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‘They have sold me a used car’
Quote:
Suspecting foul play, customer who bought a new Skoda Laura sends legal notice to the car dealer who says it is just a human error
Akshay.Kaushal @timesgroup.com
Shahibaug resident Dinesh Daga was excited when he bought his new car in December 2010. However, his excitement was shortlived, when he sent his car for the first free service. To his shock, he came to know that his car was registered in the name of another person living in Bodakdev.
Daga had spent more than Rs 15 lakh to buy a Skoda Laura, a sedan, from Torque Automotive Private Limited on S G Highway.
Furious over what he considered unfair trade practice, Daga sent a legal notice to the Skoda dealer last month.
“This is simply unfair trade. They have sold me a used vehicle, which had already met with an accident. Initially, when I purchased the car they didn’t even provide me with the service booklet, saying that it will be delivered to me in some time. It was in good faith that I trusted them. But till date they have not given it to me despite sending them many reminders,” Daga told Mirror.
When the businessman’s driver went to give the car for the first service, the engineers there told him that the car door looks damaged, as the colour was not original, Daga said.
“I completely lost it when the first free service bill was generated and my car was shown to be in the name of some other person. How is it possible? They have sold me a used and damaged car. I have sent them a legal notice through my lawyer. I have demanded a full refund, but they have not replied yet,” he said, showing the documents.
Daga thinks that Torque Automotive must have sold the car to another person earlier, but before the car was registered with the RTO, some problem must have occurred. The dealer must then have replaced the car and given a new car to him. “It was not my business till then. But why have they have given me a used car is my question. Who knows, they might have done the same thing with other people too,” he said.
Clarifying their position, Torque Automotive, head (system and process), Sameer Kothari said, “We received a notice and have sent a reply last week. It’s a human error and absolutely non-intentional. Selling a used car is not possible in today’s time. In this case, the car was booked earlier by another person and hence it was allotted to that person on his name and address. But due to some reasons he cancelled his booking. It was a mistake on part of our staff not to delete his name from the records.”
Kothari said that when Daga purchased the car, the sales guy had just updated the records manually and did not change it on the software.
“The vehicle never went out of the showroom before it was sold to Dinesh Daga.
“In our reply, we have tried to explain everything to Daga, and we are ready to show him all the documents if he asks. Everything is crystal clear. If he takes us to court, we have the papers to show and prove that it was just a human error and nothing else,” he said.
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Source :
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1. Not issuing the user manual despite reminders - Human error?
2. Their own service engineers declaring the car is damaged - Human error?
3. Sales guy updating manually and not in the software - Human error?
It's not mentioned how many kms the car had on the odo when it was delivered. All in all, yet another shady act from Skoda! :deadhorse
Wow! Another feather in Skoda's Hat. The list just goes on, doesn't it? What piques me is the fact that it is only Skoda that is associated with all the customer treachery and scam among all players in India. Being inefficient or lackadaisical in A. S. S is one thing; but scams!? This is criminal. I do not know if VW will be the number 1 OEM by 2018, but I do know for sure that Skoda has already achieved the dubious number 1 scamster position way back. What cheapsters man! :Frustrati
Though the story does look like a sorry one. Sorry I am just trying to be a Devil's Advocate here.
1. Just because the service invoice shows some name doesnt mean that car is resold. Thats too kiddish to think this way.
2. If someone says the door was damaged, how do you know Daga did not damage it. I mean his driver could have it is somewhere and not informed him also.
3. If there KM reading was not correct or if there was any damage during the time he took possession, then sorry its a case of the buyer not being aware. "Caveat emptor" his case will not stand.
As a devils advocate I have a feeling it might be some deliberate negative marketing to downplay a product.
BTW, I dont own Skoda nor am I an employee of Skoda
Quote:
Originally Posted by xingamazon
(Post 2417755)
Though the story does look like a sorry one. Sorry I am just trying to be a Devil's Advocate here.
As a devils advocate I have a feeling it might be some deliberate negative marketing to downplay a product.
BTW, I dont own Skoda nor am I an employee of Skoda
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Your devil's advocate will have a flourishing career in t-bhp as there are more than 10 threads with more than 50 different instances citing unfair trade practices to outright scam w.r.t Skoda.:D
Coming back to the topic, Skoda manages to do the magic trick again.
With the number of cars Maruti, Hyundai or even Toyota manages to sell per month compared to Skoda its strange how come such human error or negetive marketting happens always with skoda.
High time we have laws to take these kind of irresponsible manufacturers and cunning dealerships to task.:Frustrati
Last weekend I was on phone with my father in law - trying to convince him to buy a used Laura.
This weekend I was visiting them and had already gone through some horror storied on TBHP - asked him NOT to buy a Skoda no matter what.
Needless to say - had a huge egg on my face.
There goes Skoda again! At this point, it might be premature to comment who is in fault. However, why does it happen only with Skoda? Their cars excite us but their trade practices put us off. I myself have warned so many of my friends against Skoda cars after reading so many stories about their trade practices. I think Skoda needs to really come clean and show they are on the customer side.
Why is this happening only [majorly] with Skoda alone?? And they always have some stupid excuses as well. Inspite of these numerous instances, Skoda as a company has not waken up and the so called "consumers" still continue to buy their cars adding to their profits ! No wonder why it keeps happening.
Offtopic:
Quote:
Originally Posted by vina
(Post 2417872)
Last weekend I was on phone with my father in law - trying to convince him to buy a used Laura.
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Trust in GOD buddy ! Had he read the issues after buying one, the repercussions could have been nothing short of fatal !
Was the odo also tampered? How come a customer takes delivery of a vehicle which has high figures on the odo?
GTO and other mods, please consider giving some space on the home-page to such Skoda threads. If you expose the 'real face' of Skoda to every visitor on the site, there will surely be a dent in their sales. If they don't stop doing this, there will come a day when one of the bigwigs are going to be thrashed in public for fraudulent activities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xingamazon
(Post 2417755)
2. If someone says the door was damaged, how do you know Daga did not damage it. I mean his driver could have it is somewhere and not informed him also.
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I am neither playing Devils advocate here or against Skoda. I know of all the horror stories about Skoda, but I do admire all their cars. If I would buy one, it would be more of a gamble and me taking a plunge and then hoping that everything would be fine.
Anyway, to what xingamazon has mentioned, this is very very possible. How often are drivers honest enough to come back and tell their owners they have crashed their cars. I have seen cabbies / private car drivers on several instances coming for touch ups to various places. In Bangalore itself, there is a shop that does painting etc (this is the narrow lane one takes after you cross mallya hospital, you take a right and enter the lane that has the various key makers shops and there is a Royal Enfield Showroom as well) and it is a very small workshop and they do painting in the open. If someone does painting out in the open, I am assuming the prices are dirt cheap prices and there are cars always parked there. And on more than one occasion I have seen BMWs also parked there with the driver standing nearby and the bumper, door or whatever getting painted.
It is common practice to sell a car that was blocked for someone else owing to delay in payment or various other reasons. Infact my Swift was booked for someone else and due to his loan approval getting delayed and I was ready with the down payment, the dealer decided to prioritise me over the customer in who's name the car was originally booked. Just because this is related to Skoda we're all too quick to jump the gun is my humble opinion.
Honestly one is getting a little tired of these so called horror stories.Several loop holes are evident. Was it registered on the name of another person or just the Skoda data base had a different name? Did he not notice the damage to the doors during delivery?
"Daga thinks that Torque Automotive must have sold the car to another person earlier, but before the car was registered with the RTO, some problem must have occurred. The dealer must then have replaced the car and given a new car to him. “It was not my business till then. But why have they have given me a used car is my question. Who knows, they might have done the same thing with other people too,” he said."
The customer is thinking too much without doing much. Why can't he go to the RTO with VIN details and verify his doubts of ownership.
One question fellas - how is this Skoda's mistake?
Having gone thru' other threads, I don't have any particular affinity to Skoda but here, Skoda has nothing to do with the matter.
The dealer messed up - not Skoda!
Although I find the argument that the driver must have something to do with the "damaged" door far-fetched, the info mentioned in the report is too inconclusive to ascertain if the dealer sold a "damaged" car.
Quote:
Originally Posted by libranof1987
(Post 2418041)
The dealer messed up - not Skoda!
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Manufacturer is responsible for the dealer.Thats the significance of the "AUTHORIZED" word in the dealership tag.
Moreover its the Manufactures duty to ensure no unfair practices are followed at their dealership.The manufactures can take up the dealership to task in case of reporting of such instances.
Having said that I agree with you that the point of the driver might have goofed up with the door job sounds too far fetched.
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