A rant on poor customer service rendered by IFB.
Dear IFB Customer Service Head,
I am an extremely dissatisfied and disgruntled customer of yours. It seems your organization has cleaned the customer service from its face as your machines clean dirt from clothes.
I lodged a complaint with IFB call centre last week (July 31, 2009) as there was a leakage in my machine. Call centre person told me (according to his script) that my complaint would be handled on August 1, 2009. He did not give me any time but assured me that the complaint will be address on the said date. I waited in my home whole day but no one turned up. No one even called up to update me on the progress my complaint. I called up your esteemed call centre again in second half and they gave me numbers of Mr. Asthana, who is the local franchise. I tried calling him up but his phone was switched off. I called up call centre again and then following his script, call centre guy gave me the number of Area Manager (Amit Anand). I called up Amit and first question he asked that how I got his number. Then he told me to contact call centre. And no more conversation. Period. Can you imagine the dearth of customer service in your organization? Instead of giving me a solution, Area Manager is asking me how I got his number.
Tuesday 4th August 2009 at 8:00 PM I got a call from an IFB service engineer that our complained was still open. This was the first call that I ‘received’ after lodging my complaint, and contrary to the commitment that it will be resolved within first 24 hrs, it was now over 96 hrs that some one even bothered to call me. He said that he would not be able to come on Wednesday, 5th August 2009 as it was his holiday and he will be able to come on Thursday. I told him to please come on Saturday. I again got a call on Friday, 7th August 2009 confirming that a service engineer will come and attend the call on Saturday, 8th August 2009. I had mentioned at every stage of my conversation with IFB people that the issue with my washing machine was that there was leakage and also it needed descaling. My washing machine is still under warranty and every person in the call centre confirmed this. I re-iterated that the service engineer coming to attend my complaint should come equipped to handle these two issues.
On Saturday 8th August 2009, at around 9.30am a service engineer by the name of Mr Tara came to attend the complaint. This was after 7 days of registering the complaint. He was unaware of what the problem was with the machine and innocently said that he was not briefed about the issues that I had conveyed. He examined the machine, and since he had no other equipment with him he could not do anything. He said that he would come back in two hours (that is by 11.15am) with a pipe, adapter and de-scaling kit to attend the complaint. In the meantime, I again called your esteemed call centre and spoke to Mr Abhijeet. I told him my complaint number 3323941. I was shocked when he told me that this complaint is being reflected as “closed” and there was another complaint no against my name- 3328108. He committed that the complaint will be attended before 1.00pm definitely. I must mention here that “definitely” and “sorry” are two words well drilled into the script of your call centre executives without their knowing any value of these words. In my desperation to get my washing machine into the working condition again and save my harassment time I called back Mr Jairam who had called me on Tuesday 4th August 2009. He told me that the service engineer would not be able to reach before 1pm in any case, as they had to be in their office between 11am to 12pm to file a report for their work. But again no definite time was given to me.
At 12.30pm I again called your esteemed call centre to check the status of my complaint. I spoke to Mr Hemant who went into his script of saying ‘sorry’ for the delay and that my complaint will be handled “definitely’. He had no clue about the history of my complaint. Every time I had spoken to some representative of your organization I had to repeat the entire conversation held with the previous representatives inspite of mentioning the complaint id. He again told the same story that my complaint no 3323941 was closed and the new complaint no was 3328108. After going through the pain of explaining my predicament to him he was least sensitive and said that there will be a person visiting me within today that is Saturday 8th August. I told him that I had waited one whole Saturday just hearing this again and again that the complaint will be resolved within 24 hrs and I can not go through the harassment of waiting for one more Saturday. He then transferred my call to his supervisor Mr Jasbir Singh, who like others, had no clue about what my complaint was. After I painfully explained him the entire issue, he promised me that he would speak to the service centre and get back to me within 30 minutes. I was already 12.36pm and he promised to call back with the exact time by 1.06pm. I did not get a call from any one till 1.15pm. So I called back your esteemed call centre and was put on to Mr Manish. He insisted that I go through the pain and harassment again and tell him the entire history and that he also harasses me by asking same questions and giving same replies again, inspite of my telling him that I wanted to speak to Mr Jasbir Singh, as I had spoken to him earlier. After a great deal of harassment I was put on to Mr Jasbir Singh And still he did not have a definite answer. All this so called escalation handler was able to tell me was that the complaint will be resolved before the end of the day. No priority for a complaint which is pending with your organization for 7 days. Great!
I am surprised and amazed by employees of IFB who can remain unaffected by customer complaints. They have absolutely zero sensitivity towards customer concerns and complaints. I will never ever recommend this brand to anyone and reason is not that there is something wrong in product quality but because of extremely poor, pathetic and woeful customer service.
Yours truly,
A Dissatisfied Customer
PS - I putting this complaint on my blog, on customer forums and social networking sites because I know I cannot expect anything from your customer service department.
I lodged a complaint with IFB call centre last week (July 31, 2009) as there was a leakage in my machine. Call centre person told me (according to his script) that my complaint would be handled on August 1, 2009. He did not give me any time but assured me that the complaint will be address on the said date. I waited in my home whole day but no one turned up. No one even called up to update me on the progress my complaint. I called up your esteemed call centre again in second half and they gave me numbers of Mr. Asthana, who is the local franchise. I tried calling him up but his phone was switched off. I called up call centre again and then following his script, call centre guy gave me the number of Area Manager (Amit Anand). I called up Amit and first question he asked that how I got his number. Then he told me to contact call centre. And no more conversation. Period. Can you imagine the dearth of customer service in your organization? Instead of giving me a solution, Area Manager is asking me how I got his number.
Tuesday 4th August 2009 at 8:00 PM I got a call from an IFB service engineer that our complained was still open. This was the first call that I ‘received’ after lodging my complaint, and contrary to the commitment that it will be resolved within first 24 hrs, it was now over 96 hrs that some one even bothered to call me. He said that he would not be able to come on Wednesday, 5th August 2009 as it was his holiday and he will be able to come on Thursday. I told him to please come on Saturday. I again got a call on Friday, 7th August 2009 confirming that a service engineer will come and attend the call on Saturday, 8th August 2009. I had mentioned at every stage of my conversation with IFB people that the issue with my washing machine was that there was leakage and also it needed descaling. My washing machine is still under warranty and every person in the call centre confirmed this. I re-iterated that the service engineer coming to attend my complaint should come equipped to handle these two issues.
On Saturday 8th August 2009, at around 9.30am a service engineer by the name of Mr Tara came to attend the complaint. This was after 7 days of registering the complaint. He was unaware of what the problem was with the machine and innocently said that he was not briefed about the issues that I had conveyed. He examined the machine, and since he had no other equipment with him he could not do anything. He said that he would come back in two hours (that is by 11.15am) with a pipe, adapter and de-scaling kit to attend the complaint. In the meantime, I again called your esteemed call centre and spoke to Mr Abhijeet. I told him my complaint number 3323941. I was shocked when he told me that this complaint is being reflected as “closed” and there was another complaint no against my name- 3328108. He committed that the complaint will be attended before 1.00pm definitely. I must mention here that “definitely” and “sorry” are two words well drilled into the script of your call centre executives without their knowing any value of these words. In my desperation to get my washing machine into the working condition again and save my harassment time I called back Mr Jairam who had called me on Tuesday 4th August 2009. He told me that the service engineer would not be able to reach before 1pm in any case, as they had to be in their office between 11am to 12pm to file a report for their work. But again no definite time was given to me.
At 12.30pm I again called your esteemed call centre to check the status of my complaint. I spoke to Mr Hemant who went into his script of saying ‘sorry’ for the delay and that my complaint will be handled “definitely’. He had no clue about the history of my complaint. Every time I had spoken to some representative of your organization I had to repeat the entire conversation held with the previous representatives inspite of mentioning the complaint id. He again told the same story that my complaint no 3323941 was closed and the new complaint no was 3328108. After going through the pain of explaining my predicament to him he was least sensitive and said that there will be a person visiting me within today that is Saturday 8th August. I told him that I had waited one whole Saturday just hearing this again and again that the complaint will be resolved within 24 hrs and I can not go through the harassment of waiting for one more Saturday. He then transferred my call to his supervisor Mr Jasbir Singh, who like others, had no clue about what my complaint was. After I painfully explained him the entire issue, he promised me that he would speak to the service centre and get back to me within 30 minutes. I was already 12.36pm and he promised to call back with the exact time by 1.06pm. I did not get a call from any one till 1.15pm. So I called back your esteemed call centre and was put on to Mr Manish. He insisted that I go through the pain and harassment again and tell him the entire history and that he also harasses me by asking same questions and giving same replies again, inspite of my telling him that I wanted to speak to Mr Jasbir Singh, as I had spoken to him earlier. After a great deal of harassment I was put on to Mr Jasbir Singh And still he did not have a definite answer. All this so called escalation handler was able to tell me was that the complaint will be resolved before the end of the day. No priority for a complaint which is pending with your organization for 7 days. Great!
I am surprised and amazed by employees of IFB who can remain unaffected by customer complaints. They have absolutely zero sensitivity towards customer concerns and complaints. I will never ever recommend this brand to anyone and reason is not that there is something wrong in product quality but because of extremely poor, pathetic and woeful customer service.
Yours truly,
A Dissatisfied Customer
PS - I putting this complaint on my blog, on customer forums and social networking sites because I know I cannot expect anything from your customer service department.
by A journey called Life , on August 8, 2009 6:39 PM
i just hope someone sits up and takes notice.. im sorry about the ordeal u had to go through, though
by Sid 'Ravan' Kabe , on August 8, 2009 8:39 PM
Go lodge a customer forum and u will make them pay...seriously...
I heard someone fined Indian Railways 1 Lakh because the window was broken.
by Dhiman , on August 9, 2009 12:17 AM
Thats the problem with the most companies ...but I think U can post the compliant addressed to the topmost official like CEO or CMD of the said company mentioning the places you posted this complaint(like this post or the forums I mean) I think that works because it has for us a few times with PSU Bank where the defaulting employee came all the way to our home to ask pardon and restore services...
otherwise the conventional Consumer Forum is there but you can try this method...
by Whats In A Name , on August 11, 2009 4:46 PM
Read this and the latest post of yours!!!!
Things worked out finally for you.. Phew!!!
Getting your complaint through can become an exercise in its own sometimes.. Though it should be as easy as purchasing the same company's product..
by thethoughtfultrain , on August 11, 2009 6:20 PM
That was awful!! I have heard a few people I know about how bad IFB is!!
by Anonymous , on October 31, 2009 7:05 AM
I am also facing the same problem with IFB idiots... These fools make stone age equipments and their service people are big fools.
by George , on March 20, 2010 12:45 PM
What do you do when poor customer service affects your wife so much so that she loses sleep, and you need to spend a few hours each day pacifying her? You make sure that others get a chance to learn from your horrendous experience. So here goes …
Lets start with IFB’s vision statement which as per their website is as follows:
IFB will be synonymous with Innovation & Technology in its chosen fields of business activities.
IFB will excel in Quality & Services to be in consonance with Global Standards.
I can assure you that on point 1 above – I could not agree more with IFB. The innovation is this: you can buy IFB products at very competitive rates. Its just that you will need to be prepared to spend in excess of Rs 3000 each year maintaining it! (I am sure the sales rep would not have told you about that bit). The parts are designed to fail at regular intervals, and since the electronic parts don’t come cheap, you need to pay through your nose to keep your product working.
On point 2, I can speak from experience that its a bunch of baloney. Don’t be fooled by it. The guiding customer service principles in IFB seems to be the following:
a. Lie indiscriminately to the customer. Treat them like dirt.
b. Give them multiple telephone numbers and ask them to speak to countless IFB reps – so that you can keep them busy – like rats in a huge maze.
c. Never ever take ownership of a customer’s issue/ complaint. By extension of this principle, never ever call back a customer or let them know what is going on. (Even if the customer calls back 50 times a day).
What can you expect from IFB? I have learnt to expect only consistently poor customer service – that for the first time in my life is affecting my wife and me and creating unwelcome difficulty in managing our household chores.
Acording to IFB’s mission statement: “Continuously maximizing company’s wealth by manufacturing and marketing best quality engineering products that go into daily life.”
What’s missing here? You cannot hope to just manufacture products and forget about the need to service the products!