[CircleOfLife]

Thinking seriously of cutting my losses on this crap brand and going to back to my roots with VW. Far better experience than Skoda rubbish.

As much as Skoda and Zac can scream on social media about being premium brand and organization culture change, what ever project they can name it, to be upfront nothing has changed on the ground either with dealers or within the Skoda india.

Following is the reply received for SMP payment via American express cards. Oh yes man on the twitter seems to only respond on presales most of these days, i guess he got quite acquainted of how post sales work with in Skoda india.



Oh yes the above reply is after 10 days of continuous follow up. If Skoda cannot support their customers who want to make full payment for their services then i don't have a iota of faith on these folks to support for any major issues later.

One can survive with bad dealer, bas sales man, bad service technician but not with a Manufacturer with pathetic customer support.

[RohanDheman]

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

Following is the reply received for SMP payment via American express cards. Oh yes man on the twitter seems to only respond on presales most of these days, i guess he got quite acquainted of how post sales work with in Skoda india.

Honestly- looks more to be an issue with Amex than Skoda itself. I have now owned Laura/Octavia for over 10 years so I say this with some confidence that on an after sales perspective, there has been a massive improvement.

I was at Toyota yesterday to pick up a child part for the spare wheel and they too refused Amex payment. Even Skoda Noida had refused payment via Amex earlier.

My 2 cents: Find another way to pay and just enjoy the beautiful car.

Cheers
Rohan

[CircleOfLife]

Originally Posted by RohanDheman

Honestly- looks more to be an issue with Amex than Skoda itself. I have now owned Laura/Octavia for over 10 years so I say this with some confidence that on an after sales perspective, there has been a massive improvement.

I was at Toyota yesterday to pick up a child part for the spare wheel and they too refused Amex payment. Even Skoda Noida had refused payment via Amex earlier.

My 2 cents: Find another way to pay and just enjoy the beautiful car.

Cheers
Rohan

It's again a popular misconception that it is Amex problem. For reference, check this from Skoda website. Whole game of any card issuer in the market is to get as many customer as they can. Business model is on commission and why will they restrict it?



Yes, some dealers do refuse, but within my VW ownership period, apart from once during the early days, I was never denied AmEx payment in Hyderabad at least.

It's rather better to cull a elephant that will bleed you down with substandard service than live with one on long term and deal with some rubbish on YOY basis. This is my personal view.

One can enjoy a vehicle when there is peace of mind, not with one where you never know when this manufacturer will leave you high and dry and you are left to fend for yourselves. In this scenario, one needs to have deep pockets and enough time and effort investment.

When a corporate is presented with a challenge to enhance their customer service experience, one needs to rise to the occasion rather than hide behind it. What is Premium that Skoda is talking about and turning their experience around for customers?

Issue is not about car performance or whether i can pay. Issue is about Skoda response and their general apathy towards customer service. Also, I am not asking Skoda to make this payment available for myself, it benefits other card holders. Why can't a alternate solution be found. Why is it that one can't pay for SMP at a service center? If you can't rise to a challenge then your long term prospects are bleak.

[agambhandari]

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

It's again a popular misconception that it is Amex problem.

One can enjoy a vehicle when there is peace of mind not with one where you never know when this manufacturer will leave you high and dry and left to fend for yourselves. These scenario one needs to have deep pockets and enough time and effort investment.

When a corporate is presented with challenge to enhance their customer service experience then one needs to rise to the occasion rather than hide behind it. What is Premium that Skoda is talking about and turning their experience around for customers?

Don't confuse accepting Amex and all cards as a premium feature. I have been denied acceptance of Amex cards at multiple VW dealers and talking of "premium ", have also heard BMW dealers charging 2 percent extra on credit card payments

While I do understand the reasons behind doing all this (only people that accept the cards daily will know it), it is not worth wasting time over. Pay via debit/upi/ whatever the hell they will accept and move on.

[Shome]

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

Thinking seriously of cutting my losses on this crap brand and going to back to my roots with VW. Far better experience than Skoda rubbish.

Are you planning to sell you car? Not trolling, genuine question

[K.grg]

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

It's again a popular misconception that it is Amex problem.

Why is that one can't pay for SMP at service center?

Buddy, not trolling you, but I guess you can use any other payment mode than focussing on this trivial (if I may say so) issue. Apparently, Skoda take payment directly as they need to pay Service Centres after your regular services.

Just enjoy your drive, mate, of this wonderful car.

[CircleOfLife]

Originally Posted by Shome

Are you planning to sell you car? Not trolling, genuine question

Haven’t completely made up my mind & will be based on upcoming Tiguan pricing. Neither I am going to book heavy loss on it. As my boss puts across Rather deal with known devil than unknown. That’s your best chance.

Travel plans for next year are shaping up and the vehicle is used mostly by family and I wouldn’t want them to have inconvenience after paying 30 big ones. Nor do I believe in sab chaltha hein attitude. May be comes from a fact that even at work we care and go to length to address issues of even small group of customers even though how trivial it may be. Yes expecting same from big German conglomerate is too much to ask for. Let them show same attitude in any developed nation and see how they get booted out . For me it is as good as denying a service.

By doing all this I am not going to personally gain or loose anything. Zac or skoda or even the dealership isn’t going to do or give a hoot about it. I am sharing my experience with a premium manufacturer for folks to understand as Long you are on a rose bed everything is cozy but once it starts shaking that is when you fall on the ground hard. As long your are ready and prepared to absorb the impact you are good to go. Those are my 2 cents.

Isn’t it the ethos of the forum to share good, bad, ugly in first place. I understand & respect that everyone has a different benchmark for the same.

[M00M]

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

Haven’t completely made up my mind & will be based on upcoming Tiguan pricing. Neither I am going to book heavy loss on it. As my boss puts across Rather deal with known devil than unknown. That’s your best chance.

Hi, From my experience of using AMEX for the last 20 years I will tell you that while acceptance has increased but many, many dont accept it, infact even their "partners" dont accept or have the machines working or try to scoot by, by refusing to accept it because they have to pay higher charges on AMEX. Fun fact: Last trip to USA few years ago many did not accept AMEX either.

If you like your car which you just bought, I would say forget all this, just enjoy the car.

Regarding comparisons with other brands: trust me, I am learning Toyota / Honda / Lexus / MB / BMW / Hyundai all in the same boat. They all can claim to provide a proper sales / service experience but they all have a long way to go and this is from personal experiences. So once again, if you like your car, just enjoy it.

[Shome]

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

Haven’t completely made up my mind & will be based on upcoming Tiguan pricing. Neither I am going to book heavy loss on it. As my boss puts across Rather deal with known devil than unknown. That’s your best chance.

Please let me know if you ever plan to sell it. I'm genuinely interested.

[CircleOfLife]

Originally Posted by agambhandari

Don't confuse accepting Amex and all cards as a premium feature.

Go to a 5 star hotel and then if they say we don’t accept cards & cash only does it feel premium? If a organisation cares about over all customer experience they try to make it seamless from end to end perspective. When one wants to create that experience that folks come and lap their product then small details matter.

Not confused here, but as you made your point according to you what is considered premium at Skoda? It doesn’t have a brand value that it has 20 years back, new generation India products are epitome of cost cutting. They are so scared that Kushaq hasn’t been even sponsored for GNCAP. Folks around world are talking about crypto we are stuck with Amex payment issues.

For 10 days I was conveyed different messages, we are working on it and then tune changes to we will get back to you after that changes to expected famed skoda reply what ever is available either make use of it or leave it

[EV NXT]

Amex have a data security issue as a result of which RBI have curtailed their operations. The crux of the issue was that Amex was sending data on Indian customers abroad.

Check out these links on some of the issues between RBI and Amex:

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-i...ate/index.html

https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/m.eco...w/84839973.cms

A lot of merchants have stopped accepting Amex because of the above issue.

It may be better to discontinue use of the card than the car.

[sunikkat]

Lol, the review is turning out to be of AMEX than Octavia’s.
To join the bandwagon, this should be least of the worries and reason for selling a car. I have seen many premium merchants with sticker Amex is welcomed but when I try paying they don’t accept.

On a serious note, ŠKODA service has improved leaps and bounds and in my experience of 6 years, atleast in Bangalore, I never had any issues - either with the car or service Center’s.
Now that my car is outside of warranty and with the mods I want to start using more premium spares and products than OEM through a reliable FNG, but the excellent service that I have received from service Center’s till now is restricting me.

[CircleOfLife]

Originally Posted by EV NXT

Amex have a data security issue as a result of which RBI have curtailed their operations. The crux of the issue was that Amex was sending data on Indian customers abroad.

Check out these links on some of the issues between RBI and Amex:

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-i...ate/index.html

https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/m.eco...w/84839973.cms

A lot of merchants have stopped accepting Amex because of the above ssue.

It may be better to discontinue use of the card than the car.

Amex hasn’t been issuing new cards according to RBI directions until issue is resolved. Before the government mandate that servers need to be in India most the service providers had their DC outside including master card & visa. It’s was more economical then. Why store data on India is a debate for another day and for different forum. There is no need to discontinue card as long as data is protected. Most corporate have been and still using Amex. My experience has been other way around. Adoption has increased. Question why merchants don’t accept AMex is only due to commissions charges. I even bought Diwali crackers this year on Amex from neighbor hood cracker depot, Ratandeep stores accept Amex above Rs 100 transactions. HP petrol pumps accept Amex.

In terms of gateway Bill desk accepts Amex where as Payu doesn’t.

Instead of sharing generic examples of Amex acceptance to make it more specific to Skoda I have made 60k booking amount payment at Skoda showroom via the same card. Offer is still valid upto 31/12/2021. So bottom line is they do accept at Skoda.

Whole point is not specific to Amex acceptance but Skoda reluctance to solve issues, rise to challenges and their culture of leaving customers with unpleasant experience. These are not my words during media interviews we are premium brand and we are going though paradigm shift in our organisation and customer will have better experience than before. Our brand position is above Indian & Korean manufacturer.

[EV NXT]

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

Skoda reluctance to solve issues, rise to challenges and their culture of leaving customers with unpleasant experience.

The issue mentioned is just one of several that Amex is facing. There are others on account of RBI restricting repetitive payments which Amex does not comply with either.

These restrictions leads to a lot of Amex payments being declined as a result of which merchants are cagey about dealing with Amex.

And while you may have not been facing difficulties so far, going forward difficulties will increase on the use of Amex cards.

Skoda dealers or agents may or may not be aware of these issues. For that matter, neither would most merchants until they start facing difficulties.

If you’ve got a grouse against Skoda service that makes you want to sell the car, go ahead, but do it for the right reasons.

[GTO]

Mod Note: Moving the Skoda-AmEx discussion to a new thread.