A weird experience with DSC Hyundai Chennai. My friend had booked a Santro (GLS) from DSC Hyundai in the month of Dec 2007. He had got a good Rs.30k discount and al that and had selected Onyx Blue color. He was not very keen on any of the accessories or any fancy stuff. But his wife was keen on getting a good number for the car. So they had paid Rs.5k to select a number from a range (4000-5000) which was available then. They had asked the sales person for the series that is running and he had replied that it is TN 07 AQ. Based on that they had given 3 options to this guy and asked them to get any one of them.
The car got registered on a Thursday and we went there to pick it up on Christmas day. In between my friend also didn’t check with him regarding the number and that guy also didn’t confirm. When we were in the showroom to pick up the car he asked if my friend got to know the number. He said that he wasn’t informed. For this the sales person said “it was the third number from your list but I don’t remember now. Will check now”. To my friend’s shock the number was something like TN 07 AR xxxx. The last 4 digits were from the list they gave but the problem was instead of AQ the number had AR. They had calculated it earlier and wanted to have a number that sums up to 7 (by adding number of equivalent of T, N, 0, 7, A, Q and the remaining 4 numbers). Now because the value of R is 1 more than Q the total sum became 8!
It was a big misunderstanding. The sales person had told the running series as requested thinking that the car will get registered in a particular RTO but finally based on address it was to be done with a different RTO office. So the series changed from AQ to AR. But he didn’t bother to inform them. On my friends’ part they gave 3 number choices all written as TN 07 AQ <choice1> <choice2> <choice 3>. One thing they didn’t do is stress the importance of the entire set of number starting from TN and logic they use to arrive at the total. This sales guy didn’t understand the logic and just got the last 4 digits from the list given to him.
My friends couldn’t really convince themselves to accept the car with that number as their belief was hurt. It became a difficult thing to accept for them. So they had a discussion with the GM and after a while he said that they will take the car back and give a new car. The GMs points were: - If they get 2007 model car with the same color, model they will give it with all the promised accessories.
- If they get 2007 model car with a different model or color he will leave it to the choice of my friend to accept it or not. If they get a lower variant they will provide the higher end features like body color bumpers, internally adjustable mirrors etc.
- But if they don’t get a 2007 model and get a 2008 model only then they can’t give the same Rs.30k discount.
He agreed that they will sell the car and take the loss. But the questions remained were what will happen to the road tax, insurance and more importantly the loan taken. My friend was OK with getting a new car and was willing to work out the other complexities like loan. He was waiting until 02-Jan-2008 to hear from them. But seems on 03-Jan-2008 they said they will try to change the number of the car by registering again. I am not sure whether this is possible legally as the RTO denied on Day 1 saying it was not possible. Even if they do some shady thing whether there will be problems in the future etc. Now they are waiting to hear more from the GM. As always the customer has to make so many calls to get this resolved.
We went to pick up the car and had to come back empty handed. The sales guy was somewhat less meticulous from the beginning as per my friend and did a careless mistake like this. He could have done a better job by listening carefully. My friends also getting their first car didn't have the experience in dealing with the sales guys.
Fellow bhp-ians please throw some light on what better options are available in this situation. Should he accept the change in number (by whatever means) or he can ask for refund and go to a different dealer?
Last edited by LandCruiser : 5th January 2008 at 17:58.
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