[ashis89]

Originally Posted by basky

Customer Satisfaction? What is that?

Q. What is a Customer?
A. A piece of prized meat to be fought over by all the stray dogs (read as Car dealers). .....

You are stereotyping a dealer. Not all of them are bad. I will state an example here.

We booked a Swift VDi on Sept 24th. The customer representative promised a delivery in Jan but said he would try to get us a car in 2-3 months. He has been calling my dad since Nov last week asking us to take the delivery. Dad refused and said he would take delivery in Jan itself as we are having space constraint now. He agreed.

BTW, he had to call my dad 10 times over a period of 4 days as my dad was busy and he couldn't talk to him.

PS: The car in question is a SWIFT VDi and taking its demand into consideration, i feel, the dealer is indeed good.

I agree this is a rare example and even i was surprised by his professionalism. It would be great if all dealers are similar.

[motorguy]

Finally hit upon an idea - got the plastic sheath from an electrical supplies shop - made a slit in it and slipped it over the wires - total cost of part for 1 meter of sheat: Rs.8/-. After I did that, I found the exact size of the plastic sheath was found in another electrical supplies shop. Anyway, problem fixed.

Funny how the mechanics and so-called "Service Advisors" at Ford are so clueless about simple fixes that they recommend a Rs.25,000/- part replacement ! By the way, I am yet to receive a reply from Ford in response to my email to them, asking them to confirm the price of the wiring harness.

[basky]

Originally Posted by ashis89

You are stereotyping a dealer. Not all of them are bad.

Agreed -that not all of them are bad. Sadly, most are.
In fact it is the individual Sales person or Service Advisor which makes the difference. The problem seems to be that exponential growth in the industry has made good personnel a rarity and glib talking salesmen and managers (under pressure for meeting targets), are the root cause of customer irritation. Salesmen promise the moon and God save you once you pay your advance. Many service advisors talk utter nonsense when facing a problem.

To be fair, I have met exceptionally good people in the industry who mostly ended up as personal friends. Unfortunately, they are becoming a minority these days. All companies have HR problems - qualified on paper but useless in a service industry. Logical problem solving skills are low and pigheadedness very high. It is perfectly OK to say I dont know but shall narrow down and figure out. It is differential diagnosis after all.

Many- I repeat, MANY dealers resort to sharp practices in sales and service areas. I would advice anyone going for a simple oil & filter change to verify with a before & after sample of the oil. Too often for comfort, everything is left alone and only the Bill will be issued. What about the cars in the stockyard being used as Demo vehicles with the whole instrument panel disconnected? Manufacturers cannot feign ignorance. Have you seen cars being moved from one depot to another - ferry drivers aggressively fly through our broken roads and highways without any regard for the car. The poor future owner inherits a car tested to its limits by the ferry driver.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by basky

Sadly, most are.


To be fair, I have met exceptionally good people in the industry who mostly ended up as personal friends. Unfortunately, they are becoming a minority these days.

Even I have also made some good friends with such people. They are indeed very rare.

[kaynmantis]

Entire wiring harness means "entire wiring harness". That is from headlight to tail lamp ans everything in between. I asked them myself as my electrical was causing problems due to rain & rats. It is 25k. Postponed replacing them as I need to replace my struts first.