Whirlpool Whitemagic washing machine

Our first experience with Whirlpool was when we bought their washing machine in Mumbai. It was then known as TVS Whirlpool. This worked very well, so we had a good opinion of this company. Also I had read a book on the CEO of Whirlpool who had gone to a 5 star hotel at midnight to view the quality of wash of one of his new industrial washing machines installed in that hotel, because that was the time when washing was done.

So you can say I was quite impressed by the dedication, ethics of the top brass of that company. Little did I realize that it was just a book or maybe it was mislabeled as non- fiction. J Then TVS was bought out by Whirlpool so it became Whirlpool India.

Little did we know that there would be a sea change in the quality & attitude of the company & service agents in Mumbai when we again opted for a now just whirlpool whitemagic with agitronic (whatever that means). This machine worked quite well in the first year & I went in for an extended warranty for 2 yrs after that.

This is where the company showed its true colours. Whenever the service engineer was called I noticed the sharp deterioration in quality of service staff sent to our house. In 2002 the then service engineer of the service franchisee in Mumbai called ‘Mother’s Homecare’ honest that is the name of the company came to us with a suggestion of ‘Full Conversion’.

He told us that since a new machine costs about Rs 15000 (that’s what he told us in 2002) & does not have a steel drum, we could pay him Rs11500 he would use the steel drum in our existing machine & put everything new, so we could get a new machine for a lesser cost. Little did we know that we were getting duped right royally when we got hustled in to this deal.. Incidentally we just bought a new Samsung fully automatic machine in 2004 for 12400!!!!!

What actually happens is he takes your old machine with him assembles the machine somewhere in Parel using parts not necessarily from your machine. (You see he is duping many people @ the same time). Puts ?new? outer shell as also the top plastic cover, both possible are reject materials from their factory as we noticed many defects in them.

What we got was a machine with a dirty smelly steel drum. They refused to accept that there had been a switch. Anyway to cut a long story short. The bearing gave up their ghost in less than a month. When the ‘engineer’ came to repair it, he had to disassemble the machine when I got to see the amount of filth on the outer side of the steel drum, which I myself cleaned personally.

Also the best joke is when I got talking to the ‘engineer’ by the name of ‘Patil’ he told me that he actually works in a tabela (cowshed) & as he is strong he was given the job of changing the bearings of the machine which require brute strength.!!!!!!!!!

The reason I want to share my experience with you is if you are offered such a scheme by your Whirlpool service agent DON?T FALL FOR IT. It will be cheaper to get your machine repaired use it for some time then flog it in an exchange offer for a new machine of some other company. I have a suspicion that they use this stunt to 1) Get rid of off spec raw materials in their stock 2) Bypass the dealers so no commission to paid to them 3) Avoid paying taxes to the govt . This happened in Mumbai I don’t know if it happens in other parts of the country.

Such offers of ‘Full Conversion’ by this company should best be avoided at all costs. And if you try to complain to the company it is of no use as they are totally incorrigible about your complaints will just make false promises over the phone or the worst case scenario is they will keep you waiting or just put the phone aside while you can hear them giggling around the phone.

The best joke is after about one and a half years after my last complaint to them I get a call from their call center asking about my complaint. The girl on the phone told me she was new to the job & had been told by her supervisor to find out any complaints which are still OPEN & find out what problem the customer had !!!!!! Oh they are so hard working & conscientious.

So in the final analysis Whirlpool in India is a CESSPOOL & Whitemagic is pure BLACKMAGIC