[dicor]

Whenever we read a Mahindra vehicle review on team-bhp, we always see a line. "After sales service, hit or miss.". I was always wondering what this means, but I guess I have witnessed both sides of the coin now.

I am guy from a remote village (nearest any ASS 120 KMs away) and when I was 15, I used to take my M&M Commander and M&M Marshal Royale to the service station and the working process used to be like any public sector bank. The advisor, the accountant all used to talk like civil servant. The mechanics wanted the tip, the washing guy needed 5 or 10 bucks compulsorily to do the work as intended.

Fast forward, I moved to big cities, bought a car and saw a huge change in their improved behavior. I was pleasantly enjoying these services until I moved back to my hometown post 1st lockdown and then I started seeing the difference in customer orientation of Mahindra / Maruti service centers. All my vehicles have been serviced in various states and cities. Right from metros to tier 3 cities. I would say tier 3 cities still need huge improvement in their behavior.

Metro and big cities experience
While the service advisors (SA) are sometimes incompetent and cross sell things like engine de-carb, wiper washing fluid but if you know what to get done and what not to, you can still drive the show. The senior level staff are helpful, escalation works. My experience with big cities workshops was satisfying.

Small towns & Tier 3 towns
The problem with small town (tier 4) workshops is that they are not designed to take big jobs, they are there for basic troubleshooting and scheduled service, but tier 3 town workshops can take bigger jobs but they are awful.

Customer orientation is missing, false billings, customer presence in workshop area and their interaction with mechanicals leads towards a different game. Mechanics are the real bosses here. They don't listen to higher ups. If you tip them, they will replace parts from other vehicles with your vehicle. If you escalate, GM will try to sort out the issue but again SAs and mechanics will be on revenge mode.

I am quoting a few examples here which I have experienced firsthand, and I am documenting this with company wise

Mahindra


Good experiences at
It's not that I am condemning Mahindra, I have fairly good experiences at following dealerships in the past.

Silver Jubilee Motors (Pune), Unnati Motors (Pune), Rajbir Automobiles (Chandigarh), Raj Vehicles (Mohali), Patwa Automotive (Indore), Win-Win automobiles (Bhopal)

Bad Experiences (in order from least frustrating to most frustrating)

Year 2020 - Star Automobiles (Jabalpur), Mahindra XUV5OO
Issue – Mechanic attitude and spare parts scarcity

I reported that the front fender strip needs to be replaced and one of the keys is not working. The front fender was not available readily and post initial investigation I was asked to deposit 5000 in advance, as they will have to order new keys. The cost would be around 18000 and the wait time will be 30 days. I told them this needs to be covered under warranty. Upon which their direction of investigation changed. Now, I was told to leave the key and they will try to fix it. Which I didn’t do. Later that evening, I got a call from one of their mechanics, saying if I get it repaired there, they will charge me 2000, but if I approach him, he will fix it for Rs 300.

Eventually I ordered front fender from Boodmo and installed it on my own.

DIY - Front fender installation XUV5OO

Year 2020 - Star Automobiles (Katni), Mahindra Scorpio
Issue - Spare parts scarcity

I sent my dad’s Scorpio for scheduled service plus some other jobs. At the end of the day, the guys returned the vehicle with only oil and filter changed. Not even a single thing was addressed on the job card. The reason is simple, being a tier 3 service center, they have limited business and they don’t want to jam their inventory. Nothing wrong, but my frustration is that they could have told me about this in the morning. I will now anyways have to send the vehicle to Jabalpur ultimately to increase the number of unusable days and fuel expenses.

Year 2021 - Star Automobiles (Satna), Mahindra XUV5OO
Issue - Frustrating CX, Dirty customer lounge, arrogancy

This one is the second most horrendous experience. Parked my vehicle at sharp 10 AM. Nobody was at the desk until 10:15. Then a lady arrived, she asked me if I had made the appointment, I told her that I made the appointment with WYH (With you Hamesha) app, she was clueless about it. She gave me a card and asked to call this number after 10 minutes. The number belonged to the SA, who appeared within 15 minutes. Asked me about problems and I asked him if the jobs can be pulled from WYH as I have already spent 30 mins a day before documenting everything there. Nevertheless, the work began, all good, the vehicle was promised to deliver at 2 PM but somehow it because 3. That’s fine, acceptable.

Now, SA had to give me the bill and he disappeared. Then a front desk lady appeared and she shouted my name in public like a police officer. English will not do the justice with we accent, so let me write it in Hindi.

She: “Shantanu, Shantanu, koun hai yahan par. (Who is Shantanu here?)

I raised my hand.

She: Chaliye aap, yahan kinare aaiye. (Come-on move, come to the corner)

I followed her.

She: Gmail khol kar, apna phone dijiye. (Open Gmail and give me your phone)

I asked why.

She: Mahindra ko feedback dena hai. (Have to give feedback to Mahindra)

Now, it was my turn to shine.

Me: I will do it on my own. You don’t have to bother about it. Also, what is this nonsense behavior?

She : Are nahin sir waisa nahin hai, actually customer ko problem na ho isliye hum hi de dete hain. (No sir, to save customers from extra work, we do it on their behalf.

Me – What feedback will you give, your SA is missing, he didn’t explain the work to me, he didn’t explain the bill to me, he didn’t adhere to the delivery time, I wasn’t attended at all in the morning. What feedback will you give?

The lady silently left the place after understanding she has messed up with a wrong guy.

Finally, the service advisor showed up, I asked him the reasons for the delay, and he told me that after washing my XUV started signaling that front brake pads are worn out. He asked me I want them to be replaced, which I politely declined as I had to travel back 120 KMs and it was already 5 PM. I asked him to go for a test drive and I didn’t notice any warning. I asked them where the warning was. The over smart mechanic told me that he has unplugged the sensor so it will not bother me. I can drive fearlessly. I firmly asked him to plug it back and not to do such things.

Finally, SA made the bill and I saw that I was charged with two unwanted items, (4 tyre vales and wiper washing liquid). I just paid the bill but recommended that he should not put anything over and above without customer’s consent.

As I sat on the driver's seat, the mechanic came from somewhere, rubbed his head, winked at me and said those 3 magical words, “Aaj shanivar hai” (today is Saturday). I handed him a paper with a photo of the father of the nation and he left the place.

On my way back home, that warning kept piercing through my ears after every few hours.

Note: I later checked my dashcam to exactly figure out when front brake-pad warning surfaced and they were right, it appeared after washing. Though I have driven XUV close to 3000 KMs afterwards, that warning did not appear again.

Year 2022 - Star Automobiles (Satna), Mahindra Scorpio
Issue - Force selling of accessories, false billing and frustrating CX, Babu culture

This is horrendous experience.

So, my driver took the Scorpio to the service center. The SA quoted him 80000 and asked him to first deposit the 50% of money, then the work will be started. My driver called me and explained the situation. I demanded an explanation of the service cost, he had given me a rough breakup of major work, on which, I asked him to not carry out suspension work and remote key work. He also told me that he will do the coating on silencer on which I clearly told him not to carry out any job which in the original job card.

The real pain started in the evening when I was presented with the bill and a lot of things were not covered in the job card and despite that I was charged a hopping 12500.

When I checked the bill, I found the following items which should not be there. 4-wheel valves, wiper washer liquid, a car perfume, upholstery repair charges, maxi care charges.

I called up the service advisor again and asked about these items and he gave me a lame explanation like the silencer coating was Rs 2500 but as I had denied it, but the work was already done, so added another item in the bill for 50% charge and rest 50% he has adjusted against labor charge of scheduled service. According to him, my vehicle has run 1,45,000 KMs, so the applicable band is 1,50,000 but he has put the labor charge of 1,40,000 KMs which is cheaper.

I asked him to waive off those upholstery charges, take the perfume back. But he declined. He said perfume is mandatory by Mahindra and once opened, he can’t take it back. Also, if he rolls back upholstery charges, he will charge me for 1,50,000 service which is Rs 1200 expensive. I was feeling, I am talking to a person who doesn’t have reasoning section enabled in his brain, so I disconnected the call and called up GM service. He patiently listened to my problems, took service advisor on conference, asked him to take back perfume, waive off Maxi care, upholstery repair charges back.

When I received the final bill, I noticed that SA had taken all those things back, quoted me for 1,50,000 KM charge (which was expensive by Rs 400, not 1200), put two more sensors on the bill which he said he forgot to add them earlier). Even after this, my bill was Rs 2000 lighter than the first pre-invoice.

I asked my driver to come back, and I swear to God, Scorpio is never ever going to Star Automobiles again and once XUV5OO is out of extended warranty it will also follow the same league. Mahindra loses business here.

Apparently, Mr. Mahindra has recently tweeted on Bolero customer incident, and I am going to send the link of this thread. Not as a complaint, but as feedback.


In next episode, I will talk about TATA and Maruti service experiences in tier 3 cities.

To be continued...

[GTO]

Thread moved to the Dealerships forum. Will go to our homepage in the coming days .

[shancz]

Excellent thread and unfortunately I can imagine that happening from a T1/T2 perspective, thankfully not T3 yet and not just cars.

I remember visiting the "prime" MSIL dealer's workshop(which I had stopped using, Premsons Motors, Ranchi) for some insurance queries(since the insurance was with them) and the gatekeeper was shouting at owners to park properly, stand in a line to enter the esteemed workshop (where the SAs are waiting for their prey).
My first thought was how can customers put up with such behaviour.
My query was answered by a barely 20(as it appeared) guy with the attitude that would've easily surpassed the highest and mightiest of dictators, understandably because he had the "power" to forward a claim
Either way as expected he was as helpful as his attitude and thankfully I just had to waste 10 mins of my life there(9 mins in parking).
Never again.

In my experience T2/T3 have a higher ratio of dealers belonging to the same group, across brands who by the virtue of being rich and powerful don't care about either the business or the people paying for it, the customers.
This attitude seeps into their staff and results in the work culture we experience because "knowing XYZ" is way more important than doing your job as the reality holds.

[dicor]

Part 2 – The experience of servicing Maruti and TATA in small town

TATA MOTORS

Year 2012- RR Automobiles (Satna), TATA Safari
Issue – Replacement of part from another vehicle

I visited them for Safari schedule service of 60K KMs. The service advisor told me that I will have to bear the laborer charges as I have driven it surplus 1800 KMs. He was right, Safari had clocked 61800 KMs by then. I tried negotiating but then I didn’t force him much.

During check-up they found the coolant tank was cracked and they will have to replace it. An hour later they discovered that it was not in stock. By that time, they had broken it completely during the process of taking it out. The mechanic, being an extremely helpful person, took his CD100 out and rode to a nearby market and bought a low quality aftermarket one without my knowledge.

I came to know about this when he was boasting about it to me thinking, “Sardar shabbasi dega” (I will praise him”). He told me that here I had to pay 700 for this but I got it for only 180.

I at once refused to install it and asked him to get a genuine one. When I visited an hour later, I found that this time it had an original one but did not look new. He told me that it got dirty during the installation. Later, I was told that that was taken out from another Safari which had been lying there for a few weeks.

It was a wake up call and from that day I try to remain in the service bay as much as possible.


Year 2013 - Commercial Automobiles (Jabalpur), TATA Safari
Issue – Arrogancy of GM of Commercial Automobiles

In 2012, my father's TATA Safari's engine was seized due to broken timing chain. The vehicle was sent to Commercial Automobiles, Jabalpur. They simple quoted whopping 2 lakhs to repair the vehicle. As my father told me this, I called up their workshop GM and his behavior was not very welcoming. We couldn't reach to any solution, and I escalated this to TATA and their regional manager also dishonor the warranty, but he was very professional and reasonable in his approach unlike GM who was acting like goon.

Took oath on that very day and will not take TATA vehicle from here, so despite having a strong itch of owning Storme, we didn’t buy it.


MARUTI SUZUKI

Year 2021- Singh Motors (Katni), Suzuki EECO
Issue - Highly disorganized

The EECO was sent for the second service. Despite it’s an Maruti ASS (listed on their service locator) but it’s a multicar workshop. Garage parked with Xylos, Boleros and other brands.

Also, they did not update the service in the Maruti portal which I discovered during 3rd service.

Year 2022- Shubh Motors (Katni), Suzuki EECO
Issue - False billing, inferior quality of work, malpractices, Frustrating CX

The EECO was due for her 3rd service. Unfortunately, the driver caught COVID, and I drove her to the service station. From my past experiences, I don’t expect greetings from guard and SAs anymore. The SA was straight, talking point to point and told me that it will be delivered to me by 2 PM. The jobs which were found were

1. Engine oil and filter change
2. Wheel alignment and balancing
3. Washing
4. Rear door lubrication

I left the van there and went to the city for some work. I called him around 13:30 and asked if I could get it back by 1400 and he said yes, I will get it back.

I reached the service station around 1400 and saw that the vehicle was washed but nobody bothered to wipe it, it looked like just water pressure treatment was given. The interiors still had dust sitting all over. I asked him if I could take the car now and then he told me just oil and filters needed to change. This means, nothing was done in the car even the delivery time was passed. It took another an hour to change the oil and filter and then an hour for wheel alignment. In the mean, someone came and poured burnt engine oil in door channels to lubricate them. I was expecting that they must have a more decent solution for jammed doors.

When I stood there, I saw mechanics driving a puncture Swift from one bay to another bay and filled air right before delivering it to a customer.

Finally, at 5 PM, the pre-invoice was generated, and I realized that wheel balancing was added to the bill, and I raised objection to that. Why are you charging me for something which you have not done? They immediately removed it without asking any questions. I was wondering if my driver would have came, probably he would have paid for this.

When I drove EECO back home, I realized it’s pulling to left, this means they misconfigured the toes.

Escalation

Next day I drafted an email to Maruti stating all the above problems and surprise surprise!!! Within 2 days, I started getting calls from Shubh Motors. Right from GM to service head. The entire staff was on toes, eager to do anything to resolve my issues. They agreed that the petrol expenses were borne by them, a driver picks and drops vehicle back. (Let me remind you, my home is around 50 KMs away from the service station).

I keep getting follow-up calls from them and the only intention is that when Maruti calls me, I must say “EXCELLENT”. And I don’t mind giving 5-star ratings if someone is doing an excellent job.

Conclusions

• All the car manufacturers want to deliver a niche experience to their consumers irrespective of their financial status or geo location.
  
• It’s the local staff’s attitude which plays key roles in delivering those values and it’s missing in small towns.
  
• Intra dealer escalation doesn’t work in small town dealerships as it’s ruled by mechanics.
  
• Escalation to company works in most cases.

[tiagoatrix]

I am from a Tier 3 town from Tamil Nadu.
In this town, there's only sales /service except Maruti, Tata, Hyundai, Mahindra, Toyota,Ford.

Unless one want to travel long distances and go through the hazzle, it's better to stick with the above manufacturers.

Tata has a small service center with 3 service bays, I found their service to be good, SA and mechanics will does the job and they don't try to fleece you.
Body shop was recently opened, can't comment on the work of body shop. Their main branch is about 80km away in vellore with better facilities.

Hyundai's service is silimilar sized, pretty basic workshop, NO BODY SHOP. Hyundai and Mahindra share the workshop as the dealer is same. Have done only routine oil change, found them to be okay, they try to add unwanted value added services.

The worst thing about the small town service centers is that they don't have all required parts in stock, they'd have to bring it from main branch or place order with manufacturer.

Also, their lounges / restroom facilities are non existent.

[Aravind_M92]

I believe I too am entitled to post my opinion here. I live in quite a remote area and would consider it below third tier cities. And I drive a Honda! Also the nearest ASS is about 120 kms away and I need the car on daily basis as it is the only source my transportation. So service station visits, being twice a year means I usually go on day offs. And spend the entire day there! Luckily Honda ASC in Madurai is located in the heart of the City. And spending time isn't difficult. The ASS have got close to me and try and service my vehicle before the lunch timings. Basic services or routine ones get completed. But incase of few replacements like brake pads, disc might take up some time and I do get the vehicle back before 3 pm.
And as for my part, I do have shell Engine oil and Coolant fluids stocked at home and top them up as required.
Recently I had a small endeavour with my car. A 5 liter bottle had emptied out in the rear seat footrest area and the water was trapped between the OEM carpet and the rubber mat. Had to strip the car myself and dried the carpet to and put it back again myself! For three days until the carpet dried out, only the driver seat was fixed in the car. Looked more like a rally ready car
Small accessories like mudguards, rain guards, dash cams and number plates were all purchased online and fit by me.
Few things which I have in my car considered more of a requirement
- Viofo A129 dual channel dash cam. Rural roads, rash driving buses and unpredictable two wheelers and pedestrians. Need to keep check on them!
- Amazon basics front windshield shade. My car is parked in open and sun isn't too kind here. This helps keep the car a little cooler
- TUSA digital air compressor to maintain the tyre pressure
- Puncture repair kit
- Jopasu duster ( we all have it, don't we)
- A mini vaccum cleaner for clearing out dust from within
- For car detailing, I got the entire range from 3M and a small hand held sprayer for the foam. And about 10 microfiber clothes of varying GSM to clean it up
- I always purchase a litre or two of Shell fully synthetic Engine oil and top it up accordingly and same for radiator fluid.
- I do top up the windscreen washer fluid with distilled water and a packet of basic shampoo ( usually a Pantene grey or plain clinic plus sachet)
- For tools, I do have a basic set, A monkey wrench, pliers, No 10 spanner and long handle screw drivers, All time saviour WD 40, zip ties, bumper clips. For basic maintenance I get the job done with these.

[satvik4134]

Originally Posted by dicor

Part 2 – The experience of servicing Maruti and TATA in small town

MARUTI SUZUKI

Year 2021- Singh Motors (Katni), Suzuki EECO
Issue - Highly disorganized
[/list]

My friend had faced a similar issue with his Baleno Delta variant. Actually, what happened was that, my friend had been getting his car serviced from City cars, Maruti Service centre at Singrauli. It is a branch of City cars, Satna. This time due to some body work treatment, his car was required to be sent to Satna as the centre at Singrauli is not equipped for body work. Coming to the story, he booked it and car was picked up by a service centre guy. Since the same guy had picked up and dropped his before, my friend did not care much. Now, after a week, when the promised time was coming up, my friend contacted Singrauli centre for status of car. Now came the shock, the pickup guy had not reported the car at Singrauli, he straight away took the car to Satna, that too, he used it for taking this family to Satna, i.e. a pure personal trip. When my guy confronted the manager and involved the higher ups, then things started to move. This was heights of unethical and unprofessional behaviour. Some credit should go to my friend too who did not care about the status of his car. So much for NEXA premium service. Moreover, maruti prohibits you from going to non NEXA service centres.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by dicor

Year 2021 - Star Automobiles (Satna), Mahindra XUV5OO
Issue - Frustrating CX, Dirty customer lounge, arrogancy

Then a front desk lady appeared and she shouted my name in public like a police officer. English will not do the justice with we accent, so let me write it in Hindi.

........

She: Mahindra ko feedback dena hai. (Have to give feedback to Mahindra)

Not strange at all. Between 2014-2017, Hyundai ASS in Bangalore would ask me to sign the blank feedback form and fill it later. At one instant, the SA had to gall to fill it out himself and asked me to sign it. When I asked how it was already filled, he gave some BS reason that the ink was due to the carbon paper when the previous customer was using the form.

[ruchiragrawal]

I live in a tier III city myself, and the Toyota ASS wanted to charge me 1,75,000 for changing our Fortuner's entire front suspension (shock absorbers, end links, lower control arms amongst other things) just because one bushing from the front right control arm was worn out.

Got the entire front suspension inspected, all front bushings replaced, one end link replaced from an FNG for Rs. 7000 labour, and parts were all bought by me.

The pains of owning something from a German stable are much worse. Sometimes, the FNGs are scared of doing something more intricate than basic oil change/tire and brake overhaul.

The ASS in small towns is indeed true to its name.

[airbus]

Several years back while taking my father's Maruti Omni for service in a small town in upper Assam, service adviser during the test drive gave me an offer to pay him some money directly and he will reduce much more amount in the service/parts bill.

Couple of years back while in Guwahati, my friend had to replace Steering Column Switch in his Ford Figo. He directly spoke to a technician and waited on the road 0.5 km away from the service centre. Technician came with the part, replaced and took cash after giving good discount.

In both these cases, service adviser/technician wanted to make some quick money at the expense of their employer.

[Partho88]

I am equally frustated with Mahindra. Unfortunately I have a Thar CRDE 2011 Model and only engine oil, oil filter, brake pads/liners, clutch/pressure plate and other minor running repair parts are available. I went to the body shop of Sahyadri Motors which is around 35 kms from my home for door/hood beadings and to my surprise the SA told me that you will get this at Opera House, Mumbai but not in a Mahindra service center.

[Rahul Bhalgat]

I have one experience to share from Ahmednagar; you can call it a T2 city.

Company: Maruti Suzuki.
Service centre: Kankariya Automobiles.

In 2016 - 17 was often staying put at Ahmednagar for my project in MIDC (industrial area). So I thought of getting the engine oil and filter changed at this authorised service centre. Their workshop too was located in the industrial area where I was working whole day. Being an authorised centre and being so near to my client's factory, I called them for engine oil / filter change. A lady answered the call. The conversation went as follows:

Me: Madam, I would like to get the engine oil and the filter changed for my SX4. How much will it cost and how long will it take?

She: Sir, how many km have you clocked?

Me: More than 9000 km have been clocked after the last oil change.

She: Sir, I need the odometer reading.

Me: Why do you need it? This is an "on-demand" oil change job. Please confirm the time and cost. The car is out of warranty. I am from Pune and my SX4 is regularly serviced and taken care of at Pune. Anyway, the odometer is approaching 70,000 km. But I need only the oil and filter change right now.

She: No sir, if the car is approaching 70,000 km, we will perform all tasks in our list for 70,000 km. It is compulsory.

Me: So, you won't perform the "on-demand" oil change task? I have no problems with the car and it is under regular inspection and maintenance at my home city, Pune.

She: No sir. We don't do this.

Me: Thank you. And good bye.

My in-laws who reside at Ahmednagar bring the car to Pune for service. This was the case with their Santro Zing and is the case with their Celerio. They say that the jobs are not done well, problems aren't properly resolved but they bill more or less the same amount as Pune service centre.

My experience with Sai Service at Kondhwa in Pune is good all the time. They always did a neat job, service advisors were knowledgeable and polite, never messed up with the work. Took all the pains to understand and clarify my doubts and problems. No scamming, no cheating. Sometimes a 1 or 2 value added services were added without asking me. Their costs were on higher side but they have proper tools, set-up and technicians.

This was for the free services and warranty period. Being an auto enthusiastic and a Team BHP member, I maintained my SX4 (NA Petrol, it is) on my own with a freelancer mechanic working at a known FNG in my neighborhood. He officially works there as a freelancer, sharing revenue with the FNG owner for the space and set-up. He is competant enough and I too never had any problems that needed troubleshooting and diagnostics. Thank you SX4, big thank you Maruti Suzuki. My car has done around 1,37,000 km so far, on stock clutch. Runs like new.

I never waited for anything to fail and always did the small amount of preventive maintenance my petrol NA car needs. Besides the engine oil, oil filter and air filter, this is what I have changed so far:

Spark plugs every 50k.
Ignition coil at 125k.
All four suspension struts at 135k.
Lower arms, stabilizer bushes, link rods at 85k.
Fuel filter at 85k.
The old filter element was still quite clean inside.
Wiper blades and cabin air filter every year.
Coolant flush every 40k.
Gear oil at 85k and 125k.
Headlights at 135k (faded out).
Brake pads roughly at every 50k.
Tyres at 67k and 126k.
Battery at 5 year and 10 years (Amaron, no failure)

Someone who understands the cars can easily maintain a petrol NA car locally with the help of trustable and competant freelancer mechanic or FNG. Preventive maintenance (and good in-built reliability of the car) is the key. It is way cheaper than an authorised service centre besides saving time and possible hassles. Making a job card at authorised service centre takes more time than actually changing the oil and filter with my mechanic. And we have developed a good rapport / relation over the time.

So, for T2 or T3 cities, I will advice going to a competant and trusted mechanic / FNG, develop a relation, look for a trustable person and then trust him. Person-to-person works better than person-to-system in many cases.

[invidious]

This thread is such an eye opener for someone who hasn't lived in the smaller cities / towns of India. I loved the one about the lady at the desk demanding the Gmail app be opened so she can submit the feedback.

So far we've heard from the North, West and South of India. Where are the stories from the East?