Narrow escape from dodgy dealer:Thanks to Team-BHP PDI checklist

[talk2me]

Wow Rehaan! thats a nice piece of info on hail storm in bangalore that i was not aware of.

Infact T-Bhp is the one which made me to go against my hot favourite Laura (ambiente) after reading horror stories of SKODA dealers.

I chose the bland but very arrogant Verna CRDI SX-ABS. I am very much happy with it as the car is lighter on my pocket and A.S.S at advaith is extremely professional. I get to feel that "Customer is King".

I even flash T-Bhp stickers on my car now. Three cheers to T-Bhp.

[itsrenjith]

Hi All,

Thanks for all the replies. Sorry for the rather late update, Mumbai saw some rather heavy rains during the weekend. Plus i got the delivery of the Ritz VXI (yay !!) so was busy with all that.

Now to the various questions u have raised. I am a bit new to the "quote" "unquote" stuff on TBHP, so please forgive if this goes awry.

Dear Itsrenjith - I am not surprised. I have been telling since years and have written many times on TeamBHP also that buying a new car in India is an ordeal in itself.

-Dhabar.Behram-I couldnt agree more.

Btw, you should definetely proivide this cpmplaint/feedback to Maruti. So, it would help next customers.

-Mjothi-Yes, will do that. However, ive mentioned in my post, i did complain to maruti on the helpline a month back. No response.

We encourage 100% transparency in content. Do share the name of the dealer, our user discretion ensures a mature judgement.

-GTO-It was Automotive in Navi Mumbai. After reading so many comments, i do agree that it was important to highlight the dealer. But id like to mention here that not many dealers agree to refund 100% of the money once the registeration is complete. The Branch manager at the dealership was very quick in resolving the issue and re funding the full amount. I am being completely transparent and as GTO said, i assume that the user discretion would be mature regarding this incident.

I'm glad that Team-BHP and our PDI checklist saved the day for you. However, I am surprised that you chose to check the year of manufacture only at delivery time, and not in your pre-delivery visit.

GTO- frankly i wasnt aware how to check the VIN number when i did the pre-registeration check. I am not sure if TBHP has any thread which clearly lays down how one should go about checking the VIN number. I saw in some posts which explained the way to decode a Hyundai VIN, but not sure about the Maruti VIN. From my understandin the last digit shows the year of manufacture (9 stands for 2009) and before the last digit, there is an alphabet. "A" stands for January, "B" for feb and so on.

MODS- i think you should include this process (how to check your VIN) in the pre-delivery and pre-registeration checklist on TBHP. It is a crucial step and is not clear enough in the TBHP PDI checklist.

This is actually a blatant attempt at fraud; why not make a complaint to the police?

-Thad E Ginathom-We did actually ask around for some legal options, if in case the refund didnt come through. Though i did not pursue it long enough to understand it very well, i think section 420 of the IPC can be used in similar cases. As far as other legal implication goes, there is no written document which clearly states that i "ordered" for a specific product (2009 make etc), so i am not sure how strong ones case is in such situations. That is wy, in my learnings i have put down that one must insist on a sale order form and the RTO registeration form the specific chassis number, engine number, year of manufacture etc. This may have a bit more weight. Again, i am not a legal expert, so my arguement may not hold water. Also it is a regular practice in dealerships to take signs on blank forms for registeration, they never give u a fully filled up form to sign!

Why did a car which has a 3 week waiting period stay in the dealer's stockyard for 1 year?

-Backseat driver-Could be a demo car, could be a display car. usually demo cars which go out for test drives are clearly marked with demo stickers. But in case of showroom display cars, it is not the case. Plus there are a million other possibilites of how this car stayed in the dealer stocks for this long.

On the positive side, they accepted their mistake. This is rarely seen in any automotive dealerships. Maruti might have intervened as you called their helpline number getting in touch with dealer insisting him to sort of the issue. Maruti could have played a role in making the dealer accept his mistake. This is just a thought.

-aaggoswami-i agree on dealership agreeing to their mistake. But maruti having a role in getting this sorted out? i have my doubts. Great, if they indeed did have.

All others who gave valuable comments, thanks a lot. Thanks for wishing well for the RITZ booking. The car was delivered on friday evening, everything went fine (so far), lets hope this time things work well for me.

Will try to put some ownership reviews of Ritz once i get to know the car a bit and once i have some time on hand.

Cheers.

[hirajan]

Thanks for sharing. I must really appreciate the fact that you demanded in writing from the dealer that you did not take the car. Good one.

Though you went through the pain, you showed your great level of maturity in not disclosing the dealers name. Hats off. I think you handled the situation quite well. My kudos to your 007 friend who stood beside you.

90% of what happens in your life is because of how you react to 10% of the time. I think this worked for you.

I am planning for a change now and i've pledged myself that i will go through the PDI checklist. Thanks BHP.

[tanwaramit]

Phew, that was close, thanks to TBHP and some alertness from your friend, you were saved from that salesguy.

thanks for sharing your experience with community. I have forwarded this to some people I know.

I am not sure if this car would be a demo car, as demo cars are usually registered and you would get those as resale and not a new car. (am I correct here ?)

[itsrenjith]

hirajan

Thanks for sharing. I must really appreciate the fact that you demanded in writing from the dealer that you did not take the car. Good one.

- I am infact thinking of going to the police station and making a diary statement that i have not taken delivery of the car (we do a smilar process when we lose our mobile phone/SIM, just to ensure that its future mis use does not become our liability). What is the opinion of TBPians on this. Has anyone done something like this before..?

Though you went through the pain, you showed your great level of maturity in not disclosing the dealers name. Hats off.

Wait. Hang on. I named the dealer in my follow up post. Thanks for the compliments anyway, ill take them

I am planning for a change now and i've pledged myself that i will go through the PDI checklist. Thanks BHP

Yes. Just make sure that you do check the VIN number of teh car to ascertain the exact year/month of manufacture. I am not really sure about it, but some TBHP threads may give u some indications how to do it.

tanwaramit

I am not sure if this car would be a demo car, as demo cars are usually registered and you would get those as resale and not a new car. (am I correct here ?)

The "demo" cars are registerd, thats correct. But dealers have good RTO contacts, they may be able to switch the ownerships. My car (which was already booked in my name), the dealer said he will "switch" the registeration with someone else. I am not sure how this is done. Now if he can do this, he can surely "switch" a registered demo car also.

Also, the car need not be a demo car (ie one which is taken out for TD's etc). It could be a showroom display car also. Dealers often have stock of old showroom display cars also.

[wildon]

I have seen the PDI in excel format in the forum , but couldn't find at this time, can some one reupload the PDI List in excel please

ok. Finaly the inbuilt google search option saved me.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attach...-pdi-excel.xls

[supremoo]

@itsrenjith, thanks for sharing your experiences at Team BHP, it is shocking to hear of such malpractices take place even in maruti showrooms. In the exitement/thrill of owning a new car, we very often trust the salesman's word.

I am hopeful that somebody somewhere will also benefit from being taken for a ride by smooth talking salesman/woman.

[Punzabi]

@itsrenjith I am confused whether I should feel sorry for all the drama you had to go through or should I congratulate you for being lucky to figure out the foul play in time. You were really on the brink of being chewed up and spit out by those thugs mate.

Congrats for Ritz. wish you happy and long miles.

[itsrenjith]

Wildon-Thanks for attaching the same. It is a great checklist. However this list does not say "how" to check the VIN number of the key manufacturers. So essentially it does not guide the prospective buyer on "how" to ascertain the year/month of manufacture of the car he/she is going to take delivery. I had recommeded the MODS to include that information into the various PDI cheklist threads on TBHP.

Supremo-going by the various cases reported in TBHP, this (or a similar variation the trick) seems to be a common practice across dealerships of all manufacturers. The consumers have to really be careful.

Punzabi-i think u should not feel sorry, coz alls well that ends well. I got the entire money refunded so in the end it was a good learning experience which will make me a much more informed and careful buyer in the future.