The Saga with Hong Tar continues... I have a questions at the end of it if anyone wants to skip the long story and just offer some advise on a different system you don't have to read my rant.
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Saturday morning we called them up to see if the appointment was made... Told they will check and get back to us, no one did. Took another 4 calls and still surprise surprise they haven't arranged anything. The person we spoke to before who said he would sort it out for us (Sales Manager) has gone away for the long weekend and will not be back until Tuesday.
Asked to speak to that persons boss, was told there wasn't one, asked for the owner and told that was the sales manager and that there was no one who could help us. (Really unbelievable!! sales manager = owner. Wouldn't you call yourself the CEO/Director if you were really the owner) Told they will try to contact someone then call us back. No one did.
Called them back and told them we wanted the last payment back as they haven't provided a good enough aircon system for the place and that they are not taking any responsibility to resolve the issue. They kept telling us they can't do anything until Tuesday! & fujitsu would be closed until Monday so no appointment can be made.
Went down the shop to be pushy and demand someone sort it out and to request to speak with the owner. (we were told over the phone that there was no point coming down as they will still not help us or be able to return the money)
When we got there they had suddenly got their butts in gear and arranged an appointment with fujitsu for Monday 3-5pm. They told us Fujitsu will send down the Sales Manager & technicians to do the full tests (using a computer) and Hong Tar's engineers will also attend. They also agreed that the engineers will bring a check to return the last payment. Informed the lady serving us that it needs to be fixed by 8th Feb as all our furniture is arriving then and if they need to replace the system we will need to redo the renovation work/box up before the furniture arrives. They committed to providing a solution for us at the end of the Monday.
We walked over to IMM to check out the aircon shops to see if they have any demo sets, one shop had a demo of an older 9K Btu fujitsu model we turn it on and at a medium speed it had a stronger stength wind/airflow than the 18K Btu in our living room on high power. They showed us the specs and on paper it should be less powerful than a new 9 Btu model in our bedrooms. Really makes me think there is a problem with the amount of air coming out of our system.
Monday 1pm Hong Tar called and said engineers will arrive at 2pm & Fujitsu will arrive at 2:30pm. Hong Tar guys arrive on time & turned the aircon on then sat down and waited for fujitsu. Fujitsu arrive at 3:45pm Only person that shows up is the Sales Manager, he walks in feels the aircon by the fans and says all ok no problem!!! so annoyed!! walk away from the fan coil and it is still hot & humid you fool!! both wife and myself took leave for some guy to come and test it with his hand after it has been cooling a room for 1.5 hours!! We could have told him it was blowing out cold air, we want to know why is it not cooling our apartment adequately.
Phoned up Hong Tar and got told they will call us back. Wife got very angry tried calling the Hong Tar sales manager's handphone that he previous gave us, it was finally switched on and he answered, she went mad at him, why is her time being wasted again (she has a problem at work that needs to be fixed so shouldn't have really been taking leave), why are no tests being done, why are you not taking ownership of it like you told us you would before you went away. etc He told her he will find out what was happening then get back to her (he never did and never answered his phone for the rest of the day. So irresponsible if you are to believe he is meant to be the owner!!)
Spent the next hour arguing with the Fujitsu Sales guy, explaining what we did at IMM and why is an old 9K btu stronger than our new 18Kbtu. We get nonsense from him like, can't compare 9K with 18K have to compare 18K with 18K! He went off and made some phone calls and came back and said fujitsu can only do a test on Wednesday and they will need to test for 3-4 days.
The original Hong Tar lady finally called back and we ask why wasn't this all arranged before, how can they commit to providing a solution end of day Monday when fujistu need 3-4 days to test and why did they tell us more tests would be done today when nothing was planned by fujitsu. She kept saying have to test so no option, told her there is no way I could take 4 days leave for this and it would cause a problem with the furniture arriving & any possible reno work that needs to be redone. Reminded her that she had committed a solution to me today and that I would like one with in 30mins (5:30pm) (As they have already wasted another afternoon of our leave really do not want anymore of my time wasted)
Fujitsu guy then started saying the aircon was positioned in the wrong location (if it is why did Hong Tar advise the current locations)
red is current location, blue is fujitsu recommended location. Grey is the area being cooled to an ok level after 1-2 hours.
I could agree on the bedroom and understand why technically it might be better but wife doesn't want it blowing on the bed, and her view is it's only 3x4m room so should be cooling if the aircon was working properly.
For the living room, it seams a bit silly, it's an old flat with a low ceiling they want to mount it on a beam in the middle of the room between the living and dining pointing to the living room area. They also advise to boxup the beam to hide the trunking which would make it even lower. It wouldn't be facing the dining area at all. All you would really be doing is pointing it different so the 2 meter area that it currently cools is where you sit most of the time.
It got to 5:40pm and Hong Tar called, this time is was a different lady, (After checking with the engineers she turns out to be the 'lady boss')
She said there is nothing they can do so they will uninstall the system and take it back and return the price of the fan coil to us!!! They can't even come up with a solution!!
She said I have too much of a high expectation of what is cold and the fujitsu guy says his system is working correctly and there is no issue.
So frustrating, my wife, our contractor, friends that have popped by to take a look at the renovation work all agree that there is something not right with the aircon performance and their HDBs all cool within 15mins on low power.
I explained to her the test we did at IMM and how the air flow is alot less, reminded her that on the first visit her technicians also agreed it was not right to take so long to cool a room. (This visit they were saying it was an acceptable temp, today was cloudy and cooler than the previous day they tested, it took 1.5 hours on high power to get cold in the living room, and it was still hot and humid if you were not standing within the range of the blowing air. If you turned it to low power the living and master bedroom would start to heat up again) No additional tests had been done by Fujitsu to confirm the output of air was correct yet she was happy to take their word that it was working ok.
She then said well we will give you that fujitsu model/system you tested in IMM then if it doesn't work there would be nothing more they can do. Told her to not be stupid and I wasn't here to do her job and come up with a sensible solution. They are the experts and should be able to make a judgment on what is the best options. I got a "we have already sold you our best solution and it isn't good enough for you"
In the end she called back and said upgrade to a MHI inverter system 4 compressor, put 9BTU in the study/small bedroom, 12BTU in the master bedroom and 24BTU in the living room and top up the difference of $800. There will be more cost if they relocate the fan coils to fujitsu's recommended positions due to piping and they will let us know that cost later. (Plus additional boxup cost by the contractor and redo current box up if they change that piping)
The most annoying thing that I have found from dealing with them has been the lack of service as it just frustrates you more and more.
1) When ever you try to talk they try to cut you off and talk over you, you then just end up raising your voice and have to shout firmly to get your point across, which makes you more angry and frustrated.
2) They will check and call you back..... Then never call you back. It just seams like a tactic to get you off the phone.
3) Time wasted with appointments where nothing will be tested.
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I read a page or so back in this thread thexenomorph mentioned his MHI Inverter isn't that cold. If they are going to replace the system and install a more powerful one, what brands would people recommend?