked tirelessly. I still get frequent calls from dealers for free service which I religiously avoid. They are out to make a fast buck and might not even be properly trained on the machines they try to repeir. The company asked for about 2500 for a comprehensive warranty for a year that would include any parts that need to be replaced. I found it too costly and did not take it up. Now I call up the company engineers for a service every 64 months. It costs me about 500, including change of filters etc. It has been up and running for 2 years now. Lets see how it fares in future.