[thoma]

Originally Posted by joslicx

What I understand is, Super Angels is a VC firm and Gondal is part of it. And Super Angels is sort of a mentor to Techno Purple!

The implications of that - well you think that out yourself. It might or might not mean that Gondal is linked to Techno purple. But it is definitely interesting if it is true what is quoted on Quora.

Whoa! But I don't see Audi making a hue and cry over it.

And, this does not prove in any way Audi Mumbai West innocent, right? Moreover, lately, Audi seems to be on a compromising mood in this case.

So I am assuming that the joyride sure have happened and these guys decided to make a quick buck out of it rather than going the legal route? But aren't they entitled to it if the joyride had indeed happened. What if it was TechnoPurple's Q7?

[poloman]

From the above link..

Vishal made a public fuss about his Audi Q7 Joyride, and now says 'The Issue has been addressed to my satisfaction :-) Thanks all for ur help & support!' without giving details. Doesn't this mean he cunningly 'USED' his followers and now hand-in-hand with Audi, is hushing up the issue?

Originally Posted by poloman

Unfortunately none of your questions are going to get answered. Just like many other threads, in the end you will see a message that the issue is amicably resolved between the two parties with a non disclosure agreement. All the people who analysed the matter to wire will be left wondering what really happened..!!

I think my words have come true here. All the people who analyzed this are left like watching a suspense movie with no climax.

[speedy]

Originally Posted by KnightRider77

I find it hard to believe that an internationally reputed company like Audi will willingly participate in a marketing stunt to help promote a small GPS tracking startup, which puts Audi, its service center (and therefore customer relationship) and its reputation on the line.

As for whether TechnoPurple of Vishal Gondal got any mileage out of it. Quite possibly, yes. But let's not forget how it all started - a customer's car reportedly being taken out on a joyride by the staff of an Audi service center. That's the core issue.

I believe the matter has been amicably settled between the involved parties. How they did this is their prerogative. It may not be to everyone's satisfaction, and it would be nice to have all the loose ends tied up, but sometimes that's how things roll.

Sir you have got it wrong here..Audi never lent its name and reputation to this..they are as some would call the "Villains" in this case.

If as per the article what is stated is true it does raise questions of the possibility of Technopurple and Mr.Gondal being hand in glove to create a sensational marketing tool to promote TechnoPurple. (do not consider this as character assasination).

Originally Posted by VW2010

@Speedy

Give the benefit of the doubt and lets wait for Tehcnopurple or quickdraw to comment. It does look like an off the table settlement of some sort and definitely something that will never be discussed anywhere.

But we should give the benefit of doubt and hope one of them provides more details to the supporters as well as doubters.

and henced asked the question and left it for them to answer.

Originally Posted by thoma

Hmm...interesting, but can you please put these in simpler terms. This super angels, Vcs, SA is a bit confusing for the Quora uninitiated. And I couldn't find anything on the 85 lacs and second owner thing. Please.

Mr.Gondal is a Venture Capitalist (investor) with Super Angels. Super Angels is a sort of Mentor to TechnoPurple. Primafacia it looks like there is a Link more than just Customer and company between TechnoPurple and Mr.Gondal. (please do not take this as a personal attack).

It was all over the threads that the car cost Rs 85 Lakhs (which is true for a new car), in this case as per what i have been informed it was bought second hand and has a lower value that 85 Lakhs.

Originally Posted by joslicx

What I understand is, Super Angels is a VC firm and Gondal is part of it. And Super Angels is sort of a mentor to Techno Purple!

To quote from Quora:


The implications of that - well you think that out yourself. It might or might not mean that Gondal is linked to Techno purple. But it is definitely interesting if it is true what is quoted on Quora.

Since Vishal Gondal has used the social media to wage his war with Audi West, it would only be ethically right if people are made to know the details of settlement. At least we deserve to know who was wrong and who was right in this case as so far there has only been allegations and no other details!

Absolutely right.

Originally Posted by thoma

Whoa! But I don't see Audi making a hue and cry over it.

And, this does not prove in any way Audi Mumbai West innocent, right? Moreover, lately, Audi seems to be on a compromising mood in this case.

So I am assuming that the joyride sure have happened and these guys decided to make a quick buck out of it rather than going the legal route? But aren't they entitled to it if the joyride had indeed happened. What if it was TechnoPurple's Q7?

Audi is a big company and what i feel is would rather gather the facts before making statements or allegations.

The other case senerio is the joyride never happened and since media preasure was asserted the company had to give in to compensate ( i am only speculating and not saying this is the case). There is an incident of a similar nature that took place between Mr.Gondal and Iceland air, so i wont rule this option out (again i dont mean to make a personal attack but am speculating on this option). I dont have further detailed information on this incident, except Mr.Gondal saying they were not good and spoilt his trip and then retracting his statement by saying they are the best airlines and recommends them to be tried on his Facebook page.

Originally Posted by poloman

From the above link..
Vishal made a public fuss about his Audi Q7 Joyride, and now says 'The Issue has been addressed to my satisfaction :-) Thanks all for ur help & support!' without giving details. Doesn't this mean he cunningly 'USED' his followers and now hand-in-hand with Audi, is hushing up the issue?

I think my words have come true here. All the people who analyzed this are left like watching a suspense movie with no climax.

.

[thoma]

Originally Posted by poloman

All the people who analyzed this are left like watching a suspense movie with no climax.

Not fully true in this case. Since TechnoPurple have hopped on to the forum and made some clarifications, we were able to conclude some aspects. I will just try brief my personal take on the issue -

- At the first instance, Audi denies the incident plainly, with so called 'solid proof'.
- Most of us point fingers at Audi Mumbai West.
- Some among us doubt if the tracking device was transplanted.
- At the same time, we get curious why Vishal do not use the law of the land.
- Some, raise doubts on Vishal and TechnoPurple of conspiracy.
- TechnoPurple joins Team-BHP and then answers some technical points.
- We had doubts whether the charger port kind of installation will hold good as a proof against Audi Mumbai West.
- TechnoPurple clarifies that in the Q7, the system is always hooked to the main battery through the charger port (unlike some other cars) and any disconnections will trigger an SMS. And no SMS was triggered during or before the joyride.
- So, we have to conclude that there had been no transplantation and the joyride indeed had happened.
- Meanwhile Audi and Vishal together decide to hush up.
- We get to hear Vishal's connection with TechnoPurple.

From all of this can't we conclude that -

Originally Posted by thoma

the joyride sure have happened and these guys decided to make a quick buck out of it rather than going the legal route

Might be they knew that going the legal route won't hold good when a tracker which is connected to a charger port is provided. Simply because -

Originally Posted by thoma

Audi Mumbai West can easily say that it (the plug from the socket, and nothing else) has been un-plugged for cleaning purpose, checking electrical points, by mistake etc.

The important point to note is the SMS has not been triggered. If at all Audi Mumbai West had un-plugged the device from the socket before, an SMS could have triggered, and AMW could have escaped stating some reasons.

Originally Posted by speedy

Audi is a big company and what i feel is would rather gather the facts before making statements or allegations.

The other case senerio is the joyride never happened and since media preasure was asserted the company had to give in to compensate ( i am only speculating and not saying this is the case)

Why should you when we have (or don't we still have?) ample clarification otherwise. I do not think a big company like Audi will give in to mere media pressure without studying facts. In fact, your previous statement says so.

If you think otherwise, please let us too know of the reason for those. Don't leave us in oblivion with a mere speculation, please.

[sa_kiran]

Originally Posted by bblost

As a cyclist I use the gps in my phone quite a bit to track routes, elevation profiles, time etc.

I have used my old Asus P527 and my current Samsung Android phone quite a bit.

Only once have I gotten a wrong reading.
It showed me in a point, I did not go to. This point was about 1 km from the route I had followed.
And the gpx file when rendered on a map showed the error in a very glaring, difficult to miss manner.

I vouch for the accuracy of gps data.
The uploaded screens look genuine to me.

I use RunKeeper on iPhone 4S to track my walking and cycling trips. It jumps to a faraway location sometimes. I've noticed this 3 times in about a year. This app uses GPS for tracking. As you can see in the attached pic, the straight lines are the ones that I did not walk. The first time I noticed this, I was walking near high-tension wires. There are high-tension wires were nearby during this walk as well. I'm not sure if that could be the reason.

Since Mr. Gondal's tracking does not have such straight lines, I believe the tracking is close to accurate.

[nikhilmadgavkar]

Vishal Gondal , know him since he belongs to the gaming world, and through a common friend too ,Audi will have to pay for the what they have done , I presume Audi has mentioned that their CCTV footage doesn't show anything.

[Cesc]

People who were expecting some sort of a joint or separate announcement or disclosure from Mr. Gondal and/or Audi are in my opinion quite 'naive'.

Simply can't happen when you have 2 public reputations at stake and the party with the bigger reputation is prima facie at fault. It is much easier to buy one person's silence than suffer brand damage. If Audi had said - 'Yes a joyride did happen' - they would have been crucified and competitors would have used that as a stick to beat Audi with for years to come. If Mr. Gondal had said - 'I was wrong' - then he would have faced a similar fate.

Bottomline is that there is a HUGE difference in the consequences of making the settlement public vs not making it public. Not making it public rubs a few people the wrong way - esp. peole who keenly followed the developments. That is it. Easiest option to choose. Mr. Gondal gained publicity out of it as well as I believe some hefty compensation from Audi. Audi averted some really bad press. Both parties are happy.

That Audi/AMW is at fault is VERY clear from the fact that they chose to settle privatively. One does not need any other sort of proof. No mater what doubts you cast and however many permutations and combinations you draw between Mr. Gondal, Technopurple, Angels and Qora and what not - A joyride did happen. Without it there can be no publicity. Like they say - there can be no smoke without fire.

Of course one can assume that Mr. Gondal and Technopurple bribed one of AMW's SA to take that joyride and then gained publicity .. See where we are headed?

[zenren]

Originally Posted by speedy

It was all over the threads that the car cost Rs 85 Lakhs (which is true for a new car), in this case as per what i have been informed it was bought second hand and has a lower value that 85 Lakhs.

Why is the fact that he got it brand new or second hand and the price at which he bought the car relevant here?

The issue here as I understand is whether a car was taken out for a joy ride during night when it was given for service. Does the fact that Vishal is the second owner of the vehicle (I don't know this info but I take your word that he is) deprive him of any rights that the first owner has or give any right to AMW to take the car out on a joy ride?

Irrespective of the price of the car, if it was taken out of the service station at night without a valid reason, it is wrong. Even if it were a Tata Nano or a Maruti 800, it is still wrong the way I see it.

Could be slightly OT but still, as far as the RTO/govt is concerned the cost of the car is the price when that car came out of the showroom. Try paying road tax in a different state for your x-year old second hand car and see which amount the RTO folks use to compute the road tax. I doubt if they would take the argument that "I bought this car second hand and hence its value is much lower than the showroom price". It could've saved me a lot if they were willing to take that argument!

[Ananthang]

Originally Posted by Cesc

People who were expecting some sort of a joint or separate announcement or disclosure from Mr. Gondal and/or Audi are in my opinion quite 'naive'.

Simply can't happen when you have 2 public reputations at stake and the party with the bigger reputation is prima facie at fault. It is much easier to buy one person's silence than suffer brand damage. If Audi had said - 'Yes a joyride did happen' - they would have been crucified and competitors would have used that as a stick to beat Audi with for years to come. If Mr. Gondal had said - 'I was wrong' - then he would have faced a similar fate.

Rightly said Cesc. Let us assume if one of us is in that situation and a Manufacturing giant is willing to take care of your demands and requesting not to go public, we would be doing the same thing right.

Atleast Mr.Gondal had communicated that he is happy with end result.

We can also safely assume, that the drama did not continue long and Audi/dealer were able to settle it in a good manner satisfying the customer and not like other Skoda stories.

I am by no means advocating that Joy ride is correct, it is a great mistake and misuse of trust. But with the current scenario in India, we can atleast be happy that the End result was not ugly.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by poloman

From the above link..
Vishal made a public fuss about his Audi Q7 Joyride, and now says 'The Issue has been addressed to my satisfaction :-) Thanks all for ur help & support!' without giving details. Doesn't this mean he cunningly 'USED' his followers and now hand-in-hand with Audi, is hushing up the issue?

Originally Posted by joslicx

What I understand is, Super Angels is a VC firm and Gondal is part of it. And Super Angels is sort of a mentor to Techno Purple!

Looks like the Q7 was not the only thing that was taken for a ride in this whole incident!

[princenoble]

Originally Posted by thoma

So I am assuming that the joyride sure have happened and these guys decided to make a quick buck out of it rather than going the legal route? But aren't they entitled to it if the joyride had indeed happened. What if it was TechnoPurple's Q7?

Originally Posted by poloman

I think my words have come true here. All the people who analyzed this are left like watching a suspense movie with no climax.

Thoma & Poloman, these are my thoughts as well. Vishal, Technopurple & his associates have used each of us for getting the results they wanted-now honors lie on them to disclose the final result and clarify the simple questions we all raised. Now if they choose to say that they have settled the issue which they do not wish to disclose, we all have a strong case to suspect some thing in lines of cheap publicity/insider trading.

[GTO]

A reliable birdie tells me that Gondal has been offered a brand new Q7 swap. This is either free of cost or at a significant (read = massive) discount. If I'm wrong, please correct me TechnoPurple / Vishal. Happy to be corrected. To echo the statements of other BHPians, we DEMAND disclosure. It's the least owed to us for empathising with the Q7 owner.

While the joyride incident left me with full sympathy for the owner, and I get absolutely furious when I hear of dealers / manufacturers cheating, I can't say that I'm happy with the outcome here. Sure, it was terribly wrong for the dealer employee to take a customer Q7 out, and he ought to be fired for that. But a replacement???!! It's not like the Q7 was damaged or anything. I was overjoyed when this dude got a new Jetta, simply because he deserved to. I wish the VAG would give Harish Kanchan a replacement for his Skoda.

But I'll be the first to say that a full replacement is completely out of line here. Though we are a pro-consumer forum, it's equally important for us to be fair. Obviously a kneejerk reaction from Audi.

Oh well, all's well that ends well I guess. As long as the two concerned parties are happy. Just my two paise.

[iron.head]

I agree with GTO, an extended warranty with extended coverage and some free goodies/services could have been an example of fair compensation, but then the truth might have been made public!

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by speedy

A link provided from www.quora.com .

Would you be kind enough to elaborate on this angle?.

I would also request quickdraw since he is a colleague and close friend of Mr.Gondal to comment on this.

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%...aMM7n9ckCHZ_rA




The doubts have been raised again by the link i have posted above.

I would also like to post a link again from www.quora.com as the outcome of the meeting between Audi and Mr.Gondal.

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%...jzqzqFMbNovpOg

Further i am led to belive that Mr.Gondal is the second owner of the Q7 in question, hence the sum of Rs 85 lakhs does not hold true in this case.

Hey Speedy, nice to see that you're following this case with a keen eye, unfortunately I will have to disappoint you and fellow Team-Bhpians, I have nothing more to share then what has already been discussed, guess you'll have to pester your friends at AMW. I know you already mentioned that you enjoy a good relationship with them, and I'm quite sure you can find out easily details of this case since you've discussed these numerous times with them (as you mentioned on the thread.)

As far as the Quora posts are concerned, its a very interesting angle. But if you know Vishal then you know that he is not only part of the Gaming/ Entertainment/VC Scene in Mumbai he is also an active TED'ster and is also going to give a talk at a TEDx event in the future. My explanation would be that he is an extremely social and friendly person and meets a lot of people. And I am sure how he knows the TechnoPurple people (He might even have bought it because he met them because of VC connection/acquaintance, since techno-purple is more of a B2B than B2C company). But labelling this as a conspiracy does seem a bit far-fetched. Especially considering that he has a lot on his plate, and I don't understand really how a man of his stature would benefit from such a thing.

As long as Vishal is happy and he has mentioned that, I feel we should decipher it as a win, for us the consumer. And Audi India (albeit a little late) sorted this out. Also a parting remark because a lot of people were mentioning this everywhere, Vishal didn't go to the Police because he was in active discussion with Audi to resolve the issue.

Originally Posted by speedy

Further i am led to belive that Mr.Gondal is the second owner of the Q7 in question, hence the sum of Rs 85 lakhs does not hold true in this case.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

As far as the Quora posts are concerned, its a very interesting angle. But if you know Vishal then you know that he is not only part of the Gaming/ Entertainment/VC Scene in Mumbai he is also an active TED'ster and is also going to give a talk at a TEDx event in the future. My explanation would be that he is an extremely social and friendly person and meets a lot of people. And I am sure how he knows the TechnoPurple people (He might even have bought it because he met them because of VC connection/acquaintance, since techno-purple is more of a B2B than B2C company). But labelling this as a conspiracy does seem a bit far-fetched.

That sounds credible. I hear from some common friends that Mr. Gondal is quite the gizmo enthusiast and is always experimenting with new devices/gadgets. The VC-angel-mentor connection sounds tenuous at best and even if it isn't, should NOT take away from the fact that the car was probably taken for a joyride from the service station and Audi's dealer denied it initially.

As long as Vishal is happy and he has mentioned that, I feel we should decipher it as a win, for us the consumer. And Audi India (albeit a little late) sorted this out. Also a parting remark because a lot of people were mentioning this everywhere, Vishal didn't go to the Police because he was in active discussion with Audi to resolve the issue.

Am afraid that isn't good enough. You were quick to the draw to blame the Audi Mumbai West people when this story broked and in fact continue to make veiled snide remarks about them. So, as GTO said, full disclosure is all that is expected...and acceptable.