[NevGin]

Originally Posted by DeathPig

.....did not want to name and shame the dealer or persons involved (although it is visible in the video), saying he knows how difficult the job scenario is and he does not want anyone to suffer and lose their livelihood in this climate.......

I cannot stress the importance of passing a strong message to the staff. They must be made to understand that those cars were bought with hard earned money. Look at the recent swearing in of a nations president. He told his staff he will fire them "...on the spot..." should he find them participating in wrong doing. People go years saving up for a car before they take the plunge. It's okay for jobs to be lost across rank. Only then will the penny drop.

[ashutoshb]

Thanks to the owner, we now know that Kia dealers can be as bad as anyone else's.

One of the two voices in the recording, is complaining how his supervisor is asking him to do such things. Goes on to prove that it was a matter of practice and not an individual case.

Kia should take some action against the dealership. As a fellow bhpian rightly put it, its a case of theft. They literally stole his head unit.

If the car owner wishes, he can actually get an FIR filed against the dealer.

Thanks to this thread, I am considering buying dashcams for my cars.

[shancz]

I was able to see the videos now, so the issue being mentioned earlier seems fixed.

Slightly OT but coming from the experiences of this and similar threads along with my own, its almost unanimous that the dealer workshops can't be trusted.
While older cars can be handled by the FNGs but these new gizmos-on-wheels have to be taken back to the dealer's anyway. This concern has been at the back of my mind for some time now.

Doesn't this make the extended warranty a catch-22 situation ?
As it forces us to go to the dealer's every X months/kms while that's exactly what we are trying to avoid.
Personally after wasting money on MSIL's extended warranty I have made a point to not buy it on any future purchases. Preferring to treat the car based on my usage and the manual rather than deal with the unreasonable folks at the dealer's workshop.

I remember my Dad saying that "with Maruti you don't need to worry about anything".
Seems like I have aged faster but now I concur, but the USP of a Maruti isn't the FE its the FNG

[Leoshashi]

Apologies for the offtopic discussion!

Originally Posted by shancz

Doesn't this make the extended warranty a catch-22 situation ?
As it forces us to go to the dealer's every X months/kms while that's exactly what we are trying to avoid.

I seem to have found the perfect solution for that, touchwood. I am not satisfied with the services of dealer workshops at Ranchi, you may know why.

XL6 being a NEXA product, I cannot visit my old MASS(Non Dealer workshop). They cannot open any jobcard. Since I had taken extended warranty, I had to get records done by dealer workshops. For all other jobs, MASS is there.

For that, I avail their Service on Wheels facility. I do the job myself/they do under my strict supervision and ensure they touch the least possible things on my car. Not because of theft, but because I have suffered collateral damages wherever they had touched anything. Records are maintained and that's exactly what's needed to ensure warranty remains intact. Win Win I'd say.

Even the mechanics are happy that they have to do the least amount of work. I don't even opt for their washing.

Link to SOW: Link (Maruti launches 'Service on Wheels' doorstep car service)

Regards,
Shashi

[shancz]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

I seem to have found the perfect solution for that, touchwood. I am not satisfied with the services of dealer workshops at Ranchi, you may know why.

For that, I avail their Service on Wheels facility. Win Win I'd say.

Not satisfied is an understatement but it is what it is.
SOW is a brilliant solution, truly a win-win.
Thanks, I have saved the SOW contact info.

[frewper]

The video is now restored.

Ohh lord. The audacity of the people here to do such things. I sometimes wonder how people do not have a conscious.

If only the worker is fired here, then it will only mean that KIA is not taking matters seriously. There is no reason to not suspect the foulplay being not known earlier in advance by the Manager and the SA. Remember the guy in the audio/video(AV) is only a worker who gains nothing out of all this.

The gains(whatever it is) is to made by the dealership and the Manager and the SA are the executioners. They are the ones who need to fired along with the worker. Also the name of the dealership has to be made public here, in the title. As of now someone has only identified them in the post. (@Mods, please do so if you agree) The dealer will feel the pain only when customers stop showing up.

They should know the pain that it takes to earn the money and to buy a car in which his family travels.

The sad part here is that if the AV was not available, and the owner would have suspected this foul play, no one would have believed his theory and would have sided with the dealer.

[saikishor]

There’s this news that Kia sold 2 lakh cars in 17 months, and then there’s this news where a dealer shamelessly steals a customer car’s head unit. I dont understand how customers accept products from companies who have zero knowledge of customer service. And then there are people who complain about Tata and Mahindra’s aftersales. And if I am not wrong I did hear about heavy pricing of Hyundai aftersales. Hyundai and Kia should stop doing wrong things and focus on customer satisfaction. Also, lets just not forget the absymal 3 star safety rating of the Seltos. Heck, Chevrolet does a much better job than these Kia guys even after leaving India completely!

Edit: Off topic but I suddenly stumbled upon this. Another service fraud by a market leader http://https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-dealerships/191359-video-fake-service-done-my-baleno-rs-mandovi-motors.html (Video: Fake service done on my Baleno RS by Mandovi Motors!)

[invidious]

First off, this is pathetic. Consumer courts are for civil disputes. This is actually criminal behavior and an FIR would be par for course against the dealership. If I was the customer, I would get a criminal lawyer and get an FIR registered since police are averse to registering an FIR themselves.

Secondly, someone mentioned Suzuki at home service. In Bombay at least the Nexa service center I visit, has a nice lounge. I just take my laptop and Hotspot there and get work done while my S-cross /Baleno are serviced. I actually get more work done there - because I am usually the only one and the lounge is quite plush with bottled water, tea bags and a pretty decent coffee machine.

Lastly, the stories coming out of Delhi are worse than those of Bombay and Bangalore or pretty much anywhere else. A friend from Delhi recently had his Creta stolen from a non authorized but popular garage. I got a distinct Mirzapur vibe listening those two chaps driving around.

[Neversaygbye]

Originally Posted by abhishek46

Last time around, when I dropped my vehicle at the VW Service, the SA scavenged all the nooks & storage cubicles in the Vehicle, and transferred them into a small bag.
The Bag was then handled over to me on the spot.

My SA always insists that I check that I'm not leaving anything behind in the car. He will hand over any USB drive or even charger that I may have left behind inadvertently and take photos of both the exterior and interior before he takes the car in for service.

Also, they return all the parts that have been changed and run me through the bill in detail at the time of delivery. This does give me a little confidence that I'm not being taken for a ride but if the service centre is interchanging other parts then there is no way I'm going to know.

I think Kia should make an example of this service centre and dealership and promptly remove them. However, this is probably wishful thinking considering that the way the Korean twins deal with adverse incidents is by sweeping them under the carpet and hoping that nobody notices. It helps that most online reviewers are their stooges. TBHP is an enthusiast forum and its reach is limited, so they know that there's very little likelihood of the public getting to know of these issues, as long as they have social media channels within their control.

[frewper]

Originally Posted by invidious

First off, this is pathetic. Consumer courts are for civil disputes. This is actually criminal behavior and an FIR would be par for course against the dealership. If I was the customer, I would get a criminal lawyer and get an FIR registered since police are averse to registering an FIR themselves.

Cant mate. The amount of headache that one has to go through to get things done at court and for the pittance of an amount in the name of compensation itself is not worth the effort.

I have a couple of excellent lawyer relatives in my family and if I were the owner of the car here, I would still not consider going to court. Ever!

The only reason, in this country, that you would want to go to court is when you have been hurt so bad that you decide to put in a major part of your life fighting to make things right.

One of the best things that the owner has here is the video evidence. Imagine what people like HarishV had to go through just to prove that the parts were replaced.
The AV itself has already done much damage for KIA already that it would be stupid of them to ignore this.

Kia cannot ignore this one. This is getting caught with the stolen items in hand and Kia just cannot deny their fault.

[MunnabhaiMBBS]

Originally Posted by DeathPig

The dealer has been incessantly trying to get him to delete everything from social media. Apparently, some of the lower levelled members have been lain off, and the GM himself is facing pressure due to this issue.

OT : I would have used words like junior mechanics, technicians, workshop staff etc. instead of using lower level members. We are no one to define the level of any human being.

Maruti should actually establish an outsourcing subsidiary offering various services right from procurement to customer service to foreign car manufacturers. At least, it may very well earn to fund it's own R&D and Marketing divisions to devise the "Real" limited editions!

[Mainali]

Originally Posted by WorkingGuru

Edit 2 : I'd like to advise people with dashcams to Please (safely) hardwire your car dashcam with a fuse-tap as the SVC most likely will pull out the power plug from the socket if it is external.

Even if someone goes ahead and hardwires the dashcam, the end connection which connects to the dashcam is still removable. No matter what we do, there will always be a way around(Jugaad)

[Mainali]

I know as per the forum rules back to back posts are prohibited. I just wanted to write this down before I loose the train of thought.

Out of Topic though, but bear with me
I am pretty sure this forum has members from diverse background. There will be software developers as well as product people in this forum. Can't we come up with an app or something which works as a checklist which people can use before handing over the car to the service center, something like which happens before you start your trip with zoomcar.
Take the consent/agreement from the service executive about the condition of the car they are accepting which they can sign digitally. This way both dealer and customer will have safeguards.

Not each and every dealership might not be hand in gloves in cases like this, it might be the rotten apples, which is quite possible. it is some what not possible to vet each and every employee they hire and no company will be able to maintain 100% trustworthy and genuine people. There will always be a slippage.

The way we have a PDI checklist, we can have a pre-servicing checklist app. Just sharing my thoughts, if someone is up for the idea, I am more than happy to collaborate and work

[gkveda]

Absolute dacoits. Am wondering how these dealers have courage to do business in such illegal ways.

I think there has to be a clear law policy by government or manufacturers that

1. Dealers must allow customers
and SHALL NOT DENY THEM to watch entire servicing process by creating seating arrangements near the Service bay, not compromising on safety

2. Any malpractices found in the absence of customers during service should lead to termination of employees in the entire chain(SA, parts manager, mechanic, etc whoever is involved in the chain)

[IP_Man]

I don't want to open can'o' worms, It look like cover up job planned by shop floor technicians. Only fault of management is not to have control on what is going on the shop floor.

It is my observation, parts are routinly swapped from the other vehicle in case of urgency but here we are talking about whole unit. It is totally unethical to do without informing owner of the car.