[honeybee]

@samyak, that's an odd pratice there. By law if the owner doesn't pay up and collect the car, the dealership could actually sell it off and get their money back. I too haven't heard of a practice where you have to pay before the work even starts, not even when parts have to be ordered.

And you could still take them to court over the delays.

[ghodlur]

what happens nowadays with these older cars is that people generally give the car for repairs, and never turn up to pick them up as the car's over all repair cost exceeds the car's net worth

Would this be not the case of a Total loss then. By net worth I am referring to the IDV of the car.

the dealership (in case of major repairs) takes a token amount before hand as a commitment from your side that you ARE interested to get your car repaired. Otherwise I have seen numerous cases with more expensive vehicles where the cars have come for repairs, the dealership/service centre has repaired the car completely, but then the car owner ever shows up to collect his car and make the payment for the work done. This way the dealerships incur a major setback as they have invested not just time and money in that particular car, but the car is also occupying space in their garage. The dealerships can not do anything as they do not have the rights to sell of the car NOR can they do anything if the owner of the car refuses to pay after the repairs have been made. Hence, they take a token amount so that atleast all their efforts are not at a loss

In this case surely the dealer must be having some clause in the service where by he can take possession of the car if not picked up within the agreed time limits. What happens to the RC of such cars?

[samyakmodi]

Originally Posted by honeybee

@samyak, that's an odd pratice there. By law if the owner doesn't pay up and collect the car, the dealership could actually sell it off and get their money back. I too haven't heard of a practice where you have to pay before the work even starts, not even when parts have to be ordered.

And you could still take them to court over the delays.

well that's still an option, but then I am hoping I don't have to exercise it.
what is done is done - if there are any further delays then I would definitely go to the court. And will not just take the dealership, but would also lodge a complaint against Honda as they have not been able to source the parts for the car. If the model is discontinued - the least they can do is inform the customer before hand whether their vehicle can be repaired or not. That was not done in my case - so I hold Honda Siel Cars responsible for the delay as the dealership has been just waiting for the parts of the car to come from over couple of months.

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Would this be not the case of a Total loss then. By net worth I am referring to the IDV of the car.


In this case surely the dealer must be having some clause in the service where by he can take possession of the car if not picked up within the agreed time limits. What happens to the RC of such cars?

The car wasn't a total loss as per the insurance surveyor. For a total loss, the car's repairs need to be more than 80% of it's value - which wasn't the case with my car.

As far as the clause in the service is concerned, when I spoke to the dealership owner regarding that, he said that they are not authorised to do that. He showed me 2 accords and one CR-V which were lying in his garage (all repaired and ready to be delivered) for over an year.

[honeybee]

I think the law stipulates that even if a model has been discontinued, the manufacturer must provide spares and service for the next 10 years. Perhaps a legal expert may be able to confirm this.

Also the right to lien is inherent in the Contract Act, so the dealer can legally exercise his right to recover the money by selling off the car, though of course he would have to follow a legal procedure, such as sending notices to the owner etc.

[samyakmodi]

@honeybee

that's why I have been toying with the idea of suing honda siel for the 5 months delay.

and as far as the contract act with the service centre is concerned - please do accept my sincere apologies if i sound rude - but i really don't care about it now, since I paid the token amount 4 months back, I got my vehicle with them from over 6 months now, all I am concerned about now is that I get my car back ASAP, with all the work done.

on the other hand, should i expect something from honda/dealership for the delay? something like a discount, or free service voucher, or blah blah??

[shortbread]

@ Samyak

I understand your frustration with the delay but perhaps its better to focus on getting the car fixed rather than diverting you attention towards legal wranglings.

Maybe once (if!!) the part reaches in a week, things will progress a lot quicker.

[samyakmodi]

@shortbread

That's what I have been hoping for buddy. But then the entire reason to revive the car (emotional attachment) is getting lost somewhere. Now it seems like an unnecessary hassle.

Let's hope that Honda does something about this. Otherwise rest assured, with the dwindling number of sales, they wouldn't go far ahead with this kind of service performance.

Have kept my fingers (and whatever needs to be) crossed as I just read another honda owner's plight on the forum. Let's hope we get some solution to the problem ASAP.

[samyakmodi]

a small update

day before yesterday I got a call from zonal head office - mumbai, assuring that they would get back to me with the latest status of my car. the parts have already reached the dealership according to them and my car should be ready in 2-3 days.

the latest status is still awaited, and the dealership still hasn't given any update regarding the car.

wonder what should i do now.

[honeybee]

Did you get any kind of reference number from the Mumbai office which can help you track the status of the delivery? This would help in case the parts were sent by a courier service such as DHL. If it's an internal service by Honda, you should still be able to get the date and time when it reached the dealership, and then cross check that with the dealership.

Call them up and ask them for evidence of delivery, anything which will help you track and follow it up with the dealer. Whether they like it or not (and more importantly whether you like it or not) you will have to be after both the Mumbai office as well as your local dealership to ensure things are really moving.

[samyakmodi]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Did you get any kind of reference number from the Mumbai office which can help you track the status of the delivery? This would help in case the parts were sent by a courier service such as DHL. If it's an internal service by Honda, you should still be able to get the date and time when it reached the dealership, and then cross check that with the dealership.

Call them up and ask them for evidence of delivery, anything which will help you track and follow it up with the dealer. Whether they like it or not (and more importantly whether you like it or not) you will have to be after both the Mumbai office as well as your local dealership to ensure things are really moving.

as advised by you buddy, spoke to the dealership's service head. he confirmed the receipt of the parts. but. here's the catch, he says that he will get the work done latest by saturday (as he still has to check whether the parts received are right or not), then he would test the vehicle on monday, check for the cosmetics on tuesday - and correct them that very day, and would "probably" give the vehicle by wednesday.

if he still needs to check for the cosmetics of the car, what the hell was the service team doing from over 6 months?!?!? and why on earth would he take another 3 days to finish the engine's work if he was just waiting for the head gasket to come?!!? isn't the machining/matching/cleaning/flushing/blahbah totally unrelated to him getting the spares? and should the entire engine's assembly (with the new spares) take 3 days?!?

need some help from the experts here. GTO - buddy you are needed to shed some light on this matter too.

[honeybee]

I am no expert on those matters, but one advice is: let them first finish the job and then tell the service centre manager you won't be visiting him again for all those delays and worries.

[akhilesh51]

Originally Posted by samyakmodi

had they not responded now, that would have been the next action.

what happens nowadays with these older cars is that people generally give the car for repairs, and never turn up to pick them up as the car's over all repair cost exceeds the car's net worth. the dealership (in case of major repairs) takes a token amount before hand as a commitment from your side that you ARE interested to get your car repaired. Otherwise I have seen numerous cases with more expensive vehicles where the cars have come for repairs, the dealership/service centre has repaired the car completely, but then the car owner ever shows up to collect his car and make the payment for the work done. This way the dealerships incur a major setback as they have invested not just time and money in that particular car, but the car is also occupying space in their garage. The dealerships can not do anything as they do not have the rights to sell of the car NOR can they do anything if the owner of the car refuses to pay after the repairs have been made. Hence, they take a token amount so that atleast all their efforts are not at a loss.

I beg to differ on such a practice by Garage/service centre. The more usual and correct way is as follows:

1. After initial survey and estimate, service owner should charge at the very most 25% of 'estimated' bill of repairs.

2. At this point, service centre should be in a position to requisite all required parts if not in stock.

3. In case of substantial increase in repair budget due to unforeseen damages, service centre can then discuss with owner and charge 25% of revised estimate.

4. Once the repairs are complete, customer should then pay the amount in full or in case of cash-less, pay the required amount at the time of delivery.

Any excess amount demanded by service centre during repair without approval of customer is fishy and should be dealt with caution

It is not as if service centre is tied if customer does not take delivery. I have seen many service centres file civil suits against customer with condition that service centre be allowed to recover its losses by sale of car in case of non compliance by customer. In such a case, court usually grants service centre with the custody of vehicle and right of sale if customer fails to represent himself. If customer does represent himself, he is asked to submit a fees / bond / security in excess of repair bills in favour of service centre till the case is resolved.

With such a system, it is merely an escuse by service centre to fleece customers out of the cost of procuring parts considering they had already envisaged a long duration for repairs.

As far as your case is concerned:

1. Some spare parts are slow moving and could be (benefit of doubt) out of hands of service centre.

2. Under no condition, should the service centre have recommended a local part swap. It is just plain wrong and raises questions on morality of service centre.

3. It is also possible in some case that after repairing a certain part, fault is once again diagnosed in another part hence the need for ordering parts one after the other. This is where skill of diagnostics come into play and separates a decent workshop from an excellent workshop.

4. The additional time quoted by service centre after receiving the part is again questionable. While I agree that engine re-packing could take a day or more and another day to test its efficiency and further cleaning and cosmetics of vehicle but that should be it if all other work had been done on the vehicle. Did you get to see your vehicle recently ? If not, you should have a look at its current situation and also inspect the Head gasket part for genuine before they put it in engine by checking their courier receipts and part packaging. Also ensure the date of receipt to confirm if the part was actually received in past few days or the service centre was just taking you for a ride.

5. Be very cautious when settling the final bill and compare with your original estimate. You have the right to question every extra part mentioned in the bill that was not initially mentioned in estimate.

Finally, Hope for the Best. I am sure everything will turn up for good. Agree to the fact that sometimes, it can take a while to repair cars but if all ends well, you were in right hands.

[samyakmodi]

going to check out my car today.

carrying a camera too, just in case things are still not in place.

[samyakmodi]

ok so checked out the car day before yesterday, and I am not too sure whether I should be happy or sad about it.

they have repaired the front, and the engine was running.
but few things that pissed me off were
1. the new headlamps were not aligned properly. one was almost jutting out.
2. some rubber side strip was missing.
3. paint job was kind of weird. almost every body panel looked different. (though can give a benefit of doubt as they said the car needs to be polished)
4. the tail-lamps were not replaced. (they had cracked sometime before the accident, and the service centre was explicitly told to replace them)
5. window tints (last time I saw were scratched and torn at places) were still there. had asked them clearly to remove them all. (didn't ask them to replace)
6. right ORVM was still missing. when enquired they said that it has gone for painting.

the delivery date has shifted from wednesday to thursday already and this was before I told them about the problems - and I have my own doubts whether they would be able to deliver the car in a good condition on thursday.

[honeybee]

I would say instead of being happy or sad, just be a little more patient. While we all want things to move as efficiently as we are/want, many times there are factors beyond our control. So rather than being emotional, focus on the task at hand which is to get the car back in running shape.