[Karthik_S]

Kudos to Skoda for taking a stance - they've always built good cars but the sales and service aspects have deterred many of us from buying said cars. It seems they are finally waking up to the costs they've had to bear for dealer misbehavior.

I owned a Fabia for 8 years, loved the vehicle but dreaded that one day of the year when I had to take it to service. I never had that peace of mind knowing my vehicle would return with problems fixed (and hopefully without new problems or replaced parts).

As much as I loved their cars, I didn't replace my Fabia with another car from their stable because of this fear.

I don't know if they'll get a new dealer to replace Vinayak, but given that Skoda is going to drive VAG in India, I would imagine they'll get some of the existing VW Showrooms to pick up or run Skoda showrooms. If they don't go down that route but get someone like an Advait to be their second Dealer in KA, I think they are in for a good year ahead.

[kavensri]

My close friend at work owns a Rapid. He has been servicing his car from Vinayak Skoda since he brought his car in 2015. He never had any issues with them and in fact they have gone overboard and helped him to get the trivial issues sorted out to his satisfaction. Needless to say, he is quite disappointed with this news.

[RaghuVis]

Best News of the day, month and year, starting so early on first day itself. I somehow really believe Team-Bhp had a very big influence in this.

For people posting positive stories about Vinayak
Guys, how does it matter that they were good to you? Does that in anyway take away from what they did? This feels like testimony of relatives of a convicted murderer. They have sympathy for the dead and their families but end of they it doesn't matter to them because he was good with them. Why do we always have to have a soft corner for cheaters? While it's always true that nothing is ever black and white and there are several shades in between, but one should never ignore black no matter how big white is.

They cheated a customer and sold a fake car! Then they made him run pillar to post for years for justice. He got the fake car delivered in October 2016 and it took close to 900 days for him to finally get car he always wanted in March 2019. 900 freaking days! Imagine what he would have gone through. And after all this, when they eventually gave it to him, it was through out of court settlement to ensure that they don't get any penalty from court. And now Skoda threw them out of business which they should have done much much earlier.

I have Zero sympathies for the dealer. No amount of good service will negate the trauma that Suhas Went through. They definitely deserve this. Regarding applause for Skoda, I would say let's hold our horses. It's a long pending action from their side. Lets just be optimistic that Skoda will show the same courage in future always.

[sunilg33]

Seems like there are mixed opinions about Vinayak Skoda with a majority having bad experiences. The title of the thread doesn't seem apt. Request the admins to look into it.

[ajmat]

I used Vinayak for servicing my Octavia RS. Service was not that great and never improved. Came to a point where it was faster to DIY. At that time TAFE was the larger devil.

Bad service can be improved with a combination of a strong standards set by the manufacturer and the will of the dealership. See how TAFE is now praised highly within this forum.

Outright fraud is unforgivable. Again, the legal and contractual process meant that it was not a cut and dried process to sack a dealer. There is money and inventory to be covered etc.

[PrideRed]

About Vinayak cars from their website

http://www.vinayakskoda.co.in/aboutus.aspx

Vinayak cars Pvt. Ltd. started its operation in the year 2007 by a team of highly automotive passionate individuals. Vinayak Cars is being owned and managed by a business family, Vinayak Cars has attained great heights with its existing SKODA dealership in Bangalore region. With the clear understanding of the expectations from customers of premium segment cars, Vinayak Cars has achieved possibly all awards related to sales and after sales

I would not be surprised if one of the VW dealer is handed over 2nd Skoda dealership in Bangalore. 1 Skoda dealer for large city like Bangalore is underwhelming.

[gkveda]

We should try to understand one thing here. Did skoda open their ears to customer complaints and shouts and took this extreme step OR is it the relationship between skoda and vinayak dealer that has led to this?

If the root cause is customer satisfaction, definitely we can appreciate this extreme step and decision. If it was their internal business relationship disputes and cold war all these days that has led to this decision, I don't think they(skoda} really deserve the appreciation, IMHO

[21Archer84]

Not sure if this has already been shared and/or this is the right place to post this.
Mods please delete (if already shared) or move(to respective thread).
Came across this post in Facebook. Vinayak Skoda of Bengaluru is no longer an authorized dealer for Skoda. Bookings are no longer encouraged by Skoda.

[gururajrv]

At last, it’s reassuring to see Skoda taking this brave step of calling off its dealership with Vinayak Skoda. Although the reaction came in late after it was settled amicably between the parties, this step is pretty much welcoming.

This shows Skoda’s management is indeed focusing on building their foundation through making things right with customer service. Good luck Skoda and I love your cars

[Durango Dude]

Originally Posted by gururajrv

This shows Skoda’s management is indeed focusing on building their foundation through making things right with customer service. Good luck Skoda and I love your cars

This shows that Skoda is least interested in the customer. Not the other way round. "Justice delayed is justice denied". The company and dealers are "thieves". They'll leverage the 'corruption' and the 'judicial' system to their benefit and make the customer run from pillar to post and die a thousand deaths before they set right what was wrong.

[suhas_raj]

Vinayak skoda had it coming! I Had a terrible experience with them when i bought my rapid. I realised they were trying to sell me a car that had run 200+ kms during my PDC. Had to threaten them of cancellation if they did not change the allocated car. Finally they did, but a horrid experience.

[sgm]

In Aug, Sep and October time frame when I was looking at a new car option, I contacted Vinayak Skoda for a test drive for Superb. I used to call every week or after two weeks. The SA would not even remember that I had spoken to him many times. In the mean time I completed C Class and BMW test drives, still I called a few more times before I payed the booking amount for C class. I finally called the SA one last time and told him that, for two months he if couldn't manage a test drive for a customer, why are they in business?

Thanks to Vinayak Skoda, else I may have ended up in buying Superb

[gururajrv]

Originally Posted by Durango Dude

This shows that Skoda is least interested in the customer. Not the other way round. "Justice delayed is justice denied". The company and dealers are "thieves". They'll leverage the 'corruption' and the 'judicial' system to their benefit and make the customer run from pillar to post and die a thousand deaths before they set right what was wrong.

You’re right! But there’s no reason in cribbing over spilt milk, isn’t it? It’s a good step, why? Atleast they woke up to the fact and are taking measures to ensure this is dealt at the root and avoiding from recurring again.

Sad our laws aren’t stringent enough to penalise on such practices that yields results immediately. Otherwise, it would’ve been a different case

[saisree]

I have no experience with this dealer so cannot comment on their sales/service. Looking into the posts here, Vinayak skoda has both positive and negative reviews and something has gone up to Skoda and hence the action.

Coming to the point of my post, Skoda says they have severed the ties with the Dealer and they have absolutely NO interest on any booking amounts or any other sale dealings that has happened recently and it’s the customer who has to run to pillar and post to get back his money. Feel sorry if someone has already invested his money there

[ontheway]

I read the whole ordeal of Suhas after reading the news of Vinayak getting closed. And I was really sad seeing the audacity of Vinayak to keep testing the patience of Suhas.
Vinayak was just playing the time game and waiting for the aggrieved customer to quit after getting fed up. There was no good side of Vinayak in this whole fiasco.

And everyone has his right to opinion, but seeing people getting sad on this news of Vinayak closing, surprises me on human behaviour.

From what I got from the ordeal of Suhas, Vinayak was a habitual offender as having done that fraud on 6-8 cars, and not only one. They had tasted blood and if this case of Suhas had not got publicity, maybe this fraud had continued on many innocent customers, with little help from Skoda. Skoda also acted only after Mr. Zac Hollis was personally involved in the whole case, on persistence of Suhas. Otherwise Skoda was also just playing the time game.

When the basic character of the top people at a dealership is foul and rotten, it is little comfort that some people had good experience there. Because if those people are in their bad day and had to face some serious issue at the dealership, they cannot hope to get justice.

I will always steer clear of such dealerships and/or people, even if many had pleasant experience there. Because you never know when you are in bad luck and have to face their bad side.

I am happy that such rogue dealership has closed and hope Skoda has learned a lesson or two about how to keep checks on their dealerships.