The tagline of the Croma retail says - A Tata Enterprise. Ahh!! TATA, a brand known for its ethical business tactics and services which are always customer friendly. Seriously?! I would believe this when i would be dealing with TCS or Tata Power or Tata Steel, the top-notch companies of Tata Group. Ok, let me come to the point.
Note This is a big article which will give you day-to-day incidents happen with me.
So where did it start from?
In February 2013, We had recently shifted to new city - Mumbai, so we were looking for a new washing machine. Croma was the nearest retail outlet selling washing machine, hardly 300 meters away from home. As we never dealt with Croma earlier, so we thought to give it a try thinking it is a BRAND shop. We went inside and started looking for a semi automatic washing machine. We zeroed on two washing machine - One that of Samsung and other that of Croma’s very own brand- Croma Washing Machine. I had never heard of any Croma branded products earlier. The sales person forced us to choose Croma’s own brand and not samsung. Samsung washing machine was 2000Rs. costlier and Croma’s washing machine had two years of all sort of manufacturing defect warranty. Samsung had only one year of warranty. We were lucrated to buy Croma Brand machine and there we made big mistake. We bought Croma washing machine.
So then, what happened?
The machine worked normal for 6 months however, On 17th August,2013, the washing machine stopped functioning. There were two issues with the machine.
1.The motor of the drier stopped functioning
2. The rotatory part of the washing machine broke out.
I registered my first complaint with the customer care and they promised to send a technician within 48 hours. The technician came home on 20th August, 2013. However, he did not fix anything and said some parts need to be replaced. He said he would replace within 5 working days as i need to acquire these parts which will take time. I agreed to them.
And then it started…
I did not get any reply from Croma or their technician regarding part replacements. It was past their 5 days promise and again on 28th August,2013(10 days after initial complain) i registered another complain. During the call, i inquired about 18th August, 2013 complain status and the they said complain is till open. However he registered another complaint. During the same time, i messaged Croma Retail on Facebook and they replied all the inconvenience is regretted bullshit.
Days went by and there was no response. Finally, after following back Croma on their Facebook page ( i had no contact details of technician then), they sent some guy at home to repair the machine. It was already first week of September.
Croma sent one egoistic technician to the house. Again he came, told parts needs to be replaced and we need another 5 days. To my surprise, i found out, the complaint registered on 18th and 28th August were closed citing problem solved however nothing was even fixed yet. He again took another 5 days and he came back to solve one of the defect.
So, one of the issue was solved on 14th September 2013. (Almost one month now) They exchanged the motor which was faulty. And then he told he will come again on 16th September to resolve another issue.
And on 16th September, The technician called me up saying part is still not available. I had already told him that we were due to shift to new place in Mumbai on 17th September and then he would need to come to new place to fix. He agreed to it.
New place brought out the truth of Croma
On 17th and 18th September, we shifted to new place in Mumbai. On 18th September, i called up technician and he came and changed the second fault. As still the house was mess, we did not get enough clothes to test the washing machine. On 19th September, Morning when we were washing clothes, the machine broke AGAIN! We called up technician and here’s the transcript below
Mother - The machine broke again. This is how you fix it?
Technician - I am not going to fix your washing machine again. Go and tell Croma to replace it. I am not going to come to your place to fix it.
Mother - We would approach Consumer court.
Technician - Do whatever you want. and hangs up the call.
My mother calls up his supervisor and tells the incident. After sometime, technician calls my mother-
Technician (Again loosing temper) - Do whatever you want. I will never come to your place. Even if you call my supervisor, i will not come.
All this he said in presence of the supervisor itself. If i would tell my client in front of my boss, the very moment i would be handled termination letter. But Croma did not take any action against the rude technician.
This is how CROMA representatives talk to their customers.
With continous follow-up, they agreed to take back the machine for repairing it and in mean time, they offered another washing machine till the time, previous washing machine got it repaired.
Egoistic Croma sends Washing machine-
They send another part-time replacement and took back old washing machine. To harass us, they did not install the fully automatic washing machine Which left us unable to operate it as that washing machine required advanced installation not within the reach tools available at home. We tried calling them but no one picked up. It was their motive to harass us and they thought they would never be able to use it.
However, we Indians are jugaadis and we somehow managed to start using washing machine.
and to our surprise, the replacement washing machine ITSELF is a faulty piece!! It’s now 1.5 months, we are behind all the crap. CROMA is the worst place to buy looking at their after sales service and the way they are harassing us.
Whats next?
I am looking to file a consumer complaint and claim all the damages including mental harassment by Technician and the CROMA. I have come across www.vakilsearch.com who can help me file consumer complaint for Rs.500 . What is your advice. Please comment.
PS - This Article is posted by Chintak Dholakia