[stallmaster]

Originally Posted by mvadg

Other than that, the conversation amongst the employees of service center show their attitude towards others, would they be classified as psychopaths? Says a lot about the state of our society today. I am still trying to understand what sort of environment produces such humans. I am sure this same attitude is shared by many others in the dealership. Scary, but inevitable, given the wide disparity in living standards.

Imo this is definitely due to extreme inequality in most parts of the country plus greed of the management.

I have seen pretty wild stuff in North East in Mizoram where people have left their cars unlocked and parked in markets overnight and not a thing gets misplaced.

I have also heard of Maruti dealers in Assam selling second hand cars as first hand too.

[kedar191]

This is ridiculous! As a soon to be Sonet owner, this sort of incident is disturbing to say the least. More than the callousness of the service station, the apparent lack of response from KIA is the worst part about the entire, sorry affair.

In today's day and age, when eCommerce companies do lakhs of low ticket transactions a day to every corner of the country and are able to provide:
1) Practically real time tracking
2) Great CX on returns and disputes

Some auto manufacturers are somehow still living in a bygone era with murky, indefinite waiting periods of 10 lakh+ items and opaque, inefficient customer service.

Isn't this extremely counter intuitive for a consumer industry in the 21st century with an extremely high CLV?

[Predator_ONE]

This is a bloody theft let alone fraudery & misconduct. Though Consumer Forum complaint will be the most apt course of action to get his car fixed, yet the sheer audacity of these criminals outrages & disgusts me to the point that I would be burning to file a criminal Police complaint against these goons and get the ICE Unit replaced with my own bloody money.

The Service Goon in the video is a compulsive stealer. He even contemplates lifting of the helmet of a parked Cop's bike in parked daylight (oh irony!) & then proceeds to offer lengthy justifications how will he cover up his tracks. Casually plotting a possible robbery as he goes about his daily job! This is one off instance where he gets caught red handed! Imagine what a malaise this sociopath will be to other customers who will get/got their cars serviced by this rascal.

And the ordeal doesn't stop here....what's up with the apathetic attitude shown by KIA Motors India? Not addressing their customer's grievances & not fixing this goon asap inspite of being furnished with explicit evidence makes them an accomplice in all this along with the thief and dealership. Truly horrific!

[devilicious]

Back to back negative things coming from Kia stable. I think the reviewers should edit the original review of Kia cars and add the following in "What you won't like" section:

1. Unreliable and unsafe car.
2. Kia's sub-par after-sales service quality is far from that of Maruti, H̶y̶u̶n̶d̶a̶i̶ and Honda.

[anilp]

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.

The ASCs I deal with have been doing this for the past couple of years. This includes Tata, Honda and Hyundai. They have explicitly asked me at every service to remove the dash cams from the cars. This is despite my dash cams not being always on since they are not hard wired with the ignition.

"Reason" given is that they do not allow "valuables" to be kept in the car. Technically, we can't insist and create a scene on this front because videography inside a private property can't be undertaken without the facility's permission anyways.

[Sanjivvohra]

Unbelievable! I remember in the 'good old days', I would insist that I stay and watch my car being serviced (Ford Ikon) and the ASS had no problem with it.
Anything lengthier than a days work, I would take the car back home.
Recently, I tried the same for my Endevour and they refused, saying company policy does not allow it.
While I understand the safety issues if customers roam about the service bays unattended, on the flip side, the ASS should take responsibility for their employee's unethical behaviour

[jazzrockz]

Now let's see what Kia does hereafter. What the company does as a MNC will tell us the values that it deems important. Also what Kia thinks about the Indian customer in general. Not just the poor owner/victim here. Will it shut down the dealership lock stock and barrel of will it just let it fly. I'm waiting to see how this goes down in these modern customer first times.

[rdst_1]

Originally Posted by Sanjivvohra

Unbelievable! I remember in the 'good old days', I would insist that I stay and watch my car being serviced (Ford Ikon) and the ASS had no problem with it.
Anything lengthier than a days work, I would take the car back home.
Recently, I tried the same for my Endevour and they refused, saying company policy does not allow it.
While I understand the safety issues if customers roam about the service bays unattended, on the flip side, the ASS should take responsibility for their employee's unethical behaviour

There was a thread here, where one buyer wanted the dealership to provide a written and notarized agreement of the deal he was getting. He was unsuccessful with one of the Tata dealerships but the next one he went to, did agree to it. He did this so that if they go back on the deal later, he would have some proof to present in the courts. I believe that more and more people should do that and going forward add a clause that we owners will be allowed to stand near the vehicle when it gets serviced. At the selling stage, the management will be more amenable to agree to such requests. I am definitely going to try and do the same when I buy a car next and even see if the companies are willing to provide extra warranty for a charge.

[RaguHolla]

Originally Posted by DeathPig

Apparently, some of the lower levelled members have been lain off, and the GM himself is facing pressure due to this issue.

As per video second replacement is from other customer vehicle. This couldn't have happened without knowledge of GM, and even dealer management. I don't think GM should hold onto his job. I do not see dealer or GM have any sort of ethics. Employees are showing same values that their bosses have. Video also states he would getting a replacement in 3 to 4 weeks. I shudder to think another customer getting cheated. I hope your friend stays with his car till they exchange is complete.

Did Kia contacted your friend directly? If they haven't, I have very little opinion about Kia.

[united]

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. As a result, the GM has been sending him messages daily, pleading with him to get it off the net.

I believe there should be no scope for fraud and deceit in any workplace. The country can only progress when we start holding such people accountable for their actions.

In a country like ours with such a huge population, there is no lack of honest and hard-working human resources who should be able to replace them promptly.

[greenhorn]

This sort of stuff is far more common than people think. It's just that they dont get caught. I've had things like wheelcaps or rear parcel tray go missing, and then when I escalated, a used piece get procured from another customer car in the workshop on front of my eyes.

Similarly my car had several prematurely aged items changed which I'm pretty sure we're not needed,. Like a clutch change at 30k, a headlight with hazed plastic which can only happen if I used 90w bulbs. Plastic trim pieces with manufacture date of years older than my car.


Not justifying it, but this happens, and another reason I'll never go to a dealer for service ever

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by frewper

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.

Originally Posted by Mainali

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.


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

Originally Posted by gkveda

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)

Originally Posted by Predator_ONE

This is a bloody theft let alone fraudery & misconduct. Though Consumer Forum complaint will be the most apt course of action to get his car fixed, yet the sheer audacity of these criminals outrages & disgusts me to the point that I would be burning to file a criminal Police complaint against these goons and get the ICE Unit replaced with my own bloody money.

Originally Posted by rdst_1

There was a thread here, where one buyer wanted the dealership to provide a written and notarized agreement of the deal he was getting...

I agree with Frewper. Note how KIA has acted in every such case. Courts and police, and even the consumer forums are expensive in terms of time and money. You can only get results if you carry a big stick. This customer was able to use social media to shake Kia. Government departments ignore tweets, social media and court directives. It is unlikely that getting the dealer or service center to sign an agreement is going to change anything. How do you enforce your agreement? Even large corporations know how difficult it is to get a fair deal here, many have quit India and the rest avoid India!
I wonder about the top management at Kia - politically connected? Ex-government officials? Charity cases? They are definitely not here to build Kia market share!

[TheHelix0202]

The video has been taken down due to a copyright claim. If any other sources could be provided, please do so. It would shed light to people chancing upon this thread in future.

Edit - Thanks for the alternative links. This is disgusting behavior from KIA.

[puneetakhouri]

Originally Posted by Mainali

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.

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

Software Engineer here to answer your questions.

• Of course we can have an app that will help you have a checklist of items to check before handing over the car for service. But chances are, if at the dealership, you can remember to open this app, more likely you will anyways remember the things in the checklist on your own.
• This will be an app that you open once every 6-12 months to see the checklist so either you will end up deleting it in a few months, or for sure would forget that this exists when you visit the dealer.
• No dealer/company would allow their employees to sign on any consent agreement outside of what they have prepared to prevent any possible liability.
• Also I am not sure about other manufacturers, but the Nexa guys, they have tabs with them and before opening the job card, they have to take a lot of photographs of your car and then take a digital signature. The app gives them the list of areas to click pictures of. And once the job card is ready, you get a link to view it on email as well as your registered phone number.

Although I would like to point out first that the problem faced by OP here cannot be handled by any app because the service guy claimed that the screen broke during AC vent repair once it went into service.
So my point being that it will be more helpful if the manufacturer has these items for checklist with them which is mandatory before opening a job card rather than the customers having it. I am sure that most of them might be having it in some form or the other, but with this entire digital experience with Maruti along with email links to your job card and car photographs make everything documented which you can refer to anytime later.

[Clayton Crasto]

Sad to read about such incidents especially from Kia.
My Polo is about to go in for it's third service at Mody AutoCorp in Goa and they're asking me to keep the car there for 2 days to get an ABS sensor replaced under warranty, stating that they need "warranty approval". I'm already getting jitters wondering what they're going to do to the car and what kind of bill are they going to throw at me as I can hear a sound when I brake hard.

Anyway, I just tried to dig online for some contact details on Kia's top management and I'm sure senior members may have already suggested these. Just ask your friend to send the incident to these IDs:

sandeep.chopra@kiamotorsindia.in - He is their National Sales Manager.

Legalsec@kiamotorsindia.in
Sunggi.kim@kiamotorsindia.in
Kookhyun.shim@kiamotorsindia.in

Hope this works and he gets what he is looking for.
Good luck!