[samyakmodi]

If you people recall, I had a small mishap with 02 honda city in november. The car has been with the dealership for repairs ever since. There was some delay from our side (about 15 days) to decide whether to let go off the car, or get it completely repaired and keep it as spare. We decided to keep the car and gave thumbs up to the dealership in the month of December itself.

The dealership was shifting its service centre, which was the excuse they gave for not being able to start the repairs on the car for over a month. Towards end of January/Beginning of February I get a call to deposit a small amount (advance of 1 lac) so that they can begin the work as the repairs and engine over haul would be slightly expensive. Gave them the advance immediately, and ever since then I have been getting excuses like some or the other parts are not available.

Now its been over 6 months the car has been lying with them, and a little over 2 months since I have been hearing them say that the Engine's Head gasket is not available with the company. Today the Dealership's Service In-charge told me that he would fit in the "local" head gasket as a solution.
Now IF I wanted the local parts to be installed in the car, why on earth would i send it to the authorised service centre and be patient for the past 6 months.

There is one Mr. Manpreet who is sitting in the Honda Mumbai office, who had assured me 15 days back that the required parts have already been dispatched and the dealership would receive them the next day. The dealership still claims that the head gasket is still missing. I tried contacting Mr. Manpreet again regarding the same and not only he is clueless, but now to add insult to injury, he has stopped responding to the calls since past one week.

Can anyone help me getting in touch with some Honda officials who can help me out of this plight as now it has become really irritating to follow up for the car from past 6 months.

[asr245]

Whoa! 6 months! that's a long time. I wouldn't have been so patient.

Have you tried the contact link on their website. I had once contacted them through it and they responded. CC'ing some to Honda Japan might help too.

[bluevolt]

Originally Posted by samyakmodi

Can anyone help me getting in touch with some Honda officials who can help me out of this plight as now it has become really irritating to follow up for the car from past 6 months.

Hi samyak,

Sad to hear about your incident and even sad to know the response of Honda dealership. Kindly note down the central Honda helpline number - 1800 113 121, Explain your problem here and I am sure this will help you. In addition to this checkout this link - http://www.hondacarindia.com/feedback/servicefeedback.aspx.

Send an mail to this mail id - customer_relations@hondacarindia.com

[samyakmodi]

@asr245 & Bluevolt

already contacted them on the website about a month ago. just got one response. We will try to solve this issue at the earliest and get back to you - guess they misplaced my number or something as nothing has been done about it yet, nor have they informed me about the progress.

i don't think the dealership is at a major fault here as honda siel itself has not been able to supply the parts from over 2 months. If the dealership doesnt get the parts, how will they install it??


but any which way - 6 months is a way too long a time to repair accidental damages and engine(just a over haul - no accidental damage)

[shortbread]

Samyak,

Write another e mail to their customer relations, explain how you've been tossed around, names of culprits and how you have flagged this on Team bhp, last but not least cc the following folk:

Corporate:
saba@hondacarindia.com
ravisharma@hondacarindia.com
suniti@hondacarindia.com


Marketing:
anita@hondacarindia.com

President & CEO:
Takashi@hondacarindia.com
takashinagai@hondacarindia.com
tnagai@hondacarindia.com

(try all three, should strike one)

I know its kinda over the board, but I like going all guns blazing.

[arjab]

Suggest you write to:

Jnaneswar Sen
Sr. VP - Marketing
Honda Cars India
E-mail:
jsen@hondacarindia.com

All the best !

[GTO]

Originally Posted by samyakmodi

If you people recall, I had a small mishap with 02 honda city in november.

Hardly a small mishap if you paid a token amount of 1 lakh rupees for repairs!

The car has been with the dealership for repairs ever since.

Please name the dealer so that I can add it to the thread title.

Now its been over 6 months the car has been lying with them, and a little over 2 months since I have been hearing them say that the Engine's Head gasket is not available with the company.

Why on earth would it take 6 months to procure a head gasket? I smell something fishy. When was the last time you saw your car? There is a possibility that they have damaged it further, during the workshop move?

How many kms on your car? How bad was the damage? What is the list of work / repairs to be performed on the car?

[samyakmodi]

Originally Posted by GTO

Hardly a small mishap if you paid a token amount of 1 lakh rupees for repairs!



Please name the dealer so that I can add it to the thread title.



Why on earth would it take 6 months to procure a head gasket? I smell something fishy. When was the last time you saw your car? There is a possibility that they have damaged it further, during the workshop move?

How many kms on your car? How bad was the damage? What is the list of work / repairs to be performed on the car?

1. 1 Lakh is for total repairing, which also includes engine overhaul.
2. The dealership is Abhikaran Honda - though i somehow don't blame them as I have myself seen the emails they have been sending to Honda for spare parts. Last I had personally seen the car was in the month of March.
3. There were some minor damages during the workshop move - but all was repaired the last time I saw it. As far as body is concerned, they have restored it - but still haven't done anything about the engine.

first they had problems sourcing the piston rings, then they found one in some chennai warehouse, and then they found 3 somewhere else - this happened only 3 days back. Each time I have spoken to the concern person, he has said "Sir there is absolutely no feedback regarding the head gasket".
Today I had to write on teambhp to vent out my irritation as the same service executive says that "Sir - i think we will put in a "local" head gasket itself to come up with a solution". IF this is what the authorised service centre's executive has to recommend - wonder where is Honda heading from here.

First delay in starting of repairs - their workshop was being shifted
Then the delay - as they did not communicate in time regarding the advance they would need
Then the delay - to source the parts from various warehouses which HONDA has
Then the delay - to wait for one part at a time

Solution : put in a local part : this is what comes from their own executive.

If i wanted to waste so much of time just to get to this solution , i should have instead given up the car OR given the car to a local mechanic who would have repaired the car in probably a month's time and definitely in less than half the price!!

attached are a couple of pics for reference of the small mishap. no one was seriously hurt. i walked out scratchless - thanks to the seatbelts.
A guy with his wife and 2 kids were crossing the bypass without looking left or right. I was at a speed of 80-90kmph, and these guys jumped right in front of me out of no where. the damage is looking a bit more, as the bike had landed on my bonnet, and the entire family came on the windscreen - hence a dent on the roof too.

[samyakmodi]

@shortbred and arjab

thanks a lot buddies. sent a mail to them all, with a link to this page

@ gto

1 lakh is the token amount for the repairs + engine overhauling. Just read my own post and realised it might lead to confusion.

[shortbread]

@ Honda India

Guys if you are actually reading this page kindly go through Honda India - Way forward

@ Samyak

Let us know how you get on.

[samyakmodi]

here is a reply that I got yesterday

some how still not satisfied as now they are saying that it will take 8 days "tentatively" to send the part from Bangalore to Indore. Have they not heard of sending via air??

and as regards to the mail dated 30th May, all it said was we will look into this matter at the earliest.


anyways


Dear Mr.Modi,

This is further to our mail dated 30th May 2011 regarding your below mentioned concern.

We wish to inform that pending parts for your vehicle are being arranged from our Bangalore dealership and same would be reaching the dealership tentatively by 8th June.

We are advising our dealership to keep you posted on the progress of the same..

We once again regret for the inconvenience caused and assure you of our sincere efforts to address your concern at the earliest.

Regards,

Rosien Haqq
Customer Relationship Management
Honda Siel Cars India Ltd. ,Greater Noida

[honeybee]

Why not explore filing a case against them in a local consumer court?

[ghodlur]

One thing that confuses me is why is a token amount given even before the repairs have started. Isn't it normally the case that the payment is done after the vehicle is handed over back to the customer. Also before the token amount was given to the dealer was the estimate of repairs taken? Why was not another Honda dealer contacted when it was clearly known that the car would not be repaired for some time due to the relocation?

Or I am missing something here?

[csentil]

My car (Civic) got majorly damaged on Feb 28th and it took Honda around 75 odd days to fix it.

The problem was by the time the Insurance guys had assessed the car and Honda had given an estimate, the earthquake and tsunami happened in Japan.

Some of the parts for Honda cars still come from Japan especially for the Civic, Accord and CRV. I'm not sure about the City. So with all the confusion that happened, parts were scarcely available.

It took them sometime in early April to get some of the parts and the others came in later. Other dealers/vendors were not ready to part with what they had because they were not sure of the spare parts supply given all that had happened.

Maybe, just maybe that also hit them during the latter part. However that's no excuse for damaging your car in transit and for delaying till Feb/March.

[samyakmodi]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Why not explore filing a case against them in a local consumer court?

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

Originally Posted by ghodlur

One thing that confuses me is why is a token amount given even before the repairs have started. Isn't it normally the case that the payment is done after the vehicle is handed over back to the customer. Also before the token amount was given to the dealer was the estimate of repairs taken? Why was not another Honda dealer contacted when it was clearly known that the car would not be repaired for some time due to the relocation?

Or I am missing something here?

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.