Trauma with Honda and Stallion Honda Lucknow..

[cpyder]

Hi there, There was a time when me and my wife were very happy for our new Jazz. The space ship was the envy of my colleagues - for exactly one year.

On the 365th day, a bluebull happened scrape the right side of my car, writing off the fender, both doors and rear quarter. That wasn't a big problem. Things could have been worse. There was nothing much, no loss of control, no scratches - nothing.

What followed was the nightmare. Getting it fixed! Now, I had read a lot about Honda Service - and you got to give it to them - nice and hard at a place where it hurts them the most. They took about forty days to fix the car as they did not have some stupid spares. The quality of workmanship was worse than a roadside mechanic that repaired my Maruti 800. There were paint sprays all over the driver's window.

That wasn't enough for me though. Unfortunately, I had yet another accident 4 months down. If the last event was nightmare, I really do not know what to call this one. The car was given to Stallion Honda again, (there being no other choice in Lucknow). That was December second week. The car remained with them for about four months as they did not have spare parts (..again) only this time the spares need are not 'stupid' but smart ones, like the seat belt, crash sensors and the airbags.

Numerous calls to the Honda 121 (actually it should be 9-2-11) and mails to customer care have been of no use. The emails do not even get a customary automated reply! The call to customer care is usually conveyed to the workshop at Stallion Honda, who never bother to call the customer. When I call up Stallion - "Sir I am very sorry but the parts are yet to arrive."

It is almost impossible to believe that the critical spares have not reached the workshop even in last SIX MONTHS! I am quite confident, time is enough even if it needed a swimmer and a cyclist to fetch the spares from Japan. After all, people have gone around the world in eighty days.

Times have changed, now I am jealous of the guys who have other brands and can get much better service in shorter time.

So here it is :-

1. It is true that Honda does not care after it has sold the car. (heck it does not care even before that)
2. The mechanics are not motivated/well trained or both.
3. At Stallion Honda Lucknow, it takes about two hours for someone to take notice of you. Or lets put it this way, after two hours you make sure you get noticed.
4. The quality of work, especially cleanup, detailing etc is terrifying. I don't really know if it is OK to clean up headlights with rubbing compound! If your car is with them for paint job, you will definitely find the spray work on near by areas as well as some unusual places.
5. If you ask for a drop back home, which they proudly advertise, you would be dropped back in dirty, non AC Santro or they will utilise another customer's car which is with them for service. Even for these, you might have to pester them. But again, there is little choice as the workshop is way out of the city for a decent public transport.

P.S. - So many people suggested to change the car (apparently, its not suiting me) But it is such a fantabulous car otherwise.

Will I purchase another Jazz again? - No more Honda for me. Even if I won it in a lottery or something, I would sell it off at the earliest opportunity.

[samyakmodi]

@cpyder

I have been going through the similar plight. Though not in lucknow.
Guess you should write to the following addresses to get some response. Also do remember to post the link to this page.


Jnaneswar Sen
Sr. VP - Marketing
Honda Cars India
E-mail:
jsen@hondacarindia.com

Corporate:
saba@hondacarindia.com
ravisharma@hondacarindia.com
suniti@hondacarindia.com


Marketing:
anita@hondacarindia.com

President & CEO:
Takashi@hondacarindia.com
takashinagai@hondacarindia.com
tnagai@hondacarindia.com

try writing to all the 3 id's. one of them works.


Though you will get a reply from them, but do not expect it to be of much use. but there is no harm in trying.


@ mods : kindly merge this thread and mine (if you deem fit that is) and make it a sticky for all to see what honda's after sales service is like in case of accidents.
If not anything else, probably a threat to the brand value would wake up people at honda.

[sgiitk]

afaik Fortune Honda (the only dealership in Lucknow) is in the process of giving up the Franchise and switching to Audi. I hear that Pushp Honda Kanpur are likely to be the new franchisees for Lucknow as well. Could be some of your woes are because of this!

[GTO]

Originally Posted by cpyder

They took about forty days to fix the car as they did not have some stupid spares.

1.5 months to source parts for a car currently in production!

The car was given to Stallion Honda again, (there being no other choice in Lucknow).

Why not visit a good independent garage, if you aren't happy with the authorised outlet?

The car remained with them for about four months as they did not have spare parts (..again) only this time the spares need are not 'stupid' but smart ones, like the seat belt, crash sensors and the airbags.

Firstly, I'm glad to hear that you are safe. This sounds like a serious crash. Second, even Mercedes has hard-to-source fully imported parts, but they usually get them to the dealer in 2 weeks. Why should it take 4 - 6 months for Honda?

I don't care if the dealer is lousy. If you complained to Honda, they should have sorted the issue out long time back.

No one's really buying the Jazz. And unless Honda pulls its socks up on the after-sales front (which has always been a sore point BTW), the Jazz isn't going anywhere too soon.

[cpyder]

@GTO
I went to the authorised workshop as I wanted to keep my car 100% genuine. Was worried about warranty issues as well. But now I know they are equally worthless.

The accident was not serious. The impact was on the crash sensor, the seat belts locked up, air bags light came on but did not inflate.

@samyakmodi
I just went through your thread. First thought "so i am not the only one". Thanks for email ids. I shot off the mails already, although mails to Takashi has bounced.

@sgiitk
That is what I also came to know, Fortune is taking Audi dealership now.

[cpyder]

Okay, so finally it has happened. I think I must be one of the very few lucky fellas whose prayers to Honda helped. Thanks to samyakmodi for those contact details, I did shoot those mails to all those addresses. I was totally surprised when I got a call from Honda within three hours of sending those emails. I was promised that the parts will be despatched by next day (10 Jun). Next day, Stallion Honda called me up and told me that parts will be arriving that day or the day next and when can I get my car for repair. There did seem to be some urgency in those calls. I was engaged somewhere else and told them that I could get back to them in two weeks time and they confirmed the same. Apparantely someone in Honda top brass was keeping track of the issue.

I took my car back to them on the appointed day. The workshop people were like "sir, you did the right thing. These people (Honda supply chain) do not listen to us. Good you wrote mails to all these guys, that is why the parts have come."

The car was given to them on saturday. I explained to them certain additional shortcomings in the paint job that they had done earlier. There were paint marks all over, on the door opening handle on driver side, on the front grill including on the H badge, on the window garnishes - I mean practically everywhere. The panels were not put in place properly. In all it was a fourth or fifth grade job done by them. Also last time when my car was with them for almost four months, I asked them to do a servicing as well. And after that my average has fallen from 15-16kmpl to just about 12. (someone gave a tip : never ever ask for servicing if you car is in body shop or for any repairs. Get the servicing done as an independent procedure.)

I was promised the delivery on Tuesday. Going by my previous experience, I knew they would not be able to deliver the car on Tuesday. But I had to pester them else they would not repair it for another month. So I reached the workshop on Tuesday, around 5pm and deciphered that they probably started working on the car only after I gave them a call on tuesday morning.

I saw that none of my previous points had been attended to. So the SA wrote them down again and promised delivery next day. That was at around 7 pm and the mechanics were already packing up for the day. Since I knew Stallion better than they know themselves, I had expected this.

Next day again I had to virtually sit on thier heads to get the jobs done in time. They could not do anything about the paint marks. The garnishes are in same bad shape. Guess I will approach an independent garage now for replacing those.

Bottomline, I could get my car fully (almost) repaired after six and a half months, with a lot of signature marks from Honda all over. My car is back with me with bruises all over, none from the battle but all from the incomptetent doctors at Honda. But at least, she is with me now.

PS: This is all thanks to Team BHP that my issues were resolved. Grateful to "The Team" here and always will be. My best wishes and good luck to all those who come here with their problems, bhp related or otherwise.