God save Pune Honda owners from monopolistic situation

[hrishig]

(Mods Move pl move merge thread if needed )
Just wanted to share a recent experience with single Honda delear / service center in pune..

We have a honda car brought recently ( around march / april 2008). Yesterday it met with accident for which the toll is replacement of rear bumper , tail light , and scratches on the door panel. Basically the car is functionally perfect shape but the visual apprance is disturbed .

The car is insured from tata-aig . When this car was brought there were 2 honda delears in pune namely kesar cars and deccan honda. Now recently the kesar cars has stopped their delarship and now deccan honda is the only whole and soul for honda cars in pune.

As per Tata - AIG their cash facility was offered with kesar cars , and not with deccan honda. As now there is only deccan honda in pune , I asked Tata - AIG guys can't offer the same cashless facility from deccan honda? As per them they are ready to offer cashless but deccan honda guys are not ready to accept it. ( The cashless facility is very important incase becase of diffrent reasons )

Now when we asked deccan honda guys why they are not offering cash-less facility , they said they just can not accept it , that's all. After talking to various guys (offline) in honda workshop and also tata AIG persons , here is what I got.

Seems there is diffrence between laber rates between tataaig and deccan honda. The deccan honda rates are overchanged and tata AIG whants the rate to be in standered lines.


When I asked honda service manager to give me in writting that they will not offer accept the cashless facility for tata AIG,( Basically whater they telling us verbally , i wanted that in writting ).

I got a super answer.

"My job is to repair the cars and and not to write Letters"


After this genius answer , that also from service manager I did't feel talking to him at all.


Seems deccan honda people ( off the line ) also accpets that their rates are over charged , but they are not ready to change it. They justify it saying premium service etc etc. or may be because they know they are the only delears / service center in pune.

But for the consumers it's total loss.


Any idea how should I proceed?

[greenhorn]

I think honda dealers are monopolists everywhere

[ImmortalZ]

Very true. Honda just added two more to Kerala to stop the barrage of complaints about Peninsular. God knows how long it will take those guys to establish showrooms.

For your question, I think the easiest option would be to just take the car to Bombay - it's relatively close isn't it?

P.S : Avoid private insurance companies like the plague. With public sector firms, you can get things done.

[gkrishn]

Originally Posted by hrishig

After this genius answer , that also from service manager I did't feel talking to him at all.

I am not sure if it is a genius answer, but i do feel that it is a genuine answer. How do you expect that guy to give things in writing. May be you were asking for their policy in writing. But service manager is still not the guy. If that dealer dosnt have one, the employees who work there just cant give you one.

To blame is the attitude of the promoter of this dealership. The employees are just messengers. I do agree that they are taking customers for a ride. What is the point in calling themselves a premium service if they cant do a cashless insurance.

[diabloo]

I think cashless-claim is added benefit (at no extra cost) given to the customers depending on the understanding of the insurance company and the dealer.

If cashless claim is not available, please go through proper channel.

Note: The service engineer's answer is rude but not incorrect - he could be fired for writing that letter.

[khan_sultan]

That's interesting. I was under the impression that only FIAT A.S.S has poor service standards -- atleast that's the impression I get on the forum.

Jokes apart, this monopolistic situation would impact any car dealer -- be it Honda, GM, etc etc. If there is only 1 dealer then customers have no choice but to utilize their services -- however good/bad/ugly they may be.

[Dose]

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

Honda just added two more to Kerala to stop the barrage of complaints about Peninsular.

How many and what type of complaints are being lodged against Peninsular?

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by Dose

How many and what type of complaints are being lodged against Peninsular?

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...vic-1-8-v.html (Peninsular Honda sells me a *new* repainted Honda Civic 1.8 V)

[karlosdeville]

Deccan Honda are the most incompetent bunch I've come across. My dads office has bought 7 Hondas from them, yet still treated terribly. Delivery schedules are never met after a service, problems are never attended to on the first go, its a mess. Our CRV has been there 7 times for an airbag light problem that is still not fixed. A request for a new spare key went unattended for months till it finally arrived, and was not compatible. Finally, during "high speed testing" one of the service engineers forgot to close the bonnet, it flew open smashing the front windscreen and damaging the roof. They offered to repair it, but only claiming our insurance! We had to go very high up to get the matter sorted. Why should we lose our no claim bonus if they damaged our vehicle?

[ritz830]

Originally Posted by hrishig

(Mods Move pl move merge thread if needed )
Just wanted to share a recent experience with single Honda delear / service center in pune..

Any idea how should I proceed?

Dude, Asking them in writing is a good step. Now that the service centre is not offering his denial through writing you should take steps to provide evidence.

Collect evidences for each and every step you have taken.
- evidence that you have approached the service centre and denied service
- evidence that you have asked tata aig guys to solve the issue, but they are not willing

Basically you have to use Email proof, registered letters, presence of a Notary republic to validate whatever is said through words was true.

Then you can put a case in consumer court and follow up the case. Basically it will cost you a small amount, and you will need patience and diligence in this work. Just remember that the service centre and Tata AIG wont react until some authorised body insists them,

Best of luck!!!

[aaggoswami]

Apart from the " Chalta Hai " attitude, another thing that plays a role is the feeling of " premium " company dealer. Everybody is now gunning from " premium " tag whether it be VW or Honda. Only Maruti and Hyundai stay away from it we can see they are more satisfied lot. So they believe, we sell premium cars so we are king and not customer. IIRC, Civic sales are not that high after the launch of Altis. If this is true, I think that A.S & S. experience can be a contributor, even on a small scale.

Also I have noticed that the dealership owners are sometimes very arrogant. Faced with Honda again. To talk with them is an insult in itself. Now compare this to what Honda dealers in US/W.Europe give.
We are again taken for granted. The issues of poor honda A.S & S. are increasing and looks like quickly they will be sharing poor A.S & S. tag with Skoda, Fiat and Ford.

[hrishig]

Hmm , My car was also brought with 6+ others cars in a single deal , same day via our corporate route.

So if a corporate customer is getting this , I don't know what will happen when we go there as a single person.

[jaysmokesleaves]

I somehow feel comfortable reading the above posts. Honda is well known across India for the pathetic service they provide in the name of premium company. And since most owners get ripped off they dont want to talk about it to safeguard their 'premium' status.

I will recollect an incident when i went with a friend to pick his CRV from the workshop. We saw a customer literally abusing the dealership manager with the choicest expletives in full view of other customers(not drivers).

In stark contrast, I have had issues with TASS, but all of them sorted out without having to resort to any commodilistic tactics so far. And since TML is struggling to get some kind of tag(premium/otherwise), the customer is better attended to nowadays. And since they are a very long way off any tag, i think, rather I hope, the good days will last at least till the time i own a TML automobile.

No issues with Toyota so far. Toyota is KING.

[Sowmya]

Really disgusting when you pay a 10 Laks + Car. HONDA is no more a Good A.S.S. and Dealer ship. See the thread under Dealership. You have many complain against them.

[CtrlAltDel]

there are two honda dealers in hyderabad but i suspect they have become a cartel. last year when one of my aquaintance was thinking of buying a City the talk of sales person in second showroom he went to hinted that she knew about his earlier visit to the other showroom.