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Old 11th February 2010, 18:36   #1
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My Experience at Hallmark Honda, Navi Mumbai

Hi,
I am planning to buy a Honda City, and the only dealer in Navi Mumbai is Hallmark Honda. So far, I'm not too impressed with their promptness and service, and am really skeptical about their after sales service (if their pre-sales service is anything to go by).

First time, I called them up to fix up an appointment for a test drive, the sales rep (Satish) fixed an appointment for Saturday morning at 10:30 AM. Now I am very particular about timeliness and expect people to honor their appointments, especially sales appointments. Guess what ! 11 AM, and no sign of him. I call him up and find out he is in Mumbai, out for a delivery. I give an earful to him, and then call up Hallmark and rant on about value of time etc. etc. So they promptly send someone with a car for test drive. Take a short test drive (this was before I chanced upon the Team-bhp TD check-list), and invite the sales executive who accompanied the car for a cup of tea to discuss further details about the car. To my surprise, he says he is busy and does not have time to answer my queries, and leaves immediately.
Though miffed, I still visit the Hallmark showroom to talk to another sales rep to get more details about finance options, discounts etc.
A few days later, I get a call from our good friend Satish asking me when would I be coming over to book the 'City'. I politely tell him that I would prefer to deal with another sales rep as he did not have the time to attend to me. He apologizes and says that he will be more attentive. By this time, I've gotten hold of the Team BHP TD checklist, and tell him that I need another test drive. I had also heard about concerns regarding City's low GC, and wanted to experience it myself. So we fix another appointment for saturday (6th Feb). I postpone my dentist's appointment to get a couple of hours for test drive.
Guess what, the appointed hour on Saturday comes, and there's no sign of Mr. Satish. I call him up, and get disconnected. A few minutes later I get an SMS that he is in a training and will give me a TD on Sunday. That was enough for me. I had fixed the appointment on Friday evening, and I do not believe for one second that he was not aware of a training on Saturday. even if it was a surprise training, he should have had the courtsey to call me up BEFORE the appointment and inform me.

So I go to the showroom on Sunday (was empty), and give another earful to the couple of sales reps in the office, and they agree to give me another test drive. Have a more extensive test drive this time, and get a good feel of the GC problem. Still, my inclination is to buy the Honda CIty, as I am not finding any other good car in the 10L range.

The new sales rep is better than the last, though there is still a lot of scope of improvement. I asked him about discounts and accessories, and he said that the Honda 'cartel' had a meeting last week and they have decided to discontinue freebies as dealers were undercutting each other. Somehow I feel that hard to believe. Has anyone else come across this statement in the past few days ?

Has someone else dealt with Hallmark Honda ? Any pointers regarding their service levels ? Which other dealers can I consider in Mumbai ?

Regards
Manumani
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Old 26th February 2010, 11:08   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by manumani View Post
Which other dealers can I consider in Mumbai ?

Regards
Manumani
Hi Manumani,

I could see that you have two other dealers(Arya Honda and Apex Honda) in Navi Mumbai(or around) when I performed a dealer search at Honda Car India

I am not sure of what can be expected out of those dealers or how far they are located from your place. But, I would like to suggest you to go and check them out. Visiting the showroom and speaking to a couple of people will give you an indication of their service levels.

I went to all Honda showrooms in Hyderabad(there are just two here) before deciding on where to buy my ANHC. Finally, I chose the one with whose staff/ communications, I was more satisfied with ignoring a further discount offered by the other dealer.

And about the cartel thing, I was told the same at first. Then, when I started pointing out the discounts offered across India on ANHC, they said there are no discounts in AP. Finally, I got an offer from another showroom in AP and then my dealer was ready to budge for the same.

Regards,
Kalyan
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Old 30th March 2010, 13:40   #3
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My Experience at Hallmark Honda, Navi Mumbai - UPDATE

Since its been more than a month since this post, I thought I should update this with the latest status.

Since my last post, I've been dealing with Mr. Abdul Rahim at the showroom, and my experience has been very pleasant. He has been patient the whole time (it's been close to 2 months since I started visiting them), never pushing me for a decision, but at the same time politely kept asking me what stage of the decision making process I was in. I am finally picking up my Honda City - VMT Polished Metal car this Thursday from the showroom.

Things can still be improved. However, I am very satisfied with Abdul, and would highly recommend him to anyone who wishes to buy a car from Hallmark Honda.

I shall post another update of this post by the end of this week, once I finally get posession of my car, and will keep updating this during my After Sales Service period as well.
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