Team-BHP - Had a bad sales experience at a dealer? Please do NOT eliminate the car model because of that!

Quote:

Originally Posted by v12 (Post 5015399)

Ok, I would not call this a bad sales experience - but an unethical one.

The same was not the case at the Honda dealership(Pritam Honda, Goregaon, Mumbai). The price of the new Activa was quoted as 103,000 with accessories which include crashguard, seat cover, handlebar grip,* body cover and helmet. The combined cost of the accessories was approx Rs-5000/-. However when I inquired for the cost without accessories, I was told that accessories are compulsory. The dealer does not take bookings if accessories are not purchased. This seemed like a daylight robbery to me and a very immoral and unprofessional and unethical way to run a business. Is this the case with all Honda 2 wheelers showroom? Or just this particular one? This experience totally put me off and I would never even walk into that showroom again. None of the other dealers ( Suzuki, TVS or Vespa) enforced accessories on the customer.

I had bought an Activa in 2016. I had visited TVS showroom for Jupiter and had a very pleasant experience. But, the Honda showroom experience was not very good.
No one in the showroom was even slightly bothered to attend to customers. We along with another couple were just wandering around expecting someone to talk to us.
Finally one person came who was vey arrogant and behaved like they are doing a favor by selling us the vehicle. I had almost planned to leave but another sales person came and addressed our queries.
Even this guy wanted us to take whatever stock they had in the showroom and trying to force to buy accessories as well. I had asked him to add just the crash guard in black color. On the day of delivery he showed me chrome colored crash guard fitted.
The only reason I did not cancel the purchase was my wife who wanted an Activa. I feel the reason they behave like that is the demand for Activa. It is like a de-facto option for average buyers to go for Activa when they want to buy a scooter.

Voted No.
Personally in sales(including two wheelers) I had two below average(not bad though) experiences with Honda scooters and MSIL each. I just went to another dealership who were quite attentive despite handling at least 5x more customers than the ones I had walked out of. Apart from this the other two sales experiences have been between average to good.

This would also depend upon how bad the experience was. Honestly if I ever face a nasty experience I will walk out of the dealership for sure, dropping the car only if that was the only dealership or if all dealership experiences were bad(quite rare).
Having said that a friend had dropped the Seltos after the experience of the only dealership around was bad. In that situation, I would have done the same.

Four months back I went across to the local Kia showroom. Sat in and understood the different variants of the Seltos on offer. The sales person promised to show up with a test drive car the following weekend. Kia sent me messages acknowledging my interest in the car.
Silence!
Finally, now that it is time to put money down I decided to ask again. Went online, filled the form for a test drive. Promptly got a call back from a salesperson. Told him of my interest in the 1.5l Automatic. Asked him to send me the specs on both diesel and petrol. Asked him to organise a test drive. The guy promised to revert with a specs and quote. Was almost condescending on the question of the test drive, telling me about WFH etc. Took the satisfaction code that Kia sent as a text message and- Silence!

Now I don’t know if Kia is that busy or if there’s a sense of hubris after having launched one and a half successful products. But my business is not going to a company that can’t be bothered to sell me the product. Can imagine what after sales is going to be like.

Voted Yes!

I just dropped Nexon from my list. I visited 5 different Tata showrooms from 4 different dealerships in Hyderabad today. Not a single one offered me a test drive. Out of the 5, 2 gave me price list and 1 took my phone number. They did not even promise me a test drive in the future. One dealer (not the one who took my contact) asked me to book a car with them and before my car gets delivered, they would arrange for a test drive. If I do not like the vehicle, I can cancel my booking. How ridiculous is that! It was as if I was begging them to sell me a vehicle.

All the showrooms are filled with Punch in different shades. Nexon and Altroz are (temporarily) removed from the shelves and dealers are not interested in anyone visiting them for any other vehicle other than Punch. I get that Punch is an important vehicle for Tata, but ignoring customers for other vehicles is plain stupid. Brilliant vehicles ruined by horrible dealers. Tata seriously needs to revamp their sales experience if they want to stay in the game. I could count atleast 10 others walking out of the showrooms just like me because no one bothered.

Quote:

Originally Posted by furyrider (Post 5175095)

Voted Yes!

I just dropped Nexon from my list. I visited 5 different Tata showrooms from 4 different dealerships in Hyderabad today. Not a single one offered me a test drive.

Sorry to hear what you faced, specially after visiting not 2 or 3 but a total of 5 dealerships! :Frustrati

If you still want a test drive, do make a complaint on twitter to Tata motors writing your ordeal. From my experience, they are quick to respond and will make the dealership get you a test drive as soon as possible.

Though it does not correct the horrendous experience you had and isn't the way to get a test drive, you should get a test drive this way. After all, if you drop the Nexon because you didn't get a test drive, it would negate the exact purpose of this thread. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Candy$Cars (Post 5175167)

Thank you for the suggestion CandyCars!

To be honest, I was pretty frustrated (and disappointed) when I wrote the above post. I was accompanied by a cousin who was interested in the Punch and he was taken aback with Tata’s lack of interest (rather the dealerships’ fault). He is not a car guy and he too is thinking of dropping the Punch from his list because he was worried about the after sales experience. In his exact words - if they call this sales experience, I wonder what service “experience” looks like. The first thing I remembered was the thread on this exact same topic a week ago.

Anyway, after things cooled down a bit, I have registered interest in Tata’s website. I will see how it goes. As luck has it, the dealership which took my contact sent me couple of images of the vehicle and a brochure. I replied back asking if they can arrange for a test drive sometime next week. I am yet to get a response from them. If everything fails, I will take the social media route as you have suggested.

PS: we did manage to take a test drive of the Punch at the same dealership which took my contact. Brilliant little car that! I came back mighty impressed. If priced right, this car has a lot of potential to be Tata’s next bread and butter. For reasons unknown to me, the dealer gave silly excuses like keys misplaced, car due for service/later went in for service, car is with some other customer, etc when we asked a TD for the Nexon, but happily handed over the keys of the Punch that was parked right next to the Nexon TD vehicle! rl:

Looking to buy my first car, I had the Chevy Spark as my first choice after comparisons with Santro and Alto. Seeking more details about the deals, offers and to test drive, I approached a dealer. No one came up to assist me several minutes after I entered the showroom. I found one staff member and enquired. The answer was that the TD vehicle had gone to some other place for a bank loan mela, and hence a TD would not be possible that day. However, they took my contact details and promised to get back to me at the earliest.

Till date I have not heard back.

But that did not deter me from going for the Spark. I spoke with another dealer. They brought the TD vehicle to my home, made me a good offer for the vehicle, and I went ahead with them.

My decision to go with Spark turned out to be good. It was my reliable companion for over 5 years.

My opinion is that it would not be correct to link the decision regarding a car model with the experience at a dealer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samurai (Post 5219423)

What if there was only one dealer for that brand in 200kms radius? Would that change your opinion? Those kind of dealers usually provide bad sales/service experience, knowing they have the monopoly for that brand in the region.

A brand with a single dealer in 200 km radius would never have been on my shortlist, even if the brand as well as the dealer were five-star rated.
Reason:
I prefer ASC attention for the vehicle, at least for the initial 2-3 years. Tomorrow, if life takes me to a place where the nearest ASC is around 100 km away, I would not be happy. Case in point: last month my car went for routine service at the ASC, 2 weeks later a new issue cropped up and I had to go back to the ASC.

But going into the spirit of the question: if I liked a car model, but all nearby dealers offer a bad experience, would I still go for the car? My choice would still be yes, unless all the ASCs have an exceptionally bad reputation. Interaction with the sales team is a one-time affair, and interaction with the ASC would be like once a year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samurai (Post 5219423)

Toyota has just one showroom in Thrissur (Nippon Toyota). I went last week to check out the innova hycross and could not impress the showroom folks enough to get them to speak to me. I spent about 15 mins in the showroom, nobody spoke to me though. I sat in the car, both front and rear. Forget test drive, was not even offered a brochure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ike (Post 5541074)

I must ask - did you try speaking to the sales representatives? If this behaviour is seen after you tried to speak to them, then it is a bad experience. However, I've noticed that sales representatives have become less clingy these days - I've been to Hyundai, VW, Skoda, Kia and Nexa showrooms recently and they only interact as long as I ask them questions. Since I'm just trying to check out the latest offerings without any plans to buy, I love this behaviour since i don't have to explain my visit. Only Kia and VW have refused my requests for test drives with lame excuses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbohead (Post 5541077)

Less clingy is fine, that is something I appreciate. However this was not so, a couple of SAs were speaking with customers, the others(who were lounging around) did see me lingering around the car but made zero effort to connect. Maybe I had high expectations from Toyota.

The other showrooms I went to (Tata & Mahindra), I was greeted upon entry and asked what I was looking for and whether I need to speak to a sales executive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ike (Post 5541074)

Toyota has just one showroom in Thrissur (Nippon Toyota).

You'll find the same sort of take it or leave it attitude in Madras Lanson too, even though there is Harsha as a competitor.

Its not like crowd is a problem. Popular Nexa was as much a fish market as Lanson Cenotaph Road or Koyambedu. My experience with the former was stellar.

Even my Toyota service experience has been nothing to write home about. This is total opposite of the reviews I see in the forum and word of mouth.