Whirlpool Mastermind Elite, The Rust machine. Review on Whirlpool Mastermind 26 Elite Refrigerator

It was Onam festival season August 2009 in Kerala and catalyst"ed" by the gimmicks thrown from various dealers , we decided to retire our 22 year old Kelvinator refrigerator (which was working perfectly) and decided to go for a new one (bigger and better features). We had several models into consideration (like all poor Indian consumers) and decided to go for Whirlpool Mastermind 26 elite .

The reasons why we mainly opted this.

1) Felt perfectly suiting for my home where my dad and mom stays alone and with occational visits by us (children) and relatives

In between - I work out of bangalore and my dad and mom stays at home town who use this.

2) Heard lot of negative feed backs from relatives and friends about Godreg , LG and VIDEOCON . Also didnt have a budget to go for brands like Hitachi

3) Summer in Kerala is exhausting , it has ice acceleration which makes ice quick

Let me sum up the good points

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1) It cools well (which I belive is what all refrigerators are meant for)

2) Makes ice quick

Now the depressing and dont buy factors

1) By 2011 Janvary (1 year 4 months) we started seeing signs of rust on body. Started with the top right most end portion which is not ever touched by hand .Since we were into some family emergencies , coudnt report to Whirlpool service

2) We reported it on 11th June 2011. After 2 days a support person visited and examined. he told compressor works good , cooling is good. Body is not covered under warranty but he will inform his center(I am still confused and not understanding how we can operate a refrigerator with compressor alone and no body!!). After some days my dad got a call mentoning the problem is resolved and they are going to close the case. Dad told it is not. (my dad is 66 years old and he suffers from a bit of memory loss. besides he is not aggresive ( like a 32 year old guy like me ) to follow up with these service guys aggresively. Since I work at bangalore and is bugged with hectic schedules and work related issues , dad didnt want to bother me with this as he thought these issues were minor and could be handled by himself

3)Again on August 2011 we had a major loss in our close family and the concerns regarding refrigerator were lost along with that.

4) last week (December 11th) I went home town for a 4 day visit and happened to have a look at the refregirator. I have attached the photographs of what I saw. 5) I immediately approaced the dealer who was kind enough to see the snaps and opened a case with Whirlpool again.

6) We had a technician visit the next day and was told the same story again. He told the general fix for these kind of issues is to scrub and repaint !!!!! Even he himself told that kinda fix will worn off after a year or so. He 100% agrred that within a 2year 3 months period, if a refrigirator reaches this condition , it has purely to do with the raw materials used to manufacture the body. So I decided to take it up with Whirlpool directly.

7) The first step was to have a discussion with the service center manager. I share my experience below

> He did a casual look at the snaps I showed him. He smiled and told this is body rust we can repaint and give it back and we will "only" charge you for the paint and labour !! what does that mean? If I had to repaint my 2 year old refrigirator as he told, why should I give it to a Whirlpool service center ? I know local techinicians who are in the body repainting buisness for last 15 to 20 years. So why not them? I asked the manager the same question. He said " yes I agree sir , even people who stays 50 to 60 km away from service center does it with local techinicians as it makes no sense to bring it here (considering the icurring cost for transportation). !!!!!

So basically he wanted to convey below

1) We cant help you but if you want some help we can scrub and paint for which we will charge the entire cost

2) If you dont want that you can approach a local techinican and get the job done or live with what you got

I was honeslty expecting a body replacement or some sort of settlement. I kept on stressing this which made the manager upset. His tone changed . We had a word exchange. He challanged me to go to any court or association and said I will not get justice from any where as the equipment is already 2 year old. I told him again and again that I reported it after 1 year 6 months. He told that is also too late!!. So what did he mean?? , the rusting should have been even faster ?, like, say within a month after purchase??. I felt humiliated with his comments. After spending Rs.17500 on cash for a product, which I belived worth the money , the experience and treatment I got from after sales has made me mentaly dipressed.

i am planning to approach consumer court with details . Before that, I wanted to share my experience with other guys who are planning to purchase Whirlpool Refrigerators or products. Beware !!

Lesson to keep in mind while buying refrigerators apart from star rating ( mine is 4 star rated!!)

1) Ask dealer how many years warranty does the company gives for body and what all are included in that

2)How many years warranty does the compressor and other components has (including electrical controls). My micro contoller controlled sensors works when it likes (some times you have to attempt several times on the soft touch buttons to change modes. The technician who told said that can be fixed by panel replacement which will again be charged).

I will post back once I get response from Whirlpool Officials as I have decided to go in full swing.

Regards HA

Please note : I have the same review on below which I posted under washing machines , not sure how to move it to refrigirators. So reposting in correct section.

https://mouthshut.com/review/Whirlpool-Mastermind-26-Elite-review-nppnrorpon