| Carnation - Hadapsar experience
I took a Maruti 800 and an Automatic Wagon R to Carnation in Hadapsar on a Saturday afternoon.
I wanted to get the following done for the 800:
1] Tappet setting
2] Timing belt, idler pulley change
3] New spark plugs
And the following for the WagonR
1] Washing and interior cleaning
2] Wheel alignment
I spoke to the customer service advisor about the tappet setting and he said they would do it the next morning to allow the car to cool down first;
and I was asked to come early sharp at 9:00 to make sure I get my car done in time.
I also asked them If I could watch while they did the tappet setting as I had previous experiences of dealerships not doing it at all.I made it clear that I would need to see them do it.
Next morning I reach sharp at 9:00 - guess what no one was there to take the car. We waited till about 9:45 and then spoke to the manager about this delay.
We were then sent to a new customer service advisor.
Now the interesting part - I asked how much the plugs going to cost excluding the labor?
I was told 400 Rs..seems odd I then asked per unit price and was told 100 Rs.
I again reconfirmed if its 100 per unit without labor then how come 400 ?The guy was getting irritated and said 4 plugs = 400 Rs
Wow - I'm handing over this car to someone who thinks Maruti 800 has got 4 cylinders.
I again repeated the same thing that I wanted to get the tappet setting done, timing belt etc etc and I needed to see the tappet setting done.
Maruti800 gets taken in and also the Auto Wagon R, the Wagon R went for the cleaning and the wheel alignment.
The WagonR was finally ready by 12:00 PM after the wheel alignment without washing.
Some guy then took the Wagon R for a test drive. My dad was also sitting in the car with some other guys, I thought maybe the other mechanics were sitting to evaluate the wheel alignment etc ..we didnt bother.
Guess what ? the driver was dropping off people instead of going for a test drive and the Wagon R was being used as cab.
The Driver even asked my dad where to drop him off ?
How the hell can they use our Wagon R as cab for dropping off people ? how can they keep the customer waiting in the lobby for the car and start dropping off people ? and that too when the work on the car was not complete and not washed till now after 3 hours of waiting ..
This was totally unacceptable -My dad gave them a firing, asked the driver to take a U turn and return
The car was then washed after additional 1 hour very slowly and casually and handed to us still dripping.
We just took the keys - did not have any words for the pathetic service.
Meanwhile the 800 was raised on the jack and was being inspected from below, we found some bushings were to be replaced etc also the oil filter was leaking due to some idiot in the last workshop didn’t fit it right and the “O” ring on the filter seemed to be damaged ..
The mechanic started work on the Maruti 800, I was shocked when I saw how he was loosening the bolts in order to remove the belts.
He stuck a long lever at the end of some kind of spanner and cranked the engine, with a hard jerk he was trying to loosen some stuff.
By the time I reached the car he may have done the damage already to the bearings and what not etc..I don’t know just didn’t look right
Also while talking to them I asked the customer advisor if they can do the Throttle body cleaning ? I was told that this was a very complex job and would need to take half the engine down and would be impossible to guarantee the car would be back to normal again after such a major job. I was also told due to the complexity of the MPFI engine this was not done in CARNATION
This convinced me that these guys were unqualified and were fooling people non technical people.
At around 2:00 I was informed that they did not have the timing belt in stock and would need to wait for tomorrow
Why wait till 2:00 to inform us that they could not work on the car today We were made to wait like fools till 2:00 and then told?
Anyways - I left the car, spoke to their CRM manager that I am dropping the car off and will be back tomorrow and reminded him that I was promised that I could see the tappet setting being done in front of me.
He said no problem I could come on Monday and see it.
Monday morning around 11:00 AM I reach the office again and ask if they managed to get the parts. I was told not yet so I left and asked them to give me call when they received it.
Monday afternoon I called them and again asked them was told that parts had arrived.
After discussion with the customer service advisor it was agreed that they wouldn’t do the tappet setting today but only the new belts, bushings, spark plugs, oil filter etc etc.
Tuesday morning again I arrived – guess what they said the car was done and I could take it. *** ? I said I wanted to see them do the tappet setting and why the hell did they make a fool out of me since Sunday when they had no intention of letting me see it.
Anyways I just made the payment for 3000RS, waited again for an hour for the car to be washed even though I insisted that they just hand me the keys and let me leave without washing
Now the real issues begin:
1] Car did not idle well at all, seemed very erratic and rough and uneven.
2] There was a loud whining noise from under the hood- the type of sound which comes when you have belt on too loose/tight or as if some bearing was going .. or even if the idler/tensioner on the timing belt loop is making the belt too tight.
I could not convince them that the idle was rough, they didn’t understand or pretended that they could not understand.
On top of that during the test drive they tried to distract me by switching on AC, revving the car to hide the whining noise etc.(due to the FFE)
I again took the car back and insisted that they recheck the entire thing..they did something under the hood and claimed it was a loose alternator belt.
On top of this the original customer advisor was even avoiding me and not even ready to discuss the noise.
The car cooled down by now and the sound disappeared.
I took the car and went towards office for about 5 minute and the noise reappeared after engine heating up, this time I asked some other customer advisor to accompany me, he too noticed it.
He was clueless and argumentative , didn’t know what to do, he again tightened the alternator belt and I insisted to not too simply tighten the belt just for the sake of it but do it within spec..
After 10 minutes of useless arguments I just took the car and left
- Apart from the erratic and rough idle - the car felt underpowered as if it carrying a load of 10 passengers
- Loud whining noise from under the hood
- Also it began to shudder at low speeds,I could previously pull the car from low down in 3rd gear to about 45KMH before shifting to 4th. Now the car just shudders in low speed and have to keep it revving. Seems like something was wrong with the clutch or it was just due to the fact the engine was not breathing well.
By the time I reached office the noise was even louder
I called their office – their CRM manager was out of office, I then asked to be transferred to someone else, very reluctantly I was transferred to their unit manager or something.
He said he would investigate and get back to me, again guess what no reply so I called them up nearly 5 -6 times before getting through.
I was then suggested to go to some other Carnation close to Hinjewadi close to my office *** !!
After some more BS he agreed to get the car back in on Wednesday and recheck everything.
I had lost all hope by now – I just didn’t have the patience to talk to talk to those apparently unqualified people sitting in Carnation again, I spoke to already 3 of them and the mechanics already..its better to save time and money and go somewhere else.
I took the car to a local small workshop which had all the tools and did the tappet setting myself(will post pics in diff thread)
I found that each and every one of the 6 intake tappets were simply tightened beyond spec– I was not able to get even a .5 feeler gauge in between. It was even lower, the mechanic over there thought they were all jammed up due to old age – he didn’t know this was the fresh handiwork of “CARANTION” Also the exhaust ones were pretty loose and were left untouched, seems logical as the exhaust ones are little difficult to do as they are at an angled position under the cam pretty close to it
Also got all the belts inspected and adjusted for correct tension..
Car is now back in partial good health after the right tappet setting, the small 800 howls beautifully through the freeflow after 60 kmh..
But still has these issues
- Shuddering at low speed, which was not there before I handed the car to CARNATION..
- Whining noise like an electric motor after heating up..maybe its a bearing or something ?
Not going there ever and making sure I post this here in detail so others know what they are dealing with when they go CN at Hadapsar near Praveenmasalewale factory.
Personal opinion is these guys are a scam and dont have qualified staff as yet.. | 
13th July 2011, 13:44
(8)
Thanks
