“Sold, turn off the phone”

It’s just a funny saying about an unhappy situation that many customers encounter. That is, the sales units that try to do all the marketing, sell the goods, but do not fulfill their commitments on after-sales services such as warranty, maintenance, repair, etc.

Firstly, the seller offers a very attractive price, much lower than other units. With such a low price, there will be two scenarios. It is a low quality product, with components of unknown origin. Otherwise, they are willing to sell elevators without charging costs for after-sales services such as warranty, backup equipment, development costs, risks, training, etc. In which, the installation price become very important. Installers must have enough knowledge, be trained well, be facilitated to accumulate experience, improve skills, be paid commensurate with capacity, etc. Such costs are not cheap and are included in the price of the elevator. But for businesses that “sell elevators with their eyes closed at all costs” have created classes of elevator installers who “take money and go”. Many times the installation price is complained that it is “dirt cheap”. With such a cost, it is strange that the worker does not do anything wrong!

Many elevators are quoted “very competitively”

There are many “elevator companies” with only… directors and accountants. They only focus on the business segment and all after-sales services such as installation, maintenance, repair, warranty are… Outsource! This leads to the failure to control human resources and work quality and the inability to proactively meet the unexpected needs of customers. Many customers have complained that they feel “abandoned” after purchasing elevators from these units.

Secondly, advertising is not true to the nature of the product, confusing the brand. This “trick” is applied mainly to domestically assembled elevators. For example, the product is advertised very loudly: European elevator, European import… While the whole elevator has only 1, 2 components, equipment such as traction machine, cabin controller… are imported, the rest are Made in China or unknown origin … Besides, there is also the act of exchanging origin. For example, elevators of strong brands made in China but the seller hide the origin, only introduced as European imported elevators… In the case if customers know that the product is made in China, they will explain: Almost all major brands including elevator brands have factories in China…

Thirdly, sales consultants are not objective. Sales staff only focus on promoting the products that their business has the strength to distribute, and at the same time “dump” other types of elevators that make customers not have an objective view to make wise choice.

There are many “tricks”

In addition to the “tricks” in sales that make users dizzy, the “tricks” are also commonly used after sales.

According to expert Nguyen Hong Son – Incosaf Company, after a period of use, the mechanical details and switches in the safety circuit of the landing door are degraded or damaged, flickering, causing phenomenon of sending incorrect signal to control center, or cause elevator error. In this case, many technicians turned off the safety switches to temporarily operate the elevator, waiting for equipment and components to be replaced.

🔧Some units using the elevator also shared that they are not always ready to finance the repair, so they still require the elevator to operate… In such cases, the technical staff will “temporarily fix the problem” ” by “tricks” to keep the elevator running, keeping the maintenance contract. This behavior means that it has created unpredictable dangers inside the elevator.

👉To detect if the door safety circuit is turned off or not, open the landing door with a dedicated key. If the landing door is open and the cabin is still operating, the door safety circuit has been switched off. However, experts also warn that opening the landing door with the key is extremely dangerous, only for those with expertise to do it.

Shortcut for landing door safety contact

🔧 A common case used by technicians is to replace equipment assemblies with cheap, easy-to-buy components. For example, for a device that serves the automatic rescue function (ARD – Automatic Rescue Device) of a high-class elevator, due to its high cost, long time to order abroad, etc.. The technician used a cheap single-phase UPS with contactor for the ARD unit. The price of a 3-phase ARD set according to European standards is from 40 to 55 million VND, while a single-phase UPS and connecting equipment only costs from 3 to 6 million, only 1/10 of the cost of the standard equipment. Although in theory, even using a single-phase UPS, the ARD unit can still work, but the probability of danger is very high, in addition, it can also cause damage and reduce the lifespan of the traction machine and other equipment of the elevator.

👉The way to detect the replacement of equipment that does not meet the standards can be by observing the CO, CQ, the specifications in the records. Or request actual testing many times to check if the device is operating stably and at the correct capacity.

All the actions of the technical staff can cause immediate harm, but there are also many cases where the elevator fails after a while. And like that, the elevator has become a potential hazard in the building without consumers knowing.

This behavior is dangerous for users

🔧There are also many maintenance units that use all means to win contracts by relationships or devalue the market to create competitive advantages. These units often hire cheap seasonal workers, do not have enough qualifications, knowledge and experience, so they can make serious technical errors in the implementation process. Besides the rules and standards that can be ignored, these technicians can come up with informal techniques to quickly complete the assigned tasks and this problem has caused  significant influence on their colleagues in decent business units.

“I have had a case where a technician intentionally disabled the anti-fall brake when detecting damage, but there was no immediate replacement part to solve the situation. So if the cable breaks or the control error causes the cabin to go down at an uncontrollable speed, it can cause a serious accident, “said Mr. Son, representative of Incosaf.

👉To avoid these risks, users must equip themselves with the necessary knowledge and first of all, they must choose reputable units from the scale, operation time, and influence of the brand. , especially after-sales policy…

The solution to eliminate dangerous “tricks”

The enchantment for temporary elevators to operate after the incident is usually carried out by technicians with limited qualifications, unethical, and heartless. Instead of advising customers to choose suitable replacement parts and equipment for repair and troubleshooting, technicians choose the option of replacing cheap and easy-to-find components. In those cases, the user of the elevator, in addition to facing danger, can also lose a lot of money to fix the problem.

Cheap, poor quality expansion screws, the part inside the concrete is too short not able to bear the pulling force

In fact, the techniques of technical staff to overcome arising errors for temporary elevators to operate are usually only applicable to domestically assembled or mid-range elevators that do not integrate safety layer. However, European elevators imported into Vietnam are designed with many safety features against intentional mistakes of technical staff to ensure absolute safety for users.

According to engineer Nguyen Duc Tien – Director of Gama Service, European high-class elevators are usually imported complete units, according to strict CE standards (Conformité Européenne). These products have very high synchronization, integrated with many functions, many levels of safety. In particular, there are some types of elevators that are fully integrated with 4-layer safety functions (SRS, ARD, Emcall, SWS) to ensure absolute safety for users.

Engineer Tien emphasized, the safety features of European elevators, in addition to high synchronization, are also closely linked. That is, if a function fails, equipment will be turned off or omitted, the user will immediately receive a warning and the elevator will stop working.

Therefore, for European imported elevators, it is almost impossible for technical staff to apply “sly tricks” to intervene, but can only replace genuine equipment and components to thoroughly overcome those error.

Besides, choosing the right reputable distributor, committed to responsible after-sales service will be very important for the elevator that customers use to be really safe, useful, and bring a lot of value.

Choice is more important than effort.