[New.Novice]

First up, apologies for a "news channel" like header, but in the hind sight that pretty much sums up my experience with them. Do read on if you ever were to buy a Maruti, this article might save you from dealers like Prem Motors.

Last month I decided to replace the Maruti 800 my wife was using with a Celerio. To aid the decision was this mouth watering option to go the "company lease" way which will help me save the much needed monies which the state so mercilessly snatch away from us salaried class as Income Tax.

So when the decision was made as to which car, and you can read here how that decision was made . Last post on this page http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/what-c...hread-226.html

I started making inquiries as to which dealer has the variant I had in mind and more importantly who was assessing my old car to a more reasonable rate.

Prem Motors evaluated my old car at 30000 and on insisting, they said they can make an offer of 33000 which was final. Do note that since the new car was on company lease so an exchange bonus was not applicable.

At the same time, Rohan Motors made an offer of Rs. 37000. If you know Maruti, you would know that within a city the cost of a new car is matched to the last digit by every single dealer and so are the discounts. Good job there Maruti. With this, my deal was done and I booked the car at Rohan motors with a promised delivery date of no longer than last week of March but practically much earlier than that (22nd March).

To my bad luck, Rohan continued to push their delivery dates and then there was a real possibility of them missing the very last date of 15th April which I gave them or else my tax advantages for April month were gone.

Around the same time (5th of April) I got a routine follow-up call from Prem Motors. I told them I have booked the car but it is getting delayed, if they think they can meet my delivery date, I will be happy to come back to them and buy.

I was told they have a Celerio Zxi Automatic (O) variant, which I wanted, in red color and they can deliver in two days if I opt for that color. I said am fine with that color but did insist that they undervalued my old car and that another TrueValue outlet assessed it at 37000. I was told to come back with the car, they will assess again and let me know. Fair Enough.

I reached them with the car in the evening and that's when things started to get murky. First up, the sales guy told me to not tell his true value person that this car has been assessed before. I told him I see no reason why that should be an issue, but nevertheless I agreed.

He came back with a different accessor this time, the guy took the keys from me to inspect the car while I waited in their dealership. He came back with his assessment and said the value is 27000. Just about that time the guy who first assessed my car 10 days ago walked in and recognized me. He also sat down there and I asked him what is the value of my car and why is it being valued even lesser then what he did 10 days ago. The answer was short, "Sir, we have targets to meet. Now that it has been met for the last month, 27K is what we are offering".

It is anybody's guess the conversation was far from pleasant. The guys (TrueValue arm) were extremely smug and a couple of nasty discussions broke out in front of me itself between them and the Sales Advisor.

I made them a couple of offers there. Either meet your last commitment and value it at 33K (I was ready to forego the price of 37K from other dealer since I was getting a ready car here) or just forget about the old car and let me purchase the new car from them. The delivery date was fixed for 8th April, the first day of Navratras and I walked out.

Between that day and 8th morning, what transpired was that a buyer who frequently buys from TrueValue got hold of my number from someone in TrueValue. He knew about the whole thing (where I booked, cancelled, and then buying from etc.). He kept calling me to sell my car to him promising every single paper to be matched with what I will get from TrueValue. That too even notarized. He was a registered re-seller with shop operating in Gurgaon for past 15 years. He was willing to pay me 38K (in cash or by cheque as I preferred) on the spot with all the papers before taking the car keys. I consulted a couple of people and the general opinion was, it is never completely safe even with TrueValue and the car can be sold to this guy.

I called up my SA at Prem Motors and told him the whole thing and asked him to keep my new car ready which I will pick up at about 2 in the noon having sold my old car to someone else.

It was then that I got bombarded with calls from Prem Motors. First to convince me why it is safest to sell my car to them. Then to tell me that they will do something and the price can be worked out and finally from my SA who said and I quote "Sir, come directly to us, we will match the price".

Though I was so pissed with them by now that I did not want to sell my car to them anymore, I gave in to the wife's fear (she wasn't comfy selling it outside) and went there with my old car. My wife and kids with me to take the delivery of the new car.

Nothing more to negotiate, I sat down with the TrueValue guy to sign all the papers. They kept me keep signing the forms and I promptly did. This also had the payment voucher of 38K (as in I received the payment of 38K), I thought it is too cheap to ask them to first show me the cheque before I sign that and therefore kept quiet thinking they would give me the cheque post the formalities of signing documents are done.

When the whole booklet was signed, he took out a printed form and asked me to fill the name in which the cheque was to be made and wanted me to put the value of Rs 35000. Now this was a complete surprise. Where did the value of 35000 come from, more importantly when they just had me sign 38000 in the standard true value booklet. I was told that this is for accounting purposes. What will happen to my 3000 then? We will fix the accessories worth 3000 in your new car sir.

I was so drained by then that I decided to let is pass and said "Ok, give me the cheque of 35000, fix the accessories (Maruti Kit worth Rs. 2490 with Rs 510 in credits for me for future use) and let me go away with my new car".

The answer was even more charming this time "Sir the cheque will be ready only in 6-7 days and the accessories will be fixed only when the cheque payment is done, you can take you new car bare bones right away."

Damn, I lost it there and blasted them.Asked them to bring back the true value booklet so that I can shred it to pieces, I no longer wish to sell my car to them. Sometimes you think wish the wife (more importantly kids) were not with you. My kids were panicking seeing me raging with anger and these thick skinned sales people know just where you are vulnerable. They used this as their shield to calm me down. The concession given to me was that while they can not expedite the cheque they are fixing the accessories NOW.

A procedure of taking the delivery, which should have taken 15 minutes, was already more than an hour. Waited for another half an hour but still no signs of car being ready. The SA is used to lying through the teeth, "sir, 10 minutes max, our system is down I just have the print the invoice". Another hour into it, I asked my wife to drop the kids home, they have had enough of it. There goes the fun of taking the delivery of a new car for them. And this is something I will never forgive Prem Motors for.

Finally, well after 2.5 hours my car was ready for delivery, I took it and drove back home. Do I need to tell you there was zero excitement of buying a new car? we rather drove off as if we were just been to a funeral. Take that Prem Motors.

I asked the SA to order side beading for the car, he can adjust Rs 510 left while I shall pay remaining amount in cash when he gets it. "Two days sir". After two days, "just two days sir". "What about my cheque?" "Two days sir".

The days kept adding it was beyond a week and still no sign of the cheque nor the side beading. It require some stern language and threat to go to Maurti which meant that I finally got the cheque next day. So much for convenience selling your car to True Value.

The side beading still no where in the picture, I asked him to rather give me the door sill guards. "sure sir, two days"....yet again.

A couple of two days went by again, now about 20 days since I bought the car. Still no accessory coming from Maruti. I finally had to ask him to not give me any accessories, just give me a credit note instead. What..that level of processes from Prem motors? I must have been dreaming. No credit note sir, the amount will be in your file you can use it when you want. For example when you come back for service. Are you kidding me? there is no way I am going back to Prem motors ever, not even for service. So I bid my Rs. 510 a mental good bye.

When I took my car, I was given the photo copies of the papers (remember the car was on company lease hypothecated to Kotak Prime). My mistake, I did not notice that the temporary registration certificate was missing.

The apartment I live in, issues RFID stickers to cars so that the boom barrier open automatically to a resident car. What they want is the RC of the vehicle to issue the RFID tag. It was then that I noticed that the Temp RC certificate was missing. I called up the SA again (this was a couple of days back) and asked him about this. He said, he missed it while delivering the car and that he will be mailing a scanned copy to mey in half an hour. Though by now I had complete trust on his untrustworthy-ness (implying that of Prem motors too) I still went ahead believing Prem Motors would do what they promise. But no sire, Prem Motors is so reliable that they won't disappoint any single time. As expected, the temp RC never hit my inbox.

Called the SA this morning again and I was presented a new story. Our back office is shifting and we are not able to locate your file. We will give you the temp RC when we are able to locate file.

And I rest my case dear readers.

PS: Maruti customer care number is almost impossible to reach. Does anyone has an email ID from someone in Maruti who cares about dealership experience? I would sure love to take it up to Maruti. I know that they are very particular about customer experience but there are always smug and incompetent dealers like Prem Motors who finds a way around. Appreciate your help and appreciate your time you spent reading this.

[arnabchak]

@ Novice

Very sad to see the ordeal you have gone through.

Pls. share the link of your review with MSIL Customer care and write a very strong mail to the Customer Care Manager about yor ordeal.

Dealers like Prem Motors should cease to exist and pro active action from customers like you will ensure that.

[noopster]

@New Novice: I am trying to look at this objectively since you have obviously posted with a lot of emotion

You did well in playing one dealer against the other. The problem with negotiating hard, however, is that it takes the relational element out of the equation. As far as this dealer is concerned you seem to have been reduced to someone with whom they are merely closing a transaction, with no thought to your lieftime value as a customer. This is an unintended consequence of multiple Maruti dealerships in every city being the norm. Safe to see that you will not go back to Prem Motors and they will not expect you either.

I've changed the thread title to better reflect the facts. Truth is I do think you were shortchanged on your exchange deal. My question is- if you signed a document that says you have received 38,000/- from them for the old car, legally you should be able to claim the whole amount from them (not 35,000/- plus accessories plus credit note etc.) Am I missing something here? How come someone who negotiated so hard (and effectively) was not able to hammer in the final nail?

[New.Novice]

Originally Posted by noopster

You did well in playing one dealer against the other. The problem with negotiating hard, however, is that it takes the relational element out of the equation. As far as this dealer is concerned you seem to have been reduced to someone with whom they are merely closing a transaction, with no thought to your lieftime value as a customer.

My question is- if you signed a document that says you have received 38,000/- from them for the old car, legally you should be able to claim the whole amount from them (not 35,000/- plus accessories plus credit note etc.) Am I missing something here? How come someone who negotiated so hard (and effectively) was not able to hammer in the final nail?

I see it slightly differently noopster. I don't think I was playing one dealer against the other. I was very clear , which I made a note in my review too, that I am more than happy just buying the new car from them. Told them the price I was getting and why it wasn't wise for me to still sell it to them. And I had all intentions to keep Prem Motors out of the equation wrt the old car. I was coerced into selling the car only to them on the day I was out to sell it otherwise. If this is "hard negotiating" which results into customer being seen as an object with no intention from either party to develop a relationship, then sure you and I think differently.


The answer to your second point is also in the review. I was never told about the price difference in what they are making me sign on TrueValue booklet and price they will finally give me (plus accessories for the differential amount) till the time I was done signing all documents. Now why did I agree to go ahead with that? Imagine a 10 and a 6 year old patiently waiting for the new car in which they will go home, excited ..talking about who will take which seat when they are picked up from school. The wait gets longer and longer and dad talking agitated with various people. The excitement and joy was fading from their faces and I thought the 3000 were not worth it. All I wanted at that time was, take the car and go home.