[Rocketscience]

Writing this thread after getting fed up dealing with Rana Motors Gurgaon (Sector 29) and the booking experience is the worst of all the Brands and showrooms I have dealt with since the last 12 years. (Not counting dad's decades of experiences here)
The brands include Hyundai (Twice at different showrooms), Honda and even Chevrolet.

First of all I booked the car in the first Sunday after its launch and they didn't even had its price list (other showrooms did have it, people were sending quotations on whatsapp) and offered a printout of brochure only when I said I want to book the car, earlier they had refused that even.

I paid the booking amount despite wanting the car in September to secure my slot and have a smooth experience but couldn't decide the variant on the spot because I had no information on prices or anything there so they tentatively booked VXi and told me they will make the changes to whichever variant I want and I can inform them in a day or so and to their credit handed me booking docket and all the slips there, they promised to send me the Demo car at my home for test drive once it is available in a day or 2.

Went home and within hours called them that I have decided on LXI in Red colour.

They did the needful and sent me a receipt for LXi but in White. When I pointed that out, they eventually sent me the correct receipt. Remember this point as it will come to bite me later.

I asked them for Test drive after 15 days (which they had promised will be sent to my home in a day or two without me having to call them) and they made some excuse, after ten days I again asked, they after many follow ups said they only have Automatic, I said fine send that, after days of follow ups from my side, despite swallowing my ego every time to reach out to them, they kept pushing it to next day. (Called and Texted them dozens of time for such a trivial task)
Got irritated and annoyed one day and stopped calling/texting them. They didn't bother sending the car either.

Fast forward to a month, we got confused as to if Brezza is the right choice, I was anyways annoyed at Rana motors so we went to take a look at the competition, I have written that experience in a separate thread, after visiting other brands we once again visited Rana Motors to compare it with the other cars we had just checked out and met my SA and told him that since he failed to send me the test drive car, I myself have come to do that.

He was very apologetic and treated us well, to their credit, they did that all the time, in all interactions but their actions didn't match their good behaviour.

Took the AT model's test drive and wife loved it.
We asked the SA about changing the booking and he discouraged us, he even said we should change it to VXi or ZXi manual if we want but not AT. We found that strange but ignored it.

At the end we decided to go for Brezza only but now in VXi AT.

We went to the showroom, they took our signature and changed it on their file and told us that they will sent the confirmation via whatsapp later.

They failed to do that, that entire day.

Called him next day, he said he will send me in 5 minutes, called after 5 hours, then after 7 hours and they did not send it that day either.

Called again the next day, they said they are training for the new Alto but will send me in half an hour, again called him after 4 hours, then 8 hours. They didn't send it that day again!

At evening their final verdict was the guy who knows the ID Password has not come, I mean is this a Kiryana shop with 2 employees, such lame excuses for reasons best known to them!

It was getting on my nerves now, they promised to send it today before 12 noon anyhow.

They did not.

I decided to pay them a visit, they made us wait for half an hour and then handed me the receipt finally.
I lost it and lashed out at him for that entire experience, there were other customers listening as well and 2 of them were for booking some car.
He instead pointed the fingers at me that I have changed my booking 3 times.
What!
Which 3 times?
He was counting VXI to LXI White the first time! It was on them, they told me to take a day and decide and tell them the variant since they had no brochure or rate list.

I had told them LXI Red and I wrote it on whatsapp so there should be no miscommunication, they still booked White.
So he is counting changing the colour from White to Red the second change.

Then finally, the change to Automatic is being counted as the third change, other dealers would have been happy as to get a customer who is not pushing for quick delivery, who is changing to ₹3.75 Lakhs more expensive variant, but not Rana Motors.

Needless to say, it left a bitter taste in my mouth and I don't know how the delivery experience will be now, or if they will deliver it in September or push it further with me having to run after them once again.

Car buying experience has generally taken a huge nose dive since I purchased my Creta in 2017 and everyone acts as if they are doing us a favor by spending 2 minutes to speak with us (Rana motors thankfully at least has polite speaking SAs) and that was our experience with visiting every other brand recently barring Tata Motors (despite being the most crowded they attended us really well), but Rana Motors is doing that with the customer who is not just interested to buy but has booked the car too.

[Gypsian]

It's the personnel at showroom who sometimes screw up the reputation of dealership and also the respective brand. A single employee can sometimes dwindle the perception about a particular dealership. Any dealership must understand customer is the king and not otherwise.
If Maruti Suzuki does not take care of these aspects, its going to further descend their status in India.

[ajayc123]

My experience has been that the attention of SA may vary by the model and variant, so they may push you towards specific model or variant, as incentives vary for each combination.

Just talk to the same SA for a low selling top model, and they may behave differently.

Please don't take it too seriously, and focus on model of your choice. You may just interact with the sales staff, before and maybe a couple of weeks after the delivery.

You may hold two different bookings with two dealers. Usually, I have seen that bigger dealer's sales staff are a bit more arrogant than smaller dealers.

[Rocketscience]

Originally Posted by Gypsian

It's the personnel at showroom who sometimes screw up the reputation of dealership and also the respective brand. A single employee can sometimes dwindle the perception about a particular dealership. Any dealership must understand customer is the king and not otherwise.
If Maruti Suzuki does not take care of these aspects, its going to further descend their status in India.

Originally Posted by ajayc123

My experience has been that the attention of SA may vary by the model and variant, so they may push you towards specific model or variant, as incentives vary for each combination.

Just talk to the same SA for a low selling top model, and they may behave differently.

Well, I feel it is more about the culture of the place and the management, most showrooms in Delhi NCR used to be much tight with their high standards even 20 years ago when I used to visit them with my dad as a kid and that remained till about 2012 or so, I have seen a sharp decline on the quality of staff, discipline, their interest and o my god the attitude!
If I were 20% as self respecting or slightly egoistic as I was 5 years ago, I don't think I would be able to deal with 99% of them at all, they are downright rude to your face and just don't want to sell their cars at all, it is typical case of success getting in the heads of small minds, they are getting loads of customers without even trying, they are apparently assuming it is because of some special quality they possess as individuals or something and not because of the hardwork and value brands which they are supposed to serve built through the years.

There are few gem of people though, I met the best one at Tata like I mentioned earlier
That day they were delivering 40 cars on same day and there was a huge line of cars ready to be delivered, I had seen such spectacular sight only once earlier in my life.
Then naturally there was huge rush in the showroom and so many potential buyers too, but that guy never hurried, was calm, patient, interested, offered test drive and did whatever can be expected from him, without making us feel like he was doing a favor on us. Too bad, I hated Nexon, but don't want to take this off topic.

[Rocketscience]

Update
The disappointment continues

I called them up upon insistence from family that Shraad are starting from Sept 10 so from that till 25 they won't let me take the delivery so I asked Rana Motors if the car can be arranged before the 10th?

Now this is a simple enough request with just a yes or no answer, but trust them to screw this up as well.

The SA said sure, the car will come next week itself (this week)
I said, well great when do we begin the formalities?
He said lets start them from Monday.
I asked him to connect me with loan department so that I can arrange all the required documents by Monday.
Not so easy, it took 4 calls and numerous ignored whatsapp texts to get him to do that.

The HDFC guy did tell me the list of documents but advised me to confirm the delivery date from them.

Now the typical Rana motors experience begins.
SA told me he will let me know the status of stock from factory on Monday, well fine.

Since Monday all my texts, calls have gone unanswered, even the HDFC loan guy like the SA won't answer his phone or reply to any texts.

I mean even if the car is not available, a simple No could have sufficed? You can't expect such basic courtesy from Rana Motors SAs, even their senior (team leader of someone) ignores my texts completely.

If it were up to me I will cancel my booking with immediate effect from them because of their lethargic and cold attitude, this really is the worst I have ever been treated in any car showroom post booking but who knows all the Maruti dealerships in Gurgaon might have the same attitude because the only difference in our decades of buying cars is we bought all of them from Delhi, and although Gurgaon is just on outskirts of that, is this the reason for such poor and horrendous experience?

Even the mediocre Yamaha dealer from Gurgaon from whom I purchased my bike was much more proactive and responsive at least till the bike was delivered, I had at that point of time thought maybe all bike or Yamaha dealers are mediocre because of low sales or something but Maruti of all brands is even worse than them.

[Agarwal_Aayush]

Better would be to try another dealer and share your experience with Maruti via email to: contact at maruti dot co dot in. They take the customer feedback very seriously.

Sales Advisors attitude is the same generally. They will give you delivery dates and stop receiving your calls when the given delivery date is around the corner.

These guys were very proactive, accommodating and willing to go the extra mile, atleast in our case when we were in the market for a new car. May be this market scenario has made some impact in the way these SA's do the dealing.

[Rocketscience]

Originally Posted by Agarwal_Aayush

Better would be to try another dealer and share your experience with Maruti via email to: contact at maruti dot co dot in. They take the customer feedback very seriously....

I did that (Email) and that has made a huge dent in the attitude, they all apologised and got many calls from different teams and they even wanted to come to my home to say sorry (which I refused), I hope the dealing should go smoothly from now onwards.

And you are right, SAs used to be way better and all my buying experiences have been positive with all sorts of brands, I don't know what happened suddenly.

[Agarwal_Aayush]

Originally Posted by Rocketscience

I did that (Email) and that has made a huge dent in the attitude, they all apologised and got many calls from different teams and they even wanted to come to my home to say sorry (which I refused), I hope the dealing should go smoothly from now onwards.

And you are right, SAs used to be way better and all my buying experiences have been positive with all sorts of brands, I don't know what happened suddenly.

Glad to hear that they mended their behavior. Hopefully things have flown smoothly for your now after this.
Its a sellers market these days, that's what has changed.

[rayjaycleoful]

What would be the suggested Maruti dealership in Gurgaon?
Visited Rana - good experience but seems they only keep customer delivery vehicles on display and everyone is demonstrated things in those...