[suhasark]

Thanks ROG_AK for letting the world know about this scam that I always suspected (across brands & vehicle segments).The free services to me always felt like a "get the check list ticked" sort of a thing with no serious thought given to addressing any complaints the customer may have.

The A.S.S personnel are always more keen to take the coupon from us and are least bothered about any of the issues that are mentioned. Any problems reported are almost always never fixed and the car is given back very quickly with some quick and dirty polishing.This has been my observation with both Maruti & Honda.

Incidentally , I had a fight with Mandovi motors in Mangalore ( way back in 2006 ) when during a paid service for our old Maruti 800 none of the mentioned problems were attended to and all I got was a fat bill. After fighting with their management (went two levels and I stopped as I had not time to continue the fight) and no resolution in sight , I stopped giving my car to them and started giving it to a FNG.

Cheers
Suhas

[chncar]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Is there a published document anywhere that says Maruti Suzuki pays the dealer for each car they service and that this cost is included in the purchase price for the car?

It's basic common sense, MS and the dealers are not doing social service to give you genuinely free service.

The phrase 'free service' is actually a bit misleading. Cashless service or prepaid/included/bundled service would probably be more accurate.

If you are claiming that it is genuinely free and the customer is not even indirectly paying for it, as you seem to be doing, the burden of proof is on you.

Also, it might be true that the dealers have a lot of vehicles to service, however that does not excuse any of this, and the correlation with so-called free services is flimsy at best. It's not as though they simply didn't service the vehicle properly, they also burned the owners fuel and used his car to eat lunch and enjoy the AC, in addition to threatening him and vilifying him. The rot is deep and cannot be explained away by the volumes etc.

[A350XWB]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

If this is happening with Maruti, it must be happening at a bigger scale with other companies.

This comment shows the blind trust, people have in Maruti-Suzuki, as a company. I'm not saying whether others do it or not. But MSIL better own this up and resolve it at the earliest. They cannot keep mum and watch the show go by, as it is their dealer. Full credit to ROG_AK to bring this to light.

[SPARKled]

Maruti's silence is indeed baffling. Are they waiting for the month's sales figures to decide their next course of action? Looks like if they continue to have bumper sales, they will just keep quiet and wait for this to die a natural death. But if the figures go down, then issue some kind of a standard non sensical apology in a show of commitment to customer kind of a statement, in typical fancy words.

[skchettry]

Originally Posted by ROG_AK

All their apologies were a bunch of BS. Got this email just now. Need help / suggestions from members please. Ready to go legal if required.

The language of the mail changes its tone from being apologetic to a threatening type as it ends.
I believe the original lapses and shoddy work performed at the ASS was a smaller mistake compared to the various tricks and 'warnings' that Maruti Managers subsequently made.
This experience of yours is an eye opener to many a car owners like me who just handover the car to the ASS in the morning, come back to collect it in the evening and pay whatever they ask for for whatever they claim to have done with the car.
Thanks for sharing.
Wish you a very happy Diwali, I know this one has been a totally different one for you.
Regards
Sravan

[AltoLXI]

As an afterthought, is it not possible to automate the car servicing entirely? When the car manufacturers are using robots in the assembly lines, how difficult it should be to automate servicing as well and thereby remove the human factor from the routine tasks?

[GT3]

Originally Posted by AltoLXI

As an afterthought, is it not possible to automate the car servicing entirely? When the car manufacturers are using robots in the assembly lines, how difficult it should be to automate servicing as well and thereby remove the human factor from the routine tasks?

I feel tbe automation of servicing has a very long way to go before it becomes a reality since servicing includes a lot of subjectivity due to many varying parameters like usage. One thing to note is that AFAIK in the manufacturing process only the welding and painting is automated. Complex jobs like engine and interior assembly are carried out by humans.

[five46]

The word is spreading faster than I thought. An old colleague working in Auto Loans Section of my earlier employer says that when he was at a loan mela activity, the dealer has appraised to their service station staff to check running dash cams in vehicles received for service. Also to the other sales/non technical staff who sometimes pick and drop customer cars. Reason: The OPs video on YouTube.

This is in a Tier II city.

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by GT3

I feel tbe automation of servicing has a very long way to go before it becomes a reality since servicing includes a lot of subjectivity due to many varying parameters like usage. One thing to note is that AFAIK in the manufacturing process only the welding and painting is automated. Complex jobs like engine and interior assembly are carried out by humans.

What prevents cars coming for service moving on conveyor belt, with robots knowing the type of car and doing the service tasks accordingly? Only a few tasks can have human intervention.

Here is an video of the Mercedes production line. It is not that the technology is not available but I suspect it is the cost of setting up such a facility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VreG1iC65Lc

[ROG_AK]

Happy Diwali everyone! Till now I did not get the chance to discuss this with my parents or family. My parents are absolutely infuriated with how Mandovi has publicly defamed, degraded and questioned my integrity in the video comments. Is this the famed Maruti customer satisfaction? Their next move will be rather interesting.
As for Maruti, they probably have a team of 'experts' scrutinising the video trying to save themselves.

PS: As suggested by members, I have updated the video title and attaching a screenshot of the email they sent.

[discoverwild]

Originally Posted by Sebring

Hey Buddy, Not sure I follow. What's your Ford story?

Way back, we bought the 1.6 Ford Ikon in 2001-02. The vehicle was a beauty to drive and handled well. Service was never up to the mark and just fat bills. Out of warranty, they replaced all the shock absorbers claiming they were leaking. Later came to know that they had set targets of billing for each car based on the kms it had run.

The vehicle had its own set of idiosyncrasies. Misfiring on one cylinder, sudden acceleration without input, rpm going up to 2300 even at idle. You couldn't get services elsewhere those days because spares were not sold off the shelf. Finally got sick of it.

Sold it and bought the Indica Turbo DLG in 2006. Wonderful experience for 1.65L kms (long term report here). Sold that and got the Vista in 2012. Still doing duties at 1.21L kms.

Back on the topic of Maruti, I shudder to think what would be the quality of service now that one lakh more Dzires have been added to the road. Service centers are already overcrowded and as this experience of ROG_AK shows, the lack of service is glaring.

The need of the hour is to ensure that this episode reaches a proper conclusion and probably puts certain checks for malpractices in place so that the customer is not taken for a ride. Not just Mandovi and Maruti, but all manufacturers, dealers and service centers, including Tata.

TAFE Access in Coimbatore had this reputation and I used to go in only for car purchase and not service. The new dealer in town SRT Motors is also no good.

[jetsetgo08]

Excellent that the OP (ROG_AK) had caught them red handed. But to be honest, I would not be surprised if it were to be any other dealer in any other part of the country. It is a known fact that most of the times free servicing would imply washing and delivering the car.

Saying that, I would not even blame the Maruti dealers as these days there are so many Maruti customers that there is an imbalance of demand/supply for servicing the vehicles. Besides they have targets for servicing X vehicles per day.

Opting for an at home/mobile service (if available) is a viable alternative. Otherwise, be prepared to spend a day with the car at the service center.

[DieselAddikt]

Originally Posted by A350XWB

This comment shows the blind trust, people have in Maruti-Suzuki, as a company. I'm not saying whether others do it or not.

Well said my friend. Shows how people think Maruti = BEST. They were already caught for building "Made for India" Swift which was feather light. But people forgot that so fast and started trusting them again. May be, the trust was never broken in the first place. Now, the famed Service has been caught red handed and people think that this happens "on a bigger scale" with other manufacturers and, perhaps, that ROG_AK just got plain unlucky that day. You know, the "it won't happen to me" types.

[prakash_ajp]

Originally Posted by jetsetgo08

Saying that, I would not even blame the Maruti dealers as these days there are so many Maruti customers that there is an imbalance of demand/supply for servicing the vehicles. Besides they have targets for servicing X vehicles per day.

If they are selling so many vehicles, are they not getting money for that? Shouldn't they simply scale up everything to support all those vehicles they sold? What's the point of bragging about 50% market share, largest service network, Nexa the premium etc.? With such a predictable sales, Maruti is in a better position than everyone else to make such plans.

[Highh5]

So now they are acting REAL at least.

Emails with such derogatory tone, I must say that they will make their own life tough with this move. If they go legal, go out with all guns blazing against them. Share the video with all the media houses/magazines with a series of tweets/fb posts against them. Let it go viral, they were the only one at the losing end.