[vigsom]

The mantra world over is that "customer is the king" , while the scenario at Indian car dealerships is nowhere near that ; and that is because car sales have gone through the roof and the dealers behave like Dadas.

I have confirmed reports of such attitude prevailing at Toyota dealerships in the UAE

I ,for one, am happy that I don't have to see all this nonsense as I am adept at buying and maintaining old cars.

[carfreak77]

This is very shocking! My friend had the same experience at another Hyundai dealer. When he entered no one bothered to come up to him, so he checked out the car himself. He wanted to open the bonnet so pulled the lever and went to the front to open it. The SA saw this and hurried towards him and told him very rudely not to touch the bonnet. My friend was taken aback and told him to open it himself, to which the SA said "There is nothing important to see in the bonnet." When he asked for a TD, he was informed that there was no TD vehicle available (even though he saw it parked outside) and that they do not give TD's to anyone. The guy was really lazy and was sitting on the car while talking to my friend My friend was disgusted and left the place promptly.

[rohan_iitr]

I distinctly remember that when Swift Dzire was launched, it got a lot of bookings. Hence, after a while, the bookings were stopped by the Maruti dealers. Not just that, Dzires were removed from the display area and no further test drives were given to prospective customers. Nobody complained at that time for Maruti being high-handed.

Instead of getting offended for not getting a TD, why don't we try to understand the reasons why the sales staff were not helpful.

The sales staff are assigned monthly targets and are told by the management to try to sell the lesser selling models. Hence they are bound to ignore customers of best selling models and pay more attention to customers of lesser selling models. They are just doing their jobs, there is no need to get offended.

And how was Hyundai supposed to determine the demand for the vehicle before it was launced ? Even after so many years, Maruti has not been able to reduce the waiting periods for Dzire, being well aware of the demand. But somehow Hyundai should be able to magically predict the exact demand before launching the model and supply cars to all customers without any waiting period.

Rohan

[skanchan95]

You are still not getting the point.The sales staff just can't ignore a potential customer and treat him shabbily. When one goes to have a lookie at a car in the showroom, once has great expectations. One doesn't get expected to be shooed away from the showroom by being told "we don't take booking", "don't touch the car" etc.

I still stand by my statement that the sales success has gone to Hyundai's head and they have become arrogant. All this natak by their sales staff will always make Hyundai No.1 wannabes only, and never be the No.1 in India. Their Customer service is aready on the decline.

[mdsaab]

This is very sad indeed. And reading so many, who have had horrible visits to Hyundai showrooms when wanting to check out the New Verna.
It's a shame. Even if there is a huge waiting list and the car will not be available for months together. You cannot treat potential customers this way. If i ever received this sort of treatment. I may never buy a Hyundai ever.
Hope Hyundai sorts out this issue at the earliest. Else they can expect troubled times ahead.

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

I distinctly remember that when Swift Dzire was launched, it got a lot of bookings. Hence, after a while, the bookings were stopped by the Maruti dealers. Not just that, Dzires were removed from the display area and no further test drives were given to prospective customers. Nobody complained at that time for Maruti being high-handed.

Its bit of a flawed logic Rohan. Two wrongs don't make a right. Maruti might have handled it in the wrong way. But is that an incentive for the Hyundai dealer to do the same?

[aaggoswami]

1) Bookings are stopped. I heard this from my friend that when a few employees when went for booking of Fluidic, they were straight away told NO. No bookings at all. Bookings are closed.
This is strange. When Toyota did the same for Fortuner, we all were not happy. A thread exists on the same here.
So its not only Hyundai.

2) The A.S & S. level of Ford is actually coming up and Hyundai coming down. This can be confirmed by the number of complaints against Hyundai increasing. Many people face this problem. I am not sure about artificial shortage or anything, but the waiting for diesel i20 is also said to be around 4-6 months. I wonder why did Hyundai come up with a new product when it was not having capacity even to meet i20 demands. IMO, these are artificial shortage situation made deliberately for Indian public due to mentality that the product would be great if many are buying the same.
Hyundai should have thought before launching the product.

And I often wonder why only diesels are in shortage. I10 which is petrol only is not facing similar shortage. Neither does i20 petrol. Similarly Swift, Swift Dzire and even Ritz ( upto 45 days ) had waiting period issues. This was partly understandable as Maruti is producing engines under license and has a limited capacity. But Hyundai is bigger than Suzuki, has more resources at its disposal and came up with new factory in record times.

3) The above case that I have mentioned of bookings full at Vadodara, well those families went in for SX4 D. I hope that Hyundai realizes that Indian customers are as important as American. Will Hyundai ever let American customers waiting ?

[rohan_iitr]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

You are still not getting the point.The sales staff just can't ignore a potential customer and treat him shabbily. When one goes to have a lookie at a car in the showroom, once has great expectations. One doesn't get expected to be shooed away from the showroom by being told "we don't take booking", "don't touch the car" etc.

I still stand by my statement that the sales success has gone to Hyundai's head and they have become arrogant. All this natak by their sales staff will always make Hyundai No.1 wannabes only, and never be the No.1 in India. Their Customer service is aready on the decline.

While I agree that "don't touch the car" is a wrong statement from the SA, but we are not aware of the circumstances in which it happend. May be it was another customer's car waiting for delivery, hence the SA didn't want another customer using it.

And there is nothing wrong in the SA mentioning that bookings have been closed due to high demand. There is no need for the customer to get offended if bookings have been closed and TD has been denied for a recently launched best selling model. Still, it has to be conved to the customer in a polite manner.

Being a Hyundai customer, I agree that the overall quality of Hyundai A.S.S. has been going down and the service costs have been going up in the past few years. But that is not the point of this discussion.

Originally Posted by vb-san

Its bit of a flawed logic Rohan. Two wrongs don't make a right. Maruti might have handled it in the wrong way. But is that an incentive for the Hyundai dealer to do the same?

There is an incentive actually. We Indians like to wait in queues and be treated like dirt. Most Indian customers still have the mentality that a product is good if it has a long waiting period / high demand / stopped further bookings.

By treating prospective customers like dirt, Hyundai is actually increasing the aspirational value of the ANHV. Sounds stupid, but thats the way it works.

Rohan

[gaurav911]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

It is not a question of double standards. If you want to read about Hyundai's arrogance in action, read my thread on my i20. I have faced their arrogance first hand!!!!

Read bout the numerous i20 steering rattle & weak a/c cases, why do you think the issue has still not been solved by the great HMIL? So many people have been cheated by them in the name of "fixes" for the steering rattle. It is because the high sales numbers of the i20 that has led arrogance & carelessness and is consequently preventing them from fixing the steering rattle issue *permanently*. Had the issue caused decline in i20's sales, let me guarantee you, the issue would have been fixed within weeks.

Tell me which responsible automobile company would sit quiet knowing that one of their customer's cars suffered from a critical steering malfunction in the middle of traffic? Won't you call it arrogance that they asked to me to drive the car as it is?

Had a third grade dealership/workshop like Om Hyundai been a Om Maruti, that dealership would have been thrown out of Maruti's A.S.S list, but with HMIL, I guess its too much to expect.

That's really sad. This indicates that Hyundai is not only treating future customer but also existing ones with arrogance. Yes, Maruti generally follows a no tolerance policy. They have many dealers. However, if there are repeated complaints against a dealership, they generally wipe that dealership out. Happened with Cargo Motors in Ahmedabad.

Originally Posted by drmohitg

See in India the market ethics are like that. If your product is selling then screw the mannerisms. Its a common problem across the car makers. Toyota SA mocked you at the time of fortuner, VW SA mock you for the Vento, Maruti SA mock you for swift/dzire, Hyundai for the ANHV, Honda previously for all its cars!

There is not much point pondering over this issue and expecting anything to change. The new trend in the industry is anyways that the longer the waiting periods, the more successful a product is considered. I seriously have a feeling that some of the waiting period is created just for the sake of it. For ex for Toyota altis diesel the SA says the waiting period is 4-6 weeks. The car is not even selling. But this fact is known only to T bhpians.

Very true. Thats what i was thinking- the demand is created artificially to generate curiosity and highlight that the product is par excellence. Hyundai could always have kept the waiting period in check- somewhere around 2-3 months.
Interestingly, if you visit the stockyard of these dealerships, you would see 80-100 cars of different variants lined.
If you manage to observe the stockyard on a regular basis, you would realize that the same color/same variant car is standing in exactly the same position over a period of 8-10 days, which would indicate that it has not moved from its spot. Does it mean that the customer who is in the 'waiting list' has not taken the delivery? No, it simply indicates that these waiting periods are over-hyped.
Interestingly, a friend of mine went in for inquiry of the Petrol Verna. The same dealer mentioned a waiting of 1-1.5 months. However, he knew the owner and was promised a ready delivery i.e. 1 week !!

Originally Posted by carfreak77

This is very shocking! My friend had the same experience at another Hyundai dealer. When he entered no one bothered to come up to him, so he checked out the car himself. He wanted to open the bonnet so pulled the lever and went to the front to open it. The SA saw this and hurried towards him and told him very rudely not to touch the bonnet. My friend was taken aback and told him to open it himself, to which the SA said "There is nothing important to see in the bonnet." When he asked for a TD, he was informed that there was no TD vehicle available (even though he saw it parked outside) and that they do not give TD's to anyone. The guy was really lazy and was sitting on the car while talking to my friend My friend was disgusted and left the place promptly.

Oh gosh! Another disgusted customer. Key question here is, would your friend ever buy from that dealership again?
I am assuming that he would still be interested in the car at least. A car is a product that we generally keep, lets say for 5 years and would still purchase the vehicle we actually like, irrespective of the treatment given by some silly SE. However, treating customers by dealerships is an Experience. Dissatisfaction here would lead to a 'never return' policy.

Originally Posted by mdsaab

This is very sad indeed. And reading so many, who have had horrible visits to Hyundai showrooms when wanting to check out the New Verna.
It's a shame. Even if there is a huge waiting list and the car will not be available for months together. You cannot treat potential customers this way. If i ever received this sort of treatment. I may never buy a Hyundai ever.
Hope Hyundai sorts out this issue at the earliest. Else they can expect troubled times ahead.

Exactly my point. The market never remains constant! Hyundai has actually been brought to its knees with products like Elantra, Sonata, Getz, Tuscon, Terracan where they were actually begging customers for test-drives or luring with tons of freebies and discounts !

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

There is an incentive actually. We Indians like to wait in queues and be treated like dirt. Most Indian customers still have the mentality that a product is good if it has a long waiting period / high demand / stopped further bookings.

By treating prospective customers like dirt, Hyundai is actually increasing the aspirational value of the ANHV. Sounds stupid, but thats the way it works.

Rohan

No offense Rohan but i totally disagree with the logic. Lets say you go to a shop to buy a Rs.10K nokia cell phone and the sales guy there treats you like dirt - gives you a box to read the features, doesn't entertain your request for a single rupee price reduction and tells you that buy if you are interested or go to some other shop! As per your rationale, you would be very impressed by this guy and continue to purchase from him. If i was in such a scenario, i would never ever buy a product from that shop at least. If we get so bugged up when spending Rs.10 K, imagine the disgust when spending 1000K!

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by gaurav911

Happened with Cargo Motors in Ahmedabad.

For the same reason, Cargo's Maruti dealership in Rajkot was shut down too. Perfect Auto(Rajkot/Junagadh/Veraval) was having trouble in between but it seems they have been able to get their act togther after MSIL came down hard on them.

Now wonder MSIL are No.1 in India, no one even comes close to them. They still believe in the concept of Customer is God. More importantly, they do realise that it is the customer's money through which they earn their daily bread & butter, hence they see to it that the customer is kept happy always. Not like Hyundai, who put up meaningless one liners like "caring for you always", "Always...all the way" and then "not care at all" or "abandon you half the way".

And trust me, should you choose to buy a Hyundai and God forbid if you run into trouble regarding your car, eventhough the Hyundai "West 2" RO is situated in your city, you will have trouble making those chaps understand your concerns. You will be asked to show "proof" of your troubles.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

I fail to understand what is the problem here.

You went to book the recently launched best selling model, for which further bookings have already stopped because of high demand.

Why are you getting offended if the sales executive told you that they are not taking any further bookings ?

So am I supposed to feel very privileged that I could have had a chance to book the best-selling model when I could and then missed out someho?
What Concept and other such dealers do NOT realise is that they are riding the wave which could well topple them over the next time. A little humility is all we ask: patiently answering a customer's product queries (what else is there to do?!!), apologising for the inconvenience caused due to not acepting bookings, assuring the customer that due feedback would reach the company, taking down the customer's contact details so that any updates could be pushed out to him rather than wait for a second visit, etc. These are basics of Customer Service 101. If we need to teach these to a so-called veteran dealer than there's something wrong somewhere.

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Its a common problem across the car makers. Toyota SA mocked you at the time of fortuner, VW SA mock you for the Vento, Maruti SA mock you for swift/dzire, Hyundai for the ANHV, Honda previously for all its cars!

Mohit, I get the point you're making but are you letting your cynicism run away with you a little? True Toyota stopped taking bookings when the Fortuner's initial demand exceeded all expectations but, from all accounts, they did a damn fine job of managing the customer communication process (do point me to any contrary experiences you have heard of).

Originally Posted by vb-san

Yes, with VW it’s not so alarming because they started with low volume cars like Passat / Jetta, and the sudden surge in volume could be something which they took time to get adjusted to. But this not expected from a volume player like Hyundai.

True. Hyundai had set quite a high benchmark for most of its customers (there are always exceptions, but as a former Accent owner I have experienced uniformly stellar service from Hyundai, which is what I am basing this on). And VW selling a handful of cars a month is an excuse I had thought up myself, but in the long run it won't work. Honestly, man, seals learn faster!

And the behavior from Renault could be out of pure boredom

If he was bored the day after the launch party, God help him (and his sales)!

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by noopster

Mohit, I get the point you're making but are you letting your cynicism run away with you a little? True Toyota stopped taking bookings when the Fortuner's initial demand exceeded all expectations but, from all accounts, they did a damn fine job of managing the customer communication process (do point me to any contrary experiences you have heard of).

No I didn't have any interaction with Toyota that time. But there were plenty of angry BHPians at the time of fortuner launch who were not happy the way they were treated. Just re-counting there experience thats all. Otherwise going by my posts you would have guessed till now that I am a toyota fan boy!

But anyways what I was trying to say here is that people expect the Auto industry in India to somehow treat them in accordance with the International standards. Thats desirable but not practical since you can't single out one industry. Things in India work differently.

PS: Just saw a terra beige today. The shade looks awesome on the Vento. You just might wanna get your beloved painted!!

[Equus]

At the very least, they should take down the numbers.

Too bad - even the mighty fall, and how!

[flyingkolors]

I completely agree with the discussion here. I can clearly see a big change in the attitude at HASS from the time I got my i20 6 months back.

I recently went for the 2nd service and the SA was not keen at all to listen to my points. He was busy trying to sell his 3M products to me.

By the time I reached in the evening to collect my car, it was not cleaned, few of the jobs I mentioned were not done. And they hastily tried to do something and you all know the end result.

And yes, the poor guy should have been at least attended, informed the features, given a brochure/price list, taken his number if the car is not available for a TD and apologized for the inconvenience caused.

Isn't this the very basics of customer service? With more success one should learn to be more humble, not otherwise. Grow up Hyundai.

[charthom]

Friends,

As a faithful customer of Hyundai for 11 years,I am shocked. One OK car and such arrogance!? Maruti has been the market leader for years-but the customer service is still ok. At this rate,if Hyundai takes the lead then what will happen?

More and more stories of ill-treatment towards the customer are coming up-from most car makers. There are no standards-only opportunism. I have a doubt-why are the offended people just walking out? Why not give a piece of your mind to the higher management?

Once I got treated shabbily at Hyundai and I made the Sales and Service managers come to my house with a letter of apology. It was 1 year back though. May be the scene has badly changed now. Still we should stand up and refuse the products of the maker who challenges our dignity. So many news of harassment from Skoda-but still why people are meekly accepting their cars? Yes,they are good-but not unique!! Same about ANHV.