Dec 22, 2011 11:47 PM
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I purchased 3 storage water heaters from saraswati electrical works under the brand name Alvis, in the month of April 2011. The sales guy(Mr. Aman) sold these with great(which turned out to be all false) promise of how these are specially designed for the hard water in the Dwarka region. And the body is warranted to last more than 5 years and all other parts for one year, and how they are going to provide very good and prompt service.
And when I started to use these geysers, this is how it worked out.
One Geyser: soon after the installation, we realised that the protective ELCB( Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker) is tripped, and the issue was diagnosed to the Alvis geyser. It had some electrical fault. After much haggling with the Service guys from Alvis, they changed the Heating element. This solved the problem for the time being. As winter arrived, in the month of November when we first used this geyser, we found it to be giving dirty water even after flushing out 4-5 buckets. It turned out that the element had burnt, and that too with the very first use.(It is clear in the hindsight that these guys replaced the element with the used one) and this time they charged me Rs. 350/- Gone out of the window the one year warranty for the element. Now it was only 6 months warranty for the heating element! And even after spending 350 rupees, the old issue of ELCB tripping returned. So I had to disconnect it and it is not in use and we are planning to replace it with some branded one.
Second Geyser: This was in use for some 2 months. And was working OK. Last wednesday, 14-dec-2011, we found in the morning that there is some burning smell. we immediately switched it off. And found to our amazement that the water taps were jammed. After much effort when we opened the taps, hot steam came running out of it! The thermostat has stopped functioning, the geyser did not cut off, and none of the safety mechanism worked! We were fortunate that the geyser did not burst.
On talking to their service center, these guys feigned ignorance and even claimed that this can not be an issue, there geyser can not burst as it is ISI marked! And they promised to look into the geyser and sent their service engineer on 17-Dec. Now turned out the real fraud nature of this company. This guy first asked for the warranty card, and soon declared that since the 6 month warranty is over I need to pay him 350/- rupees for changing the heating element. And he won't listen to the real issue of geyser not cutting off and steam getting generated(and that is not possible with a burnt out heating element). Ditto for his manager. These guys are not ashamed of putting their customers lives at risk and unabashedly trying to mint money out of it.
I turned this guy away and out of the society. And preferred to throw away this geyser, and installed a branded one. This resulted in a wasted money of around Rs 4000/- per geyser and also a lot of tension and hardships.
Third geyser: It is not in use. But I know what to expect.
So please think thrice and do not buy these Alvis geysers. I have heard from other society members also, that they have to change the heater elements every 3-4 months. Whereas any other geyser is warranted for at least one year. And you know what to expect during the warranty period service. And in any case, it is not worth risking your life for a saving of a few thousand rupees.
I feel that it had been a big mistake purchasing these geysers. we end up putting our lives and peace of mind at risk at the(false) promise of saving some money. Beware of these fraudsters.
