Hello Skoda - Did you read and analyze or merely read ?

[ajmat]

Further to my throttle body issue here. (Beauty of the Beast Skoda Octavia RS - 30000 km review) When I was told that I needed to spent Rs 35000 on new coils and a throttle body. I threw a wobbly and sent the following mail

From: Matthew, Ajit A [
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 5:58 AM
To: CustomerCare
Subject: Premature Failures on my 2005 VRs

Dear Sir Madam

I have a 2005 Octavia VRs, chassis no TMXXXXXXXXXX825. The car has been serviced regularly and has completed only 29000km. In December, I suffered a water pump failure. I detected the failure in time so no overheating occurred.

Last week, the car started idling roughly and later broke down. My VAG COM system showed the following fault codes pertaining to the throttle body.

17987 - Throttle Actuator (J338): Adaptation Not Started
P1579 - 35-00 - -
17579 - Angle Sensor 2 for Throttle Actuator (G188) Implausible Signal
P1171 - 35-00 - -
17950 - Angle Sensor 1 for Throttle Actuator (G187): Implausible Signal
P1542 - 35-10 - - - Intermittent


Vinayak recovered the car, cleaned the throttle body and say that the car is jerking so the throttle body needs to be changed. I find it rather alarming that so many crucial components are failing. I would be most obliged if you could have a service/ product representative look into this. If you refer to Team-BHP - The Definitive Indian Car Community - Home, you will find a lot of concerning stories about Skoda reliability and it looks like I will be having to add my story there. I will have potentially spent Rs 50000 in three months on this car. I never spent that much on my Honda for its tenure of 56000 km

Regds

Ajit

[ajmat]

To their credit, Skoda responded quickly

From: Sudhir, Srinivas [mailto:Srinivas.Sudhir@skoda-auto.co.in]
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 11:26 AM
To: Matthew, Ajit A
Subject: RE: Premature Failures on my 2005 VRs



Dear Mr. Ajit,



At the very outset we would like to thank you for patronizing our product and apologize for the inconvenience caused to your good selves due to concern in your subject vehicle. In the view of the same, we have taken up your concern with our dealership and have asked for the detailed report of the vehicle for further examination. We will revert to you, for the way of further resolution in this matter very shortly. Kindly bear with us till such time.



Thanks &



Best Regards



Srinivas Sudhir

Customer Care

After Sales



SkodaAuto India Private Ltd

A1/1,Five Star Industrial Estate,

Shendra,MIDC,Aurangabad-431201

Tel: +91 240 6631256

Fax:+91 240 6631277

E-mail:srinivas.sudhir@skoda-auto.co.in

[ajmat]

I never heard from them but Vinayak returned the car and charged me for towing and as i mentioned, I did the throttle body reset and all was well!

In order to close the loop and tell them/ provide feedback, I sent the following mail

From: Matthew, Ajit A [
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 10:47 AM
To: Sudhir, Srinivas
Subject: RE: Premature Failures on my 2005 VRs

Dear Sudhir

Thank you for your mail. Just to follow up on what happened. Later on Tuesday, I went to see that car and it was running but idling roughly at lower speeds. I collected the car the next day. I was taken on a trial and it was clear that the engine was still a little rough at lower RPM.

I drove the car to my office 10km away and it behaved so. This was near lunchtime. In the evening, I got into the car and hooked up my VAG-COM (Ross-Tech: Home) scanning system – I realigned the throttle body and deleted the various misfire fault codes and drove home carefully. The following day, I had to leave early morning and the car fired up perfectly during the cold start. Two weeks on, the car is performing normally, slight uneven idle in hot weather during idle but you need to be concentrate to identify this.

Summarizing - the throttle body was dirty and when fitted needed to be aligned properly. A deeper diagnosis would be better than merely prescribing replacements.

One more query centrea around the timing belt. Over here the dealer recommends a change at 90000km but I have heard about instances of this happening at 60000km onwards. VW/Skoda abroad now recommend that the timing belt be replaced at 4years or 60000km. Does Skoda have an intention to update delaers and owners on this ?

Thanking you

Regds

Ajit

[ajmat]

I then get a reply from the Skoda office Bangalore - Did he even read and analyze my mail! i clearly mentioned things were resolved!

From: Kulkarni, Rahul
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 2:08 PM
To:
Cc: service@vinayakcars.com
Subject: RE: Premature Failures on my 2005 VRs
Importance: High

Dear Mr. Ajit,

We are in receipt of your below said mail and had noted contents. We have taken up your concern and we have asked the Service Manager at the dealership Mr. Patil to coordinate with you for the way of further resolution in this matter. Our dealership will contact you shortly in this regards.

We regret for any inconvenience caused to you.

Thanks &

Best Regards,

Rahul Kulkarni
Customer Care

Skoda Auto India Private Ltd.
1st Cross, # 3, Lavelle road,
Bangalore 560001
080 - 30931350
Email: rahul.kulkarni@skoda-auto.co.in

[ajmat]

and so i reply

Rahul



No further resolution is required, below contents were feedback so that you can learn from this and improve



Regds



Ajit

[ajmat]

Today, Skoda reply

From: Kulkarni, Rahul [mailto:Rahul.Kulkarni@skoda-auto.co.in]
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 4:51 PM
To: Matthew, Ajit A
Cc: service@vinayakcars.com
Subject: FW: Premature Failures on my 2005 VRs
Importance: High

Dear Mr. Ajit Mathew,

This is in continuation to our below said mail. We would like to inform you that as per the diagnosis done by our dealership, the throttle body needs replacement. We request you to kindly give the approval to the dealership for carrying out the repairs as diagnosed.

We regret for any inconvenience caused to you

Best Regards,

Rahul Kulkarni
Customer Care

Skoda Auto India Private Ltd.
1st Cross, # 3, Lavelle road,
Bangalore 560001
Tel: 080 - 30931350
Fax: 080 309313111
Email: rahul.kulkarni@skoda-auto.co.in

All I can say is &

[ajmat]

My reply

Rahul

My car is running absolutely fine, the mileage is fine. As I said there is a slight unevenness at idle with the AC on but this is apparent on most cars.

My impression is that there is a reluctance to listen to customers and a lack of customer focus. The communication at the beginning of this thread was to inform you about what happened and how it got resolved so that customers need not be forced to replace parts and ensure more efficient diagnosis.

I live around gthe corner from your office so I invite you to drive my car anytime and let me know whether the throttle body needs to be replaced

This will make an interesting case study for my forum Team-BHP - The Definitive Indian Car Community - Home .

Regds

Ajit

[iraghava]

LOL! What a bunch of bozo's! Looks like they've got set responses for all customer emails, that seems to be the only reason why they can suggest replacement when the complaint has been rectified!

[abhinav.gupta88]

Sad.
Really very sad.

They make excellent cars and give the same service ( only in the negative sense)

Many dealers and even people at the skoda level are unaware of many problems and just say change this , change that.

Like the issue with Sam's Friend's Laura.

God Save Skoda !

[ashthedivx]

hahaha.. ROFL

They indeed are bozoos, liked the mail continuations. Do post if you got some humor replies

EDIT: It looks like a BOT to me

[mnhegde]

This guy from bangalore office could have inspected your vehicle. Without inspecting the vehicle, relying on dealer's words how can he suggest to change a particular part? Atleast if not him, he could have sent some technical person from his office (not dealer) to inspect the vehicle.

Is the regular service being done at Vinayak Cars??

[vivekji05]

What is wrong with these people? The only solution they know for any simple problem is replacement.

[anandpadhye]

Wow...
This is so funny...
Keep us posted, Ajit ji.

BTW, why don't you write to them saying that the dealer has already replaced the throttle body but forgot to collect the money from you so kindly come to pick up the cheque :-)

[greenhorn]

ajmat, the guy might be some non technical guy put in place to handle correspondence with customers, not much different from the average call center guy. He wouldnt smell anything fishy even if the dealer claimed a throttle body replacement for a 1.9 TDI

[Eddy]

This should be in the jokes thread. Absolute Dodos.

However, I am pained that such companies are flourishing here. Just nobody to keep them in check.