[gemithomas]

Good for you man. That dealer saved you around 2L rupees. Of course you might not get the reliability of the toyota but the xylo is a good enough product for the price you pay.

Please dont hesitate to shoot a detailed mail to toyota higher ups. Please do so. Its very important that we let them know how the dealers treat us. What comes out of it shuld not be our concern. Please send a mail to them.

[NutsNBolts]

There is a small shop here in kochi, owned by a Gujarati, selling masala and dry fruits. He does brisk business, why, because first, his products are neatly catalogued even in a small shop and the owner himself attends to each customer despite of having 4-5 salesmen present. Each customer is allowed to "taste" the dry fruit in abundance prior to buying even a small quantity. This, for me, is benchmark of customer service (not eating the dry fruit in the shop, LOL).

In any dealership, if the top honcho is satisfied by allowing other sales people to impersonate him, or not caring to involve himself/herself in the purchase process of a potential/non potential customer, is a bad egg in my book. How many bad eggs we have? I guess the whole poultry farm is full of them.

[H3LIOS]

Thanks for the support guys. I have decided to inform Toyota India about my experience. However there are no email addresses on their website - only query & contact forms, which I think, are basically routed back to the local dealer.

Anyway, I went ahead and filled in the form saying that I had a less-than ideal experience with the dealer and gave them a link to my post here if they wanted to get more details about it.

Will post here if I get any response from them.

Cheers
Teja

[H3LIOS]

Within 10 mins of submitting my comments on their website, a lady calls me from Toyota. The call lasted for about 20 mins while I narrated my experience to her. She apologized like a dozen times for the poor experience I had at the dealership and assured me that the issue will be escalated. She said I would be informed about the steps they take to address the issues I faced.

I am happy at the speed with which Toyota responded to my complaint. I do hope they take some corrective action against the dealer's shady sales tactics.

Cheers
Teja

[Zappo]

How easily the efforts of a team can be nullified by some incompetant bunch of folks! This one is probably a case in point. Toyota tries to put up a customer friendly face to all their efforts. I believe most Japanese have that trait in-built (humble, polite etc.) in their culture. That same thing also rubs in into their corporate culture as well. However, one can do little if the team on the ground is made of a different material. In this case Toyota should actually find out what really compels them to keep such imperfect dealerships that sully their name.

Some time back Honda had similar problems in Hyderabad and in fact in most of AP. They had a single dealership in most cities in AP. And with the Honda brand equity (read easy sales) the dealers were turning out to be one rotten bunch. I had myself seen how high and mighty Sundaram Honda guys used to act when they were the sole dealers here in Hyderabad. However all that changed as Honda listened to the customer feedbacks and introduced a new dealer in Hyderabad. All of a sudden the equation changed. I understand that Sundaram Honda has mellowed down a lot more since then.

This may hold a cue for Toyota and their dealership in Vizag as well.

[Lalvaz]

Good that you walked out of the Toyota showroom. I think you did the right thing in choosing a XYLO. If a company cannot be bothered to treat its customers well, they have no right to be in business.

Just wondering how much business is lost due to bad salesmen. I mean the Innova is a great car and Toyota scores high on sales and service quality, yet it lost a serious customer due to one bad dealer. What a bummer!

[@400Kph]

Good to hear that toyota has taken a notice of the incident.Do update us if they get back with you some kind of action taken on the dealer.I think the dealer is more of to blame instead of the brand itself.well again thats my individual opinion.As you rightly said they did lose one prospective customer due to their arrogance.

[NutsNBolts]

Compare this with Mavneet's experience with Honda. No wonder Toyota is beginning to emerge market leader (in utility section).

[H3LIOS]

Hi All,

A quick update about what happened next.

At around noon I got a call from TKM's regional manager who expressed his surprise and disappointment at the whole incident and was sorry to lose a serious customer. He apologized on behalf of TKM for the poor experience I faced and assured me that an enquiry has already been initiated and proper corrective action would be taken.

Then, in the evening, three senior officers from the dealership - the Dy.G.M, the Sales Manager and the Customer Relations Manager - visited me in my office. They said that this was a one-of-a-kind incident and asked me not to judge the whole dealership based on how a couple of persons behaved at the showroom. They spent about 15 mins with me and explained how they plan to prevent such incidents in future. They hoped that I would not hold it against them and that I would consider Toyota for my future needs.

All-in-all, I am quite satisfied with how TKM responded to my feedback and I believe that they are sincerely trying to improve the customer experience.... as NutsNBolts said, this is much better than how Honda is handling Mavneet's situation.

Cheers
Teja

[kuttapan]

Originally Posted by H3LIOS

Then, in the evening, three senior officers from the dealership - the Dy.G.M, the Sales Manager and the Customer Relations Manager - visited me in my office. They said that this was a one-of-a-kind incident and asked me not to judge the whole dealership based on how a couple of persons behaved at the showroom. They spent about 15 mins with me and explained how they plan to prevent such incidents in future. They hoped that I would not hold it against them and that I would consider Toyota for my future needs.

They came because they had to...Or else, they would have had to face the music. Attitudes of such guys do not change overnight, and if they feel that a particular customer is a pushover, they are going to show this attitude again. One-of-a kind - yah! My foot !

What I haven't understood is, knowing that they will get rapped on their knees if things get escalated, how can sales and service personnel throw attitude around?

[shreeps]

@Kuttapan - the short answer to your question is that its probably due the fact that out of all the prospective customers who face such issues, hardly 1-2 would actually take the trouble and time to complain to the car manufacturer.
Besides, due to the excellent brand image of toyota and customers lining up in droves, their incentives and commissions aren't affected.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by H3LIOS

I am happy at the speed with which Toyota responded to my complaint. I do hope they take some corrective action against the dealer's shady sales tactics.

I can tell you from personal experience that Toyota takes customer feedback seriously. I too received a call in response to a tech query just 45 minutes after I posted it on their site. The lady couuldnt answer my question as she wasnt a technician but at least she tried!

I have been a repeat customer for Toyota and one of the 2 main reasons has been the after sales service and support. Of course Toyota's quality and reliability is the 1st reason.

In fact so satisfied am I with my Toyota purchase and ownership experience, that in my eyes, it would take a LOT for another automobile company to measure up. My experience says Toyota & Maruti top the list when it comes to customer care. Honda dealers are iffy and the Honda (OHC) purchase and ownership experience was less than satisfactory for me.

Cheers!

[contactme27]

A similar bad experience with Harsha Toyota, hyderabad during delivery time. After taking the vehicle, I noticed that insurance receipt amount is less than the paid amount. I was surprised. I called them up and asked him the reason. The foolish sales fellow turned up to with discount coupon for the difference amount. I was irritated and furious with kind of thinking they have about us. Well, I immediately took them to toyota customer support. Soon after the sales manager turns up and request me to come to office for discussion. I went to office and showed them the receipts and the amount paid. Also, told him about the sale person foolish behaviour about giving the discount coupon for the difference amount and you know this guy, so called sales manager told me - He said he will compensate the difference amount by putting the 3M tinted film to my car. I said ok and came back from the office. Later, I called the Toyota customer support and took on them too. Immediate reaction - sales person and sales manager negotiating the case. I just asked them go out off my office and later dealt with them through Toyota customer Service only. Later dealer paid the difference amount back to me. I am not sure whether this is a one off case with Harsha Toyota, but we always need to careful and keep all the copies till the transaction is complete.

I am not sure, but I heard the sales person is dismissed after this transaction.

[aZa]

@helios do write to toyota. Dealers usually resort to all such tactics ... I'm in process of taking a new car and the hyundai dealer is acting in the similar way.


1. Insurance is a BIG THING. The dealers quote is 5K more than the quotes i got online.

2. No Freebies or loyalty bonus

3. Hyundai showroom during the pujas is like big bazaar or something.

4. I have got the loan and insurance done from outside and this has made the salesperson loose all interest. but all i have to do to get his interest back is say something bout cancelling the booking !


Anyway i didn't like the experience of purchasing my third hyundai car. And post delivery i'm gonna write to hyundai.

[H3LIOS]

Originally Posted by shreeps

@Kuttapan - the short answer to your question is that its probably due the fact that out of all the prospective customers who face such issues, hardly 1-2 would actually take the trouble and time to complain to the car manufacturer.

Exactly. I was reluctant to escalate the issue, so I posted here first and the support & prompting by fellow BHPians encouraged me to write to TKM about my experience.

Originally Posted by aZa

4. I have got the loan and insurance done from outside and this has made the salesperson loose all interest.

Yes, IMO this is border-line illegal. They are adding upto 25% to the cost of insurance premium and about 1% to 1.5% to the loan interest rate when financed through the showroom.

Originally Posted by kuttapan

They came because they had to...Or else, they would have had to face the music. Attitudes of such guys do not change overnight, and if they feel that a particular customer is a pushover, they are going to show this attitude again. One-of-a kind - yah! My foot !

I am sure that is the case now. But I think they will have to change sooner or later with increasing competition. And TKM is at least trying -can't say the same for most other car brands in India.