[NT56]

Skoda is launching several exciting products this year in the Indian market. While their products have always been good, many stay away because of their bad service reputation.

In their 2.0 strategy for the Indian market, Skoda is trying to improve their service and customer experience. It would be great to know our members' perception of Skoda's service in recent years.

Since Skoda has a very small market share it is very difficult to find authentic references for their service. Please vote if you have recent (older than 3 years would be too old) first hand experience of Skoda's service. Please do not vote based on heresay.

This can really help prospective Skoda buyers.

[VKumar]

Quite a bit of ownership experience and having dealt with them for over 7 years and a few lac kms. Here is what I have concluded:

Warranty repairs: Electronics are normally done immediately (Max 2-3 days), mechanical ones take 4-5 days. Genuine cases are ALWAYS repaired. If there is no suspicion, and the service history is clear, they will even give you a new engine against your 70-80k kms done example.

Suspicious cases: Once they get suspicious, things turn bad. Especially if you are a customer who has never had good relationship with service people. Most probably you will have to pay.

Goodwill Warranty: Laura had AC compressor replaced at over 1 lac kms, just under goodwilll, and that too was approved within hours. A lot depends on your terms with service people. In fact if the entire service history is clean, they will make sure that any major engine, transmission, or turbo repair doesn't cause a huge hole on the pocket of customer. But they have a bad habit, they mark all the observations in your service history, and a 'clean' service record for them means 'all observations addressed and repaired immediately'. This I have seen as the main reason of people not getting their goodwill warranty support or even the support on extended warranties in high mileage cars.

Work Quality: Best in class, without any doubt. The likes of Maruti, Hyundai etc can't even come close to them. If there is a problem, it won't be just solved, it will be solved mostly to the OEM level finesse. But that's their way of inflating the bills too!

Pro-activeness: Their people are always in search for reasons to charge you and increasing the length of job card. In this quest, at times they really pin point the stuff which probably only a suspicious Mother-in-law can - I hope you understand the level of depth I am talking about. I remember they telling me a long list every time and half of them used to be the stuff which didn't require immediate replacement at all. But yes, a few times, they actually caught some stuff which probably would have caused catastrophe if not replaced right then.

Labour and spare Prices: Doesn't matter what they claim, their spares are mostly 1.5-2X higher priced than competition. Labour charges and spare prices are still on a higher side. And don't know why, the spares which need frequent replacement, are mostly priced high, like sat 2X or even 3X of the competing vehicles. I guess it's their strategy of keeping the service station income high.

Overall Satisfaction: 8/10
They have always kept me happy, for us, service cost is not as much annoying as multiple service station visits are. So, I have the rule "take the money but get it done right, and get it done right in ONE GO"; this is where they never disappointed me. And VW is now keeping me even happier, my VW service station (VW Gurugram) is just wonderful.

[Karvel]

Been using the Octavia for 4 years now, done 54k kms. 4 services and 2 warranty replacements done. Good experience so far.

Service experience: had taken the service pack during vehicle purchase. Hence no charges, as of now, paid during the service. Service is quick and takes about 4 hours - 2 for the actual work on the floor and 2 for washing drying and billing. This has been consistent across the 4 services done so far. All parts changed as per service sequence and like @Vkumar mentioned, every measurement is taken and noted, including tyre tread depth, break pad status, steering mounted control buttons status, wiper check, boot light, to name a few. I have not seen these being checked in MS/Hyundai/Honda (own/owned these vehicles) service time. These help on both ways - asking for the warranty claims as well as can be used by Skoda to deny.

One item which I noticed was that ATF change has been included in the service schedule now and I think it was not there earlier. (Anyone, please correct me if I am wrong). This was automatically included in the existing service pack and was changed without any charges.

Washing and cleaning is a bit touch and go. While generally good, the use of some polish on the dash and interiors is not upto the mark. I have not allowed them to touch the interiors during these visit other than vaccumming. Had done the 3M interior cleaning package once after the service at the ASS and was good and cost effecrive too.

Note : I do stay with the car during the service & post cleaning. Irrespective of the service quality, 4-5 hrs in a year is okay to spend to get that mental comfort and satisfaction. Also helps in chatting with the technician and SA to build the rappo and understand few things, clear doubts.

Would rate the experience as 9/10.

Warranty Experience: Has been above expectation experience. With all the forum discussions on the time delay in getting parts as well as claim rejection and high cost, I was sceptical when plonking a 25 big number on this car.

3 changes done so far - 3rd year - AC compressor went kaput and was changed after checking without much ado. And part was readily available and done in a day's time. 4th year - Steering mounted control switches module became loose and started rattling. Again, was checked and compared to previous reports and was changed without any further questions. This took about 2 hrs and was done along with the fourth service visit. 2nd year - Battery change - the infamous skoda battery drain happened at 20th month. While vehicle was not stranded kind of situation, could see the flicker of lights during starting of the vehicle, hence took the vehicle to be checked. Battery turned out to the culprit. Some haggling happened for some 15 mins, but then was approved as goodwill change with minimum fee of Rs 1.8k, including tax, though SA was highlighting that the warranty of the battery which comes with the vehicle is only 1 year. And this happened over a Sunday and the team reached out to the Skoda Area manager to get the approval over phone and did not delay or ask me come later. Good and cordial relationship with the SA and Technicians help a lot in these scenarios.

Would rate the experience as 10/10. (Keeping fingers crossed :cold sweat )

Purchased Extended Warranty and Additional 2 years Service pack. Both these experiences were good. In and out in 15 mins including payment.

Overall a good ownership experience so far. Hope this continues.

Sharing my ownership experience where I had covered these in detail.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-...ml#post4386414

[ramki.grandhi]

I've mixed experiences with Skoda's service.

Previously I used to visit Vinayak skoda's service center in bangalore. I lost lot of money to them over the years, as their only agenda is to change every possible spare part in the car and steal as much as they can. They never bothered about status of an issue after changing parts. For example, in 2013 I've complained them that there was some brake noise in some particular case like when I applied brake in inclined position. They advised to change brake pads, rotors, brake discs. I reluctantly agreed, they charged around 28k including general service. Guess what, problem still existed even after changing everything. And I inspected previous parts, it was pretty clear that they were not worn out, almost in brand new condition as car was run just 18k. SA don't have a clue and bluntly said, they cannot do anything and asked me to leave. Eventually Vinayak skoda's license was cancelled by Skoda India.

After many such experiences, I've moved to TAFE from 2014 onwards. I clearly told them why I moved to TAFE. In TAFE, SAs are knowledgeable, responsive and service bill was relatively less. Car started running very smooth, also they voluntarily fixed few niggles. They clearly advise when to change any part and why it wasn't repairable. Once I ran into fuel injector issue and they handled it really well but bill was high. When I enquired for discounts, they asked me to write to skoda asking for discount on final bill as I'm a old customer. Before I could write, they pushed from their side as well and I ended up with some discounts on final bill. Even today, my car runs pretty smooth and like new one, all because of TAFE's service.

So, overall experience isn't top notch but I'm happy with TAFE's service and appreciate Skoda's decision to cancel Vinayak's license.

[pk1972]

Very timely thread - I am keen on the face lifted Kodiaq whenever it comes to India and service / spares availability was the only area I wanted more info on. Thank you Members for sharing your experience

[car_guy1998]

Now, as part of Skoda's 2.0 strategy in the Indian market, Skoda is opening 2 new dealerships in Hyderabad named PPS Motors (they are opening 2 new dealerships at Kondapur and Kukatpally in Hyderabad) and Mody Skoda (the same guy, who owns Ford and VW) at LB Nagar! The service center of PPS Motors has been set up near Gachibowli while Mody Skoda will be set up at Uppal!

And, PPS Motors and Mody Skoda will be a good alternative for the people, who are frustrated with Mahavir Skoda, which is the only dealership of Skoda in Hyderabad!

And, another dealer has been set up at Chennai, named Kun Skoda!

[livelyyoungman]

Start of Kun Skoda had been on cards for quite a while now - thanks to the Pandemic, it got pushed. I am still not sure on how things would change just because Skoda 2.0 policy has done away with their one dealer per city. Hope all these argue well for us as customers.

[kraken]

I voted I own a Skoda and I am dissatisfied with their service

I own a Skoda Rapid 1.5 TDI DSG.
Wanted a great automatic experience, loved the DSG. I knew DSG had it's issues and nevertheless I got one because it was the best automatic I'd driven hands down. But the first thing I did after I had taken the delivery was to find owners groups and try to find an SA whom I could strike a good relation with. And I did. But still had 1 very horrendous service experience when I had an ABS failure. The RSA did not despatch a flatbed that day itself. If I had not been near my house I don't know what I could've done ! The SA very promptly replaced them under warranty. But I think Skoda needs to do things right from the top. Dealerships have been very co operative, even put in warranty claim for my dead battery and got me a new one. It's the wait for warranty approval from HQ that took a day.

[aadya]

I got a taste of Skoda customer service somewhere in mid January 2021. I visited my hometown 40 km near Chennai for Pongal festival. On the eve of my return, at about 7 p.m. I thought of filling the fuel but the vehicle refused to start. There was a brief time the previous night I forgot to switch off the headlight when I was having a phone call inside the car due to network issue.

The car is a 2 year old MPI automatic Rapid. I was sure that the trouble is with the battery. Being a major festival I was not sure whether I can get a neighborhood battery person on a Sunday night. I thought of trying Skoda roadside assistance as I was planning to start early morning 4 a.m, next day. I called up the roadside assistance helpline which was probably at that party with some European sounding name.

After the routine IVR stuff a lady picked up the call. After she took down the details of the car she insisted on me using GPS to give the location, even though, I clearly informed her the network is poor in our area. And also have given the location and direction very clearly. It was some WhatsApp stuff where we should tag the location and send to them, for them to send the roadside assistance. After 45 minutes we were able to send the location.

Then she informed me it is possible to to send that roadside assistance De only the next morning 9:00 a.m. Accepting defeat I rang up my uncle who runs truck service in the locality. In 30 minutes time we got a battery vendor who checked the battery and confirmed our suspicion. He offered to change it for about 5K. Happy to get the problem sorted I checked the user manual and confirmed the battery configuration and fixed the new battery.

After a month I remembered that my ticket would be open for RSA and thought of closing it so that it won't create a trouble in the next service. I rang up the customer care. A happy go customer executive attended the call and told me that they never keep the ticket open, as I didn't call back and tell them that I still require roadside assistance.

[vinu_h]

PEACE OF MIND

Skoda India has been working on offering more attractive after-sales support and maintenance costs. Skoda has been working around to decrease its maintenance costs under the Peace of Mind campaign. As per the latest changes, the engine oil prices for gasoline-powered cars are reduced by 32 per cent. Skoda has also altered the prices of its spare parts and revised the part change intervals that have lowered the maintenance costs by 21 per cent

ARTICLE

[vinu_h]

Good times for Skoda. Looks like a mass wedding. Goes without saying that other brands do a lot more than 50, but, 50 Skoda's in a line up does give a good feeling.

YouTube

[aadya]

Surprised to hear a call from SKODA offering two yearly service packages for existing owners for Rs.12K(Petrol rapid) and Rs.18K(Diesel rapid). The caller was from PPS skoda and promised to do a good job. She sounded amiable and aware of the general perception of Skoda service.

I have attached the service package details here and can contact 7995333027 for follow up and details.

Note : I am a Rapid owner and do not have any other relation with SKODA.

[varkey]

I'm considering purchasing a Skoda vehicle (Kushaq), and just wanted to understand strictly from a financial perspective, would owning and maintaining a Skoda vehicle be more expensive than a vehicle from the same segment from say Volkswagen, Hyundai, MG, Kia, Mahindra. I fully intend to take the Skoda extended warranty and maintenance packages if at all I decide to go ahead with Skoda.

Also, coming to the maintenance packages, would it make financial sense to opt for Enhanced or Comprehensive? I'd probably run around 8000 km a year, so in the 4 years only around 30000-35000 kms.



https://www.skoda-auto.co.in/aid/supercare-campaign