[Nalin1]

Originally Posted by GBX

Thanks for the elaborate interpretation of the case. It's clear the court hasn't given a blanket ban or blanket permission either way.

It still seems like this will come down to individual customer-dealer negotiations. Either the customer agrees to the charges and makes the purchase, or the dealer simply doesn't sell the car. End of the day it will turn into a game of chicken to see who gives up first, which will likely depend on festive seasons, time of month/year, assumed net worth of the customer and so on.

Oh so if I understood it correctly, then it is not exactly banned by the apex court!. I am poor at understanding these long PDF copies of court orders .

In that case it is a straight shoot out between the customer and the dealer across the negotiation table.

[NiInJa]

Everything said and done, 11000 Rupees is too big an amount for 'handling' the car. Its not like they treat the car very nicely when its kept in the stockyard. Most of the times cars are kept directly under the sun. It should be reasonable, maybe up to 5000 Rs.

Our Maruti was kept under a tree and before registration got completed, it was covered with bird droppings, the interiors were dirty too. Had to add some chemical to remove the bird droppings from the windshield so it looked brand new. Luckily they didn't ask me for handling charges else I would have given a mouthful. They did fill 10 litres of petrol which was 'generous' I would say.

[susheel_kainat]

Handling charges is not new when it comes to bikes or cars. The issue here is all these tier 1 and 2 cities with respect to dealers like Bangalore, Chennai etc; the rent for the buildings are comparatively higher than the tier 3 dealer locations. So all these dealers (not just one single brand) will take help of 3rd party for arranging warehouse outside city where the rent is comparatively less. They share the expense and in most of the cases, those warehouse is not owned by dealer or the company and these dealers pay them the rent based on the area used. So that's where meticulous planning is made where they make the order only based on the demand, so that they don't have a huge pile of vehicles in the warehouse. This is the case when its shared.

For cases its not shared the rent is based on the complete area but still its lesser than having similar setup in the core part of the city. Now that warehouse issue solution is met, next is bringing those vehicles to Dealer Delivery location. Most of the time these locations will be far from the core part of city. If its two wheeler they hire a truck where multiple dealers bear the hiring charge plus unloading charges. If you notice in bigger bikes (eg: R3), the handling charge is more compared to scooter or other bikes because they occupy more space than a regular bike since they come as a single package. Now comes the major issue of who will bear this extra cost since all the companies wash their hands with respect to this, since in many tier-3 location, this is never a concern and if you notice most of these dealers will have warehouse close to service center since the land and rent is cheap there. So they make more profit than the tier-1 and tier-2 dealers with respect to a single piece even though cities sell more than those in villages or small towns.


So all these tier-1 and tier-2 location dealers association after consulting with the Automobile companies, came to a conclusion of milking the customer for this extra cost since they claim to say that without this their profit of margin is very less and they cannot survive in the city. The Automobile companies knows all about this but still will come with diplomatic way of talking (whenever we raise concern) even though they are very clear on the very exact handling being charged for each customer based on the location, so frankly they are not going to find a solution for this. They want their products to be available in the cities but are not ready to bear that extra expenditure and same is the case with dealers.

So if you are really in love with that car, buy it from outside city from some tier-3 dealers where they are legally not given the permission to charge this since they don't have this issue.

I came to know about all this when I raised the same concern with the dealer for two-wheeler. I even saw the mails coming from company officials where they themselves have provided the handling charges to be charged for each product based on the tier level.
Most of the dealers never mention them openly and include them under registration charges. Now if you say, I will collect the vehicle from warehouse and so no need to bear this, then the next question is, how dealer will do the official Pre-Delivery Check. Is anyone ready to take that risk?? One way or the other they need to bring it to service center in the city.

Yes we can argue by comparing this with MRP and all those stuffs, but from a realistic point everyone is there for business, they have 'n' number of staffs and to pay them the salary which all is made by selling these cars and by yearly maintenance we do from them and on top of that the humongous rent these guys pay makes this worse to survive. Its not a sustainable model especially in cities and that's the reason all these charges comes into picture.
From my personal perspective, ideally I feel the company should come to an understanding with the dealers and find a solution for this, and that should never be from the consumer.

[Sedate]

From what little I understand, you are paying an "ex-showroom" price. That price should be inclusive of everything. There should not be components like storage cost, handling charges, salesman's salary etc. in the final bill.

It defies logic. The quoted handling charge is almost 1% of the ex-showroom price!

I did walk away from many vehicles because of the handling charges - One example is a Vespa 125. Loved the bike, hated the dealer and his attitude. I was quoted nearly 4% as handling charge (3000 rupee). The other extra charge was the pay by card fee of 2.5% for paying through a debit card. It is dealerships making or breaking brands.

I raised an enquiry to Ford before BS6 implementation to purchase a new Endeavour. I am yet to get a response for the dealership! May be these days dealers are selective on who owns their vehicle. I and my money may not be worthy for them. I am sick of these stealerships and hence try and stay away from them now a days. For me, it seems like buying a pre-owned car seems a better experience now - both money wise and experience wise.

[AZT]

Originally Posted by Hayek

After having read the Delhi High Court judgment that Samir Chaudhary posted, in particular, the following averment by the dealers

“ that the handling charges / logistic charges to which objection is taken by the appellant are not related to registration of vehicles but are towards stockyard services / warehousing charges, driving costs in terms of fuel consumed and people engaged, fuel given following delivery, transit risk insurance from stockyard to dealer’s showroom, polishing and / or waxing and towards other handling costs..”

, it seems clear to me that the confident statements that many of us have been making that handling charges are illegal is wrong. There is a prohibition only on adding to registration costs. Beyond that, dealers can charge what they want towards the services they provide to get the car to the customer. If we don’t like it, it is a free market and we should move on to someone else.

From a pure business perspective, no dealer will risk losing his license just because of handling charge. I started reading this thread thinking handling charges are illegal but now I'm not sure.

This isn't even a secret, the RTO knows this charge is being applied. Are we saying the charge is illegal but the RTO and state govt either don't care or are being bribed to not do anything.

[nimz_blr]

Hello fellow BHPins, first of all thanks to [quote=Dry Ice;4876480] for directing me to this forum! I have gone through this same issue, however decided to go ahead and buy Duster Turbo. Sharing below a narration of events and finally my view on purchase and dealer.

Background:

I booked Renault Duster RxZ CVT through Trident Renault Sarjapur Road, even before the car was launched. Once the car launched, I received call from Sales Manager stating this can be delivered in a weeks time. We started discussion on prices / discounts etc and came to know about Logistics Charges.

I raised the concern on 2 fronts with MD of Renault India on 2 fronts :

1. Logistics charges : What is Renault India's stand on this
2. Offers : Website had mention of consumer offer or rural offer for all the customers

I received the calls from both Trident Renault Showroom manager and Mr. Shyam (Territory manager Karnataka of Renault India). However, I insisted on getting an email response. I eventually got the final response on 27th August.

Response from Renault India on offer was that same has been corrected in the website. On the Logistics charges, I did not receive a response to the very simple query to which response could have been a simple YES / NO.

Reasons for Eventual Purchase and Experience with Dealership

I must highlight here that I found the dealer to be very transparent regarding my queries. They initially offered some discount on insurance which could more or less adjust the Logistics Charges. However, I made it clear that I will go for insurance by myself and will not take it from the dealer. Had they insisted, it would have been illegal practice, but they did not either.

Dealer quote for insurance was approx. 72K. I got similar policy quote from Royal Sundaram for approx. 34K. I think dealer should be getting much higher margin (compared to Logistics Charges) on Insurance even after giving me a discount of 10K on taking insurance through dealer. However, dealers team did not insist on me purchasing a policy from them. They kept on saying that Logistics Charges can't be waived-off. As compared to other companies these are not included in Ex-showroom price so they can't waive-off these charges. Additionally, dealer is not taking these as hidden charges but clearly stating them as separate line item.

I also found the people working in the dealership (Sales manager, branch manager) to be very helpful along the way. Hence, I eventually decided to go ahead with the purchase.

In my view, this is a mess-up largely because of Renault India. If the Logistics Charges are so unaccounted for, may be Renault India could have given me a clear response stating they do NOT endorse such charges being levied by the dealer.

I was a biased buyer towards the product but still was not comfortable initially. Though I eventually made the purchase, I see there are other biased buyers who have decided otherwise. At the end of the day, it is a loss for Renault India. I sincerely hope that they pay attention to these issues and get them sorted. Many customers like me will be happier to pay additional tax if these costs are included in ex-showroom prices. Any additional charges being levied on top of ex-showroom seem irrational at the face of it as we are buying the cars from showroom and not factory.

Alternatives Explored:

I also reached out to Renault dealer in Hosur (neighouring town in TN). Without insurance they offered a discount of 15K with KA59 (rural) registration. However, they did not provide a separate quote for Logistics Charges (this was combined in Registration Charges), and they were charging TCS @ 1%. Trident Renault was charging the TCS @ 0.75% only. Hence, OTR price difference was coming to approx. 12k.

Hosur dealer mentioned that if I go for KA51 (urban, electronic city), discount would be lesser (max. 10k). This would have reduced the gap in overall pricing to approx 7k.

Eventually, Trident Renault did provide Standard Accessories FOC so the gap eventually was approx. 2k only. Looking at overall transparency provided by the Trident Renault, I eventually decided to go ahead and purchase the car. I got delivery of the car on 30th August. I have posted about the delivery on another forum yesterday only.

http://https://www.team-bhp.com/foru...49-lakh-8.html

[PraNeel]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

You had to make 3 trips because you were not aware of the system. And each time they must have asked for missing documents etc. In the end you did manage to get it done without any bribe. But now if you were to revisit them for another vehicle, you are well aware of the documents and process. So a dealer doesn't need to make multiple trips. It is part of their daily routine and they would know exactly what all is needed. So this logic of paying commissions to agents is entirely false.

I didn't miss anything. As stated I was well prepared and file was submitted in one go and receipt issued for file submission.
I had to make three trips because:
First Trip : To file for ownership transfer.
Second Trip: The RTO officer's electronic thumb impression was pending for ownership transfer. The officer was angry on clerk for this and no reason was given for this as well.
Third Trip : To fetch the RC because it didn't arrive by post and 60 days had passed by since file submission. I would have to make a fourth trip as well, however the RTO officer was idle and he told the staff to search and give the RC card to me, who had told me 5 minutes ago that the person in charge has gone away for some work.

And I have seen the batch of files from dealers lying for processing in RTO office. Ans yes they pay them per file.
So these guys made me come 2 times without any reason.
My friend who had paid BLR RTO charges for his HR registered vehicle during a check, had to pay 15k to an agent to get the RC issued and number allotted.

Once again I am bringing the aspect that people pay money for convenience and to save them from these haggles and now it has become an established practice. This is a wrong practice but it has become normal and hence these dealers also expect us to pay these charges.

[Pancham]

Hi BHpians. As usual, the handling charges are still being charged by dealers - and they are not willing to budge for full waiver. Is there anything I can do other than cancelling my booking which is not a feasible option? Can I write to the Jeep customer care or show them some reliable document which explicitly say that they cannot collect handling charges?

[amay1283]

Sharing my experience on this with India Garage, Whitefield (Mahindra dealership). They quoted handling charges to the tune of INR 7080. When asked if it is legal, the response was that it is and I can check with any dealership of any brand. They all charge. I persisted with them on this without being rude or raising voice as I didn't want to ruin my experience of buying a new vehicle. In the end, they relented by offering me free accessories worth INR 6000 in addition to the standard FOC accessories.

[argchoff]

Here is a new trick dealers are resorting to, for taking handling and logistics charges from the customer :

The cost breakup sheet that the dealer shows to the customer does not show handling charges anywhere. However they have already added this amount in the RTO registration amount which not many people bother to cross check.

The issue will come to light when customer actually checks the received SMS from RTO with a lesser amount reflected.

In the final invoice while taking delivery it would be mentioned in the break up, a certain amount as handling charges as well as the actual RTO amount. As the overall mutually agreed final price amount does not increase, a customer who has not bothered to cross check the figures goes away happy thinking he's had a good deal.

I have seen this done by Jeep, Skoda and Hyundai dealers in Pune.

For example, from my Hyundai showroom visit yesterday, as per their cost sheet for a Tucson petrol signature AT DT the ex-showroom price is INR 3167100. At 13% Maharashtra road tax, the actual individual tax comes to INR 411723, plus rs. 600 for registration. However in the cost sheet the individual tax mentioned is INR 455362, a whopping addition of INR 43639.