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16th September 2021, 12:08 | #1 |
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| Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process The 4 year service of my Mom's Ignis AMT was pending for a couple of months. In April, Popular Motors called me up to say that there was a service camp for the festival of Vishu (14th April) with a 30% discount on labour. Below is a short summary of that disaster - I booked an appointment for the 14th and confirmed that I want pick and drop from my residence. - On the 14th, I received the confirmation SMS from Popular Motors with the details of the service advisor and time of appointment. - No driver turned up. - I called up Popular Motors numbers and the calls were automatically disconnected. - I called the service advisor whose details were on the SMS and he told me that it is a holiday for them. - On the 15th, Popular Motors helpdesk team calls me up to ask how come no job card was raised on the 14th ! Then they tell me that the SVC was open and took cars in. - The Popular Motors SVC calls later and tells me that they had a holiday on the 14th. Im saving up my 2 emojis for this post, here is one of them I sent a mail to the Nexa customer care and the relationship manager from Popular Motors who had dealt with me earlier, said that they had only given a few service slots on the 14th, that too only for customers to come in and drop their own cars. No pick up facility was available on the 14th since it was a partial holiday. God knows what goes on in Popular Motors and who to believe. Anyways, they said that they would offer the same 30% discount whenever the car came for the next service. Last week I took the Ignis out and found that the wonky steering was very unpredictable. While taking low speed full right lock turns under the Cochin Metro, the Ignis would either a. do its usual mild return to center action, which I have gotten adjusted to by now, or b. it would refuse to do any return to center which meant that if I took my hands off the steering wheel, it would go round in a circle infinitely, until it ran out of petrol! Sometimes, it would do a. and sometimes it would do b. I could not figure out in which circumstances it would behave in what manner. I found this unpredictability to be quite dangerous. Has anyone else faced this issue with their Ignis? My Mom's car is 4 years old and has not even done 9 K kms. So its not wear and tear induced for sure. Since the service was pending, I booked a service appointment with Popular Motors. The complaints that I mentioned while handing over to the car were 1. Driver seat is squeaking. This was there in the last service and the staff at Popular Motors obviously didnt test drive the car before or after the service at that time. Or else they would have heard it immediately and done something about it. 2. Unpredictable steering behaviour while taking slow speed u turns. 3. Left power window not always working properly. The number of interactions that Maruti / Nexa expects you to have, especially with their new (1.5 month old digital) processes is over the top. This is change for the sake of change. Step 1 : 07:50 AM : I hand over car to the driver before 08:00 AM. Step 2 : 08:10 AM: I get a call from someone at the SVC as soon as it reaches there. "Saar, calling to update you that the car has reached the SVC. There are lots of scratches. Shall we go ahead and claim insurance etc?". I flatly denied all this. We just want the car to be serviced and returned on the same day. Step 3 : 08:40 AM : I get a second call from someone at the SVC to inform me that the car has reached the SVC. Step 4 : 11:00 AM : I finally get a call from the service advisor. I tell him all the issues which I have already told the driver. I clearly tell him that the steering is an issue and needs to be identified by their team and resolved. We go through all the work that has to happen in detail, and the SA patiently explains all the line items. I say that I wont pay for any additional work that they might pile on. Since this is the 4 year / 40 k kms service, a lot of things have to be replaced. I get a tentative bill amount of Rs 8,000, which was fine by me. The SA tells me that now, I am going to get an SMS from Maruti and then I have to log onto their page and enter the problems myself. Only then can the work start and the job card be opened! Now there are good and bad elements to this. The good is obviously that all customer complaints get recorded to Maruti / Nexa. The SAs cannot overlook, ignore, brush off customer complaints. The bad is that this is time consuming and it has created a process dependency that is ridiculous. Personally, I dont think that a majority of customers are going to sit and waste time in entering this manually, after they have already explained all the issues to the SA. Especially if they are working professionals. Anyways, its a Maurti / Nexa mandated process that has made double work for the SA and the customers. For the average customer, this is likely to be a completely useless decision by Maruti / Nexa. The only good news is that going forward, there will likely be the option to have live feed of your car being serviced, visible to customers. I logged onto the page and wasnt sure if it was a one step process or a two step process. Also, I saw some option for voice notes, which the SA didnt tell me about. To test how useful the Maruti / Nexa system is, I entered dummy values to see if there was second step. It just accepts the submission from the first page. I tried doing it a second time, with all the details entered but this time around, it didnt allow me to submit. So basically, it is one and done. Later, I found that the SA can enter the details himself, but the customer has to trigger the process. So if you are short on time, just enter ABC and click submit instead of going through the whole process. And if you have a litany of complaints and you think that the SA is not going to take care of the work, make it a point to enter everything in detail. Step 5 : I receive multiple SMS's from Maruti with links. One of them will ask you to install the Maruti Suzuki app. Step 6 : 03:30 PM : The SA wants me to look at the SMSs from Maruti but he doesnt know which one specifically. Finally we get the right one and I have to look at all the listed parts and labour. The list is comprehensive and matches what we discussed in the morning. There are pictures of the car as well. I have to approve these and only then can the work complete. When I ask about the steering wheel issue, I am told that a technician and his manager are out driving the car. They couldnt find the unpredictable behaviour in the morning. They did a diagnostics check (paid) and would do some lubrication of the steering column IIRC. But this was all trial and error because they didnt even know what they were trying to fix. First line was my dummy entry 2, 3, and 4 were entered by the SA after I triggered the process by submitting the dummy entry I got them to apply the committed 30% discount on labour on the bill. The SA said he will update me on the findings regarding the steering. Step 7 : 04:00 PM onwards : I try calling the SA over the next 2 hours to get an update on the steering issue and to know when the car will be delivered. He didnt pick up my calls or he cut them. He didnt have the courtesy to call back either. This is the premium Nexa service experience in action! Step 8 : 06:00 PM : I call up the customer relationship manager to ask what is happening. The SA is put on the phone and he tells me some cock and bull story about his phone not having charge and how he has just kept it for charging. He admits that he saw my calls but didnt return them. Step 8 : 06:10 PM : I get an update that the car will be sent soon. Step 9 : 06:30 PM : I ask the driver to wait while I check the car for the steering issue. Immediately notice that the glass on the dials is not cleaned. There is dust inside the car. The glasses are washed but wiped with a wet dirty cloth and so the residual marks are clearly visible. The driver also finds all these issues. Disappointed, I inform the SA about this and he asks if we can give the car back to them tomorrow for cleaning. Anyways, I pay the bill and tip the driver. Step 10 : 06:50 PM : I update the service manager about these issues, how the SA was not available on the phone, the cumbersome process, how dirty the car was etc. He wanted to send a team to my house immediately to clean the car but I had to step out. Anyways, at least he apologized for the oversight and has agreed to rectify it at a later date at my convenience. I still never got an answer from the SA about the unpredictable steering. God knows if the Popular Motors team has the capability to identify problems that the customers are spelling out. I dont think they do. The second emoji was saved up for everything between the last one and this point in the post But the driver potentially told me the answer to the unpredictable steering. As per what was told to him, the car needs to be turned at above 20 kmph for some return to center action to happen. Below that, it wont return to center. I need to test his theory, but at least what he said might have some truth to it, as compared to my SA who didnt have a clue and said that there is no issue with the car. Overall, this was another disappointing experience with Popular Motors and Nexa. I have never found anything premium about the Nexa brand or service. That continues in 2021. Now that the warranty is over, there is no incentive to continue giving the car to Popular Motors for service. And with this cumbersome new process of holding up work and the job cards until the customer enters details online, the push to get this Ignis serviced at FNGs is only stronger. As for the Ignis itself, to me, this is the least favourite car that our family has owned (from Fiat / Ford / Maruti / Hyundai / Honda / Tata). I abhor the arcade game steering, the bottom of the barrel Ecopia tires and the AMT gearbox. But it serves its purpose of ferrying my Mom to work and back daily. So she is happy with it but even she completely dislikes the service experience. Last edited by Aditya : 16th September 2021 at 18:21. Reason: As requested |
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16th September 2021, 15:06 | #2 | |
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| Re: 4 year service + Maruti's cumbersome new service process Quote:
We have a separate thread for this issue. Last edited by amvj : 16th September 2021 at 15:28. | |
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17th September 2021, 07:52 | #3 |
Team-BHP Support | Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process Thanks for sharing, Neil! Moving your post out to a new thread. A new thread means 100X the views & 100X the visibility in search engines, including Google. Will add to homepage later this week . @ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility. Thank you! |
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17th September 2021, 11:42 | #4 | |
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| Re: 4 year service + Maruti's cumbersome new service process While the new Maruti / Nexa digital process is totally excessive and will be a major hassle for customers to deal with, I do feel bad for the service advisors (SAs). They have no option but to strictly adhere to this mandated process. Imagine having 5 to 10 cars per day and then spending most of your time on the phone, asking customers to fill forms, open SMSs, check web pages, click approve, dealing with internal processes, asking technicians to wait until the customer can be reached and approves stuff on the pages etc. It is honestly worse for the SAs than it is for customers. Having sold "digitization" IT solutions for a while, this feels like the absolute wrong way to do it. Customers are inconvenienced. Maruti / Nexa employees are massively inconvenienced. The only beneficiary of this regressive digital process is the central command at Maruti / Nexa. Now they will have a ton of data at their disposal and they can track everything down to the minutest detail. Big Brother is watching over the shoulders of its employees! Quote:
What has changed is that now, I find there is no return to center action at all, in some circumstances. Otherwise, there is the mild return to center action. The unpredictability is what is concerning me. | |
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17th September 2021, 12:10 | #5 |
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| Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process Neil, boss, I'm not judging, but share the same feeling as you do & how I learnt to overcome the hurdles... DD Motors, Dehradun I had broken the oil sump of my 1.6, car had to be towed over 160 Km & then the oil sump had to be bought from Haldwani (another 100 odd Km). Fortunately insurance had covered most jobs, but for towing I had to pay 5K out of 10K quoted earlier & for some consumables. Seva Automotive, Nasik One of the engine bed bolt had broken all of a sudden (thanks to Jai MH roads). Despite their norms on replacing some panel inside & replacing the bolt, which ideally takes about 2-3 days, on my request, they just replaced the bolt & asked me to replace the inner part from Pune due to which we had a minor deterrent to our touring plan otherwise the entire trip would've ended in an unpleasant memory Khivraj Nexa, Chennai Had been a pleasing experience from day 1, so nothing to complain there. Offlate, on recommendation from IKE, I had given the last service to Popular Nexa & it was really a good experience. All I did was give them like 3 weeks (they asked only a week's time). Had ample buffer to complete their task before the trip & I've nothing but good experience from them. Hopefully I'll give my next service also to them. I too had pathetic experience with 1 or 2 Nexa (Popular Nexa Porur trying to overcharge), however, I learnt through hard way that... 1. Give ample time for ASC 2. I don't dictate terms or rules (or atleast sound like one) but just tell them these are my expectation while keeping a tab on my spends 3. Avoid festival times, crowded hours, discounts, campaigns etc. I used to say "isn't this the way the job is supposed to be carrying out", which was indeed true; but instead, if I stop quoting all these things, life would be much easier. Also in reference to LeoShashi's post, I'm thinking of experimenting Cat-A MASS to see if I've any better experience https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...workshops.html (An insight into Maruti's After-sales network: Different types of workshops) |
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17th September 2021, 12:27 | #6 |
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| Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process Steering not returning to the center is the new normal in Maruti cars. I have Baleno and its the same in my car as well, just a little better post steering column change. The steering does not center if the speed is slow but does so if speed is a bit more ( >15 KMPH ), however then as well it does not center completely. Coming to your problem with you being asked to enter problems faced on the new Maruti page: My car went for hood replacement last month. After giving my car to service station I received messages whenever the SA added something to the parts list to be changed. At the end I got a call from him asking me to click on the link in the message and approve the parts to be changed, then only they will send the request to the Insurance company for approval. Don't know why you were asked to enter all the issues you are facing in it, ideally this is to be done by the SA only and you approve. Last edited by Agarwal_Aayush : 17th September 2021 at 12:28. Reason: written is instead of if |
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17th September 2021, 19:45 | #7 | ||
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| Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process Quote:
Quote:
Last edited by ike : 17th September 2021 at 19:47. | ||
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17th September 2021, 20:49 | #8 |
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| Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process
Khivraj is no saint boss!! They're super lethargic people, existing in the business to just make money. So they do all tactics from unnecessary service, attempting for additional services etc., I usually get a good service because I've a good rapport with the service manager. If I don't see him around, my car doesn't go there, simple as that. |
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17th September 2021, 23:08 | #9 |
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| Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process I have a August manufactured Ignis. The steering wheel of my car returns to center automatically. The may have fixed it in the latest models. |
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19th September 2021, 09:45 | #10 |
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| Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process While your steering issue seems somewhat related to what my brother described on his Baleno he also had a sticky feeling steering which sort of felt like it gets stuck mildly to the center before releasing when you turn the steering, he had to visit the dealerships a couple of times but ultimately in an out of warranty car, Maruti replaced his steering for free as a goodwill gesture. Do try to change your service center and talk in person about this very issue separately and not during service where most of the issues get ignored, you might just get a proper response. |
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19th September 2021, 10:34 | #11 |
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| Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process So sorry for your plight. I had these experiences and assumed I'm asking for more from them and accepted their work. Didn't know we can discuss a service bill inflation with a screenshot and et al. 1st 8k for 40k service for a Maruti is too high IMHO. 2nd Shocked about the new normal of new Maruti's steering not returning to original position. Glad steered my dear ones away from Maruti who are super happy with butter smooth Honda's CVT. 3rd Popular Vadapalani is known to fleece. I had a horrible day when my Ritz went there for a service for 80k and was charged 16k. No work was done and inflated bill is due to interior clean up. Fought tooth and nail with SA only to be handed over few freebies - felt so humiliated. 4th Khivaraj Anna Nagar was honest most of the time and did decent work (agreed they are no saint) Someone suggesting to talk differently, approach differently - nothing worked guys. Glad I moved out of Chennai and no longer dealing with Chennai's Maruti's ASC. I'm ready to pay - but not ready to get fleeced. Inflated bills and not a single job done. I don't know how these guys exist in the system at all. |
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19th September 2021, 12:04 | #12 |
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| Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process Steering not self centering is normal for Ignis/Wagon R. I was completely taken aback initially with my Wagon R but gotten used to it now. If you drive multiple cars then this becomes more prominent. I only drive my Wagon R now and have come to terms with it. Maruti service specially at MASS is a joke. They are putting a price premium for service that they do not provide properly now. Good thing is spares are available easily and their cars usually do not break down. |
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19th September 2021, 12:36 | #13 | |||||
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| Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process I had a gone through your post before I went for the 30k/36 month service for our Baleno Alpha CVT yesterday. I was mentally prepared for some inconvenience as we had a holiday on Friday. Surprisingly, I felt less of a harassment than I can feel you going through, probably due to me lowering expectations from Maruti after reading your post. Quote:
Quote:
And why do I not ask the service guys to change it under warranty? Well, in 2019, upon my insistence, they opened up the arm-rest console to tighten up the loose hand-brake cables and it still hasn't fit perfectly ever since. Quote:
I did stay with the car for the entire duration, as I do with all my cars due to my suspicion and lack of trust. Despite this, they added approximately 1k extra for brake caliper greasing and labor for AC filter which was already a part of PMS. I simply refused to pay, firmly stating that if I am forced, you will see the repercussions in the rating and by mail. After this, these were simply removed. Total time spent? 4 hours from 9am-1pm Actual maintenance work? 1 hour from 11am-12noon. Washing car? 2 hours from 9am-11am Billing? 1 hour again from 12noon-1pm I mentioned this in the remark of my feedback. Quote:
Also, as I observed yesterday, they do not do 80% of the prescribed jobs in the scheduled job list in the owner's manual. Despite my insistence, no tightening of bolts of the engine or inspecting many things was done yesterday. I felt Tata gave me more attention in addition to less charges than Maruti. Quote:
Only if Honda had given me a better experience or at least a TD for the Jazz CVT. Last edited by Researcher : 19th September 2021 at 12:38. | |||||
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19th September 2021, 13:24 | #14 | |
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| Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process Quote:
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19th September 2021, 13:58 | #15 |
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| Re: Maruti-Nexa's cumbersome digital car-service process The Premium experience of NEXA seems more like a Painful one for customers. Not sure what is the reasoning behind it. Some things have been bugging me after reading through this thread : 1. The process seems to be dependent on customer action(putting in the values in the link). Some situations that might occur : - What if the customer doesn't have access to the internet or is not well versed with it to open a link and enter ? - What if the driver takes the car and he carries only a feature phone and the owner isn't involved at all ? My point is that their system is accessible and editable by their SA/staff so they can do it all themselves on their number in such cases. Slightly OT but I once found someone else's number added to my Dad's MSA(not NEXA) account during a renewal. I am guessing that it was of someone at the dealership to avoid getting bad ratings(had arguments with them before I stopped going there). Got it replaced with mine and haven't wasted a single second after that with those idiots. 2. On the improperly named Maruti Suzuki Rewards app, I can see all my details and service history but only the summary, it doesn't contain the detailed bill/invoice of the services. Do you guys in the NEXA app see all the details after your service is done ? Last edited by shancz : 19th September 2021 at 14:01. Reason: added opl |
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