nandi toyota ruins my day

[dr fate]

it was a very strange situation i faced,i had booked a toyota innova 'v'spec on 17'th of october and typicaly was advised by the dealership that finance formalities would be over in 4 days i told them not to hurry and a string of holidays were starting in the same day but the over-helpfull staff said they would manage by then,

my fears came through and the finance did not come through due to the "personal commitments"of the concerned party!
i called up nandi toyota on saturday and told them that until the finance was dealt with i would leave behind a security deposit equal to the financiers future obligation and collect the vehicle(had done such a thing in vijai for my scorpio)to which they readily agreed and salesperson with a touch of pomposity asked me to choose a day to give delivery of the readily available vehicle!i asked if tuesday was ok?she said fine and to come with the required instrument(cash)and collect the vehicle,

what happend next was the most un-explainable in my history of buying cars(twice a year)..
i called up at 11 am half way with my family as a fore-thought i called up to inform them about my arrival as my mother and father cannot sit too long there,the person casually answered my call and told me that the r.t.o was closed!i was shocked and managed to ask'but you had promised...i was cut short with a rude voice saying that she said that the showroom would be open on tuesday and had not said she would deliver the vehicle!!!i said you could have...again i was interuptted and told that there is no use of speaking as the r.t.o was closed and says"PLEASE CALL ME TOMORROW AND I WILL SEE IF I CAN DELIVER IT'it was a very bad feeling to inform your expectent family(it was my gift to my mother)that there would be no new car coming to our home and were spoken to in the most frivolous,rude and highly in-sensitive manner as i feel its their job to track on r.t.o holidays and not treat a customer so shabbily,

i called my people to tell them not to hand over the finance document to the showroom,but was told that the concerned person 9 days later had asked my people to hand over the documents to his house!!!
when the person who recomended the showroom(toyota has a reward progamme to their customers who rope in customers for them)called the sales person and asking her what her problem is apparently she asked him who is the customer?when he repeated my name she supposedly said'in that case i will deal with him!!!!!

now the my friend is a multiple toyota owner and his family runs eicher mitsubishi dealership and has several toyotas in his family,

in the morning another sales person sent me a sms(no call!!)to come and collect the vehicle as the r.t.o was open!

i finally found it below my dignity to speak or go ahead with the purchase i sent a cancellation letter and ended the matter there,nobody even called to ask why!i did not inform that i was from the same industry since i did not deem it to be appropriate,

iam preparing a letter directly to toyota with statements of all who have interacted with these 'sales' team'on their official company letterheads who left no stone un-turned to make my day miserable.

p.s:iam picking up my innova through ravindu with whom i had a long association they more then made up my day and making me guilty,
thanks for hearing me out...regards.

[vid6639]

Hey Dr. Fate why not try writing to ACi magazine as well as newspapers. Thats very sad of Nandi toyota. I've found ravindu much better although i havent bought a toyota but as far as test drives are concerned the ravindu salespersons are far better than nandi.
You should really take the matter to toyota. Also send a copy to toyota HQ in japan.
People should know that sales team change colours like a chameleon before and after purchase.
Did you recover back the entire amount from Nandi?
How did ravindu handle the situation?

[rahul_intlad]

Dr. Fate kindly forward the above[if you haven't already] to voc@tkm.co.in


as well.


Phone : Direct CR Dept.++91-80- 66292249





Ps: It is the toyota india customer relations department email ID and phone number,if you want I could give you mail IDs of higher up guys as well but first try these.

[ravibhat]

I heard similar bad service stories from Ravindu toyota people as well sales team also service, so it appears for me bad customer support is increasing unfortunately.

Its creates more bad impression when luxury car service stations like toyota give bad service like this...

A day back when I visited Ravindu and Nandi they helped me immediately to find out vehicle's history which I was thinking to buy, for my luck I came to know guy (direct seller) who is about to sell innova has tampered the ODO from 40+K to 26K. since he has serviced his innova when ODO was 40K around 2 months back..

Ravi.

[Nikhilb2008]

I have a feeling that sometimes these issues are blown out of proportion.

With all due respect to dr fate, ( I dont know the full story, so cant really comment on your particular case), but we at tbhp somehow play up these issues.

There are of course some issues that are outrageous. Like the Metro Ford totalling a Fiesta issue and the TAFE ACCESS Skoda repair issue...

But cmon, the other issues are quite minor and out of the thousands of members of tbhp, hardly a handful have had a bad experience with the dealer.

I think that is a part and parcel of the industry. My sympathies with the people who had bad experiences. I guess they just had some bad luck.

But you cant expect a 100% satisfaction rating anywhere.

Lexus is considered to be one of the best companies when it comes to A.S.S but even they acknowledge that 100% is impossible.

So, I dont think we should start judging companies on the basis of one or two isolated incidents.

but of course, this doesnt mean that we sit back and let them take the consumer for a ride. Just that we should react in a sane manner and not blow things out of proportion.

@Dr Fate --- Good to hear that you at least had a good experience with Ravindu Toyota. Congrats on your new purchase !! Hope your mom likes her gift

[satish_appasani]

Nikhil, I can't agree with you. If somebody has offended my feelings even minutely, i wouldn't let them enjoy my money be it a car dealer or a grocey store next to my house.

[rahul_intlad]

Dr fate himself is in the automobile service field so he would be in a better position than most of us to understand how customer service runs and how it should be.

[dr fate]

true here,iam getting a good lesson of how to treat customers though i feel the clientile i am expecting(my sales activity is starting in mid 2007)would have flung some explatives in the toyota premises which even if it would have been mildly translated to the well polished japanese they would commit sucide!the daily grind we go through in my premises is nightmarish yet we have been recognised by our parent company as ones customers trust the most in terms of service and understanding,
which is also why we tend to over look most of the faults made by fellow dealers,as we understand their pressures,

thats why i started the thread with saying'i had a strange experience'firstly i or my friend(he is a major dealer for mitsubishi canter trucks)never introduce ourselves as being of the same industry,2 reasons

1)the top man will usher us in and recollect some common contact and we are locked!no asking for anything in respect of relationship!lost a bargaining factor!

2)they expect you to understand their problems!unfortunatly we have to!large scale compromises to maintain your dignity!

and my dear nikhil iam sure your father(much our senior in the industry)will tell you many more stories,

and we expect some one to just deliver what THEY promise by taking OUR money,

and sinceirly who has the time to waste by de-riding some one who is taking OUR hard earned money!!what is our gain?

yes iam taking up the issue with solid proof their frivolous sms,my friend who was also at the reciving end and let them explain,
toyota has a very strict policy even if they fail to answer on one proof they will get a official memo which is bad considering they are loosing out on a rival manufacturer's associate.

[Ravibm]

Hi Guys,

Buying a car is not an everyday affair and we men pride over our purchas like a small kid over his racing toy car. Disappointment over not getting the car is evidient and is quite natural. No one from the dealership calling and talking is like rubbing salt to the wounds.

When Dr fate is spending a huge sum of rupees (Nearing 7 lakhs) he deserves a better treatment. The dealership should have atleast apologised and sent a box of chocolates to clear the air.

I am speaking with information from one side only. It would be fair if we had the Sales person from the dealership to defend. But in simple words I will say "Customer is the KING" No dealership should be rude in any circumstance to the customer. One unhappy customer will kill 10 prospective customer.

Saying all this, I also feel, one or two bad employees in a company sometimes bring in a lot of trouble and before the dealership realises it is too late. I would suggest Dr fate should report this matter to a senior person. This may help to make sure one more customer will not go disappointed like Dr fate.

[dr fate]

true sir but i have to write the letter to the concerned officials once i recive reply from nandi toyota,
i will wait for 2 more days,and i doubt they can defend themselves as after being so voiceferous they have chosen to remain silent,actually there was/is no issue here but complecency,

well i took delivery from ravindu my innova on 29th and being a regular customer i spoke to their manager who informed me that their sales team is given a target which is easily met compared to thier rival counterparts but they get no incentives hence atriation levels is very high which breeds complecency of getting a job easily elsewhere as ex toyota employees are highly sought after by others for their levels of quality at work,
she also informs me that it is the work atmosphere and corparate status which is rare in this field which is the major plus here,

coming to nandi i heard mine is not the only issue and even toyota is aware of their falling quality standards which gives them much less customers than ravindu and even thier customer profile being well comparable to lcv customers may be the reason why the sales person chose to be on the defensive to cut a arguement before it began,

i would be obliged if you set a thread for quality and customer reletionship in auto sector which would go through comprahensive list of what and how it should run in service industry,we could discuss a lot there.

[ravibhat]

Right said Ravibm, When I experienced bad service from BIMAL and MUL when my swift had few issues I had put article against them and at least I received 10,000 hits. I have shown MUL and BIMAL I have made 7 customers not buy MUL products, they shopped either fiat or hyundai, then suddenly they called me and rectified the glitches in my car which took hardly maximum a day for them.

Bottomline : Dealership/service station should respect customers

Regards,

Ravi.

[dr fate]

Today at 1pm i got a call from nandi toyota(based on my complaint to TKM)and they also have sent me a e-mail apologizing on behalf of their sales person,

they termed the incident as 'disgusting' and un-fortunate and accepeted that none from their staff could provide reasonable explanation towards this incident from nandi toyota's end,

and also said that the said person had erred in making a promise(delivery)which she could not keep,a point which is not justified on any excuses and a serious fault according to him,

she made another person sms me is a strict no-no and she did not call or report the cancellation to her seniors as per rules so that damage control could have been made,in other words she forwarded the letter directly to accounts department and tried to hush up the matter,

now why all this excercise i asked!!!because the faults admitted above is a black mark on the person's performance sheet and hence instead of reasoning and accepting fault she decided to take the over-smart way,

now according to the gentleman strict action would be initiated and they would inform me on that later,

i told them about my friend and even there she tried to justify with her seniors about her actions of calling him a 'third party'despite my authorisation to speak on my behalf 'ignoring the fact that he was a prized repeat customer of nandi'(in the words of the senior staffer who called me)

he concluded saying that it was a disaster for her carrer in nandi,

i feel vindicted by this though not happy at all and a visit to my premises as a good-will gesture has been requested,

iam thankful to mr arvind sadasivan(cro)for having called up and have handled this matter in such a un-biased manner and calling a spade-a spade.

[Nikhilb2008]

Nice to hear of this. At least one company is awake and doing something abt Customer care