The malady is spreading between the partners I guess. People complained about high spare prices of Fiat. Tata is also on the same path albeit in a different way. And now I am certain that if they do not do something urgently they will loose out on their VFM status soon.
Sometimes back I complained in a dealership section thread on how Tata's Detroit Motors (sub dealer for Concorde and a huge authorized TASC) fleeced me when I went to service the Turbo Indica. The details are available in
this thread here.
In short they charged me separately, over and above the service charges, a 100 bucks for black smoke issue in the name of CatCon cleaning. This when all that the mech did was to take my car to a secluded portion of the garage that opens to a vast open stretch of field at the rear. He lustily hit the accelerator (in neutral) a few times to get rid of the black carbon deposit in the muffler. I was aghast. What do they do in service if they separately charge for something as routine as carbon deposit removal (black smoke problem) which probably every diesel car owner asks for during service?
I even complained to Tata about this but the guy at the other end only made all the right noises (tut tut, we will look into it sir and such) but actually did nothing about it.
However, yesterday I realized that the malady is probably from the Tata end. They have articulated a new way to make money. By charging for absurdities. I am not saying dealers are any babes-in-the-wood. Only that Tatas are also not helping matters.
My NA Indica was in for service yesterday (this time with Autofin, Secunderabad). It was a 45k service. The car had just undergone a major service at 40k wherein every oil (engine, transaxle, brake), coolant etc had all been changed. This one was supposed to be a minor service with mostly top-ups. But the SA won't have it that easy. He almost tried to brow beat me into changing everything although the complete changes are supposed to be done only in alternate service.
Anyways, I did not agree and so he ultimately had to fall in line. However when I got the bill I realized that once again some items in the bill are ridiculous. Over and above charging me for the Service they had added a Waxoyl treatment charge for 100 bucks. I asked what it is and they said apparently this is a washing charge. Washing is a part of the service. And still they had sneaked in the 100 bucks which apparently is a separately charged item for the vehicle wash.
Next item was even more hilarious. I had asked them to check why the wiper was not cleaning as efficiently as earlier and whether the arm needed to be adjusted. They told me that my wiper blades had hardened up and need to be changed. I agreed. In the bill they had not only put in the charge for the new blades but also billed me 75 rupees labor for putting the blades in!
Now anyone who has seen how the wiper blades are mounted will know that there is not even a single screw that needs to be opened. The wiper blades are simply slided in place on the wiper arm. It's kind of a hook and a bracket arrangement. The whole thing does not take more than 30 seconds and if you were to use a stopwatch for a competition one can probably do it in 12 seconds flat. They charged me 75 bucks to put that wiper in place!!!
Now, I felt I needed to talk to someone I knew and was familiar with the setup. The guy told me that there is hardly anything they can do as these are standard Tata rates now and the moment they enter wiper blade change the labor gets added on its own. I do not know how correct this is (as the person is from the dealership and may have some vested interests) but if it is indeed true I believe Tatas will soon come to grief as not many people would like to buy a white elephant that will bleed you later with it's maintenance costs.
Oh, by the way, before closing this post let me tell you that some 8 months back I asked the TASS to change the bearings of the rear wheels. Besides the bearing costs (some 650 bucks I think) they also charged me a cool 950 bucks as labor charges to put that bearing in.
So think before you say that Tata is cheap maintenance. Not any more, probably. Their labor costs are a killer.