A senior executive could not tolerate the lackadaisical attitude of an electrical consumer products store in Johor Baru.
The claimant, Nurul Azyra Nazra Wahid said it had poor after-sales service and failed to rectify the problem of a malfunctioned air-conditioner unit, which was bought from the outlet.
“I called the Johor Baru office many times about the problem but no one answered my calls,” she said when met outside the Johor Baru Consumer Claims Tribunal at Menara Ansar.
Nurul said the staff only started answering her calls after she called the company’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to inform them of the poor after-sales service of its Johor Baru branch.
The 40-year-old claimant had bought a 1HP air-conditioner for RM1,599 from the store in Taman Molek on Sept 19, 2017.
She said the unit came with a five-year warranty for the compressor while other spare parts and components had a one-year warranty.
She added that the air-conditioner was installed in the guest room of her house in Taman Setia Indah and was only used when guests occupied the room.
“It started giving problems on Dec 18, 2020. The indicator light keeps blinking and the unit fails to operate,” Nurul explained.
The claimant called the seller and the person who took the call instructed her to turn the air-conditioner off then switch it on again for it to operate normally.
She said despite doing that several times, the indicator light continued blinking and the air-conditioner still failed to function.
She called the seller again and a technician was sent over on Dec 19, 2020 to replace the gas. She was charged RM160.
“The air-conditioner started giving problems again on April 15, 2021 and technicians came to inspect it but it was still not functioning,” she recounted.
The claimant also expressed dissatisfaction over the fact that she was not informed that the technician was not employed by the electrical store and instead was a third party appointed by the outlet.
She said the technician came on April 18, 2021 to dismantle the air-conditioner but still could not identify its faulty parts.
“On his revisit on April 24, he told me the copper pipe was leaking and needed to be replaced, which he did on April 29 and charged me RM270 for the job,’’ she added.
Nurul said the problem started again on May 17, 2021 although the copper pipe had been replaced with a new one.
She then called the Kuala Lumpur headquarters again as calls to the Johor Baru store went unanswered once more. Subsequently, a technician was sent to her house on May 18.
She said the technician told her that the compressor was faulty but then she found out from the headquarters that it was a printer circuit board (PCB) problem.
“The technician should have known that it was the PCB that caused the air-conditioner to malfunction but it took five to six visits to identify the problems,” said Nurul.
The claimant chose not to replace the PCB as it costs as much as a new air-conditioner.
Nurul filed a case at the tribunal and claimed RM760 from the respondent.
Tribunal president Hamidun Abdul Fatah ordered the respondent, who was present at the hearing, to pay within two weeks RM330 plus RM100 to the claimant for damaging wallpaper when the technician replaced the leaking copper pipe.
Those who need assistance in regard to tribunal matters, can call 07-227 1755 or 07-227 1766.