Aquaguard - King of the Jungle!

When it comes to selling water purifiers in India, the Aquaguard range of water purifiers from Eureka Forbes Ltd are without doubt the leaders in the lucrative water purifier market! But, as is the case with best sellers like Aquaguard, you are going to hear a lot of positive experiences and a lot of horror stories as well. The general consensus is while they have quality products that are unmatched by most other water purifiers in the market, their customer service which involves annual maintenance is horrible!

Before we discuss this issue a little further, let us first see Eureka Forbes' most popular range of products:

REVIVA: Price Rs.14,500	AQUAGUARD CLASSIC: Price Rs.7,000

Image Source: Eureka Forbes

According to their catalogue, they have over 10 water purifiers ranging from Rs.7,000 to Rs.15,000. Their range of products treat the water with varying levels of technology. The main difference is that the expensive systems like the Reviva have larger water production capacity per hour, more water storage capacity, and use the Reverse Osmosis Technology (RO) to treat the water. So what is RO?

Without getting too scientific, Reverse Osmosis water purifiers use a thick membrane to provide a barrier for solute materials. All particles such as bacteria and viruses are stopped by the membrane while pure water is allowed to go through. But there is a problem!

The membrane and other parts of the water purifier need yearly maintenance and that is where the customer issue comes up. Now one of the reasons why Eureka Forbes water purifiers are so popular is because of their marketing strategy! They have literally thousands of salesmen knocking on people's doors and trying to their products. Now, these salesmen will tell you what you want to hear and they might even include a discount. BTW, a piece of advice: IF THE SALESMEN OFFERS YOU A DISCOUNT, NEVER PAY WITH YOUR CREDIT CARD. ALWAYS PAY CASH! Why? Because, they are salesmen! They will charge your credit card for the original amount and you will only find out when you see your credit card statement! And I guarantee, you will not get your money back even if you make complaints till the cows come home!

So anyway, the issue is that not only do you have to pay for the water purifier, but you would have to pay for the maintenance cost and any parts that are damaged/worn out (most likely after 1-2 years). It might cost you an additional Rs.2,000-3,000 per year.

The water quality is good in both systems and they will do the job. But, there is a taste issue! Before you buy this system, demo it! Maybe you can find a friend who has a system that uses RO and one that doesn't. Taste the water and see if you like the taste of the advanced RO system. I have heard of some people complaining of the taste.

Overall, Aquaguard has fantastic products but their customers service needs a major overhaul. The salesmen need to be monitored more closely for their unethical practices and customer complaints should be dealt with promptly. Salesmen who cheat customers should be removed from their network or penalised in some sort of way.

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