Excellent product , bad service/spares shortage. . Review on Panasonic NA F70B1

I have a Panasonic  F70B1 bought two and a half years back. The controller board(PCB) conked off. Logged a service call with Panasonic support. Sevice engineer called and attended the machine next day. As usual the reason given was electric fluctuation. When asked why none of the other equipment in my house and other houses in society were affected.

Was there no safety mechanism such as a fuse in the machine. He had no answers. Was told machine out of warranty so would cost around Rs. 4200 to change the PCB board which is 30% of CAPEX. I agreed. After four days when followed up with the service centre for not responding, was told the spare part is not available in any of warehouse & so they cannot help. Reached out to the Panasonic callcenter, they gave the number of the reagional sales incharge (Ravi R 9900507280). Been calling this number for the past four days witout any response. I am shocked. How can an international brand leave the customer high and dry. I had paid  Rs.13500 for the machine two and half years back expecting that Panasonic has a brand name & will service me atleast for 5-7 years. I was a fan of National Panasonic earlier ( My mom used to  purchases NP).

I have a Music system, TV, Mixer all panasonic brand. My parents have a National Panasonic washing machine. This experience is a eye wash. I am still trying to savage the 13K spent of the machine. I will keep following with the company for the ext few days. If I dont get a response, I will ensure other consumers are not cheated. I will write posts on every possible site abot my experince with panasonic. Also I am contemplating action thru the consumer court and TV medium ( CNBC Awaz has a program 'Peheredar' which reaches out to consumers). I have spent time in US & have seen the service provided to consumenrs there. I will fight tooth & nail to make these companies realise that the consumers in india also pay hard earned money and so deserve same quality of service. 12/12/2012: Please go through the second update to this review which was published after  I recieved call from Panasonic & my machine was fixed.