Whirlpool drags customers into an after-sales quagmire   

May 28, 2010

 Yet another case of a multinational which would rather spend on advertising and sales promotion rather than respond promptly to a customer complaint

Whirlpool started manufacturing motorised washers in 1911. Since then, it has grown rapidly to become one of the world's largest manufacturers of home appliances. It has a strong presence in India now.

But after-sales support-or just a simple response to a customer query-requires the personal intervention of the managing director of the company. That brings us to ask a simple question-is it possible for each and every Whirlpool customer who might have a problem with any of its products to personally try to get in touch with the head of the company for something that should be a given-good after-sales support? 

Here is a case in point. Harsha Parekh, a senior citizen, bought a Whirlpool Refrigerator (a 300 L 'Proton 3' door model) from a Whirlpool retailer, Vijay Sales, at Prabhadevi in central Mumbai on 22 May 2010. The machine was not cooling-Ms Parekh repeatedly tried to call the Whirlpool customer service numbers on 25th May.

All she got was an automated response (of course, with the 'your call is important to us' thrown in) saying that all the executives were busy. Finally, she was informed that she should leave her number and the Whirlpool executive would call her back or send her an SMS. Nothing happened after that.

Finally on 26th May, Ms Parekh got through to a new contact number and was asked to contact the service centre-for which she was given another number. At last, a Whirlpool engineer knocked at her doors, examined the fridge, and proclaimed that the machine would need to be replaced because of a clogged gas pipe.

Moneylife contacted Whirlpool on 27th May on the travails that Ms Parekh was facing. We were told that only Arvind Uppal, managing director; Shantanu DasGupta, vice president-corporate affairs & strategy, Asia South and Tamal Kanti Saha, vice president-sales would be in a position to answer this simple query-when would Ms Parekh's fridge be replaced?

These top executives, we were told, were travelling and could not be reached. This boggles the imagination.

Does Whirlpool require its who's who to respond to customer complaints? Whatever happened to customer service back-up support?

We are not questioning the quality of Whirlpool's products. But is asking for a response from a human on the other end of a help number of one of the world's biggest conglomerates a tad too much? Is this how a customer, say, in Spain, would have been serviced?

Coming back to Ms Parekh's problem, it has finally been resolved. At least, Whirlpool has promised to replace the defective piece by 3.00 PM today, Friday. We'll keep you posted.

And let us add, this is just one of the numerous problems that have been voiced by customers on Whirlpool's after-sales support (or rather, the lack of it). A cursory round of surfing on various customer grievance websites throws up a litany of woes.

As we said, the quality of the manufacturer's products is really not being questioned. What happens after the sale-that crucial last-mile connectivity-is something that Whirlpool needs to take a hard, serious look at.

— Moneylife Digital Team