Jul 03, 2007 02:51 PM
36921 Views
(Updated Jan 11, 2014 07:08 PM)
I brought IFB digital 6 kg washing machine on 14th Feb 2005 in Bangalore from Sadashiva Nagar Girias. I was a big fan of IFB products even before using any of their product just because of their reputation and brand value. I was proved wrong soon after I had their product.
Machine was OK for first few months, how ever I was not satisfied with vibration in spin mode. It was definitely below IFB's standards and compared to other brand's washing machine's noise level and vibration level
.
I had complained about this vibration to the customer care and technician couldn't understand the problem at all and always saying there is load imbalance and vibration is due to that. How ever they never checked the machine with the proper load according to them in spite of my several requests. Till date I have no idea of what is correct load as it vibrates with any kind of load.
I gave up complaining as I found their technician are absolutely knowledge less about the repairs and understanding customer satisfaction and problem. This was my biggest mistake I made for which I had to pay heavy price after the warranty got expired.
In the 2 year duration they had to replace ball bearing system once and several visit to my house to rectify the vibration problem which never got fully addresses to my satisfaction. They had to replace water inlet mechanism since there was no control over the inflow of the water
.
After warranty got expired in February 2007, machine had serious problem with unbearable vibration and I called up service center again. This time to my horror power board was blown out. According to their technician machine will not work if some thing is wrong and adamant in agreeing to my argument that vibration problem was their since beginning. This time spin was working only at 1100rpm.
The maximum spin rpm I had ever used was 600 and imagine the vibration level at 1100rpm! They said that the since they need to replace the power board I had had to pay for this since warranty period was just expired. My argument was, since machine was not repaired properly when it was under warranty caused this break down after the expiration of warranty. How ever they did not agreed to this point and and was not able to replace the power board for one month. Each time I call them they use to send different technician and I had to explain the problem every time to each of them. I found technicians had awful knowledge about the product. Another technician in another attempt discovered that the machine's motor also has to be replaced. I was really upset about these break downs soon after the warranty expiration. In one instance even one of the technician was telling me that this is common thing to happen after 2 year.
So my question is is IFB machines are built to last only 2 years? Why pay 27500(MRP) machine when there are washing machines available for one fourth the price of this machine? For what additional value and why we are paying more when buying IFB product? There seems to be no answers to these questions from one of the senior customer care officer from IFB. Their suggestion was to go for AMC(Annual Maintenance Contract which cost you aprox Rs. 2500 per year) so that all the maintenance and repair costs are born by the company. Why buy an expensive machine like this if it needs Rs. 2500 per year as maintenance. I leave this calculation and value for money part to the readers them self. I find buying simple 10K fully automatic machine a better option than this white elephant.
Present status of my washing machine is its unusable until I shell out money for Power board and pay for AMC. They do not have required replacements in stock and I am wasting my time on calling them several times and writing this review.
Do not make mistake of go for brand(there is not any brand value any way) value if you care for your hard earned money. I was always a brand conscious person and I am paying for that now.
IFB just sucks.
Update: Dec 2007
Washing machine is working ok now after spending nearly Rs 6000 for additional extended warranty and spare parts.(How many of us think this cost is justifiable for 3 year old product?) Vibration part is still there and I get only sheepish laughs from customer service people. A service person dint even bothers to level the machine and check the stand after I suggested him to level the machine. Now they say I need to buy a 3KV electric stabilizer for this machine which may cost me around another 5 K.
The generic reason given for washing machine vibration is load imbalance. But what is the magic formula(or the correct number of cloths or weight) to avoid vibration. I have tried all the tricks like correct amount of powder, correct number of cloths/weight but result is unprintable. 27K washing machine is just behaving like computer which does not accept a correct password. I feel it should accommodate+ or- few grams of weight and should not vibrate.
See this video and noise level of the machine at 800rpm(max is 1100 rpm)
Update: 10 Dec 2009
One satisfactory quality of this product is it washes better than any washing machine for sure, if luckily one doesn't have any such problem mentioned above. Because I cat think of other WM which can give the wash quality of IFB and that was primary reason I went for this brand. Sad part is for such a price tag if one has to relay on luck to get a good WM which works well.its not acceptable. Thats the only rant I have to make.:-(
FINAL UPDATE: I have got rid of this washing machine by donating it to an electrician as Bearing the repair cost, non availability of spares and parts and top it up with bad service quality was reaching unacceptable level. I would swear not to buy this brand again.
