Team-BHP - CARNATION Multibrand Car Service - Initial review
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-   -   CARNATION Multibrand Car Service - Initial review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-dealerships/72295-carnation-multibrand-car-service-initial-review.html)

CARNATION Multibrand Car Service - Initial review-231220092788.jpg

When Jagdish Khattar first spilt the beans on this initiative, it would surely have come as a welcome relief to car owners who following expiry of car warranties were left at either the mercy of the dealers who charged a bomb for service in some cases, or else faced the hassle of locating a reliable mechanic who could be entrusted with looking after their cars. Even in the case of the latter, the issue of procuring spares was always a matter of concern. What a customer really needed was affordable service costs, without the the hassle of procuring spares which some companies refused to sell over the counter.

Enter the era of multi brand car service centers, with Bosch leading the roost, and then followed by the entry of Jagdish Khattar's initiative - Carnation.

CARNATION Multibrand Car Service - Initial review-231220092789.jpg

As per their website and hoardings they have tieups with Castrol, Bridgestone, 3M, JK Tyres DC Design,etc. DC Design is also involved in this venture, and thereby extends the reach of the company beyond their previously limited clientele. They also have tieups with various insurance companies, and with the database buildup, one can expect to hear from them around the time the insurance comes up for renewal.

From what i remember, the following services are available at Carnation outlets :
* Service and checkup
* Insurance renewal
* Car detailing (3M)
* Accessories
* Modifications - DC design
* Preowned cars

I had noticed the structure as well as the sprawling premises of the venture in Bangalore located on the Outer Ring Road, near Marathalli and decided to check out the place when i had time, although there were no specific complaints with my car. Made my way to their gate, and enquired about the services on offer wherein i was informed that they were offerring a free 25 point checkup as well as car wash. Since my car was in need of wash and a free wash would save me the manual effort, i decided to try it out.

Parked at the parking bay which was clearly marked out, and was then escorted by a hostess to a service advisor who coincidentally happened to be somone i knew, from his time at Lathangi Ford. It was a pleasant surprise to meet him there, and made me more comfortable since there was someone i had already dealt with earlier. I was explained that this was to be a free checkup and wash, and was then escorted to the service bay where the car was hoisted and then checked as per their checklist.

CARNATION Multibrand Car Service - Initial review-231220092787.jpg

I had the choice to wait in the customer lounge following this, while the car awaited its turn for the wash. The customer lounge was well equipped with comfortable sofas as well as a large LCD showing the EPL highlights.

I was informed that the wash would take time, and since i was in no hurry, decided to wait and check out the premises.

CARNATION Multibrand Car Service - Initial review-231220092786.jpg

My car was washed and delivered in about 2 hours since there were quite a few cars which had turned up, and the result was awesome! They'd done a really good job and i was beaming as much as the car was gleaming.

My car has its service which is due in January, and being out of warranty, i am quite inclined to try out this place for the service. They assured me that they will have steady stock of spares, and they have tieups and arrangements in place for the same, While i am not sure about how this business model would work with manufacturers who refuse OTC sales, i was also informed that they would price the spares competitively. The service and support is expected to be fully operational by mid-Jan.

Hoardings screamed "Customer is King", and so "We'll never give you a chance to PULL us up" etc. As for this, only time will tell.. but i sincerely wish them the very best!

Related thread : Carnation - Bangalore Avoid!

Waaaah ,free car wash . :D . If they are transparent (access to service bay,parts,manuals) ,clean and honest , this model should work . I like the slogan "Customer is king " .

But this should not turn to something below after some time .
"Customer is king ,King never bargains " . :D

Hi benbsb29,
Nice first hand review. I hope they will provide good A.S.S for brands currently having un-satisfactory A.S.S level.

Do update this thread once you get your car serviced by Carnation.

Good start; hope they continue the good work with honest pricing quality of service. This type of service will be a new thing in Indian market.

Manufacturers with not so good *** should have a tie up with such outlets to improve there reach & visibility

Good one Benny. Lets hope that they keep it efficient and affordable. Looking forward to your review in Jan '10, once you give your car for regualr service.

Nice write up.!
A well experienced man behind this project means they will carry on the good job
to the satisfaction of customers (as they saying ''Customer is King"). Good for Bangalore guys, you have a alternative(professional?) service centre for your cars -great !

Excellent thread Ben, what i was also looking for! Especially 3M detailing access.

Set up seems to be nice and big!

I was thinking of starting this thread but you beat me to it.
I have been to Udyog vihar Gurgaon carnation which I discovered all of sudden while looking for some address in udyog vihar.

may be lack of awareness till now and secondly because of the location.

ok I will try to paint the picture

it is in the extreme corner and a huge ganda nalla flows like river in front.but the colorful building still manages to catch you attention.

I walked into a very nice office with left corner of the building dedicated to DC and right for accessories and tires and alloys which were not yet there. ( YOU DONT HAVE TO PULL US UP that is sticker on the door handles which was good first impression)

May be because of the initial days of operation very few people were there but I could see all brands of car being worked upon thru transperent glass behind service advisors desks.

I got hold of one guy and asked few things and what is the cost to get the car serviced( I had xeta at that point of time) made sense so I decided to bring my car next morning.

to cut the long story here are the good and bad:-
  1. good experience when they reminded about my appointment next morning as they promised
  2. Service advisor was allocated immediately.
  3. Over all pleasant experience while giving the car for service.
  4. Given 15% discount on over all bill for the delay.
  5. Cheaper than TATA Service centre, which this should be.
Bad:
  1. Over all they had no Idea about the car.
  2. No adherance to the committed time 2 hours late.
  3. Was actually pretty angry at the sticker which said you dont have to pull us up. seemed funny also.
  4. The service advisor was almost arguing with me about the second reverse light which the xeta never had and couple of more issue such as disk pad need to be changed but finally apologised when I gave him a factual position and showed him service records.
  5. Another thing is that you have to call your advisor on his cell phone to get the info whether your car is ready or not:Shockked:
Conclusion is that it is good initiative but they need to train their guys on different brands before sending them to the floor. Although when I asked them about it all of them claimed being trained on all brands but when I asked them few basic info about different brands they had no Idea.

I would still recommend this place to all specially people look me who are not happy with their company's A**. But go there with complete education about your car and have a discussion first to ensure what they will do.

They have a free 25 point car check up and body wash on 25th dec , any T-Bhpns to try it and give feed back!!!!
I have booked a slot in the afternoon .

I am skeptical of such Multi-brand service centers, and they turn out be Jack of All, but Master of None!
Also most of the time, they won't have the spares for the brand you own.

In my case, I will prefer going to a SC specialised in Fiat cars.

Hey Benny,

Nice write up there. I always travel this route to office and was always thinking of checking it out, and now I have all the information.
I wonder what DC design would do out there. Would be good to check it out again sometime in Jan-feb, when it runs full-fledged.

wow i need to check this out especially the detailing services.
Any tariffs regarding the above?

Quote:

Originally Posted by black12rr (Post 1649809)
Waaaah ,free car wash . :D . If they are transparent (access to service bay,parts,manuals) ,clean and honest , this model should work . I like the slogan "Customer is king " .

But this should not turn to something below after some time .
"Customer is king ,King never bargains " . :D

Since they werent full-fledged as yet, i had access to the service bay, and i insisted i wanted to be with my car. Since the service advisor who was attending to my car knew me from before, he didnt have an issue with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HammerHead (Post 1649815)
Hi benbsb29,
Nice first hand review. I hope they will provide good A.S.S for brands currently having un-satisfactory A.S.S level.

Do update this thread once you get your car serviced by Carnation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tj123 (Post 1650058)
Good start; hope they continue the good work with honest pricing quality of service. This type of service will be a new thing in Indian market.

Manufacturers with not so good *** should have a tie up with such outlets to improve there reach & visibility

For normal servicing needs i think these should work fine. Its when things get complicated that its better to stick with the ones more familiar.

Quote:

Originally Posted by unni.ak (Post 1650066)
Good one Benny. Lets hope that they keep it efficient and affordable. Looking forward to your review in Jan '10, once you give your car for regualr service.

Efficient and affordable - i guess that sums up the requirements we as customers demand from such an initiative.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nairrk (Post 1650091)
Nice write up.!
A well experienced man behind this project means they will carry on the good job
to the satisfaction of customers (as they saying ''Customer is King"). Good for Bangalore guys, you have a alternative(professional?) service centre for your cars -great !

As you mentioned, its the man at the helm whom i have faith on - Jagdish Khattar. Hope he is able to carry on the good work he was known for. The best part is, both on their website as well as the service invoice, his personal email id is mentioned, so unhappy customers can directly get in touch with him. Ofcourse, one could assume that these may be checked by his assistants, but it clearly shows the escalation path. No dilly-dallying with the junior levels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaggu (Post 1650117)
Excellent thread Ben, what i was also looking for! Especially 3M detailing access.

Set up seems to be nice and big!

Quite a decent setup. Service bays for 36 vehicles at a time, although i feel with the current looks of it, the washing area which is just one may be the bottleneck.

3M detailing was mentioned, but is yet to be up and running.

Quote:

Originally Posted by msharma_79 (Post 1650189)
to cut the long story here are the good and bad:-
  1. good experience when they reminded about my appointment next morning as they promised
  2. Service advisor was allocated immediately.
  3. Over all pleasant experience while giving the car for service.
  4. Given 15% discount on over all bill for the delay.
  5. Cheaper than TATA Service centre, which this should be.

The good is pretty much similar levels of service we have come to expect from various dealers these days, except for the discounts part.

Quote:

Originally Posted by msharma_79 (Post 1650189)
Bad:
  1. Over all they had no Idea about the car.
  2. No adherance to the committed time 2 hours late.
  3. Was actually pretty angry at the sticker which said you dont have to pull us up. seemed funny also.
  4. The service advisor was almost arguing with me about the second reverse light which the xeta never had and couple of more issue such as disk pad need to be changed but finally apologised when I gave him a factual position and showed him service records.
  5. Another thing is that you have to call your advisor on his cell phone to get the info whether your car is ready or not:Shockked:
Conclusion is that it is good initiative but they need to train their guys on different brands before sending them to the floor. Although when I asked them about it all of them claimed being trained on all brands but when I asked them few basic info about different brands they had no Idea.

From my interaction i noticed about 3-4 guys who were poached from my earlier Ford dealer, so i suppose this may be the same for other brands as well. Essentially the service model we see at most dealerships and workshops include some senior technical people with juniors whom they lead and instruct. So, all would basically depend on the technical abilities of the man leading the kids.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rovergen (Post 1650235)
They have a free 25 point car check up and body wash on 25th dec , any T-Bhpns to try it and give feed back!!!!
I have booked a slot in the afternoon .

Let us know how it went, although there isnt much to report as yet. We can only refer to initial impressions for the time being.

Quote:

Originally Posted by finneyp (Post 1650256)
I am skeptical of such Multi-brand service centers, and they turn out be Jack of All, but Master of None!
Also most of the time, they won't have the spares for the brand you own.

In my case, I will prefer going to a SC specialised in Fiat cars.

Spares and their procurement was a concern for me as well. However, i feel they wouldnt have gotten into such a venture in a big way, if they didnt have a proper plan of action. Only time will tell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laxminarayan (Post 1650325)
Hey Benny,

Nice write up there. I always travel this route to office and was always thinking of checking it out, and now I have all the information.
I wonder what DC design would do out there. Would be good to check it out again sometime in Jan-feb, when it runs full-fledged.

DC design would probably look at custom modifications and the likes. Ofcourse, the level of customizations would only be controlled by the budget.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinaydas (Post 1650404)
wow i need to check this out especially the detailing services.
Any tariffs regarding the above?

Vinay, since this was just an initial framework of their services, there was no mention of any tariffs for any of the services they have planned to offer. The car wash was billed at Rs.230/- and then discounted. This way my car details are now in their system for their reference.

Has this reached Chennai yet???

Quote:

Originally Posted by ph03n!x (Post 1650673)
Has this reached Chennai yet???


Yes, it's at the guindy industrial estate, opposite to the Alcatel Luccent building.


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