Jan 23, 2008 05:03 PM
11463 Views
I have bought D280 fridge 4 months ago. I selected it because it is frost free and was the cheapest 2 door 280L model . Moreover it had 6 years warranty on compressor unlike other foreign brands which had 5 years warranty for compressor. I wanted to buy an Indian brand too. The fridge has all features required. I also have an LG 280L frost free and almost all features are same though LG costs 60% more. I have had videocon products before(washing machine etc) and didnt have any qualms with the company / brand.
The fridge was working well for 4 months and one night it stopped suddenly. Milk etc were spoilt. When called for service, they came after 2 days and re-set a defrost timer saying it was stuck. It ran fine, but stopped again in 4 days. So we called back for service and again they replaced the defrost timer. Following that the fridge kept on running without any stop. Energy consumption was very high(7KWH per day) and complained again. The service personnel however said that it was normal of any frost free fridge and there was nothing to be done about it(as though we were new to frost free fridges). But the same fridge was not running non-stop before all these problems started. I was totally unhappy with the way it was working.
I can say for sure that the service personnel are totally not bothered about concepts like power consumptions etc. For them if questions like "is it cooling", "is bulb glowing" are answered in affirmative, it means the fridge is "normal". So, I found out all email ids, phone number of senior people in videocon service department and started mailing them my woes and also talked to them over phone(was lucky to get their numbers from directory listings). Aparently the people who attended the service before were "franchisees". Parallely, I started reading material on the internet on defrost timer, defrost circuitry etc and decided that I will inspect the fridge myself(not open it, mind you). I only used a line tester and found that there was no power supply reaching the defrost timer motor at all.
I read the circuit diagram(pasted on the back of the fridge) and figured that a thermal fuse or a bimetal switch could be a problem as they were in series with the defrost timer motor. But I didnt want to reach for those parts myself as the fridge was under warranty. I hence lodged my 4th complaint and once again called the service managers(not technicians) and described that there was no power supply to the timer and still technicians were replacing it even without checking whether power is reaching there. I revealed my findings on thermal fuse and bimetal switch. They understood my problem and sent a senior technician from Videocon(not franchisee) to attend to it. The gentleman was patient enough to analyse the problem and figured that the bi-metal switch was the culprit.
He replaced it and also the timer once more(3rd time in 20 days). The fridge started getting back to normal by turning on and off automatically. Based on my analysis of the technicalities of this fridge and my other LG, there seem to be no major difference. But since the service has been outsourced to franchisees in chennai(I think that is the case with all cities), their knowledge of any mechanism is too poor. They concentrate only to fulfil(name sake) the most number of customers in a day. They spend 5 mins and expect that they can solve the problem. They are very good in sticking insulation tape only. Nothing more.
The technicians' analysis skills are too poor. I donot know if that is the way they behave during the warranty period. Make sure there is a good service network in your city before buying this fridge. Now I know the contacts in chennai. Now I have atleast come to know the mechanism of this fridge. However, I am still worried sometimes.
