PROBLEM WITH FABER FESTIVAL BONANZA – OCT 2007. Review on Faber Chimneys

PROBLEM WITH FABER FESTIVAL BONANZA – OCT 2007. After seeing the advertisement of Faber in TOI on Saturday 13th Oct 2007 for the festival Bonanza where a Bella Chimney was being offered with a free FH40 AMD hob and a microwave – I decided to purchase the same and called Mr. Vimal as mentioned in the ad.

After some follow up, Mr. Shyam the sales executive visited us on Monday at 7.30 pm and after observing our kitchen which had Sunflame stainless chimney and a BPL stainless steel, auto-ignition gas stove he gave the following customized offer :-

He said that Bella can’t be fitted in the space available so I can take Cleo model (stainless steel) + cook top model CTX 40 (so that no cutting is involved) at a combined offer price of Rs. 18990/= (since he said price of Cleo was more than the price of Bella).

However on our request he also agreed to cut Rs. 3000/= if I did not take the microwave and Rs. 1000/- each as exchange price for our original chimney and gas stove. Hence we would get the whole package at Rs. 18990 – Rs. 5000 = Rs. 13990/= + Rs. 350 for hanging the chimney (although we already have a pipe in the wall for the present sunflame chimney – similar model, with mesh filter)

However on asking the individual prices: He said they were - for Cleo: Rs. 9990/= for stainless steel model after discount on an MRP of Rs. 10, 990/= (in comparison to Bella which I was told was 8990 after discount although it’s MRP was 16, 990) and for CTX 40 Rs. 5990/=. This added upto Rs. 14, 990/=. If I put in the exchange in this it would come to Rs. 12, 990 – i.e. a price cheaper that your festival offer. On being pointed this out they Mr. Shyam agreed to put in the microwave or reduce Rs. 3000/= for it, but refused to give the benefit of exchange that he was giving with Bella. Hence his final offer was Rs. 12, 990 for Cleo SS + Cooktop CTX40 with no exchange.

This seems to be some major anomaly or a trick to dupe an innocent customer. Since the nos. did not add up, I decided to hold my purchase decision until I received some clarity on these issues.

I would also like to add here that – the sales executive was neither carrying a brochure on cook tops or on the Cleo chimney inspite of being informed in advance that we would prefer the cooktop instead of the hob and that Bella might not fit in our kitchen since it was customized to a normal electric chimney and not the designer.

I would request Faber for a clarity on pricing – and to come up with an offer where we do not end up feeling cheated. Hope to hear a response at the earliest since I was planning to present the above to my mother on her birthday on 18th October.

In fact after my mail to Faber, Mr Vimal called and he said he will make a fresh offer. After a day when he did not call, I called up and he said that it would be Rs. 12, 990 final with no exchange (the same as earlier)... anyway I still agreed to buy and requested his help to let me know a place where I could go and see the product. He asked me to speak with Shilpi on the faber landlines and also said that the product was available at any shop displaying cooktops and chimneys.

I tried to contact Shilpi, but no one picked the landline nos. on Friday 19th Oct at 11 am. So I went out to the Vasant kunj market and then to the Sarojini Nagar market, but not a single shop had Faber products. On coming back, I sms'd Mr. Vimal that I could not spk with Shilpi and I could not find the products and if he could send me the relevant Cooktop & chimney brochure, I could go ahead and place the order, but till next day there was nor response from his end.

Hence although I was convinced about the faber product being good, because of poor marketing ne wonders if consumers wanting to buy the product can - it seems difficult at this stage  - I wonder how poor the after sales service would be.

Regards,

Shantanu Saha

Chief Executive

The Recruiters

shantanu@therecruiters.net