Elevator issues - Part 2. Still a customers problem

Amidst all these issues which should have been fixed before possession began, Pride group representatives namely Rajesh Narang, CB Kulkarni and their respective subordinates devised a very smart plan. That is to have a joint meeting between OTIS, Pride and the residents. Ever bought a TATA car and had an issue with the engine? And TATA representatives putting you across to their engine component vendor to have it fixed? That is exactly what residents had to do. They had to follow up themselves individually for getting elevator issues fixed. Smart move no? All they did was confirmed that they will clear payments for OTIS.

8 months have passed since occupancy was issued and residents were living with one elevator that was completely down since day # 1 and the other which ran sporadically. Imagine staying on the 11th floor and having to walk up. The security guards had to perpetually attend to man traps in the building. Pride group cared a damn even if residents were heart patients, expecting mothers, senior citizens, et al. 

Meeting minutes were made and a summary was sent out by the OTIS representative who attended the meetings:
_________________________________________________________________

Assurance by OTIS representative on 19 Aug'13 Gandhi, D K <gandhi.dk@otis.com>	8/19/12
to me, bhagwan, cb, arvindjain, milind.pride, Manishkumar, girish, rajesh, Anil, Duryodhan

Dear sir,

This has with reference to our meeting on 18/8/2012 regarding Elevator issues.

Following points were discussed in this meeting.

·         There are 12 elevators in Pride Platinum. Out of 2 Lifts are shut down  in Building C & H .
·         Otis will ensure /take care of these Elevators for minimum down time. But  In case of breakdown of these elevators, After getting calls – Otis response will be 30 Min. between 9 am to 5.30.
After 5.30  to 9 pm. this will 1 Hr.  In case of emergency ,you will contact  Mr. Birajdar ( 9850070221 ) or me directly.
·         We will update  C Building material status on 21/8/2012.
·         We will provide Do’s & Don’t  in all Elevators. Attached copy.
·         PWD License  copy will fix in Elevators by Builder.
·         We will check Duplex operation of  E wing  & display problem of F wing.
·         We will check Fan, Lights & Load test of all Elevators .

Thanking you & assuring you our best services at all times.

Thanks & regards,
Dinesh Gandhi.
Area Manager.

M-9850070209

_________________________________________________________________

Kiran Chitnis 8/23/12

to D, bhagwan, cb, arvindjain, milind.pride, Manishkumar, girish, rajesh, Anil, Duryodhan 

Dear Mr. Gandhi,

Kindly update us with the status of parts procurement for the elevator in C' building. We are already two days past the date you promised. Also ensure the other issues are fixed on priority, I haven't seen the lights fixed in elevators as yet. 

·         We will update  C Building material status on 21/8/2012.

Thanks,

Kiran Chitnis

_________________________________________________________________

Endless date assurances by OTIS representative.

Gandhi, D K <gandhi.dk@otis.com>  8/23/12

to me, bhagwan, cb, arvindjain, milind.pride, Manishkumar, girish, rajesh, Anil, Duryodhan 

Dear sir,

Till I have not received material confirmation date. Will update today evening.
Also sending Technician today for other balance points.

Thanks & regards,

Dinesh Gandhi.

_________________________________________________________________

Pride group person did write in on the same date for seeking an update.


bhagwan singh <bhagwan@pridegroup.net>   8/23/12

to D, me, cb, arvindjain, milind, Manishkumar, girish, rajesh, Anil, Duryodhan 

Dear Gandhi,

Pride house elevators are giving jerks and its duplex system and some call switches are also not working. We had paid you C building of Pride Platinum elevator advance then why we are not getting material because its repair is most urgent for us. Pl do the needful as soon as possible.

Thanks & Regards,
Bhagwan Singh

Pride Purple Group
_________________________________________________________________

Just like Pride group, their vendors are equally lethargic. 

Kiran Chitnis   8/27/12

to D, bhagwan, cb, arvindjain, milind.pride, Manishkumar, girish, rajesh, AnilM, Duryodhan 

Dear Mr. Gandhi,

Please let me know the status. Couple of evenings passed by since you last replied.

Thanks,

Kiran Chitnis
_________________________________________________________________

So, until a customer raises a concern, the builder doesn't bother utilizing their various company departments to fix a fault that was theirs:

bhagwan singh 8/27/12

to me, D, cb, arvindjain, milind, Manishkumar, girish, rajesh, AnilM, Duryodhan 

Dear Gandhi,

Please forward the plan of action and target date to rectify the break down elevator of C building as it is Most urgent. Please reply soon . If, you have any problem than let us know, we will find out the way but do not keep mum on the issue .

Thanks & Regards,
Bhagwan Singh

Pride Housing
_________________________________________________________________

A seriously big yawnnnn. I had by now lost all hope of the elevator getting fixed. Do note that the only elevator in the apartment kept failing as all these issues are happening. 

Gandhi, D K <gandhi.dk@otis.com>  8/27/12

to me, bhagwan, cb, arvindjain, milind.pride, Manishkumar, girish, rajesh, Anil, Duryodhan 

Dear sir,

I am doing follow up to get subject material at the earliest.
But till ,material confirmation date is not received from our factory.

Our Service Technician is at site. But mobile is not reachable.  Other  work completion status will update shortly.

Thanks & regards,
Dinesh Gandhi.

M-9850070209

_________________________________________________________________

We are at the end of the month of August. Issue still persists. Any sane person by now would lose hope but Pride group was positive that their apartments will still sell and "bakras" will still come. 

There is an obvious lack of quality assurance from Pride as well as OTIS. But, the main subject here is Pride. The elevator is not the only third party thing that fails. The sewage treatment plant, the garbage disposal unit, their water sources, et al. Everything fails. I have emails as document proofs for each of these occurring events. You will see them shortly.

Elevator issues. That is the customers problem!

When you invest your hardearned money in a project you bestow upon them unconditional trust. However, almost all of them will turn their backs to you the moment an issue arises. The choice of brands and quality of products rests upon the builder and his team. So you do not have a direct interface to see or choose what is being used to construct your apartment. One such important aspect in todays world of high rises is an elevator. Pride group obviously had the liberty and chose OTIS as a vendor for elevators. Now, as a buyer you do not have any say in this but when it is installed and it does not work, it directly becomes your problem.

Be prepared to face such issues in Pride group projects. They will stand on an altar and scream their lungs out saying "top quality products" but what you get in the bargain is sub-standard low grade, lifeless and untested products.

You get possession of your apartment and the elevators don't work and how? They just fail abruptly and neither Pride group engineers nor the vendor for the products have any clue for months. What entangles in this bargain is a clear fight between the two but you obviously suffer for you don't care who is right anyway. The elevators were dysfunctional from day #1. As you'll see in the email trail below. Headers and genuine email information can be emailed privately upon request:


Email # 1:

Sent: 09 July 2012 19:26
To: C B Kulkarni; milind bhoite
Cc: Arvind Jain
Subject: Elevator Problems in C building


Dear Mr. Milind Bhoite and Mr. C B Kulkarni,

I hope you are doing well. I write to you to make you aware of some serious issue we have been facing in C # Building of Pride Platinum. The elevator has broken down for the 12th time out of  30 days of me residing here. Actually make that 38 days to be precise. There is no backup elevator for the primary and it has been causing me great inconveniences. Today being no different.

I can only convince myself to walk up 6 storeys to reach my apartment if it is 6 am in the morning and I am craving to keep myself fit and not when I am back home at 2:00 am after gruelling 18 hours at work or when I am back from the grocery store carrying heavy loads. I hope you understand that my mother is past 60 years old and this activity doesn't constitute as an exercise per se.

Please let me a know a final date by when this issue will be resolved in totality and not as a stop gap temporary arrangement.

Regards,
Kiran Chitnis
_________________________________________________________________________________

Not so convincing reply: Obviously because the elevators are down since January 2012 when possession was given. And due to a tussle between the vendor and the builder, elevators were not serviceable and down!

From: Bhagwan Singh [mailto:bhagwan@pridegroup.net]
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 12:48 PM
To: 'C B Kulkarni'; Gandhi, D K
Cc: 'Arvind Jain'; 'milind bhoite'; Samarth, Anil M; Pipre, Virendra Bhaskarrao;
Subject: RE: Elevator Problems in C building

Dear Gandhi/ All representative of OTIS,

You just put yourself in the shoes of Mr. Kiran Chitnis & such other gentlemen  and imagine that how much  such type of gentle men are facing problem in their day today life due to your product which is known for best quality. We had install U P S  in one elevators and waiting for your reply that, it is suitable for your elevators or not and myself and our personal are continuously following up for same but not able to get suitability report for further order which is your requirement as per your advice to run all elevators smoothly. We had paid Rs.85000 before a month which is total repair cost of C building one elevator as per your quotation. This elevator is un-serviceable since last two months and you are promising us that it will be serviceable within  a week since last one month but could not fulfill your promise till day. As on 10/07/2012  our 03 elevators out of 08 elevators are un-serviceable at Pride Platinum although, these all 08 elevators are newly installed. Just think the quality and service of your company which is known for best service and best quality.

You are requested to give target date to make our all elevators serviceable or raise your hand that you cannot do it , so , we shall do some alternative arrangement to make the elevators serviceable because due to your non-performance, we cannot allow our client to suffer any more.

Please Treat it MOST URGENT and Reply Soon.

Thanks & Regards,
Bhagwan Singh
Pride Housing

_________________________________________________________________________________

Reply from OTIS: Big bomb because the issue here is unpaid amount of 7 lakh rupees that kept the customers hanging and suffering. 

From: Gandhi, D K
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2012 3:00 PM
To: 'Bhagwan Singh'; 'C B Kulkarni'
Cc: 'Arvind Jain'; 'milind bhoite'; Samarth, Anil M; Pipre, Virendra Bhaskarrao;
Subject: RE: Elevator Problems in C building - Pride Platinum

Dear sir,

We regret the inconvenienced caused to you & users. I have already given confirmation about UPS for 230 Volt.
Except C building ,other two Lift we will start  on 16/7/2012. ( Monday. )

C building issue is different issue.  Because of water seepage in controller, some parts are damaged of subject Lift. Based on our first inspection we have given quotation.
We have received Rs. 85000.00 for the same.  Last week we have tried to start this Lift . More than 2-3 days our Engineers were trying to start the Lift.
But as per report ,again following parts are require to be change.

·         OVF 20  Main Drive
·         SPBC PCb
·         Main Transformer.
·         3 Phase MCB.

Cost for the same is Rs. 7 Lac.

Thanks & regards,
Dinesh Gandhi.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Email sent by customer on vendors "sorry email" seeking an update on the situation: Note that 17 days have passed! No action is seen. So much for "Customer service". And do not wonder. This email was not replied to either:

On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 9:52 PM, Kiran Chitnis <kiranchitnis@gmail.com>wrote:

Dear Mr. CB Kulkarni & Milind Bhoite,

What is the stand taken by Pride group in this regard. Why can't the convenience of your customers be of paramount importance to you? I request you to please provide us an update on whether replacing the entire lift is an option. At this rate, I don't see this elevator to be reliable in the long run. 

Your response in this regard will be highly appreciated. 

Regards,

Kiran Chitnis

On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 7:07 PM, Gandhi, D K <gandhi.dk@otis.com> wrote:

Dear sir,

We have tried our best. Minimum quotation will be Rs.3.5 Lac for C building.

Kindly approve.

Thanks& Regards,

Dinesh Gandhi.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Customer decided to report every fail for primary elevator LIVE: Be prepared for the biggest skyfall in performance:

From: Kiran Chitnis
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2012 8:25 AM
To: Gandhi, D K
Cc: Bhagwan Singh; C B Kulkarni; Arvind Jain; milind bhoite; Samarth, Anil M; Manishkumar pathak; girish@pridepurplegroup.com
Subject: Re: Elevator Problems in C building - Pride Platinum

Update on 07:00 am till now (08:30 am) at C-building Pride Platinum. Primary elevator stopped working. The persons staying across the door from me is a heart patient at over 60 years of age and had to climb up 5 storeys to get to his house after the morning walk. I have to get to office by moving down 5 storeys. 

Great job Pride Group and Otis!!

Regards,

Kiran Chitnis

_________________________________________________________________________________

Reply from Vendor "OTIS". Please note, now the builder has taken cover and chosen not to give a single reply:

On 01-Aug-2012, at 8:45, "Gandhi, D K" <gandhi.dk@otis.com>wrote:

Dear sir,

Regret the inconvenienced caused to you & users. I am sending Technician.

You are requested – In case of emergency please contact  directly -

·         H.A.Petkar -  Service Engineer – M-9850980892

·         D.H.Birajdar – Service Superviser –M-9850070221

·         D.K.Gandhi – Area Manager – M-9850070209

·         Otis –Pune – 020-24227518/6090/1672 – All days -9am to 9pm.

Thanks& Regards,

Dinesh Gandhi.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Customer is pissed and rightly so:

On 01-Aug-2012, at 11:37, Kiran Chitnis wrote:

Thank you for responding. But is it of any help during crisis? No! 

I am seeking a long term solution and not something that will be a temporary fix each and every time. Please fix our problems permanently. We are losing our patience at a steady rate and your organization continues to test our decency. 

Kiran Chitnis

_________________________________________________________________________________

Continuous emails. NO RESPONSE. Later I figured that this is their trait and chosen method of doing business:

On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 8:20 AM, Kiran Chitnis wrote:

Lift not working since 7 am again. 

Forwarding this email to all my friends in the media industry for further action unless I get a positive response by end of day today.

Thank you,
Kiran Chitnis

On 02-Aug-2012, at 21:13, Kiran Chitnis wrote:

Lift was not functional for more than 1 hour today evening. My mother walked up 5 storeys after her evening walk. Last email to you. I have never encountered such insensitive people ever!

Kiran Chitnis
_________________________________________________________________________________

Now we are a month down since the issue was reported:

From: Gandhi, D K [mailto:gandhi.dk@otis.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 10:32 PM
To: Kiran Chitnis
Cc: Bhagwan Singh (bhagwan@pridegroup.net); cb@pridegroup.net; arvindjain@pridegroup.net; 'milind bhoite' (milind.pride@gmail.com); Manishkumar pathak; girish@pridepurplegroup.com; rajesh@pridepurplegroup.com; Samarth, Anil M

Subject: RE: Elevator Problems in C building - Pride Platinum

Dear sir,

We  have noted the contents with concern.

We apologize for the inconvenience . We have taken corrective actions.

Thanks & regards,

Dinesh Gandhi.

M-9850070209

From: Kiran Chitnis [mailto:
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 8:20 PM
To: Gandhi, D K; Bhagwan Singh; C B Kulkarni; Arvind Jain; milind bhoite; Samarth, Anil M; Manishkumar pathak; girish@pridepurplegroup.com; rajesh@pridepurplegroup.com
Subject: Re: Elevator Problems in C building - Pride Platinum

Elevator fixed at around 08:00 pm India time. 

Kiran Chitnis

On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 6:52 PM, Kiran Chitnis wrote:

Lift not working since 5 pm. Walked up with more than 15 kgs of grocery in tow. Your professionalism is commendable. Keep up the good work. Hope to see you at the meeting on Sunday.

Rajesh Narang, please be prepared to answer this in complete detail on Sunday. This stupidity cannot continue and our patience has exhausted with your nonsense. 

Kiran Chitnis

_________________________________________________________________________________

Someone from Pride Group just woke up and dropped a one liner email: 

bhagwan singh <bhagwan@pridegroup.net>  

to D, me, cb, arvindjain, milind, Manishkumar, girish, rajesh, Anil 

Dear Gandhi,

Why you are so slow on your action? I had called you yesterday and you replied that you will call me with in little time but that little time does not end up to now. Pl take corrective action urgently.

Thanks & Regards,

Bhagwan Singh

Pride Housing

_________________________________________________________________________________


Stay tuned. To be continued in part two as I'll break down each month individually.