[blackwasp]

A Renault Duster met with an accident on 2nd July 2016 at Khanna, Punjab. Fortunately, there was no injury to any occupants as well as anyone else on the road. On 3rd July, the car was taken to the authorized workshop (M/s Padam Motors, Ludhiana) for repairs. However, due to some reason or the other, the dealership kept delaying and a claim was raised only after 2 months from the dealer's end. The ordeal didn't end here. The insurance paperwork had to be redone again. In December 2016, the dealership promised to hand over the vehicle. But this never happened. Meanwhile, the distraught customer was following up with all the senior staff as well as officials in Renault India over e-mail and phone.

Last month, a public notice was issued by Canara Bank stating repossession of some assets of the said dealership. The dealership has now shut shop with the status of the Duster still in question.

The customer writes to us -

We would like to have your assistance in resolving a complaint with M/s Renault India. Our Duster Vehicle has been held up at their Ludhiana Dealership for more than 15 months, the dealer has since been shut down by the company due to various customer complaints. Please guide us as to how we can resolve the issue as we have sent literally hundreds of mails to officials in Renault India, their North India Office at Gurgaon and so also to their Management team, but to no avail. This case has been mailed to their corporate HQ at France, but it is yet to elicit a response apart from the fact that they forwarded our matter to India HQ. This is a classic case of a BANANA REPUBLIC wherein they have one set of standards for their Developed country customers and another set of NON EXISTENT standards for Indian customers. We have sent mails to the entire Management team, Regional Managers, Country Head etc. but to no avail. We would request you to please highlight this case as RENAULT INDIA is the most NON RESPONSIVE FIRM and would be having hundreds of dissatisfied customers.

Timeline of events

2nd July 2016 - Duster had an accident.

3rd July 2016 - Handed over to dealership.

4th July 2016 - Dealership confirms vehicle received as it was handed over on a Sunday.

No claim was raised by the dealership to the insurance company despite the customer handing over all the documents on time.

18th July 2016 - Documents are resubmitted by family member.

Emails dated 6th, 8th, 11th and 12th confirmed that there was no need for the vehicle owner to sign and send the documents in original for insurance immediately, but could be done later as well as the customer was unavailable.

September 2016 - It came to light that claim documents were sent after a delay of 2 months by the dealership.

18th August 2016 - Meeting scheduled between dealership and customer. But it was found that the process was still in the documentation stage. This delay was justified by the dealership citing absence of the body shop in-charge and some more documents requested by the insurance company.



25th August 2016 - Once again the customer is asked to resubmit documents for insurance as the earlier ones had expired due to the time delay. The insurance company received these sometime in September and the survey was done in October.

October 2016 - It was found out that the dealership was on the verge of closure due to complaints, financial issues and a strike by employees. Eventually Renault shut down the dealership. This was not revealed to the customer who could have taken the car to another dealership.

The customer meanwhile sent the following letter to Renault CEO Mr. Carlos Ghosn.



Later in October 2016, Padam Motors reveals that the car will be repaired, while the customer was under the impression that it was a total loss claim.





January 2017 - Dealership says that the delay is due to shortage of staff and finances which prevented the spares from being ordered. Further, some documents are not submitted to the surveyor by them which leads to the insurance company threatening closure of this claim. Insurance company had sent registered letters to the dealership for the same.

6th April 2017 - No follow up with the insurance company by the dealership. Another shocking fact came to light that the vehicle's RC and driver's License was yet to be verified for insurance paperwork. The staff at customer's workplace got this done in the next 15 days. The insurance company reveals that the delay was due to no follow up from Padam Motors or Renault India.

8th April 2017 - Renault's customer care registers a complaint and replies as below.


31st May 2017 - Customer gets a one-line message from Mr. Rawat saying he has left the company.

5th July 2017 - Reply from company that needful will be done and one Mr. Gagan Brar will be in touch. He also refused to compensate for the delay due at their end. The insurance company said that they would waive off the delay on part of the vehicle owner, but not the dealership as their excuses were deemed illogical. Further, the surveyor revealed that the dealership had overcharged on the final invoice.

Mr. Amit Kaushik, Renault's R.M aftersales - North promises to look into the matter and says that pending work would be done at another dealer (M/s Benchmark Motors).



The customer writes the following email -

Dear Sir

At the outset, we are again dismayed at the reply which has been tendered vide your undernoted mail.

The communique suffers from selective amnesia in so far as the points of discussion are concerned, during the meeting with Mr. Rakesh Chandra (explained at S.no 3, 4)

1. Your Mr. Gagan Brar has been ignoring our mails, SMS messages, WhatsApp messages for the last more than 8 - 10 months, and it is indeed perplexing how you expect an expeditious resolution to the matter.

After many dozens of SMS messages sent DAILY to Mr. Brar to revert to our Mr. Chandra ((post your mail dated 5th July), given the fact that he is the epitome of unprofessional conduct, conveniently didn't bother to call.

On Saturday 8th July 1.23 PM, Mr. Chandra duly exasperated, called him from his number 98100 - XXXXX. The call was forwarded to his colleague, who was duly apprised of your mail, the matter under reference and sternly asked for a call back. We are yet to receive the same. Post Lunch the same day, our Mr. Avneet Mahajan (# 98144 - XXXXX) messaged him more than a dozen times, spread over 2 - 3 hours. Do we even bother to repeat that they were ignored?

2. Mr. Brar has been duly followed up with Phone calls, messages - both through WhatsApp and SMS. E-mails from the undernoted. The physical number would well be in the thousands (we are not exaggerating and should the need arise, we could always send screenshots to corroborate)


a. Avneet Mahajan - # 98144 - XXXXX

b. Amit Pasari - # 70879 - XXXXX - BLOCKED ON WHATSAPP on April 19th 2017

c. Jatin Kohli - # 79825 - XXXXX - sends almost 20 messages daily to Mr. Brar for the last 8 months.

d. Yatin Oberoi - # 81783 - XXXXX

There has been constant follow up from these personnel, which has been studiously ignored. Do you expect us to depute a separate team for resolution?

3. The selective amnesia that has been referred to ab-initio pertains to the fitness check of the vehicle, which Mr. Amit Kaushik had assured would be done within the end of the calendar month of JUNE 2017. In addition, it was assured that a team of engineers would be deputed within the next few days of the meeting to ascertain the present condition of the vehicle. We have been duly sounded out by the surveyor, Insurance company officials that the said dealer has been constantly interchanging parts from vehicles, in the months leading to systematic failure of the agency and subsequent closure. During our last run in with the agency, wherein our vehicle was held up for more than 7 months, it took us 23 calls to get a flat tyre replaced.

4. Your mail mentions a very vague and highly elastic term, which is open to misinterpretation: resolve amicably.
Do tell us, what parameters would be taken into consideration when we engage with the agency?

a) Vehicle stranded for more than a year, all documents were duly signed and tendered to M/s Padam Motors on JULY 18 2016.

b) Loss of non-utilization of vehicle for our office staff.

c) Bank Interest and Depreciation

d) Physical Long Term damage to vehicle due to negligence, non-running.

Mr. Amit, in case your office is unable to address the matter, a prime example of the nadir of business conduct; we would proceed with due process at your Chennai Corporate H.Q. We have a vendor conference in Bangalore next week and Mr. Chandra would plan his travel accordingly so that he may discuss the same with RENAULT officials at the Chennai Office.

We await an expeditious response, time being of the essence due to Mr. Chandra's travel schedule.


Thanking You
Yours Faithfully

Pooja Malhotra
Unisnar Petrolubes Pvt. Ltd.

27th July 2017 - Meeting arranged between customer, Renault and the dealership. They are non-committal on the closure and request another week to get back regarding the insurance deduction and overcharging by dealership.



August 2017 - Customer learns that Mr. Gagan Brar of Padam Motors has left the dealership.

19th September 2017 - One Mr. Sindhu from Padam Motors calls up and says that she will be working on this now at the dealership end. Requests for detailed history from the customer.



20th September 2017 - Mails were sent to officials in Renault India as well as others including Mr. Sumit Sawhney (M.D & C.E.O – Renault India), Mr. Sudhir Malhotra (Head – After Sales Renault India), Mr. Carlos Ghosn (Chairman – Renault Worldwide), Mr. Damien Gignoux (Director – Renault India).



Meanwhile, Renault's CEO's customer relations department mails the customer that they have forwarded the concern to the team in India. Insurance company closes the claim and asks Padam Motors to prove their solvency and give continuance of business letter.

October 2017 - Mr. Amit Kaushik assures that he would compensate the customer for the difference amount of the insurance company payment and actual costs of repair, noting that this entire fiasco is the fault of Padam Motors. He says that he would get the approval for the same from Renault India. This amount would be reimbursed in the form of Taxi charges or EMI paid back when vehicle was in custody of Padam Motors.

7th October 2017 - Legal notice sent claiming the customer had taken delivery of the car. This was refuted by the customer, and the vehicle is still at the dealer premises.

17th October 2017 - Mr. Amit Kaushik asks the customer via WhatsApp to follow up with dealership.

[GTO]

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

[Nonstop-driver]

While I can't wrap my head around how the dealership and the Company could let this happen, if it was my car, I'd take it to another dealer on 3rd day of casual treatment at one dealership. Why did the customer let his vehicle stay there for over a year when the repair work didn't begin even after 2 months?

[shankulk]

Owner of the car seems really patient. Anyone knows what legal actions could owner have taken against the dealership/Renault India? Cost of mental agony is nowhere mentioned. I would think twice before buying a Renault.