[Resolved]  Panasonic — Defective air conditioner supplied

Address:

Kolkata, West Bengal

On the 8th of this month (April 2014) had bought a one ton two star Panasonic split airconditioner which was installed on the 9th. The dealer is Century Refrigeration Appliances, Block GE, Plot 149, 1370 Rajdanga Main Road, Kolkata 700107. The engineer sent to install the ac was quite young and inexperienced. The way he installed the ac was lousy. At the end of the installation we did not see him check for leakages. but when we suggested that he confidently replied that it was not necessary. A few days previous we had one Whirpool split ac re-installed and the workmanship was very professional and we saw them give a thorough check for leakage, that ac is working fine without problems. Coming to the Panasonic when it was run it was was not cooling. On reporting a man from the Panasonic company came for inspection and wrote in his report "gas liek" and promised to send people to correct it. A couple of people from the company visited and supposedly refilled the gas and left. Did they really refill the gas or pretended to do so as we have no idea because of what happened after that. Thereafter after running for a couple of hours without cooling the ac went off automatically in the middle of the hot night. A complaint has been lodged again and the Panasonic people are supposed to come and inspect the ac today (24.4.14). In all these days the ac remained shutdown defeating the very purpose of installing it in this very hot weather in the first place. The company does not seem to be responsible for its products once it is sold off and does not bother to certify/verify whether their products are being installed correctly or a good product has been delivered for that matter because the first indoor unit was found broken and was replaced by a second one. As of today servicemen from the company came and did something and will come again tomorrow to check whether what they have done is working or not. It seems that some kind of trial-and error experiment is going on or they don’t know what is going on. This is really frustrating. A new product of a reputed company not functioning in its commissioning stage even after so many trials means there is something wrong with the product itself and needs to be replaced. This being a stressful situation especially when i am suffering from high blood pressure and high blood sugar at the age of sixty (my wife too has the same diseases). In the mean time i received a mail from Panasonic helpline on the 25th which is as follows: Dear Mr. Majumdar, Good Evening !!! This has reference to the below mail regarding performance of your A/C. At the outset, please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to you. As discussed with you your A/C repair is pending for part. We are getting this arranged. You shall hear from us on 29-Apr-14 with an update. With Regards, Rohit The fact is that the engineers who inspected the machine till date did not mention about any part needing replacement. How they are speaking of a part is not known. On the other hand a engineer visited on the 26th after inspection informed and wrote in his report that the indoor unit need to be taken to the workshop for nitrogen test for gas leak. Gullible consumer like me is surely to get confused as to what has happened. The next day i received a phone call from Panasonic informing me that they want to take away the indoor unit. I refused and told them that this is a new unit which had not functioned from the very beginning and that i want it to be replaced with a new one. After a while they informed that they have spoken to the CO of the company and that they will take the machine take photograph and then replace it with a new one. I said okay but are they ready to give in writing what they are saying. They said that they will speak to the CO and get back to me. The conversation took place in the afternoon of 28th and till now they have not got back to us with a concrete proposal. I fear that if they take away the new unit and repair it then i am sure i will lose the warranty clause as the unit will become a repaired one. The temperature at Kolkata is more than five degrees above normal and we are suffering sleepless nights with my wife suffering the most with a heart ailment. Anything can happen to her in this heat and this being the reason the airconditioner was bought in the first place. I am very apprehensive about the working of these big companies when it comes to after sales services. You never know when they will take you for a ride and you won't know what hit you. I would therefore request you to kindly help me with the right kind of advice and direction, so that this impasse can be brought to a satisfactory conclusion with malice towards none. Regards