Faber’s Lifetime Warranty is Lifetime Wait for Customers!

Sir

I bought a Faber Chimney (Mars) in 2006 with Lifetime Warranty (HYD 0832478) and got it installed in October 2007. The Chimney developed some problem in April this year and I lodged a complaint with the service centre at Secunderabad (No. 9136). It took a lot of persuasion to get the technician to take a look at the chimney, which he did on 6 May 2010. He said the motor had to be replaced and promised to get the replacement in 20 days’ time.

After waiting for a month, I started telephoning Faber’s Call centre and their service centre at Hyderabad. Finally, after nearly a week of constant telephoning, the same technician arrived, only to pretend that he had brought the wrong motor! He wanted one more week.

My patience was wearing thin and my kitchen was getting dirtier by the day, I decided to mail my complaint to Faber’s Customer Care Unit. I sent a mail on 3 June wherein I hinted at approaching the media with my grievance if they failed to respond. That appeared to do the trick! I was promptly informed that my complaint would be attended to that very day itself.

Unfortunately, nothing happened for days and kept calling them and mailing them to remind them about the complaint. The oftener I called, the more callous they grew, often putting my call on hold for several minutes and ignoring my mails. I was forced to seek the help of some other agency.

Sir, Faber should not take its customers for a ride by charging them thousands of rupees for Lifetime Warranty when they are aware that their post-sale service is terrible. If the mounting number of complaints from Indian consumers against Faber on the Internet is anything to go by, Faber has been systematically ignoring its Indian customers after pre-charging them for their services. This contempt of the multinationals towards consumers, with companies like DOW Chemicals in the lead, surprises one. Are we going to be taken for ride by these companies because there is no system of ready redressal in place in India?