Voltas Air Conditioner’s Deficiency in Service and Profiteering
This is a series.
My Air Conditioner broke down and I had to call Voltas Air Conditioner service engineer to my house. Here onwards everything went downhill.
However, the ordeal allowed me to delve into the nitty-gritty of the retail hardware servicing industry.
Timeline
The unsuccessful ordeal began on 20 April 2024 and ended on 4 May 2024 with 3~4 different sets of technicians evaluating the Voltas Air Conditioner. Being a Voltas customer I had to suffer the scorching heat of Kolkata in the peak months of summer i.e., April and May due to the poor service. The deficiency in service as it seems is deliberate. We will discuss in detail later how Voltas is profiteering from this deliberate deficiency in service. The delays due to deficiency in service have caused harassment, suffering, and agony to the customer.
Email conversations broke out with Voltas Customer Care but to no avail. (Link)
Sequence of Service
The ‘sequence of service’ has been explained to me by the service technician. He said, that first, he would fill the unit with an inert gas like nitrogen, etc. The soap water onsite (home) assessment would be carried out on the indoor and outdoor units to identify major air leakage. If in case the leakage is fine then the indoor and outdoor units would be transported to the workshop.
The copper pipe connects the outdoor unit to the indoor unit. They could’ve unscrewed and dragged the copper pipe to the terrace. Then assess it with soap water. But they chose to ignore it.
Why were they reluctant to take up an onsite assessment of the copper pipe along with the outdoor and indoor units?
He further said, we would transport the outdoor and indoor units to the workshop to assess fine air leakage. The indoor and outdoor units will be submerged in a tank filled with water. High-pressure nitrogen will be passed in the indoor and outdoor units to check fine air leakage.
First Scenario and cost breakdown
The Voltas technicians will assess the outdoor and indoor units in the workshop. If everything in the workshop is found to be fine with the outdoor and indoor units, only then the Voltas technicians will assess the copper pipes connecting the outdoor unit to the indoor unit.
If it was found later that the copper pipe was faulty, the transportation cost of the indoor and outdoor units would be unnecessarily incurred by the customer.
If the copper pipe needs replacement.
590 service charges, + 1000 transportation charges, + 6500 copper pipe replacement charges, + 3500 coolant (gas) refilling charges, equals 11590 INR.
Second scenarios and cost breakdown
The Voltas technicians will assess the outdoor and indoor units in the workshop. They will additionally charge for the assessment and repair of the outdoor and indoor units if any fault is found. The outdoor and indoor units will be brought back home, installed, and refilled with coolant.
If it was found later that the coolant gas had leaked they’ll assess the copper pipe. The customer would incur the coolant (gas) refilling and re-refilling unnecessarily.
If the Indoor Unit and Copper pipe both need replacement.
590 service charges, + 1000 transportation charges, + 4500 indoor unit replacement + 3500 coolant (gas) refilling charges + 6500 copper pipe replacement charges, + 3500 gas re-refilling charges, equals 19590 INR.
What happened specifically in my case?
The technicians would visit my home, fill the air conditioner’s loop with inert gas, and return after 2–3 days to recheck the pressure. Some technicians did not check the inert gas pressure for the indoor and outdoor units separately. Some wouldn’t check the inert gas pressure at all and kept asking me to take the indoor unit to the workshop.
In one specific case, the technician was expected to visit my home to recheck the inert gas pressure that he filled a few days back. Forget about coming home, he started asking on the call itself when should he come to take the indoor unit to the workshop? I told him to first check the inert gas pressure and make sure whether the machine needed to be taken to the workshop or not.
So, I was forced to escalate the matter and I had to call a technician several times for on-site assessment.
The Email conversations broke out with Voltas Customer Care listed everything in detail. (Link)
Anyways, one final time the preliminary soap water onsite assessment couldn’t establish any leakage in the indoor unit and outdoor unit. The outdoor unit of the Voltas Air Conditioner was maintaining the inert gas pressure properly, but the indoor unit wasn’t. The service technician told me they’d transport the indoor unit to the workshop to assess leakage. The indoor unit will be submerged in a tank filled with water. High-pressure nitrogen will be passed in the indoor unit to check fine leakage.
The transportation cost is 1000 INR. The repair cost is additional. In case the indoor unit is unrepairable, the replacement cost of the indoor unit will be ~4500 INR.
They didn’t assess the copper pipe connecting the indoor unit to the outdoor unit. In case the indoor unit is found to be fit in assessment, only then the copper pipe connecting the outdoor unit to the indoor unit will be assessed and changed.
My copper pipe is long as it extends from the terrace on the 4th floor to the 2nd floor, therefore it’ll cost ~6500 INR to replace. Additionally, ~3500 will be charged for coolant (gas) refilling.
Until now I didn’t have enough information to estimate the cost. I didn’t know which part was faulty. So, I made a rough estimate assuming three scenarios.
Voltas repair costs approximately
If the Copper Pipe needs replacement and the Indoor Unit is found to be working fine in the workshop.
590 service charges, + 1000 transportation charges, + 6500 copper pipe replacement charges, + 3500 gas refilling charges, equals 11590 INR.
If the Indoor Unit needs replacement and the Copper Pipe is found to be faulty.
590 service charges, + 1000 transportation charges, + 4500 indoor unit replacement, + 3500 gas refilling charges, equals 9590 INR.
If the Indoor Unit and Copper Pipe both need replacement.
590 service charges, + 1000 transportation charges, + 4500 indoor unit replacement + 3500 gas refilling charges + 6500 copper pipe replacement charges, + 3500 gas re-refilling charges, equals 19590 INR.
Decision to Repair the Product
Without the onsite assessment of the Copper Pipe shelling out money for the assessment of the indoor unit taken to the workshop seems inappropriate, deceptive, deficient, incompetent, and unprofessional to me. So, I paid the service amount of 590 INR to avoid conflict and closed the service request.
Local Technician’s Assessment and Copper Pipe Repair Cost.
I called the local technicians. They assessed the outdoor unit, indoor unit, and copper pipe. They found the leakage in the copper pipe and welded it.
1400 Indoor unit, outdoor unit, copper pipe assessment, and copper pipe welding charges, + 2500 coolant (gas) refill charges, equals 3900 INR.
Profiteering by Exploiting Gullible Customers
In my opinion, the deliberately taken up poor assessment, the extremely high cost of service, and the disparity between authorized service and service rendered by local technicians, it seems Voltas is at fault for running an unethical business practice.
The customer base of the original product manufacturer is very large. For years the original product manufacturer has sold its products to its customers. If the original product manufacturer itself is misleading in providing service then the problem is very serious. This simply means that all the customers of the original product manufacturer are unsafe due to deficient, inefficient, and incompetent service.
This incident is subject to an inquiry.
Twitter link to keep up with the development on this matter.
https://x.com/rat9/status/1788447153473679367
Requesting the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution to Establish an AI-Integrated Robotics Consumer Electronics Home Appliances Ombudsman.
Ombudsman Integrated AI and Robotics Consumer Electronics Home Appliances. (Link)
The previous post in the series is Email conversations broke out with Voltas Customer Care but to no avail. (Link)
The next post in the series is Fire, Safety, and Brand Value. (Link)
Last edited on 9 Feb 2025.
