Short Review : Overall rating 1* - Defective Online product, Bad after-sales service.
Sales - 2 stars:
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We bought a Pakrashi Harmonium after much consultation in 2013 over the internet. Pakrashi is a big name in Harmonium market and given there were multiple reviews which were positive about the internet site and the the associated facebook page, we were convinced that the order will be duly honored. We bought a scale changer harmonium ( http://www.pakrashi-harmonium.com/scale-changer-harmonium-c… ) for around AUD 594 in July 2013 given our remote chance of visiting Calcutta for purchasing an instrument in person. Mr. Shuvojit Pakrashi was very communicative and expedited the order quickly once the money was received.
http://www.pakrashi-harmonium.com/scale-changer-harmonium-c…
Make and Quality (as delivered): 2 stars
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The biggest issue with ordering product online is the trust factor. We were uber-excited about the Harmonium since this would be a legacy instrument for the family unlike the electronic ones. The harmonium from Pakrashi was well-packaged and in spite of that a corner (metal) cover on one of the corners had been dented during transit. I was prepared to overlook that if the harmonium were to sound fine.
I opened the Harmonium for playing and it sounded absolutely fine. And then came the biggest issue - The scale changer would not work - i.e. the knob was flimsy, had no integrity and would rotate without allowing the scale-changing pad to move freely on the keys thereby making the harmonium a very difficult proposition to play live since I rely greatly on transpose for performance.
After-Sales-Service - 0 stars :
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I was really upset that the trust has been broken as I was afraid and contacted Mr. Shuvojit Pakrashi . He did respond well by coming on skype and guiding me to "fix" it using pliers. However it simply did not work since the knob was too loosely attached and only an experienced factory-worker would have been able to fix it. Given my inability to go to Calcutta, the harmonium sat at home for 2 years without being played. I was peeved and had come to an uncomfortable but inescapable conclusion that I would have to live with this defective harmonium.
Luckily, Mr. Shuvojit Pakrashi visited Sydney (he is now in Sydney as I type) for expanding his business and repairing local harmoniums. I took my harmonium to him and after examining and declaring that the harmonium needed absolutely no other service (it was in perfect tuning), he fixed the knob and the scale changer in a couple of days. And then came the fee..
A ridiculous $100 for fixing a product which was shipped with a factory defect !
When I tried to convince him that he must not be charging me at all and that I should have got the harmonium without the defect in the first place, he dismissed my plea with the casual nonchalance typical of local Indian shop-keepers who fault the customer squarely for the defect, claiming it arose from the mishandling of the product. I have played the keyboard from 1994 and I am the last person to be manhandling a harmonium which has been procured at such a high price.
Thus I ended up paying a full price for a defective harmonium and paid a service fee of $100 to fix it.
Recommendation
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• Do not order a Pakrashi harmonium online if you cannot afford to go to Calcutta any time later to fix what comes to you. It is not worth it. The trust factor for online orders is poor.
• The instrument's sound itself is great. If you can go to their physical store and buy it directly after full visual inspection, you will be better-off.
