[lancer_rit]

This is really bad on the dealer's part - new car mustn't be tampered in any way, period.

Silver lining is the Myskoda app which gives you accurate info based on VIN. My recommendation is to install not only the Myskoda app for India but the global Myskoda app from playstore. It has more info including the exact manufacturing date of my car and inbuilt car manual and quick tips that can be useful in a pinch.

[stewie]

Suhas paid for a Rapid BP edition.
Take back the car and give him a *genuine* Rapid BP.
Skoda would be doing the bare minimum by providing him what they billed him for in the first place. I don't think that would cover any of their shoddy handling of the case.

Now, if Skoda really wanted to turn this flaming piece of PR disaster around, they should give him an upgrade - a Skoda Octavia.
I don't think they should eat the cost either. Since this seems to have been done at their dealer level, squeeze them to make up the difference.

[drmohitg]

What I fail to understand is that why is Skoda lingering on in this case? Isn't it a simple case with irrefutable facts that point towards the dealer being a cheat. Skoda could have come out of this looking good by claiming that their app and the dealerships service advisor were the ones which helped in diagnosing the real scam. On what grounds are they even trying to fight this in court or with the customer?

Unlike Harish's case where parts were changed, here a completely wrong variant was delivered willingly and intentionally. What else do they need to act?

[v6kgang]

This is very very bad, while there is very little we could do as a consumer to stop this, can't we from TBHP boycott skoda's new launches?. I understand buying or not is customer's choice, but by publishing reviews, aren't we also influencing potential buyers. All the products from Skoda are awesome, dare if i say, better than their VW siblings. but a full page review with just one cautionary point on unreliable service or sales is not going to give enough caution to a prospective customer. I may be grossly wrong here, but just my thought, please ignore if inappropriate.

[hikersoul]

We should not stop the fight here. The message we as an automobile enthusiast community need to send is that if you engage in fraud, if you participate in providing false statements and eventually false products, you will be prosecuted. We should be very clear here that there is no company too big or too important an industry that will escape prosecution if they in fact engage in wrongdoing. He must know that he is not alone, we are with him in this.

[iceman07]

This is the new low the dealership and the company can stoop to. Have alerted all my Skoda friends. Just hoping they do not come up in the cheated list.
Its really a sad state that our media is not making any news of this. Lets spread the word far and wide.

[vigvr]

Originally Posted by narayan

? Variant name does get captured in RC but do they mention names of such special editions ?

Unfortunately, not. Whenever a new model is introduced, each variant has to be given an RTO approval. But in most cases, the limited edition vehicle gets registered as the 'primary' variant.

(could be a little off topic)

Case in point, I know of many Volkswagen Vento Highline+ with the LED lamps were being registered as 'Highline' till they got approval for the Highline+. The Polo GT TSI Sport variants were being registered just as GT-TSI, the sport kit was added to the car post registration (With the Polo, I guess it's OK because they are dealer fitment accessories, not factory fitment).

Also, apart from the Registration, the insurance companies too hardly update their database. I remember Figo Sports editions being insured as Figo Titanium because, the list wasn't updated.

[VinodDevil81]

Originally Posted by abhishek46

Skoda will actually chose to happily ignore the entire scenario.
I wont be surprised if it comes out in support of the dealer as well.

Exactly my thoughts.
I won't be too surprised if Skoda goes one step further and rewards the dealer for coming up with their own "Vinayak Edition" to boost the sales.

That manager guy Uday should be immediately recruited to Skoda's global headquarters before Toyota, Hyundai or any other competitors get to know his talent and snatches him from skoda.

He is a genius who can work wonders by churning out new variants from existing variants with no extra cost to the company.

[GTO]

This dealer is so darn incompetent! Shruthi Shervegar shares her story:

I recently read a review where a customer complained that Vinayak Skoda delivered them a regular Rapid disguised as black package.

This is to bring to your notice that we had a similar experience.

We had booked an Octavia Ambition Plus at Vinayak Skoda, Sadashivnagar in the month of April 2017. However, the showroom people registered the wrong car in my name (Base variant). We were informed just 3 days before delivery and were asked to take the car that was registered wrongly.

The model booked by me - Octavia Ambition Plus - only 1 car in white was available at the time of booking, which was already booked by someone else by the time we realized the wrong variant was booked. We had rushed through the payments only to book the particular car available in the country.

I had to wait for the new variant to launch to purchase the new one.

Since it was not what we paid for, we did not take delivery of the vehicle and asked for a complete refund. We had our money refunded to our account in a week's time.

This was not enough!

Few weeks later, it came to our notice that the car was sold without transferring the registration and we had to follow up repeatedly to ensure the dealer gets the registration transferred, as we were unaware who the new owner was.

Only once we received the new insurance papers at our residence did we realize the new owner had done his insurance papers in our name with our details. Please note, we had not signed any papers for the same and were totally uninformed about it by the manager Mr Uday and sales-in-charge Mr Vijay.

I have tried a couple of times complaining to their customer care; sadly, no one followed up. It went to the extent where we had asked our lawyer to send them a notice.

We finally got the registration transferred in September.

[PAS]

I appreciate that Suhas is fighting for his right as a customer. Many people would refrain from legal action.

Originally Posted by Vinodh_Gowda

The court hearing is scheduled for tomorrow and I sincerely wish him the best for his fight.

Do you have any update from him?

[BopsKA12]

Man, another one from Vinayak Sokda Just thinking out aloud "Can the mods send out an mass PM to the T-BHP memebers so that they share the word with friends/family about the atrocities commited by the said dealer and avoid them!!??

[Vinodh_Gowda]

I did meet Suhas last weekend and listening to him made me furious. This post explaining the ordeal is way too less painful when compared to what he was and is actually made to go through.

Problem diagnosis:
Suhas mentioned that it is not the BCM module but the ECU which lead to the headlamp issue and in-turn opened the can of worms revealing the entire scene of scams by skoda dealers !

Suhas found out the concern when trying to use the dipper. After he had received the car, once on his way he was going through a narrow lane which could allow only a single car to pass. A cab was on the other side and Suhas flashed his headlamp seeking the right of way, the cab driver in-front too flashed and proceeded to move. Both met in the middle and the argument broke wherein the cab driver informed that Suhas hadn't used the dipper. Suhas felt this was just another cab driver rant and moved on. However, after few days when meddling with the light adjustment at his place, he tried to use the dipper and bingo it wasn't flashing! However, the concerned indicator/notifying light on the car's dashboard would light up to indicate that the dipper is working!
The Skoda technician - A very loyal one as per Suhas - told him that this was not the only car which got the swap treatment! As per him, there are at least 6-7 cars which have undergone the swap treatment in the recent sales! The concerned technician also showed him how using a normal Rapid headlamp solves the problem and which in-turn hinted Suhas that the car delivered to him is a regular rapid which was locally altered/modified by the dealer to make him believe that the delivered car was a black package.

Evidence submission:
Suhas has submitted the evidence to the court from his end which includes all necessary proof and relevant documents. Skoda India has told the court that they had delivered the car as per the manufacturing process. (which is a regular Skoda rapid)

Recent Development:
Suhas is scheduled to talk to the Skoda ASM today at 15:00 hours. Will withhold few other details until he comes back. Suhas is waiting for his membership approval and also have asked him to provide me a statement of his ordeal in his own words so that I can post it here to make a few other matter in this fraud case clear.


NOTE: The post was reviewed by Suhas before I posted, Just so that I don't get the details wrong.

Originally Posted by PAS

I appreciate that Suhas is fighting for his right as a customer. Many people would refrain from legal action.

Do you have any update from him?

Hope his fight brings him justice and helps in overcoming the horror, at-least to some extent.

[PAS]

Originally Posted by Vinodh_Gowda

I did meet Suhas last weekend and listening to him made me furious...


Hope his fight brings him justice and helps in overcoming the horror, at-least to some extent.

Thank you for updating the forum.

Originally Posted by GTO

This dealer is so darn incompetent! Shruthi Shervegar shares her story:

Whilst, i hope there are no more such cases. I wish those who have, come together and support each other.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by Vinodh_Gowda

I . A cab was on the other side and Suhas flashed his headlamp seeking the right of way, the cab driver in-front too flashed and proceeded to move. Both met in the middle and the argument broke wherein the cab driver informed that Suhas hadn't used the dipper. Suhas felt this was just another cab driver rant and moved on. However, after few days when meddling with the light adjustment at his place, he tried to use the dipper and bingo it wasn't flashing! However, the concerned indicator/notifying light on the car's dashboard would light up to indicate that the dipper is working!

He should sue for what is proven to be an unroadworthy car. Did Suhas do a check before taking delivery of the car?

[anukritbhargava]

Originally Posted by GTO

Suhas Manjunath shares his ordeal with us. He has filed a consumer court case against Vinayak Skoda for cheating and deceiving him, and also Skoda (the company) for not keeping their dealership in control and letting them manipulate their products...

I am speechless. I came to this thread after reading this and cannot believe that a company the size of Skoda has such inefficient and appalling internal controls with respect to their dealerships. What Suhas has suffered is fraud and he should make full use of all legal options at his disposal to ensure that both Skoda and the dealership are taken to task. Unbelievable stuff. I hope Suhas is able to resolve this issue quickly.

One thing I am certain of, though, is that no Skoda product is ever going to be parked in my garage if they do not unconditionally apologize for this deception (if it is established that there was one) publicly and rectify the situation for what I am sure is one harassed customer!