TL;DR: poor customer experience, poor service manager, hold through automated phone menu for 15-20 minutes before being connected to a human, after being connected get tossed around and finally not end up getting any answer and false promise of callback.
Details:
Bought the smart RO and smart softener system in 8k in July 2024. Although, I knew that I was paying a premium price for their system (other equally good products are available at significantly lower price), I still went with Culligan given their market reputation and with that hope that premium products usually have a good service team and is responsive and care about customer experience. I found out this was not the case.
Culligan smart RO system had an issue from the get go where it wouldn't fill the water tank to capacity and water would run out after a liter and I'd have to wait a long time before it would replenish. After reporting it, they changed a faulty part after a few weeks, but the problem didn't go away. It was better, but not fixed. The service manger told me that if the problem persists, they'd change the TO system.
I reached out again in Nov 2024, and they took the RO system back for inspection with an ETA of 2 days. When there was no update after 5 days, I reached out to them but no one was able to give me any update. I was told that the service manger was busy and would call me back with an update. I waited 3 more days for a call back, and reached out again when there was no response. I was given the same answer again that the service manager will call me back before end of day. 2 days later when I didn't receive any call, I called back, and I was again told that the service manager was busy with another customer and give me a call back. I insisted on staying on hold, and the service manager passed the message through the receptionist that they were waiting on parts with no ETA.
I insisted again on speaking with the service manager, and was connected to her after a few minutes. After summarizing her about the issue, and asking why I was not notified about anything, I was told "Because we were waiting on parts, I didn't have any update".
This was such an unacceptable answer from a manager that I really had no words.
When I asked her, why not just replace my RO system with another one like you said a few months ago, she told me that it wasn't possible, and it had to go through certain steps. At this point, I felt cheated. I shouldn't have been promised something that was not possible just to sell their product.
I told her that my experience could have been much better by 2 simple things:
1. A phone call/msg with an update of what was going on. Even if there was no ETA, letting me know would have been so much better for me. I would have saved several trips to the store to get RO water and instead got it in bulk.
2. If there was no ETA, they could have installed the system back and fixed it when the parts had arrived.
The service manager said that she wasn't even aware that the system was partially working. I felt that she should have known what the problem was given her involvement in the issue. But, I wasn't surprised.
The service manager told me that they'd install the system in the next 2 days once they inspect the parts. I told her that even if the new part doesn't arrive, at least install the system back so that I can have drinking water. But, this deadline also passed and there was radio silence from the service team. I give up. I'm not going to follow up anymore. I have wasted several hours at this point holding through their automated phone system, and getting the same cold response. You can feel the lack of empathy or sorry in their tone. Saying sorry doesn't really mean you are sorry.
While filtration systems can have issues, and I don't blame the product, I 100% blame the attitude of the service manager and the customer experience they strive for.
I will not recommend Culligan product to anyone just because of their extremely poor customer service. read more