RNS motors at it again ( ? )

[Haque]

Guys

My plans of getting the Black Baleno Lxi have been grounded ( at least for now ) thanks to business acumen of RNS motors.

Has ethics and integrity been dumped on the wayside in pursuit of establishing businsesses?

After much discussions & re-search I had made up my mind to buy the Baleno Lxi. Staying in North bangalore, ( close to Jakkur aerodrome) RNS motors were the preferred dealer due to the proximity. Had made an enquiry with them, and the car was home within the next few days for a test drive.

Went to the showroom with parents on Sep 13 and got their approval for the Black color. The car was to be purchased
through company lease. ( Car wud be in the name of the Company & financed through a different agancy - LeasePlan : For availing the tax benefits)

... Informed the sales executive that I will make a token payment towards booking amount the next day. However, on the way back home, received a call from him mentioning that he would be blocking the car on a 0% downpayment. So the nxt step was to process the papers through our company.

Had received a proforma invoice in my name. After checking with our company realised that the invoice is to be issued in the company name and addres. conveyed this to the executive who then handed over a fresh proforma invoice on 16th.

I then initiated the processing from my end in the company and had clearly told the executive that it would take around 10 days for the closure. He agreed. Sometime during the next week, he called me up to check the status and I informed him that its in progress... On 20th or 21st he calls up again, checking if the papers are through... I tell him that it could be closed by tuesday Sept 27. However, he mentioned that there was another party waiting with cash payment for the same baleno. I reminded him that the car was already blocked and the formalities were being worked upon by our company.

He said he will update his management... After this he wasnt reachable for the day. Later i confirm that things are going on smoothly at our end and the deal could be closed by tuesday. Ok...

On Monday 26th Sep, the purchase order is faxed. I speak to the sales executive and update him, he says he is not in bangalore, and would follow-up on the PO the next day. The executive is not reachable on tuesday, called up the dealership and leave a message for him. No response ...

On thursday 29th, I spoke to the executive to find out the status and he then says that there is no black baleno in stock. The one which had been booked/blocked has been disposed off to someone else... :( He then said he will find out and arrange for another baleno from their hubli branch. Waited untill Friday evening for his call which never came...tried to call him up but no response...

Today went to the showroom to discuss abt this with their mgmt. met the CGM. He gave a patient hearing, although there were subtle hints to say that this is not their fault... some talk of the purchase price always being whats mentioned in the invoice - the invoice issued was just a proforma invoice and not the final invoice etc... that the booking wud require downpayment as per the terms in the proforma invoice and some more... etc etc

However, he said that its tooo late now, and he is as helpless as us :( ... if only the matter was brought to his notice earlier, he could have set right the matter. He said he will look into it and needed some time.

Would be meeting him up again next week to find out if theres been any progress... theres still some hope lingering in me... who knows the CGM might still pull it off.

Now, due some mismanagement and lack of business ethics I tend to loose out on the 63k discount that was on offer at the time of booking... This inspite of me having persisted with RNS; despite being tempted with better offers from sagar/pratham... It surely makes you feel sad when you are let down for no fault of yours...

And then again after the action ( rather the re-action ) they took to set right the problems with Mclarens Zen. after being shown the discussion chain in team bhp.... This is indeed a huge let down :(

Whts wrong with RNS?


-Haque.





PS: Mods, if you find this posting has to be in the forum for dealerships, I checked it and noticed I do not have enough rights, to post replies or edit my posts there... Hence am posting it here. If you wud be moving this elsewhere please move it to where i have sufficient rights to reply/edit posts. Thnkx...

[mclaren1885]

hhhmm..sorry to hear that haque and ya i sure am disappointed with them..

anyways what the CGM said is true..u need to make an initial DP for the company to process ur booking..unless and until u make DP however small it is say even 5k u cant consider a car to be booked or blocked on your name..so i think that was one thing u didnt foresee..i have just booked an alto (made a DP of 5k until further processing) few weeks back and guess what??? they didnt have wine red and asked me to wait for 20 days as the demand was heavy and they had only one car in transit for the moment..so all the legalities done with was just waiting for the call from them on the arrival of the car...but 1 week has past and could not take wait anymore ..so went over to the showroom and asked a change of colour to black(actually black was my 1st choice but wanted to check out wine red as its new and maintainance will be low and the major factor being i might go in for a black baleno sometime in the near future)..

the process was quite smooth and the very next day i was asked to take the delivery of the car,but as my family members insisted not to take the delivery until 5th(bcoz of amavasya) i put it back..
so my experience was pretty good with them,no complaints what so ever...

anyways il speak to the GM on monday and see what i can do for u..if they say they will get the car from the hubli branch then i can check the status at the hubli showroom too for u as my hometown is hubli and have quite a lot of influence there..actually the owner thats R.N.Shettys son is my uncles very good friend...its just that i didnt want to take such small matters to him..will surely look into this issue and try my best to help..will keep in touch with u the moment i get to speak to Mr.Patil..dont worry..

PS:can u pls give me ur contact number..mine is 9886073522..

[Haque]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

.unless and until u make DP however small it is say even 5k u cant consider a car to be booked or blocked on your name..so i think that was one thing u didnt foresee.

..if they say they will get the car from the hubli branch then i can check the status at the hubli showroom too for u as my hometown is hubli and have quite a lot of influence there..

PS:can u pls give me ur contact number..mine is 9886073522..

Hey Mclaren... Thanks .

However, as far as the DP is concerned, its different from what u have mentioned. The booking has been confirmed in their records, and it was from their side that the offer of booking on 0% DP was made...If the booking amount was a matter of concern, the concerned executive should have informed me. So the onus of honoring the commitment is still on their end. I have a letter from their end citing my booking on Sep 13, informing me of an offer of 5gms gold coin if payment is done within 28th. This essentially confirms my booking.

And yes the CGM did try to contact other dealerships for arranging the vehicle, while we were there. He checked with their Hubli branch ( black baleno not available) and also frm Mandovi & others locally. The fact is as the CGM said, he is helpless at this stage. He was in fact cordial and helpfull... Has said he needs some time to sort this out... And I am still hopefull that there might be some positive developments.

But, then my point is how could they do this? After having confirmed a booking, and being aware tht the finance/formalities are being processed, how can they go ahead and finalise the deal with someone else? Its surely a breach of trust.
If they were to cancel my booking wasnt it their responsibility to intimate me, so that I could make alternate arrangements?

My number is: 9880063888.

Hope u have had a good and long drive

-thanks
Haque

[Rasputin]

sorry to hear about that...
But one question; Why didn't u ask leaseplan to do the delivery scheduling.
You could have always asked leaseplan guys to get the black baleno delivered at the right time .And they would have sourced it from the dealers ,considering their clout in the car industry....

[Haque]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

sorry to hear about that...
But one question; Why didn't u ask leaseplan to do the delivery scheduling.
You could have always asked leaseplan guys to get the black baleno delivered at the right time .And they would have sourced it from the dealers ,considering their clout in the car industry....

The leasing guidelines at our company state that we are to get a proforma invoice of the car we wish to have. We could choose the dealer...

I had no reason to not opt for RNS. The non-availability of the car was only intimated to me on Sep 28th, with a promise to source it from their Hubli branch by 30th. which alas did not happen.

But, how could they resort to dispose of a car which has been blocked without any satisfactory reason?

-Haque

[Haque]

Update:

RNS has really disappointed... After the Cheif General Manager, had mentioned tht he will see what he could do... I was still hopefull that they could source one from elsewhere... Guess I was tooo optimistic

Went there yesterday as they never had the courtesy to update me on the developments. ( so much for the sales and service reputuation of Maruti dealers, it all boils down to the individual you are lucky to deal with ) ... Got to meet the sales executive, instead of accepting that there was a mistake, he started denying ... asked me to wait for another two days for new corporate offers to be releaseed from MUL... He said, if the offers were same as earlier, he would give the new baleno under the new scheme...if not then theres nothing he could do... tried to put the blame on the delayed payment .etc.. ( Just excuses ).

Went to the CGM along with the executive, what I heard there was a different story .... apparently when the CGM had enquired abt the matter with the exec. he had told the CGM that I was informed of my booking having been cancelled and the car alloted to someone else... this was plain lies.... I asked him to repeat the same in my presence, he could not...then I updated the CGM ( wonder how many times one has to put across this ) that i was not informed...and that untill the last moment I was given assurance that the car would be delivered...

Something that the CGM said, shocked me... He said irrespective of the booking, if the company wants to liquidate its stock, it can just go ahead... so it means, irrespective of the bookings being done, if they get another customer whom they would like to sell the car, they will sweetly go ahead and change the booking to allot the car at their sweet will and pleasure... their primary concern is to liquidate the stocks as early as possible, so nothing to worry abt the business ethics or commitments.

Have now initiated the process with another dealer... But Black Baleno is what i want..and God Willing I shall have it !!!

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by Haque

Have now initiated the process with another dealer... But Black Baleno is what i want..and God Willing I shall have it !!!

Good that you have dumped them.
However, in company purchase cases, doesn't the company release the PO and the Cheque in the name of a specific dealer ? Is this so in your case ? If you go to a different dealer, would you need to ask the company to modify the PO and cheque ?

[Haque]

@shuvc:

You are right about the process... I have to initiate a fresh request and cancel the current one. Hopefully, the process should'nt take more than two-three days as both our company folks and the Leaseplan team has been cooperative...

[varunroy]

Originally Posted by Haque

@shuvc:

You are right about the process... I have to initiate a fresh request and cancel the current one. Hopefully, the process should'nt take more than two-three days as both our company folks and the Leaseplan team has been cooperative...

Dear Haque

I am sorry to hear about your disappointment. This is something that is happening everywhere and in every field. Forget ethics, there's no courtesy shown to the customer. Most sales executive are from poor educative back-ground and it does'nt matter to them, if they lose a customer,especially if the next one gives him better returns.

They lie at the drop of hat. In your case they should have informed you about the disposal your car to another customer.

I am glad you have posted this on the forum

Whats the present status ? Did you get the colour you wanted and from which dealer? How was your experience with this dealer?

Who was this sales executive ? By puting his name here it would help other BHPians in being careful with this chap.

[zabcd]

Some part of it depends on your using the levers available to you. I for example (incidentally I bought my car under the same leaseplan arrangement) dealt with a dealership in Gurgaon.

The sales executive was slightly inattentive-prone to forgetting his promises, shall we say? I reminded him that one email from me on this experience would make sure no one from my company bought another car from his dealership. From that moment on I got excellent service and attention inclduing holding on to a car for 2 weeks for me.

[srasania]

Originally Posted by Haque

Now, due some mismanagement and lack of business ethics I tend to loose out on the 63k discount that was on offer at the time of booking...

I would suggest email/postal mail letters about all this to Maruti Headquarters,Delhi..they would surely get you the same discount for your new order..

sr

[Haque]

@varun/srasania: Thanks to Leaseplan, I managed to get the same color/model from another dealer ( Pratham Motors ) who matched the offer. The experience with this dealer has been good. I am glad that they agreed to match the offer and they did not backtrack on their words.

@zabcd: Well, tht did not work. The MD was frank enough to say 'Sorry, its too late now and I cant do anything, if this matter was brought to my notice earlier, I could have helped. Now we dont have the stock etc'. Leaseplan folks were also not happy with the elusive sales executive. Got to know later on that RNS isnt on their list of preferred dealers. Guess, this experience asserts their decision.

[zabcd]

Yes Haque you are right. Before I bought my car-I asked Leaseplan if they'd recommend any particular dealer. They equivocated a bit and then I asked them off the record and they were candid in recommending one over the others.

[dogdiga]

From my swift buying experience too, pratham motors have been very responsive and stick to their promises. (relatively speaking)

[mclaren1885]

well lets not give the RNS guys such a big stick..i have had my share from them,and if u guys have read my story then im sure u will know what i am talking about..since then i have been getting some immaculate service from them..

had spoken to the GM of RNS.Motors regarding this issue..apparently after having a very long chat with him in his cabin i came to the conclusion that they have done nothing wrong in allocating the car to someone else..the details provided to me as far as i know were reasons good enough for me to get a hang of the situation..there were a lot of unworked issues on this deal which lead to this issue..