[MaxTorque]

Dealerships and their staffs will continue doing such nasty things, we need to be more cautious nowadays.

I remember Deccan Honda, Pimpri guys tried to do the same thing to me when I went for servicing my Brio. Initially the estimate came around Rs.8,000. After my scrutiny, the bill came to Rs.3,800.

[veedub89]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

Just a word of caution if anyone is planning to get his/her Honda car serviced at Samara Automax Honda, Mayapuri.

They are recommending treatments/procedures which are not endorsed in your service booklet. A friend recently burnt his hands (and his wallet) when he decided to "trust" the service advisor hoping they would know better since he isn't much familiar with cars. He bought a Honda basis the good brand name.

Coming to his 30k service for 13'Brio. Even though the car has run about 30k KMs only, this particular service was for the 50k interval based on the time elapsed.

I am going to take my Jan 2013 Brio with 30,500kms on the clock for servicing tomorrow. So this kind of "hits home".

My local dealership also tries to pull all fancy ones on me when I drop off the car for service. But my answer to anything of this sort is "please explain why we need this treatment/service, what exactly are you going to do and how do you propose to do it". In my experience they never have answers to all 3 questions if its a nonsense treatment.

I think you should ask/question everything on the pre-service sheet that the engineer generates. Most people don't do this, I have noticed.

A car dealership is a business after all. They make a ton of money from the servicing so one should always be careful. The days of blind faith in a brand are long gone.

[rikhav]

As said earlier it's all the authorised service centres doing it
Our forum member Manish Kapadia who is also a neighbour had taken his Hyundai Eon for service at service centre of shreenath Hyundai and he was charged or recommended to put engine oil treatment in his car for few thousand bucks
He called me up to inquire and I told him to absolutely refuse for such nonsense and instead ask the service centre guys that why do we need engine oil treatment for an engine oil which is authorised by Hyundai to be used in their cars

I mean you try to hardsell a car clean I can understand. It is what it is but such level when dealers go to earn money is absolutely ridiculous

I am sure even the company's management know about this but don't do anything as they want their dealers to earn as well

No way they can say they are not aware of such malpractices happening at dealer service centres

[feluda86]

Originally Posted by rikhav

I am sure even the company's management know about this but don't do anything as they want their dealers to earn as well

No way they can say they are not aware of such malpractices happening at dealer service centres

After getting several complaints over such incidents Honda recently came up with a website (link to website hyperlinked) for customers to visit before service. The website does a good job in explaining what service to be performed and what not. They also give an estimate of cost for each line item.

Attached is a PDF showing 50,000km service for Brio. As per Honda, service should have cost less than Rs. 3000 (excluding GST).

Hope this helps all Honda owners (if you did not know of this already).

[ATTACH=Honda Service - Cost Of Maintenance.pdf]1715178[/ATTACH]

[vipul_singh]

Not saying that I recommend this to a novice user, but any dealership that does not seem willing to work within the instructions that *I* provide is a dealership I don't like to deal with.

Reading the manual, periodic inspection of the car, and listening to what the car is telling you is what I live by. I did not even get the in-warranty services done at Honda (personal choice, as I did not want to deal with them for routine services).

And this is not against Honda. I had the same experience with Maruti. The 'advisor' come across as 'know-it-alls' even when they have very limited knowledge and it is just a job for them.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by feluda86

After getting several complaints over such incidents Honda recently came up with a website (link to website hyperlinked) for customers to visit before service. The website does a good job in explaining what service to be performed and what not. They also give an estimate of cost for each line item.

Attached is a PDF showing 50,000km service for Brio. As per Honda, service should have cost less than Rs. 3000 (excluding GST).

Hope this helps all Honda owners (if you did not know of this already).

Thanks for sharing this. I guess owners need to take a print out of this along with the manual to not get fleeced.

BUT, if you read the quote and see the conditions below, it becomes clear, which side Honda is leaning on when it comes to customer vs dealer.

Quoting from their website -

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

• The aforesaid price is only for Periodic Maintenance Service of your vehicles The Total Periodic Maintenance Service Cost is based on information you have provided.
• This is a tentative amount you will spend for the service, the actual cost will be shared by the dealer. The actual service cost will be as agreed between you and the dealer after the dealer's assessment of your vehicle and repairs carried out on your vehicle.
• The price of parts and lubricants are at MRP, taxes as applicable on labour will be charged
• Any Additional items which are not included in Periodic Maintenance Service will be charged extra to you as per the repairs carried out.
• The data is for models currently on sale except CR-V and Accord Hybrid.
• The above data is only for Manual Transmission variants currently, please get the quotation from dealership for CVT and Automatic variants.

This looks like a lame measure to me. Why?
- No details about what the labour charge is for - what's included/what's not
- No contact details, or what to do if you are overcharged.
- Final call rests with the dealer and you, Honda can't be bothered less about what happens at their dealerships.

Clearly, this portal is just to tick off a point in some spreadsheet that yes, we do have an online service cost calculator. Sad!

[motorguy]

Though this is not related to a car, it is a scam all the same.

When bringing my Activa for its regular quarterly service, the SA there started to try to sell me "wheel alignment" for the scooter. When I asked him where is your wheel alignment equipment, he said someone from outside comes and does it for the service centre. This is a Rs.300 service which is pretty useless since you have no way of knowing whether it is done or not and I have never heard of wheel balancing for an Activa. The only time "wheel truing" is required is when the fork has probably bent and in which case it is a serious problem.

At another time, they billed me Rs.500 for some "engine additives" which I never heard of. In future services I have specifically asked the SA to mark on the job card "No wheel alignment, No additives and no polishing (Rs.100)".

After that they don't even try to sell these useless money making services to me (though I've heard them trying to sell these useless services to regular Joes in the service centre).

By the way can any of you guys tell me whether the quarterly service is also a scam because as I recall originally the scooter required only service every 6 months?

When asking the service centre, they said this has come from Honda - but I think this is to make money by fooling customers.

[feluda86]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

BUT, if you read the quote and see the conditions below, it becomes clear, which side Honda is leaning on when it comes to customer vs dealer.

Quoting from their website -



This looks like a lame measure to me. Why?
- No details about what the labour charge is for - what's included/what's not
- No contact details, or what to do if you are overcharged.
- Final call rests with the dealer and you, Honda can't be bothered less about what happens at their dealerships.

Clearly, this portal is just to tick off a point in some spreadsheet that yes, we do have an online service cost calculator. Sad!

Agreed on some points. However, Honda or any other OEM can not possibly know what is needed for a particular car. It is near impossible to keep track for them as a parent body. That is why they have dealers. However, if a dealer charges labour which is more than what is mentioned by this link, this provides the customer with an argument to challenge the quote. From my 6 years of owning a Honda, I have found customer_relations@hondacarindia.com to be very responsive when it comes to service. I also know of a case where Honda has forced the dealer to refund service costs to a customer in Pune. I would recommend any user who is fleeced to send a copy of the estimated cost and final cost to Honda in case of disputes.

The breakup of the labour charges that are approved by Honda is listed behind every job/inventory sheet given to the customer before service. It is always prudent to check that before agreeing to anything told by the dealer or raising a dispute with Honda.

This website coupled with the user manual I feel are enough to empower a customer to say "NO" to "value added services".

[Highh5]

I have evaded my victimization by MARUTI folks few months back. Initial estimate provided for the petrol Baleno 20K service was 15000. I was thinking, that's no skoda then what are they ripping me for. Heavily scrutinized and cut down the unwanted items from the list. Still got the bill of around 9k(includes new brake pads too) and in return I was charged even for the free wash by the SA since I pissed him off by not abiding by his recommendations/orders.
MARUTI or HONDA, everyone is in the race for being a new SKODA(in terms of rip off).
In my opinion, ford and Toyota are the only ones who are delight for customers and deflated their service bills.

[AMG Power]

The owner of a reputed dealership admitted to mixing used oil with new oil while replacing engine oil. He keeps a barrel of OEM oil in stock in case the manufacturer comes in for a check up. According to him wafer thin margins (or maybe not enough as per his requirements) force him to do this.

All this mentioned to a very close friend of his.

I always take along oil for the car at the time of service but that was only because I wanted a better grade.

This is a new low.

[Thilak29]

Up selling everywhere.

I gave my Brio for 60k service and asked my father to drop it at ASC (asked me to call back if they begin to persuade), I spoke to SA and clearly told him to stick to what is essential from service checklist. Yet, I see he inserted few unnecessary "services" and cashed in few extra hundreds. But his initial push for extra services like floor lamination, adding fog lamp setup, engine bay coating etc were outrageous. I own a Ford as well and they are no saints too.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by feluda86

Agreed on some points. However, Honda or any other OEM can not possibly know what is needed for a particular car. It is near impossible to keep track for them as a parent body. That is why they have dealers. However, if a dealer charges labour which is more than what is mentioned by this link, this provides the customer with an argument to challenge the quote.
...
This website coupled with the user manual I feel are enough to empower a customer to say "NO" to "value added services".

Totally! I have been urging all my friends to go by-the-book for all their services etc. Prevents these frauds to a large extent.

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

5. Motor care treatment (?)

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Actually, this Motor Care nonsense is prevent amount all Honda dealers at least in NCR.
..
I confronted the service manager at my local dealership here and he candidly said that this is a directive from Honda.
..
It has been this way for about 2 years now.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

This is a very common thing; Pearl Honda has tried to sell me this "value add" during every service. As someone mentioned, it only involves lubrication of door hinges.

The website is mum on "motor care treatment" or greasing of hinges etc (in English. ). Isn't that supposed to be taken care during periodic maintenance, for which there is already a fee (~1500 or so). As you can see above, the service centers are pushing it as "instructed by Honda".

I agree the OEM cannot know what is good for each car, but, they should not let the dealers be free to do whatever they want because end of the day, it's the brand's reputation at stake, not the dealer's. If Honda goes bust, he will happily switch camp and open some other OEM's dealership.

My friend will obviously be wiser next time (if there is one), but the point is, it sours the experience for people who are not so aware about these things. They start forming an opinion that servicing is expensive and also spread the word. That indirectly damages the OEM's business. I don't understand, how is that so hard to grasp for the super intelligent folks running the show at Honda (or any other OEM for that matter).

Edit:
OT:

Originally Posted by feluda86

....

Love your username. Huge fan myself

[scorpian]

This problem of selling unwanted services and stuff has started after service advisers started getting paid for every service/additive/accessory sold by them.
With this system,every adviser is now given a free hand to determine their commissions earned at the end of the month,so naturally they will keep pushing for this unwanted stuff cause they also want to earn more and more.They are not concerned with how it impacts the customer or how a customer will talk to ten others when he finds service of his car from a particular brand to be exorbitant.Slowly but surely this damages the brand.
Once they stop this system of "sell as much to earn as much" then automatically all this stupidity will end.
Till then just stick to whats mentioned in your service booklet.

[captain.torque]

This is the very reason that the day my 2009 Honda City's warranty expired I started getting it serviced from outside. I have owned a Tata, Honda and Maruti cars and accoridng to my experience while Tata was the worst amongst the three, Honda was a close second while Maruti is much better.

However, that in no way implies that I will keep visiting the ASS after my Brezza's warranty expires

I shall be taking her to same garage from where I get my City serviced.

[Nav-i-gator]

I remember, The first time I took my car for servicing (ODO reading at 23000 KM) in gurgaon (chevrolet After service station), the SA handed out an estimate of Rs 13000. Usual suspects there too:

1. Engine decarbonation
2. Coolant additive
3. Engine oil additive
4. Injector cleaning
5. Dashboard polish
6. Wiper fluid

etc..