Skoda dealer changes parts in my car = Consumer Court = Car not returned in a YEAR!

[harishv]

Sad very sad. An opportunity to make 40,000 car lovers as brand ambassadors lost.

So be it.

Thanx Harbir, Regan and gang.

[sky.tata]

Just as a reminder, our contact details (as given previously) are manned by a team of customer service representatives and I would heavily encourage you to get in touch directly on any other matters you may have with any Skoda products.

This team of "customer service representatives" called me on the 16th of March to organize a test drive of the Superb....its now the 27th and they could arrange for a test drive to SELL a car, that too a Superb!! I really wonder how long they will take to assist us in service related issues. Anyway thanks to this thread and the tiiiiiiimmmmmmeeeee they have taken to arrange a test drive, I am now a proud owner of a Honda Accord.
Thanks Skoda for helping me make a wise decision, and saved myself from a lot of pain and agony.

[Harbir]

I have just read the original post with Harish Kanchan's accusations.

Skoda's clumsy attempts to silence discussion by making legal threats against team-bhp and its users has made me skeptical about Skoda's claims of innocence.

Given the corruption prevalent in India, I believe that it is Skoda's responsibility to demonstrate that it takes harsh action against any corrupt practices engaged in by its employees, dealers, and their employees.

Skoda's has two choices here.

1. Either demonstrate its openness and transparency regarding the standards of honesty it enforces upon its employees and dealers. and openly and publicly answer challenges made, even if that means opening the case here up to a full investigation, to accept any findings, and to suffer the consequences in any negative PR that may result.

2. Or to try and cover it up in order to protect the Skoda brand name and avoid negative publicity, and to hide any nefarious activities that some of its employees, dealers and their employees might have engaged in.

If the persons accused by Harish Kanchan are innocent, and Harish Kanchan is lying, then let Skoda demonstrate this by withdrawing all cases and show us all of the documentation that proves the falsehood of Harish Kanchan.

If Skoda does not do that, then it means Skoda is not interested in being transparent about the issue and is trying to use the courts to cover up something.

[Gagan.js]

Oh so many posts to enjoy reading in such a short time, fantastic.

- You are trying very hard to reach out....mhm okay you joined a car forum and made 2 posts, then threatened us, nice, im so scared i'll go book a superb so you leave me alone right now!

- You are in marketing as you say, word of mouth could just be the most important tool right? Take a guess and see if we will advise anyone to buy your cars. Heck your profile says you own a Hyundai..

-Oh oh oh I got it! You are not representing skoda, this is just some person faking...oh no maybe you are...mhm...I was just thinking of your official response, sorry my bad

-Don't give us jurisdiction crap, gimme 5 minutes and I can ruin your image further, but I won't. Don't underestimate the internet.

Google skoda sucks and see the results, maam, think twice before you make your next post.

Do what is right and no one here will do anything to harm your company image.
I'm sure you know
your dealers are crooks,
your customer service is a joke,
you can't accept what happened to Harish was wrong,
your cars are not reliable, cousins superb broke down 4th day
once something does go wrong, you treat us like crap

Sweet talking won't help okay, we have grown up, maybe you need to do the same.

As people said, this turned badly back on you, streisand effect, and we know skoda is watching, so even if you guys are going to say this account wasn't made by skoda, lets get real and try talking to this community instead of 2 frickin posts and a threat!

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by harishv

Sad very sad. An opportunity to make 40,000 car lovers as brand ambassadors lost.

So be it.

Thanx Harbir, Regan and gang.

Agreed. One would think an unknown Eastern European brand, more often than not trashed in Europe and the US, would probably treat customers in possibly the only market where Skoda looked upon as a 'premium' product a little more carefully.

I put reliability and after sales at the top of my must-have list. Skoda fails miserably on both counts.

And the cherry on the cake was this Skoda rep issuing threats to TBHP wrapped in legalese. G'bye for ever Skoda.

Rgds,

[tadukuttan]

I would like to try some examples of English usage, guys please correct me I am wrong.

Of course, these are only examples of English, and not the reality, as you all already know.

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

I'm not sure what it means to instigate someone in an ongoing court case.

Skoda India instigates it's employees to steal parts from customer cars. Correct right?

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Because the hosting or publishing of anything may instigate people or a company to go to court, but does not instigate them in a court case. That's just bad English.

Another example here would be, Skoda India is guilty of instigating employees to threaten Indian public, and use illegal means to cheat Skoda Customers by using duplicate spare parts in it's showrooms. Correct?

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Perhaps you mean to say implicate someone in the case - that would make more sense. [/i]

Skoda India falsely implicates it's customers in court cases if they complain that Skoda India is instigating it's employees to steal spares from customer cars, and replace them with Skoda duplicate spares? Correct?

Apologies for going off topic, just could not control my sudden urge to clear these english questions. I would be deeply obliged if anybody can let me know if these usages are correct.

[kb100]

I will not buy a NUT from Skoda ... or ANY VW group company - even if they PAID me for it!

From circa 2001-2, I have visited at least six dealers of Skoda - and have been uniformly shocked by their attitude to a 'paying' customer! I am a hard core sales guy - and here were a bunch of ppl treating customer walk-ins with such disdain that one actually felt apologetic for having considered buying the vehicle! I made up my mind right there and then - that if this was the 'buying' experience, then the ownership had to be nightmarish - AND IT HAS BEEN SO! I have not met a single person who owns a Skoda who has anything nice to say about them or their dealers -except of course the ones with the 'pull' . These are the ones the dealership will take extra care to ensure they are kept happy cause these are people who wont exactly react 'legally'!

Most ppl in so called 'corporate/marketing communications' dont know their front end from their rear - a sad reminder of the endless 'MBA' output! This lady just did the equivalent of stirring the proverbial 'Hornets Nest'!

My advice to the Skoda PR team - TRAVEL - and travel great distances.. you will need it to appreciate the mushroom cloud this is now going to generate!

[pranavt]

Mods, can you add "Now threatens T-BHP!" to the thread title?

[Limpid]

I was planning to buy a Laura in the near future, but not any more! I after reading this thread; I think I will not buy any Skoda product at all. I will advice same to all my relatives and friends to be aware of their bad practices.
It's a shame; this car is assembled in my home town.

[Gagan.js]

OT: Tadukuttan, those are right in this reference of context, however an employer doesn't "instigate" an employee but for the example you said it right. Good explaining.

[GTO]

Skoda Corporate / Meghna:

I feel pity for you. Why?

1. You so obviously know nothing about PR & Marketing.

2. You work for Skoda.

I look forward to receiving your threats over on this thread (Team-BHP stands for the TRUTH. But Skoda wants to “instigate” Team-BHP and its users!). Keep 'em coming.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Skoda...

So you didn't like

will ensure that this awful mess is resolved to our customer's satisfaction by the end of next week.

then? I suppose that means you won't pay my consultancy bill? I thought it was a pretty good suggestion myself. I have another one for you. It's an old saying:

When in hole; Stop digging

Obviously not the way you guys think, as you have chosen (and obviously with some management discussion and consultation) to drive yourselves deeper and deeper into the unmentionable smelly stuff. Bad news, from the marketing point of view: you might find that some of it takes years to wash off.

Originally Posted by Skoda Corporate

Hi there,
I hear that there are disgruntled customers and we are doing our best to provide a consistently good service level.

A little contradiction there?

As I have mentioned before, please get in touch with our customer services representatives who will be able to help you on any other matters not relating to the current court case.

You'd rather not have this sort of thing talked about in public, eh? Perhaps you should hold an enquiry into whose fault it is that they are being. Perhaps you should also remind each other that, in this internet age, you are never going to stop them being talked about in public.

Message sent out:

I have been advised to forward to you the following notice pertaining to this thread of the forum.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...rned-year.html

I have been advised to inform you that the hosting or publishing of such information (which , does not represent all of the facts) would instigate both Team-BHP as well as the various users in the ongoing court case.

Message received:

Skoda is scared. You are really not very good at handling this public relations stuff, are you

It saddens us here at Skoda that things have escalated to this point and we have tried to engage but the truth is that some of the comments are now extremely offensive and defamatory. They are personal atacks on our company, staff and me as an individual.

Boo hoo. What do you expect?

We have tried very hard to engage but users are simply not being reasonable or letting us partake in the forum and allowing us to be heard.

No, you have not. You have come by with some spin. You did not engage in any meaningful way. Spin; then threats.

Skoda India is a highly reputable company and does not entertain any kind of foul practices by their dealers. In fact, Skoda India is an active member of the society for indian automobile manufacturers who are against any conterfeiting in the market.

It is a shame that you are doing your best to damage your own reputation by public statements such as this.

It is very simple- all of the facts are not represented here and we have been informed that from a legal standpoint, we cannot disclose them as doing so may affect the outcome of the case.

But you didn't say that when you thought you could get past us with a piece of spin talk, did you? Everything was all very dandy then.

It is somewhat confusing to us that Mr. Harsih Kanchan feels he can!

But you didn't say that when you thought you could get past us with a piece of spin talk, did you? Everything was all very dandy then.

Please contact customer services with any concerns or issues and we will inform you all of te outcome of the case.

You have the public eye, and that won't do.

Even if all the facts were actually found to be in your favour, you have now well screwed your presentation of yourselves with this response.

Marketing Fail!

First thing you might like to do is to remind your colleagues that this is not a forum merely of teenage car enthusiasts, but of real car buyers. What a dismal mess you guys made of it.

(Sam, I didn't see Skoda's later post before answering the previous one. )

(Oh dear, looks like I really have to say goodbye to that Fabia temptation. And VAG group had been one of my favourite companies for so many years. Meghna; they say a fisherman is as good as his last catch; a company is as good as its marketing department's last big, big failure. )

<crossposted>

Originally Posted by GTO

You so obviously know nothing about PR & Marketing.

Goodness: how come it took me so many more words to say just that!

[pranavt]

GTO: My sincerest respect for your actions. I was afraid that most of the posts in that other thread would be deleted because they could be used to threaten T-BHP. Now that I know it's the opposite, I'm very happy. Go Team BHP!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Mine too.

It takes guts, however good the cause.

Well done.

[VahanPujari]

Originally Posted by Skoda Corporate

....to ensure we have good two-way communication with our customers.

Sadly on this post, I can’t make a comment,

If anyone would like more information or has more feedback, feel free to contact our customer care executives.....
Please leave your mobile number for speedy resolution of your concern.

Meghna - Thanks But no Thanks. Innocent people are scared to talk to your "Customer Care Executives" because if they can't follow your Dictatorship rules, they are afraid that they'll get sued. They also seem to be scared of leaving their mobile numbers fearing that they'll die of immense joy causing them Heart Attack if they receive a call from someone from such a big & reputed company (claimed by you in your post - however innocent people are thinking why Amitabh Bachchan or Lata Mangeshkar never claimed themselves to be No.1 in their fields?).
Instead they feel they'll be obliged if you can speak to Kapil, Harish , B. Ashwini etc. Wonder if it is part of your job or are they asking too much? If they are asking for too much, pls forgive them & oblige for they are innocent & ignorant.

They also sympathise with you that you can't make a comment on Harish case. They wonder if you can comment on B. Ashwini or Kapil or other such cases & help them. If they'are asking for too much, pls forget it & forgive them.

Originally Posted by Skoda Corporate

I have been advised to inform you that the hosting or publishing of such information (which , does not represent all of the facts) would instigate both Team-BHP as well as the various users in the ongoing court case.

Ever heard of a simple man (Father of Nation - India) from Gujarat clad in a single piece of cloth (dhoti), who was thrown out of the train in South Africa by "Authorities" & what he did to dictatorship of a reputed "company" (east india co.?) in India 62 years ago? What were his strengths? Did he have lots of money? did he have lots of connections? did he sue them? or did he have innocent people with him?

Guys,

The more I read these posts, the more I got convinced that this is not bad after sales service exactly due to incompetance. isn't it more of an issue of approach, intentions, integrity, principles?

If the Trade Associate is shut down, why are his principals still here? because his principals forced him? who can force principals? those innocent & ignorant people who forced east india company 62 years back?

Ever heard of "Simon Go back!" campaign during that time?