[MaxTorque]

Fiat owners in and around Pune have a reason to rejoice. Fiat has opened their first exclusive service center in Pune, it's operated by Millenium Drive, Dapodi (I guess it's just after CME while travelling from Pune). Finally Fiat owners can now enjoy the true service from company. Fiat is also planning to expand the same concept will be expanded to other cities as well.

Source:- Economic Times

[carwatcher]

Now we can have a first hand info on Fiat India's After SS capabilities. I'll be closely following Pune customers experience. Goa is not that far, Fiat please open it here too.
Let's hope it doesn't turn out like Tata where they were not able to service Aria customers few kms from their plant.

Originally Posted by MaxTorque

Fiat owners in and around Pune have a reason to rejoice. Fiat has opened their first exclusive service center in Pune.

[GTO]

Fiat inaugurates its first independent workshop - Millennium Drive - in Dapodi, Pune. This will be Fiat's first exclusive workshop in India (not counting the times before the Tata-Fiat tieup).

20,000 sq ft in size, Millennium Drive will provide round the clock support in service, general repairs, body repairs, car wash, polishing and other servicing requirements.

Related Thread

[ironshark]

Awesome !!! thanks for sharing this GTO. I hope this is Fiat's first step towards restoring customer confidence. I am personally extremely happy. Had got jitters when B.U Bhandari moved to VW.

I feel Fiat really needs to market their efforts well. This news could have been well packaged in the print media, but hav'nt seen anything.

[Sommos]

Thanks GTO for sharing this news.

Hope this is very good news for all Fiat owners in Pune.
And I know that there are quite some Fiat owners in and around Pune.

They will now enjoy getting their beloved Fiats serviced by Fiat trained technicians directly instead of TASS. The problem of spares availabilty should also be over for them now. Hope this will help Fiat in winning back the customer confidence.

Hope Fiat replicates the same in other city's also and they need to do it pretty soon.

[praful]

Success begets success !!

If Fiat can successfully first address the servicing concerns that most Fiat users of today have by opening exclusive service centers, I think half the battle is already won.

The next step would definitely be for Fiat to pull up its socks in the market research and final products delivered to the end customer.

I think a lot of us here would agree that it is the need of the hour for Fiat to do something about these two things if they want to prevail in India. But still the image of expensive to maintain, fuel guzzling and non-inspiring performance (ofcourse exceptions are there) cars is something that will be tough to wipe off for a long time!

Looking forward to such an exclusive service centre here in Bangalore, if they are good enough I wouldn't mind going halfway across the city!!

[hummer]

Thanks GTO, this is a great news FIAT owners and yet-to-be FIAT owners!

In fact I have been contemplating to buy a pre-worshipped FIAT LINEA MJD as I am seeing good deals for this wonderful driving machine due to low its resale value.

I have a basic question: If the concern is only availability of spares, what difference it is going to make buying a not so popular car from a popular car company versus not so popular car from a not so popular car company?

Baleno, Kizashi from Maruti, Mangum from GM, Mondeo from Ford etc from reputed companies and Linea from FIAT, Rio from Premier, Force1 from Force motors etc from not so reputed companies to give some examples. Isn't it the same situation / experience of spares availability?

Does it make sense to buy Magnum over Linea since Magnum is from GM? I don't think so, both are same.

[thumpingheart]

Great!! Good move from Fiat! We can see now that Fiat are making an effort to improve all the problems faced by Fiat owners. Started with the brilliant Punto and Linea 2012, divorce with TATA and now independent workshops!

Always dreamed about owning the Punto MJD. Dream may just become a reality with FIAT trying so hard to mend their flaws!

[jazzrockz]

Just visited the exclusive service centre. Its after CME take left at he signal, DO NOT go on the flyover, stay left and you will land straight into Millenium Drive AKA Fiat Service. Ex Merc- this place has got a fresh coat of white and is now FIAT.
Well the experience - Flounderingah!!! i think they have rank novices there. I had a RH quarter glass replacement and a denting painting job on the right panel. It took them an hour to figure out and then tell me that they dont have the part and they will get back to me about the quote for the paint job. There was a Punto with a rattling seat / door or whatever. And about five personnel trying to figure out the reason - Five blind men and the elephant. I dunno if the Punto's problems have been solved yet or not.
And when asked about the delays...they had the gall to say that its only a few days they been open... is this what we as customers have come to accept and carry on?? because i just did that and drove away. And now I am seething.
Another weird thing ... had 3 personnel checking - out my T jet, opening the hood and checking the engine. And then one of them goes all round checks all my tyres and tells me rather murmurs - "mere pas Bridgestone hai" i was too stunned, confused, piqued to even respond ...what did he mean? That was all he said. Curious.

I think Fiat should get serious about this place. It looks well kitted... and as it becomes known, all the fiat cars will troop in. If they have to go into a huddle over just 2 cars, any more will result in a serous mess. And we FIAT owners only now to stay away from these places.
Wish them all the best. Awaiting the call from the exec there. Will update.

[KarthikK]

^^ I believe we should give them a little more time to get set. They have just opened up a few days back, isn't it? Expecting a service centre to open up and start working 100% perfectly with 100% precision is a bit too much to ask for, even if they have undergone formal training by FIAT. They should get better with time and experience of a few months.

An off-beat question - were these guys not ex-Fiat guys who were at the earlier Tata-Fiat dealer? If so, these guys should have been used to Fiat cars already. I have a hunch they have hired fresh personnel, that's why this effect

[scofield]

Guys, with all due respects to jazzrocks comments - I would suggest before coming to a judgement on the new service centre let us wait for more inputs and experiences from other bhpians. We wanted Fiat to part ways from TATA which they did and now let's give them a thumbs up for their next goal of setting up service centres. Things will mature for sure.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by souravc

....A workshop should have trained personnel from day 1 itself, there cannot be any ifs and buts . I think that if the manufacturer expects customers to be patient with novices for a few days , its unacceptable...

+1! If the personnel are not trained, why hurry up & open a shop?! Their strategy is good, but wrongly executed; for another time!

Originally Posted by scofield

Guys, with all due respects to jazzrocks comments - I would suggest before coming to a judgement on the new service centre let us wait for more inputs and experiences from other bhpians. We wanted Fiat to part ways from TATA which they did and now let's give them a thumbs up for their next goal of setting up service centres. Things will mature for sure.

Things will mature? Let's accept the fact that Fiat has been here for quite some time now! If it was a completely new player into Indian market, your point holds good. But cmon, the new independent A$$ is the FACE OF NEW FIAT! If they screwed it up, they better don't give justifications for that.

Tell me how difficult it was for them to pick the BEST of the Fiat technicians and place them over there??

Originally Posted by vvmanoj

Took delivery of my FTA Tjet + last evening.... prob the last of the original batch. I think I am in love!

You THINK? Well, we all KNOW that you are in love! Congrats and enjoy your rocket!

[jazzrockz]

OK the new and xclusiv Fiat Service - guys make your judgments after what i got.
I went here on 10th noon. Had a quarter glass and paint job.
Was told quarter glass NA so no quote / action.
Paint job - we have seen the case, will call you back with the quote in about half an hour. (lets keep aside their confused and tottering ways )

Its 48 hours now. No call from the "new and xclusiv Fiat Service centre - Phirst (1st) in India".
Just called them to find out, identified myself - no capisch, identified my T jet - nada!, asked him quarter glass, paint job...helloooo!!!- the exec did a memory jog and said "OOOOH, yes yes yes sorry sir I dont have the prices, will take 2 - 3 days". Why ? i asked...he had no answer. All this with more pauses and silences than A B Vajpayee. Just decided to end his suffering and the call.
Not an opinion but an observation - are they too flooded with customers that he could not remember who I was? Or to at least call back and sorry we have a problem so cannot give a quote.
But then we all know FIAT very well, so expecting something better was a gross oversight. And beneath all the shiny leather, white paint and snazzy lights its the same old FIAT which is one of the oldest Foreign Car MFR in India.
I think Italians in India are a disaster for Indians.

[scofield]

Originally Posted by jazzrockz

OK the new and xclusiv Fiat Service - guys make your judgments after what i got.

Jazzrockz, if the new Fiat xlusive showroom guys are taking us(Fiat owners) for granted then its the best time now to escalate it to the best of the authority about this. Now this is where we as owners have to play our part - the whole setup is new and hiccups are bound to happen so if we try to streamline them and teach them what Fiat customers deserve then the things will surely improve.

Also, few posts above you can check that there was an issue with the Ashwini's linea - he was haclked too by these A.S.S people, and one escalation solved his problem in 3 days which was lingering since a month.

My very recent experience:-

BUB was very good in Pune when it came to A.S.S for Fiat and Tata, however once they started doing business with VW it was only Pandit Auto in Pune to get the cars serviced.

When I did my 15K service with Pandit Auto I was like man this is the last place in Pune I would get my car serviced - they had no idea regarding Fiat cars and how to backtrack the problem, so when 30K service was due I was very apprehensive to take my car to Pandit and wanted to try Acumen (Bavdhan) for the service however they did not take my car on the day I wanted as they shut shop due to some maintainance and I had no choice but go to Pandit Auto (Laxmi Road) road with a very heavy heart.

I gave the car there and as always I was with my car for the whole servicing period, and man what a difference I could see in their approach now - they knew almost everything about the issues which can creep up and what is the method to sort them out. All the issues in the car were sorted and a prompt delivery was done and they stock nearly all the running parts and are available of the shelf for the customer.

Conclusion : Pandit was lethargic earlier but now they have learnt how to handle Fiat cars and I hope the new xlusive A.S.S should pick up soon. I was also surprised as to why Pandit did not opt for a dealership with Fiat as they are good at Fiat cars and can handle A.S.S better.

I know that this not a good sign for a new startup but as customers we have all the rights to get our things sorted without any trauma.

[jazzrockz]

Scofield...I didnt really go with much expectations ( some hope, yes) to this place anyways... but I dont think I will get back there soon!

But some basics should be applied to a new place - an eagerness to deal with a customer, an eagerness to understand the customer, some display of energy and motivation instead of utter lethargy, at least show that you are alive.
No Boss i wont let you mature and smoothen out and wait while you do that - not on my watch or with my car.