Aircon with Gain City (Review): Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
This review of Gain City and our air-conditioner (“air-con”) is a long time coming. However, I have learned that for most household appliances, especially big ticket items, it takes a while for true colours to show. Same for big companies.
At the time of our purchase, Mitsubishi Starmex was a popular choice because of heavy advertisement. We supposed their prices were super marked up to buy so much advertising airtime. Hence we went with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries instead.
Half a year was all it took for the air-con unit in our master bedroom to stop being cooling. We are low usage users as in we don’t switch on the air-con every night. The air/wind that came out from air-con was not cold for a few times, when eventually no air came out when we turned on. In times of “error”, the run or timer light flash will flash for a certain number of times. Count and refer to the manual to get an indicative idea of the error you are having.
This made Mitsubishi Heavy Industries sounds like a bad brand to buy. However, the break-down could also be due to Gain City’s installation gone wrong. So should you still consider this air-con brand? Yes, look at the ‘Useful Tips‘ section below to understand why.
Air-Con Purchase
We got Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (“Mitsubishi”) for S$4,513, which comprises of:
- Inverter Split System 4 (S$4,239),
- 16mm drainage pipe
- 1/2″ Insulation/22SWG Copper (FOC upgrade)
- 2 times installation (S$85), and
- Extended Warranty (1+4 years*) (S$189).
*1 year warranty from Mitsubishi and the extended warranty of another 4 years was to be fulfilled by Gain City.
Ordered on Feb 2017, and delivered on May 2017.
Our contractor recommended two times installation for the painting of walls. That meant installing the air-con trunking before the painting. When all the painting was done, the air-con units would go up. In this way, the painters could paint over the trunking “boxes” first and also not accidentally brush on the edges of the air-con units.
Extended warranty was also a good buy. More on it in ‘Useful Tips‘ section.
Part 1: Preliminary Check
10 October 2018: With no cool air, we thought our air-con unit needed cleaning. Called Gain City to clean but the air-con guy said our unit was very clean. He only topped up our gas and left. According to him, there was no need to top up so fast because our usage was low. Moreover, if the non-cooling problem returned soon enough, it meant there might be a possibility of gas leak.
7 February 2019: No cool air again, and so called Gain City. The same guy came and checked. He then arranged for further inspection by the installers.
Part 2: Installers’ Check
12 February 2019: The installers checked the air-con installation, and claimed there was no problem, no leak. They simply topped up the gas and told us to arrange with Gain City for a pressure test if the problem returned.
Super bad experience with Gain City’s installers.
Without permission, they used my water faucets, in both toilets, to wash their hands and some of their stuff. I’m okay with them using, but it is only courteous to ask. And thing was, they made my soap dispenser, taps and sinks dirty with dirt marks. My floors throughout the house, toilet included, are not spared of dirt and debris too.
Okay, I still could close one eye on these. I just suck thumb and clean up the house again.
But the straw that set my volcano on eruption was a Bangladeshi worker (I’m not sure if I got his country right) who used my toilet without permission. Even I would ask my friends before I used their toilets. He didn’t flush the toilet and pee-ed over my toilet seat and floor! To make matters worse, my baby’s shower stuff is very near the toilet bowl! 🙁 I would have shifted them if I had known he was going to use my toilet.
Installer’s Check?
On the work front, they pried open my false ceiling to check on the installation. I was looking at it and thought they did a terrible job and destroyed the box, leaving an ugly hole near the air-con unit. Good thing I asked one of the workers, a PRC guy, about it and he said he FORGOT to plaster it back! And then he went on to mend the hole in a haphazard way. There’s a white patch at that corner (see if you can spot it in the first photo of this post).
It was as if they came on purpose to mess up the house. They checked and said nothing was wrong. Told us to arrange with Gain City customer service for a pressure test if the problem returns. But you know what, the team who did the pressure test at a later date said (paraphrased), “The installers should have put in request for pressure test during their check that time. Because they can see the “spoilage” with naked eye.”
ARGH. Simply not doing their job and wasting our time.
Part 3: Aircon Pressure Test & Results
7 March 2019: Problem came back again. Called Gain City again to arrange for pressure test.
11 March 2019: BAD review alert!
Hubby took leave for the pressure test, so that I would be free to take care of the active toddler. He opened the door and WAS shocked to see the same guy who first came on 10 October 2018. The guy was also perplexed when he saw that he’s coming to our place. He knew that we should be doing pressure test instead of having him. So he did nothing and had us call Gain City to arrange for pressure test (which we did!) AGAIN.
We called in again and demanded an explanation. The manager explained that the customer service guy who took our call previously didn’t book pressure test because he was new and could not understand well because of his poor command of English! So he just assumed and book the wrong test for us. What an excuse.
Anyway, they arranged for that air-con guy who did nothing and left earlier on to return and help us to top up gas. This is so that our air-con could sustain until 19 March 2019 for our first pressure test, 21 March would be the second. So if you are arranging for pressure test, make sure you are given two dates.
19 March 2019: Installed pressure test equipment to all air-con units and condenser.
21 March 2019: Check the results from pressure test and remove the equipment.
With such a bad experience with the installers, I was pleasantly surprised with the team who came to do the pressure test. Made up of 2 Malaysian Chinese, they seem very professional and efficient in what they do. As they removed all the air-con units to check, they even requested for newspaper and laid them on the floor to collect falling debris. And at least they asked permission to use the toilet.
What’s Wrong with our Air-Con?
Apparently, the installers didn’t do a good installation job for two air-con units the first time round. Hence, during the first pressure test, the guys helped to cut the “spoiled” parts away (which I think the installer team should have done when they came to check).
Moreover, for the units in our master bedroom and living room, there’s the fan coil problem. Good thing, it’s not the problem of the condenser, otherwise all units could not be used. We also avoided the worst case scenario, where the pipes are the problem. In that case, the false ceiling to conceal the living room’s air-con trunking, along with all the trunking, have to be removed.
The guys brought back the two spoiled air-con units to see what’s defective and order the spare parts accordingly. If the Singapore agent has those parts, then the repair time would be fast, around one week. If not, it will be around one month as the spare parts are shipped from overseas.
Keep calling Gain City if it’s taking too long, so that they might in turn pressure the agent who might just get the parts from new units instead of waiting for the shipment.
Useful TIPS
Which Air-Con Brand?
Since the air-con pressure test guys are experienced, I asked them which brand is recommended based on break down frequency. He said nowadays all the brands are not made in Singapore and thus every brand has its own fair share of problems. Last time, he would have specific brands to recommend but it’s hard to say now which is better.
I asked about Daikin, because they were running a lot of advertisement. He said they ran a superb promotion last year (2016) and hence many ordered from them. He did say Daikin only does air-con, unlike some other brands. I assumed it means Daikin is slightly better than the rest, since it’s specialised.
Extended Warranty
Warranty is very important. The staff from Gain City who sold us a fridge (and not air-con) told us he got extended warranty for his air-con too. He has heard a lot from his fellow air-con colleagues and realise air-con these days are not as sturdy as before. So it’s highly likely we would utilise the extended warranty. And his words ring so true now.
Gain City and Other Companies
To maintain a good working horse, be sure to service your air-con regularly. I’m not sure if I recommend buying air-con from Gain City. Their installation standards and service don’t really warrant a significant mark up in their prices. It really depends on the team assigned to you.
For air-con servicing and repairs, you can easily find many companies doing so these days, such as DW Aircon, or many more at sghomeneeds.com/services/aircon-maintenance-or-repair.
What’s your experience with Gain City? What have you heard about them? Share them in the comments below.
DISCLAIMER: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the comments section are those of the commenters, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or position of Christina or JoogoStyle.
I got my aircon installed by Gain City and it is ok though, they helped to clean up my place after the installation as well.
My aircon was just installed by Gaincity 2 days back, and the contractor has just made a whole mess in my prepainted house. With the trunking not aligned.. a few silicon droppings on the wall, even in one aircon unit they forgot to seal up the bottom with silicon. Blooated patches in my masterbedroom. How i wish I came across your post before purchasing with them. Paid for a relatively high price compared to market price and did not top up warranty, which i think I should now. Their contractor did not give me a good feeling that they have done a good job after reading your post. All future buyers think twice before buying from Gain City.. the renowned reputable aircon company we trust..
Oh no, such a horrendous experience! Hope you feedback this to gain city and have them send another better team to fix the problems.
I installed my aircon with gain city and it’s pretty ok though, they helped to clean up my place after the installation.
They also hid the piping neatly! Installed the aircon for about half a year and all is still good 🙂
Good for u! Yeap my installation process was alright too.. and problem only came up later in less than a year though. But it really depends on the team you get at gain city.
hi, May I know the track light brand?
Thanks
Got it from taobao! 🙂
I bought a new aircon from Gain City on 12 June 2020 and that’s when all my troubles started.
At first the aircon is not cold and I found a pile of dust and rubble left behind by Gain City after installation. After clearing the mess I thought the matter would be settled but unfortunately, that was not the end.
The aircon starts making noises – rattling, whoosh-whoosh, gurgling – it’s an orchestra.
As a result, I spent the next 6 months taking leave to fox the problem
22 Aug – Change Blower
11 Nov – Change Blower
8 Dec – Change Motor and Blower
15 Dec – Readjustment of Motor because of Loud sound. Didn’t work
22 Dec Unable to fix intermittent noises and Mitsubishi offered me an option of a refund. Unfortunately, I will have to go through Gain City to get my money back.
The best part is Gain City didn’t do anything. All the changes and effort came from Mitsubishi Electric. They went all the way to help me, to no avail.
Here’s the list of correspondence.
Mitsubishi emailed Gain City on 24 Dec.
I have emailed Gain City on
24 Dec
30 Dec
2 Jan
4 Jan
Called them on 4 Jan.
Chat online on 4 Jan.
Chat online on 5 Jan.
There wasn’t any reply. I even told them no need refund, just come and take the aircon back.
But still no reply.
So I’m writing this to warn as many people as I can. Don’t buy from Gain City. They don’t care after the money had been paid. There’s no customer service at all. So please avoid them!
Sorry to hear about your bad experience with Gain City! Hope your aircon is functioning well now.
I do have the similar experience as you. My air con also making noise after servicing. They first changed the motor. Now they say need to change blower coz it is damaged. So I need to pay for the blower even though I am under warranty. The noise came only after they service my air con, therefore I am unwilling to pay. so they also dun want to change for me!
I have bad experience with gain city. I bought my air con 5 years ago with extended warranty. I even upgraded my air con piping material for better assurance. But after 1 month, the water start dripping from the ducting… So I called gain city. The same technician who do the installation for us came. He just help to added something inside the duct and then left. After a few weeks, water dripping again. So the same technician came to check again. The technician, said it is condensation nothing much he can do. Unless we pay to redo the piping again! He said he will do a larger ducting for us maybe it will help to stop the dripping.
We were puzzled, why at the beginning, he didn’t do it for us if that can solve the problem! Some more we did upgrade our piping material for better quality, by right there should not have any dripping from happening. So we were wondering did he actually use the upgraded material during the installation!
So after which we did not call for service anymore since we do not want to pay for redoing the piping and mess up the house. So in this case the warranty did not help us solve our problem, it is useless, as they never solve our problem. And till today, the dripping is still happening.
Also if your air con have any problem, the 1st thing the technician will say is your air con need servicing which is chargeable. And one of my room aircon service almost every year with them and now it has the most problem than the other aircon in other rooms. This shows that they are not as professional as they claimed to be. And they are around to earn money even though you have paid for the warranty. We feel so so cheated!
I don’t have confidence buying from Gaincity either. Guy who attended to me gave me a very bad impression. He was quite pushy, keep recommending me a model capacity he wanted to sell me instead of the model capacity I am interest in. Bad unprofessional salesmen who are only interested in making merchandise out of you Your comments certainly ascertain my doubts about the this company’s reliability.
Really bad experience with Gain city . I bought my LG system 4 aircon 3 years ago.
Same thing happen to me.
Till date, I’ve already encountered 2 major repairs, once was parts of the motor failure and another was mbr fcu breakage , need to change a new bracket. What’s worse, after the replacement the bracket doesn’t seems to able fit well and leaving a big gap between to the wall and the a/c unit and When asked the technician, everything was push to the source from their supplier (LG) .
My last encounter was even more extreme, in order not to honour my warranty, they advise that I need to do servicing because my a/c is choked, which I know that’s just not the case as there’s no noise heard from my a/c and I’m sure my a/c has been well maintained .So in order to move on , they recommended steam wash instead of chemical wash . But when I insisted on chemical wash which I know it would give a more thorough cleaning .
The technician would tell me they didn’t bring along ladder as it’s easier and would save them the effort of dismantling and switching off the gas . reason: (I’m leaving in the HDB maisonette and the a/c compressor is usually installed indoor and require high ladder) . And that’s not the first time the same technician telling me same old story ( you might want to take note the of technician number : 2949) .
Honestly , a good company should serve their customer with integrity , customer’s best interest and not earn by promoting service packages in order to avoid honouring the warranty clause. I have lodged complaints to but there wasn’t any reply .
My advise , think twice before you purchase from Gain city especially with their extended warranty package .
I also had a terrible experience with the aircon installers from Gain City. First they came late, didn’t even bother to call us to let us know they will be late, when they arrived, they weren’t even apologetic at all. And by late I don’t mean late by 5 or 10 minutes but by more than half an hour. Nevermind that, as this was my first time installing aircon, I asked one of them for advice and his recommendation how the trunkings should be laid out, he simply replied “up to you”. I told him I’m not so sure as such needed to listen to his suggestion first as he is more experienced in this, he just said “every house is different so I can’t tell you how”. My god, I’m living in a BTO HDB flat, how much different can it be from other flats? Or at least he can just let me know how they are planning to do it but he refused to tell me more. There is a lot more negative experience through out the whole installation but I’m too lazy to say more here. Just simply put, avoid buying aircon from Gain City. If you want to install aircon, get those installers directly from Mitsubishi, I had a very pleasant experience and job done by them. However if you happened to buy from Gain City, don’t bother with the extended warranty from them. If the installation was done well, there is no need to worry about any problems. Problems with aircon usually arise due to poor installation. If I had any problem I wouldn’t count on those Gain City guys, they probably mess it up further.
My experience with gain city was terrible too. My downstairs neighbour complained about leakage in the toilet. So HDB did a ponding test n found that gain city damaged the water proofing in the toilet as the drainage pipe was installed too close to the toilet floor. I called up gain city n the guy, Scott was super rude n replied that after 3 years then complained. Leakage happened after 3 days or 3 weeks n not after 3 years. Is understood that leakage to downstairs cannot see immediate, it takes time. HDB advised to get gain city to repair the hole in the wall damaged by them. I emailed their top management regarding this matter. No reply. Turn nasty when things happened. Don’t ever buy from gain city.
DISCLAIMER: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the comments section are those of the commenters, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or position of Christina or JoogoStyle.