[rockporiom]

Purchasing a car is one thing and maintain it is a different thing. The maintaining part seems to be the most difficult with landmark honda.

The initial service experience with my Honda city in the first two free services seemed to be excellent with the car being picked up from my house and dropped back after service in pristine condition. Things started to change as soon as my car crossed the 6th month mark which meant it had to go in for the third free service and an oil change. I wasn't in the country so my dad as usual received a service reminder from landmark Honda that the service is due and they can send a person to pickup the car from my house.

The car was picked up from my house promptly the next day, I talked to the person on the phone and specifically asked for the air filter to be changed in addition to the engine oil change. I used to do this in all my cars because of the dusty conditions in Ahmedabad. I do not believe in the cleaning of air filter and go straight for replacement.

After I talked to him another guy called up my dad and said that there is a requirement for all tires to be filled with nitrogen as it is a pre requisite for warranty in the future. I would have straight away dismissed this but my dad not being aware gave the go ahead. The car was dropped off on the same evening but my dad wasn't present to receive it so my mom took the keys.

The next day when my dad saw the car it was an utter disaster with grease marks all over the carpets near the rear seats. The car was not even cleaned from the outside further the bill was another shock amounting Rs. 4.6k. Now this is a huge amount when you consider the fact that there was no labor charge in this service. Upon checking the bill I found these charges which felt unusual:

1) Diagnostic charge: I later checked with some friends that Honda charges this. Strange since Maruti never charged for connecting their diagnostic tool.

2) Brake service charge: What was this for? if something was wrong with the brakes shouldn't it have been covered in warranty? If it was something addtional shouldn't they have asked me first before doing it? What's worse is after they did that the brake makes noises when applied.

3) One more service charge: I can't understand what was this for. It costed Rs.1250.

The worst thing of them all is that they didn't do the one extra thing that I had actually asked them to do which is CHANGE THE AIR FILTER!!!

Now the thing is after the service the A/c is not cooling as effectively as it used to and it makes a huge rattling sound when it is started for the first time in the day. Also there is a humming noise coming from the back of the car that gets irritating after some time I am not sure if its my tyre upsize or something else. I have yokohama c drive's 195/60 R15. I tend to believe that the tyre's are OK.

The most irritating part is that the dead pedal came off when the car was with them and instead of fixing it they quietly kept it in the glove box thinking no one will notice

[rockporiom]

I was still abroad when all this happened so I sent a mail to Honda adding my dad's phone number stating this experience. My dad received a phone call the next day stating that they are looking into the matter and after that there was no communication whatsoever from the showroom or Honda.

I became busy with my exams and dad with his work so we couldn't follow up. I return to India for my vacations and see that the car had taken a hit to the rear quarter panel and rear left door while dad was parking. Took it to Landmark body workshop (different from service workshop).

This is the first time I get a first hand experience with them since earlier it was my dad dealing with them. I enter inside their ASC and there was no one at the reception to guide me. No one bothered to even ask for any assistance as I stood there wondering if they even see me.

Finally, one of them asks me if I was there to drop my car and I told him that I needed an estimate and wanted know the procedure and documents for insurance claim. They made me sit for another 15-20 minutes till someone came to assist me and it was not like the place was busy. SA's were just sitting at their work desks with maybe one or two customers in the lounge.

The SA told me that it would cost 20k to repair the damage in insurance and would take 20 days at least. Now the damage didn't seem so major that it should take 20 days or 20k (pics attached).



I still asked him the required documents as this was my first insurance claim for repair. he stated the following

1. Insurance copy
2. Filled claim form
3. RC book copy
4. Driving license copy

I told him that since it would take 20 days I would drop it at the end of next week since I was going out of town for 20 days at that time. I took the claim form and left.

The next day the HU started hanging up when switching from FM to bluetooth so I decided to take the car to landmark again. I also complained to them about the previous experience and asked them to at least get the car wash done again.

They clearly said that car wash wouldn't be possible as it would take one day for the car to be washed as there was a a lot of work load. I let it go and asked them to fix the HU and put the dead pedal back. They took me down to the workshop. This is the first time i see the work space since it is in the basement and the lounge is up so you can't actually see what they are doing. The work space was straight out of a horror film with one single ramp leading up and down causing a complete jam and the cars being driven rashly
(wheel spinning away to glory). There was so little space that I was surprised as to how they manage to cram in so many cars without damaging them. Finally the dead pedal gets fixed ( its been half an hour) then he takes the car back up into the parking lot where the accessory guys checks the system and says that it needs to be replaced and they need to send the system to the OEM. I tell him that I will drop it when I am getting the body work done.

In the mean time I ask my SA as to why it takes so long for body work to which he replied " sir if you get it done in personal it will cost Rs. 8800 and will be ready by tomorrow" I was literally shocked on hearing this. On one side the guy says there is heavy work load on the other side another guy says that the car will be ready tomorrow. Then he explains that if I claim insurance it takes 20 days otherwise it will be ready by tomorrow. This is the first time I am hearing of such a thing.

I thought that I would get the bodywork done later as I would prefer the car to be mechanically fine first and cosmetically later so I asked him to pickup the car from my house to fix everything to which he says that we cannot pickup the car as it is not routine service and i need to drop it to their ASC.

So this means that if they mess up things in my car when they service it I am responsible to follow up and drop my car back to them so that they can repair things that they had spoilt

Frustrated I told him that I would drop my car at their body workshop one week later and they can pick it up from there after the body work is completed to finish the mechanical part. He agreed.

Come 15th May(Friday) I reach the ASC to drop my car. The SA that I had met wasn't there so I asked another person to help me out to which his instant response was surveyor unavailable so please get the car on Monday(18th May). Now this wasn't possible since we had a flight the next day and no one was available at home to drop the car. So i requested him to keep the car till Monday and get the survey done, he was hesitant but agreed. I gave him all the documents asked and his next immediate reaction was documents are incomplete as originals are not there. Now the previous guy I met didn't tell me that he needed the originals and it was one hour to closing time and there was no way I could go back home collect it and come back. So I had to drive all the way back home without getting anything done.

I am literally fed up and frustrated with Landmark Honda's attitude to their customers and even Honda seems to be deaf and blind towards their attitude. My helplessness increases as there are only two ASC's in ahmedabad (Landmark & Emerald) and the other one is very far from my house.

I am currently having a list of issues with my car but their attitude worries me. The following are the issues my car currently has:

1) Ineffective A/c

2) Suspension noise from front left suspension

3) rumbling noise

4) boot not closing unless dropped hard

5) rattling from rear left door

6) HU hanging

7) Noise coming from A/c

[rockporiom]

*UPDATE*
So after coming back from my trip I called the ASC up to ask if I can get the car. He told me to come the next day by 9. The next day I reached the ASC a bit late but they took my car and I explained all my issues to them. They asked to come back in the evening and the car would be ready. He said he would call me up. So i waited, then I waited and then I waited some more but no call at all. It was 6 pm and still no call so I called the SA and his phone was busy finally after half an hour he calls me up and tells me that the car is ready and I should be there within half an hour or I would get the car the next day. So I rushed to the showroom as I needed the car that day, upon reaching he showed me the car which was clean this time and looked like they had done a good job but they said that they can't do anything about the humming as its from the tires (which I highly doubt).

I gave the counter leaf and just as I took the car and drove out the showroom the brakes started making noise again although much lesser than before. I called the SA and asked him to check it out. THE BIGGEST MISTAKE! upon reaching the showroom the SA took over and he started driving when i noticed that the revs are rising but the car is real slow and the i see this fool is driving on the "L" mode at nearly 40-50 km/h

I asked him to shift it into D immediately when he accidentally put it in neutral and back. I realized this guy doesn't know how to drive an auto and asked him to let me drive so he pulled over and put the car in R when the car hadn't even stopped. Seeing such harsh driving irritated me on top of that he said he couldn't hear the noise so i dropped him back to the dealership and just as i stopped there the brakes made the noise again and i pointed out the same to him to which he said chalta hai koi baat nahi

Irritated and frustrated I left the showroom. The next day I was happy that the A/c was working and everything was normal fast forward a week and the A/c is back to its ineffective stage. The boot still doesn't close and the brakes make noise. Further I have noticed that when the engine is cold and the A/c is started there is a loud whistling noise coming from the car which can be heard even with all windows up and the A/c running. Also the HU keeps hanging and works intermittently when on Bluetooth audio mode.

I am literally Frustrated by the shoddy quality of work done by the ASC. Honda has already turned a blind eye towards quality checks as can be seen from the 4th gen city niggles thread but now have they even dropped in terms of their service quality?

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Dealerships Section. Thanks for sharing!

[Dinesh_Malhotra]

I am really to sorry to hear about your ordeal with Honda. I learnt it the hard way with my Ford Figo and it's visit to various dealerships like Bhavna Ford and Wasan in last 5 years. There's a reason that Hyundai and Maruti are at the top of their game and, I realised it after buying my elite i20.

I will request you to utilise all channels of communication with Honda and also involve Government bodies in them. Take it up very strongly with these people.