Concorde Motors - sells a repainted car! Update with the real customer's experience!

[Captain Slow]

Concorde motors is at it again. Sells a crashed/repaired car to an unsuspecting buyer.

IT consultant Vinay Sreenivas says he was duped. Even though consumer court ruled in his favour, Concorde Motors is yet to act.

?New? red Palio had been repainted, News - City - Bangalore Mirror,Bangalore Mirror

He paid them the full amount of Rs 5,47,810 at one go. He got a red Palio but the very next day noticed dents and paint defects in the car.

When he checked with a professional car painter, he was told that the car was damaged and that parts of its body - left rear door, left and right side of fender and a portion under the bonnet - had been repainted. Vinay then took the car to Concorde Motors. “I went to Concorde not as a complainant but as a customer. I directly went to the service head and told him that I wanted this car to be tested. The engineers who tested the car told me that it had been repainted,” Vinay said.

Vinay then took up the issue with the management of Concorde Motors, who agreed that there was a problem and they would resolve it soon. Many emails were exchanged between Vinay and Concorde Motors. The company told him that they could either paint the car once again or replace damaged parts with parts from a brand new car. “But I rejected their offer and told them that since I had paid the full amount, I wanted a brand new car,” Vinay said. Concorde didn’t reply. So Vinay sent them a legal notice and went to the consumer court.

The consumer court decided in favour of Vinay after hearing arguments from both sides. Its order said: “The opposite party is directed to replace the defective car of the complainant with a brand new Fiat Palio, not a repainted one, within 60 days. If the opposite party fails to replace the brand new car within 60 days, they shall pay to the complainant Rs 5,47,810, the amount he paid, together with interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum from October 10, 2009.” Vinay is happy that he won the case, but Concorde Motors has not done anything so far. “When I contacted them, they said they would appeal against this order in a higher court,” he said.

Concorde Motors says that Vinay’s allegations are false. “There were some scratches on the vehicle when he inspected it, and he didn’t say anything about it then,” a company official said.

[rejoycjohn]

@ captianslow ..
Well I do not understand why these dealers do something like this ?
Its very high time that the Manufacturing company tata / fiat should act on these cases . Its not just the reputation of Concorde or prerana at stake here . Its about the whole brand.

If we have reported cases like this , just imagine the cases which are not reported !!!

[aargee]

Aah!!! Appeal to high court? That will take ages to get the issue resolved & becomes even a bigger headache than the car itself. I hope in this country the customer must remain more vigilant. And the justice? 12% PA since Oct 2009 which would work out max 54K? Is that all?

[Lightening-Fast]

This is ridiculous. How can a customer be taken for a ride like this. If at all the case goes to a higher court, its going to take a long time and i am sure the customer will repent his decision to buy the vehicle, not to mention, dealing with dealer in question. High time, manufacturers pitch in clean up the mess

[dadu]

Originally Posted by rejoycjohn

@ captianslow ..
Well I do not understand why these dealers do something like this ?
Its very high time that the Manufacturing company tata / fiat should act on these cases . Its not just the reputation of Concorde or prerana at stake here . Its about the whole brand.

If we have reported cases like this , just imagine the cases which are not reported !!!

Yes very true, almost all dealers irrespective of the brand do this incase a vehicle gets damaged in their handling.

Manufacturer sells it to the dealer, dealer damages it and then covers it up before selling to unsuspecting customer.

Dealer does not want to suffer the losses since car is not a cheap item and nobody will buy it without a huge discount if the dealer is honest.

Its a Catch 22 situation, integrity Vs profitability. Its a commercial world, no guesses for who wins.

[prince_pervez]

Maybe the manufacturers should give a PDI checklist to all customers including this clause as well. But then that will spoil the relations between the manufacturers and the dealers which sometimes have political influence. Or a 'Janhith' public benefit messages air accross channels for such things. We have it for polio, duplicate market items, false logos, why not this ?

[Brix]

#1 - Damage of goodwill to Concorde. This case will never be publicized because TATA advertises a lot.
#2 - I think the customer will get his money back soon. Or Tata should fire some people. Didnt a Hyundai dealership(TAFE?) do something similar?
#3 - Do the PDI checklist always. Saves a lot of trouble later.

[joshguy]

Originally Posted by aargee

Aah!!! Appeal to high court? That will take ages to get the issue resolved & becomes even a bigger headache than the car itself. I hope in this country the customer must remain more vigilant. And the justice? 12% PA since Oct 2009 which would work out max 54K? Is that all?

I guess consumer court cases need to be addressed within a year.

in May2010 I wanted to initiate a case on REGAL FOOT WARE in spencers plaza for taking more than 40days to stitch my brand new shoes.But then the day i was getting ready with the docs they called me and gave the shoe.Then i asked an advocate on the time lines of the case

What ever said , going to court,police and RTO is still a pain in India

[rajushank84]

The important thing to note here is: Concorde is not just another dealer; they are fully owned by Tata Motors!

We should boycott Tata as much as we should Skoda IMHO.

[Kiyon]

Atleast in this situation the case got much needed publicity. I just saw this story minutes back in TV9 local news. It should seriously hurt concorde image.
While buying my car when I used to run around to the yard with team-bhp pre-registration checklist my friends/family made fun of me that for new car things cannot go wrong. I made my point showing them the news about what can go wrong..

Consumer awareness is the only solution to this menace. we should not blindly trust the dealer. Thanks to bhpians for creating this awareness.

[sumathindra]

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

Concorde motors is at it again. Sells a crashed/repaired car to an unsuspecting buyer.

This is horrendous! I read it in todays Bangalore Mirror and was angered by the way concord motors has stooped so low. The must loose license for a period of time and must be fined heavily. How disgusting to have carried out this cheap trick. Shame on concord motors

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by rajushank84

The important thing to note here is: Concorde is not just another dealer; they are fully owned by Tata Motors!

We should boycott Tata as much as we should Skoda IMHO.

Wo! Thats fast. Not all things are going to be smooth for such a big enterprise everytime. They are not recalling vehicles to say the least. It is just a case of some greedy, dishonest folks trying to make a quick buck by fleecing the innocent, uninformed, PDI lacking, customer.
I am sure the Production planning guys upto the QA are not involved in this. Why should they suffer w/o any fault of theirs.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by prince_pervez

Maybe the manufacturers should give a PDI checklist to all customers including this clause as well. But then that will spoil the relations between the manufacturers and the dealers which sometimes have political influence.

No that may not be true Prince; reason being that, the dealers will be forced to remain honest or look for more innovative way to cheat or look for more innocent customers; all in all, these types of incidents will come down.

[VINAYSREENIVAS]

I’m sending you detail mail regarding the cheating case.

Iam Vinay Sreenivas, an IT consultant working for Ramps Solutions, Bangalore. I purchased a brand new car Fiat Palio on 23rd August 2009 from Concorde Motors, Mysore Road Branch, Bangalore. The very next day I noticed some paint stains on my car. (window glass, rubber beadings, under the bonnet).

Immediately I called up the customer care manager of Concorde motors and explained the concern. She replied that it is a furnishing defect & can be resolved by giving some polish. On the basis of the goodwill they hold I assumed that my car had something to do with furnishing.
Unfortunately my car had a slight brush by a bike rider which left my car with a small scratch on the rear left hand door.
I took it to one of my friend who is a professional painter to get the estimation for the work to be done, before I leave to the service station. There I was shocked to know from him that my car was already repainted in the following parts: 1. Left side rear door & handle. 2. Left & right side of the fender. 3. Under the bonnet.

This was confirmed by Concorde motors also.

Once again I contacted customer care manager regarding this issue. She put me on to Branch Head sales, Concorde Motors. He escalated this issue to the top management. After that we had successive meeting with the management people. They offered me 3 options: 1. Repainting the parts. 2. Replacing the component by getting a new part & painting it. 3. Replacing the component from a demo car.
I was not happy with the offer and asked for compensating car to car or let them pay my money back. The meeting was failed because they didn’t agree for my proposal. Then, I appealed to consumer court for justice.

Finally on June 1st Judgment was in favor of me.

The court order state that they should replace the defective car with a brand new car within 60 days from the date of order or else they have to refund the car value with interest of 12% per annum.

But still the company is not ready to accept their fault and wants to fight further by appealing to high court. Even Iam also ready to fight because the truth is on my side.

My only humble request to all is, please help the society buy making the people aware of this kind of threat. Nobody else should be victim like me.

Please feel free to revert.

[Captain Slow]

wow, you were already a team-bhp member?
I was actually thinking of emailing the editor asking for your details so that you could post on team-bhp.

Vinay, Where is the car right now? I hope its not with concorde motors.