chroma
I just bought ACs for my whole house and am now paying the price. Just finished sending the following mail to chroma customer care...waiting to see what they do.
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I have recently purchased 4 chroma air conditioners - 2 split and 2 window from the South Ex chroma and had them installed at my house this Sunday. I have had an awful experience getting the air conditioners installed in my house so far and the installation is far from complete.
I have listed below the problems I have faced so far:
1. Completely untrained and extremely rude staff. The Chroma staff who came to install the equipment (All 4 people claimed they were Chroma employees) were extremely rude, one person "Ashfaq Ali" and his assistant constantly used loud abusive language while talking to each other. The staff totally failed to answer any questions I put to them about what they were going to do while installing, how much of the wall they will need to break and why and were extremely curt and rude. I had a shouting match with one of them to finally get him to shut up.
2. Very poor quality of installation to the extent that the installation has created a fire and electrical hazard in the form of the 2 split air-conditioners. The staff did not have insulating electrical tape and were using regular duct tape to patch up heavy duty air-conditioner wiring until I pointed it out to them - at which point they tried to convince me that regular duct tape was now-a-days even better than insulating electrical tape. It turned out that they had run out of insulated tape and were trying to get away with it somehow.
3. The current installation done by the chroma staff is an electrical hazard as mentioned above. The 2 split air-conditioners are missing any earthing of the electrical connections. When I pointed this out to the staff installing the AC, they first tried to convince me that earthing was present, then that earthing was not necessary, and finally that they were not responsible because at the point where the split AC vents were installed, the existing electrical cable (from my previous installation) did not have an earth wire in it. All of this was pure nonsense because the contract with Chroma when I purchased the ACs was about a brand new full installation without any assumptions about any existing old installation. The electrical point that provides electricity for the ACs does have the earth wire available and taking a wire from the electrical point to the vent of the AC is a part of the install procedure. The Chroma staff tried to short cut this process by trying to re-use an existing electrical cable lying in the duct. The least they absolutely must have done is to inform me that the existing electrical cable, which they were incorrectly trying to re-use, did not have proper earthing.
4. The Chroma staff did not have adequate equipment for the installation. Some examples include the fact that they did not have a basic wire connector for putting joints in the cabling that they were doing and were simply winding heavy duty wiring to join 2 wires. They did not have insulating electrical tape as mentioned above to wrap this poorly done connection. And finally, they did not have enough clips to clamp this wire to the wall. The result is that a poorly patched heavy duty electrical wire without adequate insulation is dangling behind the curtains in my drawing room. I don't think I need to explain why this is a fire hazard.
5. The 2 outdoor units of the split air-conditioners are not aligned properly to each other and at least one of them has been installed tilted (not parallel to the ground). Aside from the impact of the tilted installation on the life and performance on the outdoor unit, the front of my house seems to have developed an ugly scar with the 2 "Chroma" ACs hanging askew. This was despite the fact that there were clear demarcations on the wall, which if properly used by the Chroma staff, the two units would have been properly aligned and straight.
6. Neither the window AC installation team nor the split AC installation team from Chroma had steppers that will allow them to perform their work. Isn't installing ACs on tops of doors and windows what these people do all day? Both the teams literally shouted at me that it was my responsibility to provide them safe sturdy and high enough ladders for the installation and that they will leave the installation half way if I did not provide them the required ladders immediately and that I should go figure with Chroma how the installation is supposed to proceed.
7. The stabilizers that were included in the purchase of the 4 ACs have still not arrived at my place. Why did Chroma send their staff for installation before they have delivered all the equipment? The result is that there are now dangling open wires in all the rooms of my house that are waiting for the stabilizers where they will be eventually plugged in.
8. The person installing the split AC did not apply any water proofing/MSeal on the drain pipe connection inside the wall near the AC vent. I noticed this and had to argue with him for some time before he reluctantly applied some M-seal on the joints. The chroma person didn't seem to think the potential of leaking water near the non-insulated taping on poorly done electrical connections and the potential of ruining the expensive emulsion paint on my drawing room walls was any problem at all.
9. Last but not the least, both teams did zero cleaning up after their work. My house was in a total mess after the Chroma staff left with packing materials strewn all over the house, broken pieces of the wall from the split AC installation, pieces of wiring, nails, dirty rags all over the place. I guess any time I buy anything from Chroma ever again, I should make sure that the installation contract has a cleaning clause in it because the Chroma staff is not expected to have basic civic sense.
All of the above constitute very serious problems with my purchase, delivery and installation of the ACs and I need immediate redressal of all of these from your end. I have made innumerable phone calls during and after the installation and hope I won't need to follow up on this again.
---- message starts -----
I have recently purchased 4 chroma air conditioners - 2 split and 2 window from the South Ex chroma and had them installed at my house this Sunday. I have had an awful experience getting the air conditioners installed in my house so far and the installation is far from complete.
I have listed below the problems I have faced so far:
1. Completely untrained and extremely rude staff. The Chroma staff who came to install the equipment (All 4 people claimed they were Chroma employees) were extremely rude, one person "Ashfaq Ali" and his assistant constantly used loud abusive language while talking to each other. The staff totally failed to answer any questions I put to them about what they were going to do while installing, how much of the wall they will need to break and why and were extremely curt and rude. I had a shouting match with one of them to finally get him to shut up.
2. Very poor quality of installation to the extent that the installation has created a fire and electrical hazard in the form of the 2 split air-conditioners. The staff did not have insulating electrical tape and were using regular duct tape to patch up heavy duty air-conditioner wiring until I pointed it out to them - at which point they tried to convince me that regular duct tape was now-a-days even better than insulating electrical tape. It turned out that they had run out of insulated tape and were trying to get away with it somehow.
3. The current installation done by the chroma staff is an electrical hazard as mentioned above. The 2 split air-conditioners are missing any earthing of the electrical connections. When I pointed this out to the staff installing the AC, they first tried to convince me that earthing was present, then that earthing was not necessary, and finally that they were not responsible because at the point where the split AC vents were installed, the existing electrical cable (from my previous installation) did not have an earth wire in it. All of this was pure nonsense because the contract with Chroma when I purchased the ACs was about a brand new full installation without any assumptions about any existing old installation. The electrical point that provides electricity for the ACs does have the earth wire available and taking a wire from the electrical point to the vent of the AC is a part of the install procedure. The Chroma staff tried to short cut this process by trying to re-use an existing electrical cable lying in the duct. The least they absolutely must have done is to inform me that the existing electrical cable, which they were incorrectly trying to re-use, did not have proper earthing.
4. The Chroma staff did not have adequate equipment for the installation. Some examples include the fact that they did not have a basic wire connector for putting joints in the cabling that they were doing and were simply winding heavy duty wiring to join 2 wires. They did not have insulating electrical tape as mentioned above to wrap this poorly done connection. And finally, they did not have enough clips to clamp this wire to the wall. The result is that a poorly patched heavy duty electrical wire without adequate insulation is dangling behind the curtains in my drawing room. I don't think I need to explain why this is a fire hazard.
5. The 2 outdoor units of the split air-conditioners are not aligned properly to each other and at least one of them has been installed tilted (not parallel to the ground). Aside from the impact of the tilted installation on the life and performance on the outdoor unit, the front of my house seems to have developed an ugly scar with the 2 "Chroma" ACs hanging askew. This was despite the fact that there were clear demarcations on the wall, which if properly used by the Chroma staff, the two units would have been properly aligned and straight.
6. Neither the window AC installation team nor the split AC installation team from Chroma had steppers that will allow them to perform their work. Isn't installing ACs on tops of doors and windows what these people do all day? Both the teams literally shouted at me that it was my responsibility to provide them safe sturdy and high enough ladders for the installation and that they will leave the installation half way if I did not provide them the required ladders immediately and that I should go figure with Chroma how the installation is supposed to proceed.
7. The stabilizers that were included in the purchase of the 4 ACs have still not arrived at my place. Why did Chroma send their staff for installation before they have delivered all the equipment? The result is that there are now dangling open wires in all the rooms of my house that are waiting for the stabilizers where they will be eventually plugged in.
8. The person installing the split AC did not apply any water proofing/MSeal on the drain pipe connection inside the wall near the AC vent. I noticed this and had to argue with him for some time before he reluctantly applied some M-seal on the joints. The chroma person didn't seem to think the potential of leaking water near the non-insulated taping on poorly done electrical connections and the potential of ruining the expensive emulsion paint on my drawing room walls was any problem at all.
9. Last but not the least, both teams did zero cleaning up after their work. My house was in a total mess after the Chroma staff left with packing materials strewn all over the house, broken pieces of the wall from the split AC installation, pieces of wiring, nails, dirty rags all over the place. I guess any time I buy anything from Chroma ever again, I should make sure that the installation contract has a cleaning clause in it because the Chroma staff is not expected to have basic civic sense.
All of the above constitute very serious problems with my purchase, delivery and installation of the ACs and I need immediate redressal of all of these from your end. I have made innumerable phone calls during and after the installation and hope I won't need to follow up on this again.
posted by Manish at 8:05 AM
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