[manojmathewcm]

Hello BHPians,

Glad to be part of the group.
This is my first post. I would like to share my experience of buying my first car - TATA Nexon, and request for some advice.

Research and Decision:

After extensive research (that is what i call what i did) comparing features v/s price of cars and variants across different segments, I decided to go for the Nexon petrol. I had also decided to go for company car lease.
Visited a few dealerships and did a quick test drive at a couple of them. There were no official discounts available on the petrol variant.
I mentioned that I would be using car lease even before I could discuss any offers. I found that except in one dealership, the sales persons were not aware of company car leasing.
The first dealership said I would need to pay 25K ahead, and it will be returned once the leasing company made the payment. The discussion was with the TL and did not find it very friendly.
The other dealerships did not ask for any advance amount like the first one, and also offerend some free accessories.

c_spec_comparison.xlsx

Decided to go with TAFE Access (Anna Salai, Chennai) and booked the car mid of december 2020. It took them a few days give the proforma invoice. I forwarded it to the lease team and it was approved.
I was also offered two free accessories (door visors and front parking sensors) apart from the standard mud flaps and floor mats.
There was a long wait period. I wasn't going anywhere with covid spreading, and was in no hurry. So I didn't bother to follow up about the delivery date.

Price hike:

I received a call from the sales person around end of jan / start of feb to inform about a price hike. I had already read about it and knew it wouldn't apply to me as my booking was done in december. I conveyed the same to the sales person and asked to confirm and get back.
A couple of weeks later the leasing company (Orix) calls me and starts questioning me if I was informed about the price hike, is there any information on the expected delivery date. The person from Orix was complaining that they were not getting any updates from TAFE and that they got to know about the price hike through another dealership.
Orix said that if there is a price hike then the entire approval process has to be repeated through the payroll team, and hence they needed a confirmation and a revised proforma invoice. I put Orix and Tafe on a conference call and asked them to sort it out.
Tafe later got back to say that the price hike is not applicable but I would still need to pay extra for the RTO/registration charges as it is based on the new price.

Car allotted and RC forms:

This is where my problems started.
I received a call in march informing that a car was allotted. A few days later a call from the sales person asking for my AADHAAR. Then I was asked to visit the showroom to sign forms for the RTO.
They had filled in my father's name wrong. When I asked from where they got it they said AADHAAR, but for some reason (may be my full name is long) my AADHAAR card does not display my father's name.
They assumed the last part in the name field was my father's name. I asked them to fix it, but they said it was not possible as payment was done. They assured that they will fix it before I receive my RC.

Delivery:

More problems.
Then came my delivery date. It was 11th of march. I'm not one to celebrate a lot. My plan for the day was simple, take the car, go to church and a good lunch with family at home.
I called the previous day and mentioned that I would like the delivery first thing in the morning by 9:30 am (expecting some delay, I thought i might have my car by at least 10 or 10:30), but the sales person said it was too early and said I could come by 10 am.
Reached the showroom around 10:30 am to avoid waiting, but the car was not ready. After about an hour I called the sales person and was told that they were preparing the car.
After another half hour I walked in to their workshop/delivery area to find they were still wiping the exterior of the car. May be they had just started. I just stayed there hoping that would speed up thing.
After waiting for total 2 hours, they said the car was ready and I was taken to sign some docs for the delivery and was handed over the owners manual/key/service center contacts etc.

They had not fitted the accessories promised. I was told they were out of stock and will contact me once they receive new stocks.

They gave a demo of the controls. I checked with the sales person on how much petrol would be available, and was told 8 LITRES.
The sales person also gave a complement that she had not encountered a customer with so much patience. Little did I know they were going to test the limits.
Left the showroom, and headed home after a small prayer at the church.

Barely 5kms from the showroom the car stopped. The tank was dry. 8 LITRES = 5 Kms - that is some great mileage.
Stranded in the middle of the road in the burning Chennai summer, had to wait for a friend to get some petrol.
Finally reached home well past lunch time. A good day ruined.

Two days later I sent an email to the GM of TAFE detailing my experience. He replied back with an apology and assured to take a look at my concerns(RC , accessories).

RC card:

RC was expected to take 40 days and I think it did arrive on time.
Sales person called me to collect the RC card from the showroom. I requested them to send a photo of the same and also checked online for the details. Father's name was still wrong.
They couldn't fix it and had to submit a request to change the name. It was going to take 15 days to get the corrected RC.

In the mean time I was also trying to follow up on the accessories. I got an initial response and then nothing after. So I went back to my email to the GM. This was the only place I was getting any response.
Finally the accessories arrived and I was informed on april 20. I let them know that due to the pandemic I would prefer getting the accessories together with my corrected RC since it was going to take just 15 days.

UNENDING EXPERIENCE:

From then on, I have been given ETAs of 15 days / 20 days / 10 days. Multiple follow ups done.
In the mean time I have also provided other ID proofs - PAN, Driving license.

Frustrated with the delay I visited the showroom on 21st july (Ramzan). I thought I will get some status on the RC and also get the accessories.
To my surprise, the sales person says her colleague taking care of RC needs a letter from Orix.
Neither was I informed about it, nor did she know the purpose of getting a letter from Orix when the vehicle is in my name. I asked to meet the person who asked for the letter, but he was not available in office.
I Requested her to call him and turn on the speaker. He tells me there is no letter needed from Orix, but he needed a letter from me stating that a change was needed in the RC. This just exposed the lack of communication, not just to the customer, but even within the teams.
If I had not gone to the showroom, God knows how many more days it would have taken for this information to reach me.

What about the accessories ? Bad luck, both technicians who fit the accessories were on leave on account of ramzon. Sales person said she would send the technician home the next day to get the accessories fitted.
Did it happen ? No prizes for guessing. It didn't happen on the next day. After a few follow ups, it eventually happened in september.

The last I heard from TAFE is on sept 4th, the GM blaming me for providing ID proofs with wrong details.
He also mentioned that they need an affidavit prepared by me and the correction has to be approved by Transport Commisioner for final updation in NIC database.
I replied back saying it was wrong to blame me for the mistake at their end, and I was ready to take the RC as is with the wrong name if they can show me a copy of any of my ID proof with the Father's name same as what they filled in.

It is 3 weeks since, and no reply.
The email thread is now 40+ emails long. I have no idea what is the status.

TATA customer care:

Hoping TATA may be able to help with expediting something, I tried to CC the TATA motors customer care to my emails, but I didn't hear anything. Then I moved them to the 'To' list and got a response a couple of emails later.
In one of the replies, they added their Territory Sales Manager to the email and also provided his contact details. This was done on july 21st.
Since I was seeing no progress from TAFE I tried to contact the Territory Sales Manager. He did recognize me and said he knew about the RC issue (though he ignored / didn't acknowledge all the other issues). He tried to convince me that it was not a dealership issue and it was the RTO that is causing the delay.
I requested him to atleast get me the details of the application done by TAFE for the correction. Application/acknowledgement number, Date of submission - something. He agreed to speak to TAFE to share the details.
Since I didn't get anything I contacted him again and that was the last time he answered my call.

REQUEST FOR ADVICE / SUGGESTIONS:

Other than trusting the dealership to fix the mistake and signing the RTO forms I don't think I have done anything wrong.

How do I proceed ?
Does it really take months to correct the father's name in the RC ?

Thank you for taking time to go through my ordeal.

[saurabh2711]

Originally Posted by manojmathewcm

Hello BHPians,

Glad to be part of the group.
This is my first post. I would like to share my experience of buying my first car - TATA Nexon, and request for some advice.

Welcome to the forum Manoj.

Sad to read your ordeal - however it is no different to most of the other Tata owners on this forum or even outside. Collate them & submit as a thesis for PhD on "how to destroy a great product & brand". You will get a doctorate straight away. Most of the TATA dealers are not sincere at all.

Coming to your RC update part - Have you tried these services on online (VAHAN portal) for TN-Chennai. I assume if these services are available online for you - you should opt for that in-stead. I see a section which reads "RC Particulars", that should hopefully solve your purpose.


Enjoy your car,
Wishing you lots of Happy miles ahead.

[lsjey]

Welcome to the forum manojmathewcm!

I'd bought both my Tata cars Vista and Manza from TAFE. In short, their service and sales both suck big time. I stopped servicing from them and moved to OMR Checkpoint and VST. Both were excellent, but now they are not with Tata.

Here are my suggestions to you:

1. You, or someone whom you trust, should oversee fitment of accessories. Otherwise, you'll be very disappointed.
2. Never take your car for service to TAFE. They will take one day for 1st service. And to top it off, deliver your car dirty to rub salt in your wound.
3. Don't take your car to service with SIFA also. They are not good as well.
4. Do ask around in the forum for a decent service centre and take your car there.

After more than a decade of Tatas with TAFE I'm sure that I'll never try this combo again!

Regards,
lsjey

[gkveda]

The dealership has given the car exactly as per committed date. There may be 5-6 hours of delay here and there. So what? Has the car not been delivered on same day? This is outstanding achievement by Tata dealer. Most of the times, they have not been able to deliver the car even with months of delay.

Coming to fuel in the tank, you are really lucky to observe that the car has traveled few 5 kms away and then stranded in the middle of road just due to lack of fuel. The dealership is really efficient even here. We have cases where newly delivered car has never left dealership because of starting trouble and other issues. Also, in several instances, newly delivered cars have been towed directly to service centers instead of temples. So is the dealer not extraordinary?

Regarding accessories non-availability during delivery, there are plenty of instances where car was delivered with critical parts missing. This was identified by owners next day when car started giving trouble. If it is just that accessories were missed, then, again, consider the car was lucky and dealer is really honest

Now coming to wrong entry of father's name in RC Book. The dealer at least has mentioned owner name correctly. I am happy that the dealer did not mention his own name and registered car in his name and put a theft case against the funding man(read real owner: OP)

Seriously, Tatas have to mutatively clean up their dealership and engage sincere service oriented guys as new dealers. Their name and fame are spoilt by dealers to extent of 50-60% and quality of cars remaining percentage. God bless customers.

[rpmmachine]

Tata has a very low standard for customer support/satisfaction, that's why the Good cars like Harrier and Safari couldn't get the sales number they deserve.
Due to poor customer support, I have dropped my plans to buy Safari and not only me even a few friends of mine too. Tata lost 5 customers here and many more after that Gagan's Safari fraud happened in Ludhiana which is viral over the internet as well as safari's review thread.

Better tweet them and send them emails. There is no straight solution for this. You need to follow and track the Showroom guys from time to time to get everything done.

[manojmathewcm]

Originally Posted by saurabh2711

Welcome to the forum Manoj.

Coming to your RC update part - Have you tried these services on online (VAHAN portal) for TN-Chennai. I assume if these services are available online for you - you should opt for that in-stead. I see a section which reads "RC Particulars", that should hopefully solve your purpose.
.

Thank you Saurabh. I didn't check the vahan portal because as soon as the RC arrived at the dealership, they agreed to apply for the modification. I didn't expect it to get dragged so long. I will check the options you mentioned.

[manojmathewcm]

Originally Posted by lsjey

Welcome to the forum manojmathewcm!

Here are my suggestions to you:

Thank you lsjey for the suggestions.

Originally Posted by gkveda

Now coming to wrong entry of father's name in RC Book. The dealer at least has mentioned owner name correctly. I am happy that the dealer did not mention his own name and registered car in his name and put a theft case against the funding man(read real owner: OP)

Yes. I'm definitely VERY lucky

[manojmathewcm]

Update: I got my new RC with proper details.