Recently I had a pathetic experience with Kent maintenance service in Bangalore which I think I should share for a open discussion and general awareness. I own two Kent Grand water purifiers and 6 months from the second purchase I am wishing I went for some other brand for at least one of them.
When I bought the second purifier I was sold an extra external filter at Rs. 1600. I was never told that it has to be washed every month to keep it working. Had I been told that I wouldn’t have even considered buying it because I do not have time to clean the filters every month. Anyway, post the purchase I learnt that Kent will provide service only if the customer requests for one. So I gave them a call after 6 months for necessary maintenance. What happened after that was beyond my imagination.
- The service guy called me 4 times during an important meeting for directions to reach my flat. Till date most people could find it easily but he couldn’t. During the third call he even asked me if I can speak in Kannada or Hindi because he doesn’t understand English well. I chose Hindi as I can’t speak Kannada.
- My wife was home and she showed him the purifier. He started complaining about the condition of the external filter and told it has a warranty of 6 months if washed every month, otherwise 5 months. As we haven’t cleaned it every month it will not work correctly and we must replace it. If we don’t there might be issues such as the purifier might burst!!! My wife called me up (I am still in the meeting) and I was quite agitated. I told her to instruct him to clean the external filter and not bother about replacement right now.
- Once the meeting was over I called my wife and she told that the service person just washed the external filter and left. He has also written the words no warranty in big letters in my purifier warranty book.
- I called him up and asked him what happened. He told that my wife told him to clean only the external filter and leave (my wife said later that there was no discussion regarding that). I asked him whether he should clean the filters inside the main purifier or not. He replied that they don’t need cleaning within 1 year!!! Instantly knew he is lying and asked him his manager’s number. He said he won’t tell me. I asked him his name. Again he declined. Then I told him that I have his number and I will speak to Kent helpline about this incident. He asked me what I can do about it. I replied that I can ensure he loses his job. He seemed to be intimated by that and told me that he is near my apartment and asked me what I want him to do. I told him to return to my flat, clean the internal filters as well as fix a noise problem that I have. He did accordingly and left.
Some open questions for Kent:
- Is it really difficult to train your servicemen in business etiquette? Don’t customers who pay around 15K for a water purifier deserve that?
- Do you think that your customers have the right to be told clearly external filters have a warranty of 6 months if washed every month and otherwise 5 months? It is meant for use and throw every 5/6 months.
- Is the warranty of your product dependent on an external filter that customers purchase separately when your servicemen come to install the purifier the first time?
- Can the purifier really burst? I think people should avoid buying Kent in that case to be safe from such an accident for any reason whatsoever.
- Is it the duty of your customer to tell your servicemen how to do proper cleaning for the purifier? Don’t they know the right thing to do for their product?
I wish I never trusted Kent.