A Honda Fan's angst with their authorized Service Center

[manveet]

Honda's are amazing cars but the Service Centers are not even close. Disgraceful would be an understatement really. If you have the time, you may like to read what pain one has to go through even with authorized service centers.

Let me first establish my brand-loyalty to the Honda Brand.
1988-1998 : Honda Civic (4th Gen) - sold at 95,000kms
1998-till date : Honda City 1.5 ExiS - done 58,000kms
2004-till date : Honda Accord AT - done 12,000kms

I have visited South City Honda (Badarpur border, NCR) for getting my Honda's serviced on a number of occassions.

Please read below for a few (of many) incidents that would probably surprise you.

Incident 1a
About a month back I took my Accord for a service. I SPECIFICALLY ask the guy .. "CHECK THE BRAKE PADS". I get it back with comment saying "Brake Pads OK". 4 days later I hear major sounds from the car. When taken to them, they say that the Brake Pads are absolutely finished as a result of which Drums have been damaged and I will need to get them replaced at a cost of 4k and 16k respectively.(this is 4 days after they said BRAKE PADS OK) . After arguments, the dont charge us for the Drums but only the Pads. They keep the Car for 3 days.

Incident 1b
I get to drive the car a coupla days after they return it and the first thing I note is that the Audio CD's are stuck and I cannot even enable the CD option. It was definately OK before the car went to them for the 3 day brake-work. They now claim ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSIBILITY. The GM tells me on my face that I must have spoilt it and am putting the blame on them. The approximate cost to extract the CD's -- Rs. 16k (16k .. YES 16 thousand bucks to remove 2 damn CD's .. the stereo doesnt even have a bloody Reset button). At the end he was nice enough to give me the address of Panasonic people in South Ex so that I can straightaway take my car there. Let's see what they say now.

Incident 2..n
Honda City Wipers were very slow. Service Guy checks and says .. "Motor is spoilt and needs to be replaced" .. cost was somthing like 2k+. I take the car to a roadside mechanic who fixes the problem after 20 minutes of oiling and takes 150 bucks.

There are numerous other incidents like the one mentioned above that I am at an utter loss at what to do.

Can anyone tell me if this can be taken up with Honda directly?
Should I simply change my Service Centre but will this really solve the problem?

Maybe this post doesnt serve an end, but it helps to vent my frustration with the pathetic state of affairs at authorized Service Centers like Southend Honda.

Regards,
Manveet.

[gigy]

service stations in india are all like this, they want to make money on selling of spares. dont take responsibility of vehicle when it is with them. tata concorde ambature in chennai is a pain. they cant handle their own tata cars and they are trying to maintain palios.
i went for a radiator leak problem and they blew up my ecu, god knows how. i am sure they have stolen it and sold to someone else.

[zenx]

Well, all I can say is join the club :(
My 1993 Zen was way better maintained for much lesser than my City was - Honda Svc did tend to be snooty, expensive and untrustworthy for their diagnostics.

[Sahil]

Honda makes good cars but their service centers suck Period. They need to learn a thing or two from Toyota about service.

[amit]

The approximate cost to extract the CD's -- Rs. 16k

So much for cheap Honda spares.

[tsk1979]

Wow, the dealerships are really out to kill the honda brand.
In another thread we had an argument about wether ford or honda are better.
Guess what, in the JD power Sales and After sales satisfaction study. The last is Tata and honda is just above tata.
Then there is JD power APEAL and initial problems study. Honda city wins as the best car with minimal problems.
It a classic case of a very good car supported by extremely poor dealerships.
I suggest you write to Honda directly about these incidents. Honda cannot choose to ignore complaints from customers with competition threatining the overthrone the segment leader.

[headers]

HI Manveet,

Sorry to hear about your misfortune..The dealerships are really not mature enough to handle such beauties..

WRITE TO HONDA DIRECT and create a scene..All the best!!!

[devarshi84]

I wrote to HM and got a response once. but that was the one and only time I did.

Atleast you are dealing with Honda. YOu certainly have a good chance.

[Shan2nu]

Sometimes, you're better off not going to the Honda dealers.

The AC comp clutch on my car had gone bust. Honda said the whole unit needs to be changed and that it would cost 18K for the compressor unit (excluding labour). Ordered for it.

A few days later the comp arrived but, without the clutch. That would be extra he said. ***, how do they expect the comp to work without the clutch?

So, after talking to a few bhpians, Iceman91 (Amit) took me to this AC guy in Blore who gave me the same comp made by the same company for 13K (with clutch).

So i've decided. Except the engine and gearbox, i wont let Honda touch anything. Everything else, will be repaired elsewhere.

Shan2nu

[iraghava]

Oh join the list of disgruntled Honda owners. The cars are great but the service is pathetic, infact I own a couple of Hyundai's and the service there has been so much better.

@ Manveet - I suggest you try Prime Honda once they are a little far away but are better than Southend Honda who completely suck. I have had terrible experience with them. But even Prime has been shoddy at times and i guess this is mainly due to too many sales & too few dealers.

Also I am now seriously thinking of creating a "HONDA SERVICE SU**S" thread and after getting everyone to post on it send it to some senior honchos at Honda which have so far remained unapproachable.

[filcord]

I have had the same problem with my earlier Ford service. Car was great but service was grossly inefficient.
The larger question is why does this happen, right across the board, Honda, Ford, etc? Here are my two bits:

1. Too few service points and company reluctance to authorise more. Maruti by contrast has flooded the market with MASS and I now feel, (after buying a Maruti again after 10 years) that this is a real reason.
In the US there are so many options to service your car, you can bet a bad garage would sink in the competition. This is aggravated in India by the refusal of companies to sell their spares in the open market.

2. Inadequate training of the service supervisors by the Auto manufacturers. Nimish mentioned tyre rotation was omitted. This is such a routine but crucial task, that deliberate omission can only mean the supervisor was not trained by the auto major in getting his basics spot on.

3. No surprise inspections, feed-back procedures, to check performance of the garage and pull them up for it.


4. No technical competence at the top, most dealers do not have technically competent men taking decisions, it is usually businessmen with "bania" mentality.

[wolfinstein]

Can't say much about your Honda Service stations..But Till date...I've never faced any issue with a Mitsubishi Service Station..Excel Motors in Delhi- where she goes for service/repair...and had the expierence of the service station in Lucknow- when one of my power windows got stuck...and jaipur..I think HM has some specified High quality standards all HM centers follow...Although one of my close friend owns both an Ikon and NHC...He always cribs about the service center how they misbilled, changed parts without permission..On one such occasion his entire Wiper Assembly was changed in his Ikon...when he had specifically asked only to have the Wipers checked...Sometimes the centers have a quota of warranty and spares to claim from the company..so they do these acts intentionally...and say ki sir yeh toh kharab hain, par warranty mein hai na..why worry...! Sorry sometimes something which is Absolutely fine is replaced...No spare can ever match the quality of the OEM Part..!

regards

[adarsh76]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Wow, the dealerships are really out to kill the honda brand.
In another thread we had an argument about wether ford or honda are better.
Guess what, in the JD power Sales and After sales satisfaction study. The last is Tata and honda is just above tata.
Then there is JD power APEAL and initial problems study. Honda city wins as the best car with minimal problems.
It a classic case of a very good car supported by extremely poor dealerships.
I suggest you write to Honda directly about these incidents. Honda cannot choose to ignore complaints from customers with competition threatining the overthrone the segment leader.

The recent JD Power study shows Hyundai ahead of Honda in Initial Quality Study but behind Honda in APEAL. But when the number of points are considered in APEAL Hyundai is not too far behind.

JD Power Initial Quality Study:
http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/new...asp?ID=2006082

JD Power APEAL Study:
http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/new...asp?ID=2006100