[srini1785]

Just a General Question,

What happens when one does not have an insurance or is expired or is under third party coverage?.

[Pashin]

I fail to understand the line adopted by Dealers and Employees to run away from incidents like these. The same dealer will later spend much more on lawyers defending the case in the courts but wont own up the responsibility and try to resolve the issue with the customer. Car accidents can happen anywhere at any time and while most people wouldn't expect it to happen in a car dealership, I have seen the way the cars are handled at multiple dealerships and would say that its scary. The dealer should own up the responsibility of this incident, provide the customer a loaner car and ensure that the work is done properly under insurance without any monetary loss to the customer. I/m sure the dealers would be mandated to have accident insurance for their workshops.

[bvasista]

Sad to hear about this incident and hope TATA gets involved in this and takes action on the dealer, supports the customer.

In Hyderabad, I gave my Tata Tiago for service at Venkataramana Motors, Kondapur and was waiting in the lounge. Met a Safari owner who preferred this service center over Orange stating that he had unpleasant experience with service at Orange and he prefers to travel extra 30 mins to get his Safari serviced at Venkataramana Motors, Kondapur.

1. Better to avoid Orange for service is what is learnt from him.
2. Better to avoid Mailk cars, Tolichowki also. I called them up couple of times to see if I can get my Tiago serviced there and was told that I would get a call back. I never received a call back.

Also, there is Tejaswi Automobiles, Madhapur where couple of folks from my apartment get the service done for Tigor and Tiago.

[singh.b86]

Recently there was a new thread on our forum with the title "Tata taunts Mahindra as...."

While i personally have a neutral perspective towards that banter, but on the other hand i am really tempted to post the Rushlane link of this incident and Team-BHP thread for this incident on that very tweet.

And to sweeten it further, tag Mahindra and its Senior Management on it.

[NJ_9]

Claiming insurance to get this repaired and compensating amount for NCB is fine but the dealer should also pay a certain sum to offset resale hit that the customer is going to take down the lane.
Pay 2-3 lakhs along with other compensation and we are good to go.

The MISTAKE is on their side. There is no two ways about it. Pay for the mistake. It is an accident but it is what it is.

The dealer believes TATA would do nothing but let us wait that out.

[EV Fan]

Originally Posted by sudeepg

We would think this is how it should be, but if we read the fine print on the job card that we all sign, you'll realize that they are not liable for accidents that may happen on their premises. After all, it is a Motor car that is insured.

Are there any regulations that dictate the terms, when it comes to the fine print on job cards or is it just whatever the dealer cooks up. The manufacturers are liable for defective products(required as per law), are the service centers not similarly liable?

An owner with a 3rd party insurance does not stand a chance. How would it be handled in that scenario - FIR or Consumer Case?


It was hard enough to research and find the car best suited in your budget, then the chip shortage made it worse by adding another element of "Waiting Period".
But now it seems, for anyone buying a Tata car, researching the dealer is also a mandatory scrutiny.

[PetrolRider]

Originally Posted by darkfantasy

Am not sure why the dealership is asking the customer to claim his insurance. Ideally, the dealership should have had its own insurance for damages to customer cars within its premises.

Am not sure how it is handled for other OEMs. Anyone with any experience, please elaborate.

Originally Posted by Durango Dude

I just wonder what other OEM's do when something like this happens

Originally Posted by vedirah

I understand that the dealer is at fault. But claiming insurance is the right way to go about it. The car is insured for a reason.

Originally Posted by Venkat_Figo

- Request customer to claim insurance

Each dealership has insurance for the same.

As per my first hand experiences, one of the prominent Hyundai dealerships damaged back bumper of my car during a regular service. Dealer as usual asked me to claim from my insurance. I just shoot an email with photo attached to Hyundai.
Next-day, car picked up from my home, bumper repaired (not replaced) painted and delivered at my home with an apology from top dealership official and a pleading request from SA to withdraw my complain at Hyundai to save his 3 month salary. All these just on an email. I even didn't care to call or demand anything.

What I understood, each dealership is insured for such workplace accidents and Hyundai forces dealership to take action on SA for damage to customer cars under them. Another SA even explained to me a scenario where the dealership had to replace entire front dash of a customer car.

What the TATA dealer wanted to do is to save on his own insurance renewal cost.

[shancz]

Feel sorry for the owner.

While we can argue about the number of issues found in Tata Motors vehicles vs others but there is one thing that seems to stand out from the rest when Tata Motors is involved.

Every other manufacturer seems to work with the errant dealer and the customer gets a resolution while somehow Tata Motors lets the case drag on, sides with the dealers and in some cases armtwists the customer legally or through their clout.
This is the biggest flaw in how Tata Motors conducts its business, IMO.

Hope the customer gets his vehicle operational soon and better luck.

[VikramCS]

Tata Motors seems busy making fun of other OEMs, they should instead resolve such customer issues with highest priority.
Dear TML: remember that just selling bucket load of cars and boasting about it will not last long..as the saying goes 'Pride goes before a fall'. If recent buyers encounter more such ASS horror stories, the sales trajectory will soon dip. Before time runs out, step-in and take drastic steps to improve ASS.

[WhiteSierra]

For TATA cars, I'd suggest to get your vehicles serviced at FNGs post your warranty expiry. I cannot comment on EVs as FNGs might not be trained and equipped with software / BCM related issues, but any mechanical work, always FNGs are the way to go, service exprience would be much better than authorised service centers. I have 3 old Sierras, I get them serviced at FNGs are I'm very happy with TATA cars. Latest TATA cars are well built, have good safety ratings, great to drive, except few lemon cars and premature part failures, these cars are damn good, post warranty period get them serviced and repaired from your FNGs as all TATA parts are officially available at your local parts store and online (boodmo). Quality control, dealer sales and service teams are the biggest enemies of Tata motors, while design and engineering (assembly of Fiat engines and Hyundai gearboxes ) are best teams of Tata Motors.

[gmhossain]

Originally Posted by prateekchanana

Even though the dealer had no right to be rude or arrogant about this, the mindset people have about claiming insurance is wrong most times. In case of an accident most people claim that it was not my fault so I will not claim the insurance. That’s not what exactly what the insurance is meant for.

Absolutely, spot on. The car insurance is meant for taking care of the car post an accident. I am not aware what actually transpired between the customer and the dealership after the incident but I fully agree that the dealership here had no right to misbehave or to be arrogant.

Originally Posted by Ashtoncastelino

I'm pretty sure they are responsible to deliver the car in the same condition or better as it was when handing over for service by the customer. Why should the customer foot the bill and claim insurance for a stupid mistake by the dealer?

Unfortunately, that's not the case legally after you sign the job card with the fine prints. Of course, the insurance of a car remains in force even for accident that happens within the premises of a service center. Please see below the terms & conditions of a Maruti Authorized Service Station (from our Zen Estilo service bill).

Originally Posted by darkfantasy

Am not sure how it is handled for other OEMs. Anyone with any experience, please elaborate.

Please see the service terms of a MASS (underlined) which categorically says, "our liability is to repair the damages under your vehicle's Insurance Policy" !

Terms & Conditions of a Maruti Authorized Service Station

[Dry Ice]

Damn! that’s atrocious to say the least.

Back in 2006-07, a new Alto in the family was sent in for service. When I went to collect it, noticed and pointed out a cracked rear light to the SA. He checked the job card, and there was no record of the light being broken/cracked (obviously, coz it wasn’t!). I was mentally preparing myself for some back and forth on how to resolve this when he went back in to “check” some more. But, I was pleasantly surprised when he returned with a technician and a new light cluster! It was replaced in 10 mins, I settled the service bill (no part or labour cost for the light replacement), rated the experience a 10/10 and left for home.

Now, it may not be the same inexpensive part in case of this car, but, the least this dealer can do is be respectful and honest. If it is an accident (the lift failed or whatever), there shouldn’t be anything to hide.

Wish TML divert some of their marketing budget towards the support function. Word of mouth publicity will lose you more customers than you will gain with “intelligent” ads taunting a competitor.

[McLaren Rulez]

The lack of any response yet is very telling.

Is Tata trying to boost the confidence of VAG customers by showing them they don't have it that bad after all?

[vedirah]

I want to share a slightly similar incident that happened to my dad's XUV300. We had given the car for regular servicing at Derik Mahindra, Nagercoil. They replaced the transmission oil and forgot to put the drain plug back. In this car, the drain plug does not work on gravity. The oil is drained via a gear pump. So it wasn't apparent immediately that the gear oil was leaking.

Some two three days later he went to Coimbatore. Around 350 kms into the journey, the fifth and sixth gears wouldn't engage. Then he stopped the car, and found that the second gear also wouldn't engage. There was loud noise from the gearbox. He immediately called for RSA, but they didn't arrive for the next six hours. In the wee hours of night, he was stranded on the highway.

Mahindra coimbatore dealer kept the car for the next one month waiting for parts arrival. No support from Mahindra to even give a temporary replacement the vehicle. My dad travels a lot for his work and that one month was very hard for him. He tweeted to Anand Mahindra also, but no response. Anyway, lucky for him that he had engine protect cover in his insurance, so they claimed insurance. The bill was around 70k. After a month when they delivered the car, we got to know that Mahindra had penalised the Nagercoil dealer for their negligence an amount of 50k for this whole fiasco.

It's shameful how they handled the whole incident. It was their fault. The least they could have done is give a replacement car temporarily until they do the repairs. And their RSA was just pathetic. Makes me not recommend Mahindra to anyone anymore. My dad personally doesn't care about the resale value, but a major gearbox repair in a car that has done only 40k kms would be a huge problem when selling the car.

[dingolphie]

I would think the dealer has liability insurance that they should claim on and settle with the customer.

Can any members that have knowledge of commercial insurance opine?

If the OP files a consumer court case, we would know soon enough.