IFB Industries review: Company not responding! 16

I agree with Sujatha. My complaint is as follows:

I bought IFB machine one year back from Delhi and since then I have been complaining to Customer call center for Noise, Banging and Rattling sounds from the machine.

The machine was in One year default Warranty period and no one attended it, thereby the one year default period expired. As a precaution I had also taken a extended warranty for next 2 years for proper service but that is of no use because no one from the Repair center or Delhi-Okhla office responds to the issues/problem raised by the consumers.

The history starts from the every beginning itself, the complaint numbers can be traced.

I am listing some of the incidents below:

Oct/Nov-07 - During one year default warranty period (before Diwali):
I called N number of times to the Call center team but no one from the Repair center contacted us.
One time a mechanic came noticed & went back saying that he will come with Spare parts but no one turned up later.
3-Jan (#1447412) - Complaint raised - no visit, no solution provided.
21-Jan(#1491273) - Complaint raised - mechanic visits, does some changes for testing, there is no relief, no permanent solution given.
15-Feb(#1557622) - Complaint raised - no visit, no solution given.
16-Feb(as above) - spoke to Bhuvan Joshi (Manager repair center), Sachin Taneja (Site Incharge), they promise to take action, strangely no action taken.
22-Feb(#3265707) - spoke to Bhuvan Joshi (Manager repair center), Sachin Taneja (Site Incharge).
They send mechanic and take the machine to repair center for 2 weeks, the machine comes back with same issue still open.
Mar'08- - As agreed with Site incharge & Manager repair center : Talking directly with both of them for N number of times, to send the mechanic for solving problem, no visit made till date (April-19, 2008).
12-April-08 - After a lot of hard work got the contact number & name of the IFB person in Okhla, N Delhi - Naresh Upadhayay.
Speak with him & he promises to look into the matter & solve, he passes the complaint to Repair center, there is a call from Repair center - but no visit from any mechanic what-so-ever.

Even the lady (on behalf of Naresh Upadhayay) did not revert back or confirmed if the issue was closed or not.

Strangely, this is the First company I have seen, which never calls back to find out if the Case opened has been closed to satisfactorily or not, whether it is the Call center or the company office, a total lackadaisical attitude.

Rs, 20, 000/- is not a small amount for anyone it is a hard earned money. I think we should go ahead to Consumer Forum and log a case against IFB.

thanks,
Nimisha

Worst after sale service ever by a company... totally agree... especially never go for what they call AMC... your money will be lost for sure... since this company will probably send someone so late that by that time the AMC would have expired.

worst performing machine with poor technical support and technicians .the dealers pass time and passes the warranty time by lingering with the substandard practices.In my case i purchased the machine IFB ELENA from Chandrapur (maharashtra )from Sony Electronics, Chandrapur in sept . 2003.It started giving problem after the first week only, machine has been opened for nearly 5 times but no solution was derived at. Then for vibration i was told to put rubber mat below machine. Even the people from Nagpur service centre attended it and there is no solution to it . with these vibrations i continued to use the machine and the Drum has become loose in 2007 and water leakage started from it..By that time dealer of IFB in chandrapur was changed and he said that we no more take care of thes machine . and people from nagpur service centre visited on chargeable basis and on inspection, I was told replacement the drum casing is required . Because the permanent deformation of fibre body of drum casing can not be repaired . But then the replacement was not carried out quickly.After that last year changed my place of workingto korba, One year I could not use the machine and here I complained for the Repair 2 months ago(in may 2008 and after the inspection no one has come to attend the problem.So I strongly agree with sujatha that no one should make their life miserable by purchasing IFB washing machine. now i an thinking for the replacement of washing machine, And one most important fact is that the exchange value quoted for washing machines is only Rs. 800 only .

For heaven's sake, never buy IFB Appliances if you want peace of mind at home for the money you have paid. IFB products are substandard, never gone through quality process, buggy and fail very often.

I am also a victim of their substandard product and no service there after! I bought a high end washing machine and started giving problem within month. Calls to customer service of no use, they give a complaint number and no body turns up; you will have to make hundreds of phone calls to reach them and if you are lucky to get any one of their technician on the phone, they will promise you to visit the place or replace part in the next two days and the story continues for ever.

If you are smart enough, file a complaint with consumer court and you will be able to recover part of the expenses incurred.

Dear Sir,
I purchased Diva model, Ahmeabad office staff have no manner .hoew to behave with customer Head Mr viny mathur also not responding the answer of mail, as fully automatic machine water lvel to be controled manualy. Dryer of new purchase machine not functioning.
No Sr Enggg esponding the phone call.No disiple among the staff after selling the machine company is not taking care .

Demo staff is not properly trained

I request those who want to purchse this DONOT purchase ANY PRODUCTS OF IFB
i fed with contineous follow up no executive or manager have interest to stais fied the customer.
staffs are lithrgic

eversince ifb have given the repair contracts to francisees the after sale service has deteriorated an the franchisee tries to fleece the customer by way of misguiding him about the actual fault in the machine

worst cutomer care service .there is no responce yet towards our complaint

sir
My IFB washing machine has several problems for the last 3months. I was given a no. & in spite of several reminders no one is coming to service the machine. If the spare parts are available in the market we can atleast replace the parts.Can the concerned authorities look into the matter?

Raja,

I am a user of the product (Senorita Plus Washing Machine) which is 11 months old and under warranty.
Ever since I have bought this product I have time and again reported to the service people from IFB for Excessive vibrations and Movement of the washing machine(Rotation) on its axis on floor(Rough).
Some of the solutions that I have received so far from your service advisors in the past 6 months are:-

Installation of Machine trolley :- I was asked to buy a trolley(Rs 1500/-) 3 months after purchasing the Machine itself. I asked the service advisor to give me a demo whether trolley will reduce the vibrations/movement of the Machine on floor.
A sample was brought in by one of your service person but he failed to demonstrate the same. So I refused to buy a trolley.

Installation of Rubber cups:- I was again asked to install rubber cups under my machine to solve the vibrations/movement issue but even after installing the same the problem persisted.

Changing Dampers and Springs:- Failing to solve my problem the service advisor came with a suggestion of changing dampers and springs. Unfortunately this also failed.

Changing Bearings:- Failure of all the above suggestions resulted in changing of bearings by your service people(Sriranga). The same has resulted in an addition of excessive noise which can be heard in my whole colony.

During this whole phase of logging complaints, attending service people and making calls to your office since last past 5-6 months I have kind of lost my patience to this repeated failure of your incompetent staff to handle machine faults.
Now to a customer who has spend close to Rs 20, 000/- on this fully automatic washing machine the kind of the service and pain I have gone through in past 5-6 months is pathetic.
After seeing the poor response from your side I have decided to send you a notice from consumer court. Hopefully you will receive the same in weeks time.

To
The Regional Manager,
IFB Industries Ltd,
Home Appliance Division,
New No.6 Arcot Road,
Vadapalani,
Chennai – 600 026.

Ref: AMC No.020402 for the period 19.01.08 to 18.01.09

Dear Sir,

My washing machine is under above AMC. Every time a complaint is made it receives a very cold response and it takes several days to rectify the defect, and the quality of work is very sub-standard.

For instance I made complaint No.2368236 on 31st October 2008. Since then many calls have been made to the following numbers and the response is reproduced: The fault is yet to be rectified.

3900 4321 Only to be told that it will be attended shortly,
[protected] Mr. Rajesh, Seldom answered. Very rarely phone is
answered by some one else for a blank reply.
[protected] Mr. Shiju Seldom answered. Very rarely phone is answered
by some one else for a blank reply.
[protected] Miss. Brinda, Answers the phone occasionally, but
maintains no telephone etiquettes.

Aggrieved, I tried contacting the office of IFB by the numbers printed along with the address. They were found to be numbers not working. On17.11.2008 undersigned visited your office in Vadapalani with his grievance and Mr.Ashok Kumar dealt with him as the person concerned in handling the matter. When asked for his phone number, gave the number of someone else, giving clearer insight into the culture company is maintaining in dealing with grievances of hapless customers.

Hope you will please agree with me that customers buy washing machines for daily use. One enters into AMC so that the working is least interrupted and we get more peace of mind. We are hereby informing you that on three different occasions it had taken more than two weeks each time (all records are available) to rectify the problem. At present we are going through the ordeal for the forth time, in this AMC period.

I would also like to mention here that collecting AMC charges in advance and not rendering the desired service in time, is deficiency of service on your part which is causing lot of hardships and mental agony to the consumer.
I would therefore request you to rectify the defect and extend the AMC period for the days lost, within seven days of receipt of this letter, failing which I will be forced to initiate appropriate legal action to safeguard my interest, holding you liable for all costs and consequences incurred there under.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

George Thomas.

Copy to: all concerned.

Please be EXTREMELY careful in case you are planning to buy any IFB appliance in Bangalore.

See http://zookeepersblog.wordpress.com/ifb-service-doesnt-exist-in-bangalore/

No service exists ! IFB guys have no customer focus. They are not helping, nor concerned about any problem of yours.

Summary ( Observations )
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1 ) The complains recorded in Call centre is NOT tracked for closure. In many cases the calls are closed without visiting the customer at all.
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2 ) IFB has outsourced service to a company named ” Silicon India “. Thus IFB as a company does not want to show any ownership for your problems.
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3 ) The ” Silicon India ” guys have no skills. Often after lot of followup / reminders even if they visit your home, will be without tools, without spares.
Will diagnose wrongly, open things one by one unnecessarily and will only try to change most costly parts.
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4) The silicon India guys do not carry any identity cards. Once 2 guys came to my home in the evening DRUNK. I complained to Silicon India, IFB and TVSe Chennai.
No action or apology from any one was reported ever.
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5 ) The Silicon India mechanics are more interested in ” personal business “. As soon as they see a customer without Annual maintenance contract, they will propose if they can try to solve the problem

” privately “.

The skill level is same, that is ZERO. And thus one by one will replace the Motor, cards, pump whatever and keep charging money. The sole aim is to take away all good parts and sell somewhere else, and put other old parts in the machine.
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6 ) IFB has only 3 mechanics for remaining part of Karnataka. The IFB Bangalore Manager and Assistant Manager never could send those guys to my home even after several followups for my problems. The standing excuse is that these 3 guys are out of station. Even though they promise to inform me or call back, they never called back.
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7 ) No training is provided to all these mechanics for new models such as Digital models.
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8 ) The spare parts are very costly, not available in open market and thus IFB fleece the customer very badly.

See http://zookeepersblog.wordpress.com/ifb-service-doesnt-exist-in-bangalore/

Details of all that happened with me -

Agree withe the above and IFB are not prompt in the service and the Franchise technicians are not Trained as they un necessarily remove the parts saying that as defective

very poor service as i am also IFB user

water is not coming through inlet pipe

I need the telephone no. of the IFB service center, Goa please.
Send to dr.xeke@gmail.com

This is S.Ganesan, Puducherry. I am owning an IFB Elena Washing Machine.It is regret very much from the date of purchase, its giving us trouble often, so far we have spent more than the cost of the machine for service and repair through your authorised franchisee only.
e.g.Please refer our complaint no.66921. For that your franchisee technician came and attenended the complaint after 48 hours that too not attended properly. The complaint was regarding the spining of the machine.Even the body lid of the machine was not closed properly.When we informed about this to your Local Superviser, Ms.Saranya. She not at all responded for more than 10 days nobody was turned to rectify the complaint even to close the lid properly.Then again we complaint to the complaint cell, they lodged a new complaint no.6764604. Another person came for that complaint and closed the lid but still the spinner complaint is not solved completely.but now The machine is not even getting on.This is for your early attention.