[alexpaul]

Man , sad to hear such shameless acts done by dealer and also messing up with customers car . It seems KIA is losing the connect with the dealers . Please share the videos on social media and youtube. This will rather have far greater impact instead of writing those "love" letters to the top bananas .

[rdst_1]

Whenever I see a similar issue being reported on this forum which involves cheating/fraud by the service departments of car dealerships, I feel the need to reiterate this statement - Please always stay beside your car when any work is being carried out on your vehicle. If you don't have the time, please don't leave your vehicle at the dealership, if you can. For faults which require the car to be left at the dealership, I personally, would only allow them to work in front of me, even if it means I have to be there everyday. I know this doesn't sound feasible for everyone, but you can never trust the service departments of any dealership IMHO.

[DeathPig]

The video evidence has been added to my original post. Thank you, GTO!

[anantpoddar]

Originally Posted by DeathPig

The below content was sent to me by Tariq Umar.

These guys were aware that the DVR is recording and yet they went through with their robbery.

Please ask your friend to create a public post of this on fb/Twitter and share the link here. We should re-share this to the maximum so that more and more people are aware of such theft happening at A.S.S.
Such dealerships have no right to exist and the onus should be on OEMs to take action.

[DeathPig]

This is the latest from Mr.Umar.

His dealer has now started asking him to remove all posts from social media. There is no response from Kia, it's just from the dealership. I think Kia will start facing the heat soon. Their response to anything has been to not respond at all. People owning anything below HTX have issues with the throw and illumination of their halogen headlamps. And there's no response to that. Nor for the broken suspension, nor the burnt car.

It's just a shame.

Edit at 13:24 - He just received a call from director of the dealership saying they will replace it by friday next week.

[Axe77]

I am shocked and disappointed that Kia India is staying radio silent on these issues and not intervening to help customers. Whether for manufacturing quality issues or dealer fraudulent practices.

It does not take long for brands to get the Skoda like reputation and years for customers to regain confidence.

I want to buy a second car in the 18-25 lakh price range and honestly cant find a single brand that has a car worth buying which is also sensibly priced AND reliable. Sad state of affairs.

[GTO]

Deathpig, thanks for sharing, man! And also for going through the effort of uploading the evidence to YouTube. Moving your post + replies to a new thread.

Here is a TLDR summary by Vid6639:

Sequence of events from the thread:

1. Customer complained of head unit lagging and hanging.

2. Kia fixed the problem by changing the head unit. While fixing the head unit, they damaged the AC vents.

3. Car goes back to fix the AC vents. When changing the AC vents, it appears that the guys have changed the head unit once again with their demo car head unit which was broken. However, they tell the customer that the head unit screen broke when fixing the new AC vents.

4. They order a new head unit, but it takes 1 month. Customer takes the car back and checks the dashcam footage and there is some chatter on replacing the head unit & nobody will know.

I'm wondering why it was needed since all cars are still under warranty, so not like the scam yielded any monetary benefit, unless the demo car is not a warranty car.

My best guess & the most plausible reason = the dealer wanted a new head-unit for his demo car and conveniently picked it up from this customer's car. Maybe the demo car's head-unit was damaged in some way and not eligible for warranty replacement, or the dealer just wanted a quick fix.

IMHO, the dealer has attempted to cheat both, the customer & Kia.

[VKumar]

Originally Posted by DeathPig

Edit at 13:24 - He just received a call from director of the dealership saying they will replace it by friday next week.

Tell Mr. Umar to neither take any posts down, nor talk to this dealer again. Kia will contact him, will take the responsibility, will change the head using, as well as every single scratched panel too.

But Mr. Umar needs to be firm that he won't take anything down, and don't want any replacements to be done at the said service station. Already shared the post with someone who can take care of this matter.

An OEM can't get away telling people that service station did it, IT IS their badge on the building, and they are responsible for anything happening there. It is the trust for which we go to the A.S.S., else an FNG is more honest than them in every aspect.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by VKumar

Tell Mr. Umar to neither take any posts down, nor talk to this dealer again. Kia will contact him, will take the responsibility, will change the head using, as well as every single scratched panel too.
.
.
.
An OEM can't get away telling people that service station did it, IT IS their badge on the building, and they are responsible for anything happening there. It is the trust for which we go to the A.S.S., else an FNG is more honest than them in every aspect.

Very well said Kumar. I find it really annoying when brands hide behind the excuse that this is a dealer fraud. The dealer operates under tight franchise agreements. Customers buy into a car brand, not into a dealership brand. Car brands simply have to protect their customers from dealer incompetence as well as fraud.

I hope Kia tries to set an example of this with this incident and resolve this satisfactorily for the customer. If not it is a HUGE question mark for them and I hope the customer genuinely takes this dealership to the cleaners through the legal route.

On a related note, although this is idealistic, I wish customers could settle issues with full disclosure of what happened as well as what resolution was offered. To my mind not muscling in and negotiating gag terms when solving things for customers would also give me a much stronger confidence in a brand. That they remain confident of the fairness of their resolution solutions. Most often brands invariably gag the customers from any further publicity either to kill the issue or even prevent other aggrieved customers from seeking a similar redressal where the brand has coughed up an expensive solution at its own cost.

[landcruiser123]

I hope the OPs friend wins the case and gets Kia to replace the HU and the dash panels for free.

My only worry is - dealerships will start forcing customers to remove dashcams every time they take a car in for service. It’ll be difficult to catch the crooks.

Remember this thread: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...vi-motors.html (Video: Fake service done on my Baleno RS by Mandovi Motors!)

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by DeathPig

This is the latest from Mr.Umar.

A sincere request - can we have the name of the dealership (don't believe it has been shared)? It's about time we put it out the information that hits them the most. I believe this might even get the timelines even shorter if their name comes into the limelight. Currently it's only on KIA.

Originally Posted by GTO

Deathpig, thanks for sharing, man! And also for going through the effort of uploading the evidence to YouTube. Moving your post + replies to a new thread.

Request the thread name to be appended accordingly.

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

My only worry is - dealerships will start forcing customers to remove dashcams every time they take a car in for service. It’ll be difficult to catch the crooks.

Remember the days when we'd drop the car for service and take the removable front face of the head-unit with us?

The awareness on this topic has increased and a couple of years back my Subaru dealer told me to disconnect/turn-off the dashcam while dropping off the car and I do that every time. This was after I asked them why the dashcam was disconnected when I picked up the car. It's kind of a sensitive topic around recording videos of a private property and people without their permission. Would they allow you to record if you inform them ahead? No again.

How do we catch crooks like the KIA dealer and many others then? Well, good luck.

P.S: I pretty sure that the dealer's next steps would be focused on training employees to check for dashcams and not speak loosely about such activities vs. asking them not to steal parts from customer cars.

[ShivrajG]

They come to Our country they sell us sub standard products with all bling and their Service team rob us in daylight. They don't even acknowledge the robbery even when they have video evidence. Such is the plight of consumers in India.

Way to go KIA motors. I am not going to advice anyone to take a KIA product.

[vinu_h]

In this case, the OP noticed the swap particularly because it was external. What if this happened to an internal part ?

The recording will need to be certified by the appropriate authorities before it can be regarded as evidence in court. Also, all of it is banking on the audio allowing the defendant to claim it wasn't theirs or just speaking about it doesn't mean it actually happened. I would urge the OP to make a fuss in the social media and reach an out of court settlement before it gets to the hearing.

[mukeshgoel]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

A sincere request - can we have the name of the dealership

It is Frontier KIA, Okhla Phase-1, New Delhi. It can be seen at 2:09 in the second video.