I have a Whirlpool Genius Refrigerator (180Ltr - Single door, Whirlpool Premium) which is about 2.5 years old. about 10 days back, suddenly the Door of the fridge broke as the bottom of the door gave away and the door tilted under its weight. This is a new thing for me since we had a 175Ltr Kelvinator Fridge at home for >10years and I've never even heard of such a bizzare thing as the door of the fridge crumpling down! (Is America's no. 1 Home Appliance Co. so pathetic in their product design??).
Anyway, I promply called up the Whirlpool service centre in Bangalore (91-80-28603412) and they assured me that someone would come the next day (since their service people work from 2pm to 6pm) and see the fridge. I requested them to send someone earlier as its summer time and without a door we can't use the fridge. Next day noone came and then I had to check with the service centre again. I asked them for their superiors no. and they asked me to contact Ravi (91-9844889939). I checked with Ravi and asked him to send the service person. After repeated followups, finally the service person came to my house in the evening (or Thurday). At that time I was not a home and the serviceperson told my wife that the door would require a plastic spare part to be fitted at the bottom since the old one had cracked. Since he didn't have the spare with him, he told my wife that he'd be coming back with spares the next day.
The next day when we didn't hear from anyone from the company, I checked with the Service Person (91-9844889918) who cited lack of spares as the reason for not contacting me. I was quite surprised that a World class company (or so they say) like Whirlpool would not even have spares in Bangalore!!! (and we're not even talking about some unknown town in remote State here).
I checked with the customer care who could not give any proper response. Then I checked with Ravi, and he told me that spares would be available next Monday (21st Apr). I waited patiently on Monday for any update but didn't get any information. Next day I checked with Ravi and I was told that spares are not available and they'd be coming by the weekend. I asked him to provide me with contact of some senior person or a contact in plant as I needed the spare urgently. I even suggested that he could put me in contact with the plant and if required I'd get the spares couriered to my place at my cost. Even than he didn't give me any leads.
Even Friday came and when I checked again Ravi told me that spares are not available with the company (since 10 days!!) and it'd come by Monday.
I tried contacting Ravi 2-3 times yesterday (Monday) but his mobile was busy. However I already know that he's least bothered about the customers as in last 1 week i'v called him at least 20 times and he's told me that he'd give me an update, but till now he's not even bothered to save my number in his phone (so everytime I call up, we start fresh from the introduction onwards).
I have even written to Whirlpool regarding this problem last Friday, but till date I've not received any response. I have written to them again but I don't expect any response to be coming from their side soon.
I would strongly advise people to stay away from Whirlpool brand white goods as the state of Service Support is pathetic! (In contrast, Samsung person provided quite proactive support for my washing machine when one of their dealers was not providing me the delivery on time!). I believe they have spent all the money on Celebrity couples and are not left with any money for customer support or improvement of the quality of goods!
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