Apr 11, 2009 02:11 PM
15604 Views
A long and tedious battle drew to a close on March 12, 09 when INR 26, 200 was credited to my account. This was for the reimbursement of the faulty refridgerator with which I struggled from July 6, 2002. My ordeal with the Samsung service folks is detailed in the following links.
https://mouthshut.com/review/Samsung_RT-40-155509-1.html
https://mouthshut.com/review/Samsung_RT-25-144146-1.html
The objective of this review is to share what went into getting my monies back and also a small note on my disappointment with Mouthshut which makes this my last review on this site.
Closing stages:
I had involved the Consumer Forum and another agency called Legal Voice. Barring 3 mails which the Consumer Forum sent and 1 more the Legal voice team, there was no repsonse from these agencies. Samsung folks too didnt bother to respond to subsquently.
I used send a mail every 2nd day as a reminder to the Samsung folks and I never got a response. Finally in November 08 I got a call from their Service head in Bangalore who asked me to fax the original copy of the reciept to enable them to replace the fridge. We sent across the same in a matter of days and they took weeks to respond on the same.
After persistent follow up and a threat on December 29, 08 that I would go the media, they came back to tell us that the model they wante to replace was not available and they would give us a monetary refund.
In the interim, I was sick and tired of this going nowhere and tried to reach out to as many options as possible. I turned to the mouthshut.com CEO and asked for help in this matter. I got a 2 lines response that read "I am sure you will hear from Samsung soon. Pls inform them that you have posted your complaints on mouthshut.com'.Thats all. Was I expecting too much? I dont know but I did feel let down. It could be unwarranted but the disappointment remains.
Back to the Samsung folks, the delay continued and the service folks refused to respond with any form of update. They ignored calls from our regular numbers and I had to trick them by calling from my other number which was not listed with them.
Finally it was late January 09 when they committed to give the money to us and THE CALL came on February 13, 09 that they had the cheque which they would give and immediately take the fridge. We were in for a surprise again. With 2 children at home a fridge is essential and not a showpiece. But they would not relent. So we asked for a few days time to buy a fridge (we bought an LG) to help us save our foodstuff. Finally on March 6, 09 the elusive cheque reached us and the money got credited on March 12, 09.
It took me this long to come back here and give an update because I had to literally distill my thoughts to write an objective summary of the final set of events. The past few months were not easy. It is a little difficult to be objective after the months of literal trauma that we have lived through. The thought of having sunk so much money into a product and being cheated is way too deep.
There is a sense of satisfaction of having closed this transaction on my terms where I was able to hopefully set a precedent so that huge corporations dont take consumers for a ride. The lessons along the way, very many. The sad state of the consumer affairs group very evident and the fact they fail to help in quick closure a scary truth. Channels such as mouthshut showcasing (seeming) indifference another challenge. Where does this leave the consumer? Well pad up with loads of persistence. On this note I sign off from this site. Take care, be aware of your rights and fight for them. Cheers!!
