Whirlpool means trust & loyalty for us before but now it does mean poor quality, lack of credibility, lack of customer satisfaction, losing customer interest, lack of responsibility, lack of commitment, false promises, no timely delivery, poor response to customers, poor customer interaction, cheating customers, waste spending money on the brand which doesn't worth it, worst time spending interacting to employees & dealers of the company, no more a respectable and recognizable brand by itself itself.
I have purchased a Whirlpool refrigerator and chosen the dealer Viveks as it was mentioned as a authorized dealer in Whirlpool India website. But this is the worst experience I have ever had in my life and they have made this New year 2010 start as worst as possible for me.
I made the advance payment & booked for a whirlpool frost free refrigerator till today.
I paid the advanced on 19th December 2009 to book the product and made full payment on Dec 31st 2009.
It took nearly more than 3 days for the whirlpool authorized dealer (Viveks - T.nagar) to deliver a product even which was a damaged one which was identified while the product was taken out from the manufacturer's packing & opened by the whirlpool technician Mr. Hari on 2nd Jan 2010 at around 6.30 PM. Then we asked for a replacement immediately. But to be frank even though replacement will be done I wont have the feel of using a new product a psychological factor which any marketer can understand. Thanks to Whirlpool.
I was told that the replacement would be made within a weeks time but it is unfortunate that whirlpool promise has not been brought to action.
I did called the Whirlpool customer care at +91-44 - 60008558 on 8th Jan 2010 and I was told that the issue is raised to concern department and would receive a call the same day from a person of that department and also when raised more concerns they gave me the Contact number "92823 49105" of "Mr. X - Incharge for Replacement" and said would receive a call from him before that evening and the unfortunate fact is that I haven't received any call from any employee of Whirlpool or from related persons.
Then I ended up calling him but the response I received & the way the person spoke was not satisfactory and I feel that it is the worst part of whirlpool and that does not sounded any professionalism or as a Whirlpool employee. Does have customer handling skills or neither know how to handle a customer and feel arrogance in the way he dealt or spoke to me. The person said that the product will be delivered before morning of 9 Jan 2010 but the same didn’t happen.
I called Mr. X on the same day (9 Jan 2010 at around 11 AM) but again the false commitment & promise made for the delivery before 10 Jan 2010 (which is a Sunday) but Whirlpool executive or person related to Whirlpool doesn’t keep up his words and fulfill their promises & commitment. I did suspected that how cum he can deliver a product on a holiday but believed they would do it as it is a seasonal sale and festive season and might have lot of deliveries which proved to be false and I understood that I was cheated when they were not able to keep up their promise even on 10 Jan 2010 as said by the respectable person in charge for the replacement.
On 10 Jan 2010 (Sunday - working day as said by Mr. X) the product was not delivered and so again I ended up calling the customer service on the above said cust care number where in my call was disconnected by the executive by the caller (executive - Level 1) after I explained my concern to her . Then I called again but I was so frustrated and so my call was transferred by the executive to the floor supervisor (Level 2 employee as per customer service norms) and he has confirmed his name as "Mr. Y".
I told Mr. Y that the most respectable person in charge for replacement has said that their engineers will deliver the replaced product on or before 10 jan 2010 which is today (Sunday) and Mr. Y said that is not at all possible as it is supposed regular company holiday. This is when I understood that I was cheated by that person in charge of replacement (Mr. X) who has told a lie to close the conversation when I contacted him.
Then so I had to show my anger to Mr. Y and told him that I will not disconnect the call until I get a justice or a solution for my precious time, efforts, money, energy and many more which I had spent on tracking them on phone and directly and for the money that I have invested on the product for which he said that he would call be back in 3 hours time tracking the status from the respective department. I told him that I will stay on the line and asked him to track the status and let me know but he refused to do that and started giving me humpty number of reasons for not doing.
He tried to close the call by giving the contact number "+91 - 044 - 66563324" for me to call but then I called the number while he was on the call and found that I felt as if I am talking to an IVR where in the recorded telecom voice comes that "no one is there to pick the call" after the final ring. I told him that this is what is happening for which he said that I need to call Mani the next day which is 11 Jan 2010 (Monday) after all these had happened and stayed with his mouth shut till that moment.
Then I refused to disconnect and stayed on the line for about 30 minutes after which he pulled another Supervisor (name unknown) on the line in order to talk to me. This guy also started taking about the trust I should have on them similarly as said by Mr. Y, Mr. X and other employees of the trustworthy Whirlpool. I told that that Mr. Y has given me the number telling that I would get a solution if I call the number"+91 - 044 - 66563324" but it is unfortunate that no person is available for me to get a right solution and I feel as if I am taking to a IVR or a who is person who is impaired and if this is the case how a customer can trust Whirlpool and its employees. That guy then said that the number"+91 - 044 - 66563324" is the apporiate one for me to call and instead I need to try the numbers "+91 - 044 - 66563315 or +91 - 044 - 66563316". I then made him stay on the call until I called both the numbers and found that at least I heard some pre recorded voice of the telecom operator on the number given by Mr. Y but this is even worse.
I would say that it is all about losing customer loyalty, losing trust the customer has on the brand Whirlpool and this is not how a respectable and globally present brand should operate and irritate the customer who ended up purchasing a worst experience in his life.