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What you have mentioned up to here is absolutely right. No denying that. Competency talk is again very subjective. Do not want to continue the debate over it by quoting funny and not so funny things that KHT and Concorde have been dishing out. It will be a waste of space over the internet. To each to his own.

My dear friend, what responses you see might make you feel as defending Vecto Vehemently or any other way you want to perceive to. But concluding or making a personal remark is definitely not necessary without knowing the facts. But let me tell you, I was very much part of the dealership discussions when Vecto got the LOI, right from the drawings stage to set up even the showroom. For many they get to see only the customer facing side of the dealership only and not what hardship a few buffoons who are handling the dealer development are creating. A few examples I quoted are a reality not hearsay, PR, gossips, etc. What I wrote was after interacting with the dealership people, Fiat people, sub contractors. Now its definitely not hearsay.

Not all the back-end systems working in sync. The dealer wants to replace a part under extended warranty, but the dealer cannot login to the tool to get it approved because the user credentials are not provided. What do you do, a customer will simply blame the dealer and that is what is happening over and over again. This is one such example. The power window winder story is common across the dealerships. The associated part not being available, the dealer will start the methods told by Funkykar to get rid of the customer at the given instance. The Fiat warehouse is open, but the issue is vendors not supplying parts due to the negotiations still on with the pricing. :Frustrati The customer is at the receiving end.

When one gets to understand in deep the troubles a dealer would face with FIAT, the way the things looked at will change. It more than what meets the eye.

Now, one may want to say its none of their business on how the operations are handled and complain only about the dealer, things will go no where. Instead, its the FIAT who should be made to sit up and take notice

When you talk about other dealerships, who are smartly delaying starting service operations and waiting for everything to fall in place. Now about the source, the contractor who is setting up the Pneumatic lines in the workshop tells you the tricks the other dealers are playing.

Even if any other dealers had started they would have ended up in the same situation and I can empathize with them. My stance would still be the same, knowing how things are made difficult with the transition.

PS: A DEALER CAN SUPPORT AS MUCH AS THE MANUFACTURER SUPPORTS THE DEALER. A dealer can improvise only to an extent within the SOP.

I too wish all the luck in the world to FIAT to get their heads working in the right way. please:

You could consider reporting them or threatening to report them to the CCI (Competition Commission of India), who I believe are cracking down on the OEMs for their monopolistic practices on spare parts. Suggest you google this and show those guys prints of the news articles on this.

Oh! It was definitely not an issue with parts with power window winder. Off the 10 times, conveniently they did not address the issue 2-3 times at all. Rest of the times they have claimed to have sorted it but it worked better for just 2-3 hours. Even after stressing and giving enough details, emailing to them in details, they couldn't fix it. I had escalated to Fiat (have lot of emails between me, Fiat and Prerana). Even when they asked to look into the issues and also tracking them, Prerana could just do nothing! And, by the way, the issues age is whopping 2 years!

Unable to fix steering vibration issue, how bout that? Isn't this competency?

I myself was happy with Prerana for the first few times and referred to lot of Fiatians, but off late I storingly recommend them not to visit if their car has issues. 2 other close friends continue to service at Vecto. I have asked to stick on here until they have no issues with their cars.

They once asked me, what should I do if I have any issues, I said look outside of FASS.

Fiat literally turning a blind eye on the service network means, we need not even check on the Sales charts month on month :)

I hope you are not kidding! If this is true, I am sure it would be a herculean task for me to get spares even by this means from Vecto. A friend too asked some spares on my behalf to Service Manager Channabasappa, who clearly denied saying they cannot give parts over the counter.

This is very bad. I used to buy many spares over the counters of Concorde Motors, Dairy Circle and Mysore Road like Selenia K engine oil, ORV mirror/plastic cover, fuses, air filter, etc. Am I going to miss Concorde very badly?

Yes Ravi sir, for sure! I too had procured quite a few consumables during my Bhutan drive. To name, a set of wipers, coolant, air filter, brake pads, oil and fuses. Did not have budget to keep a clutch set handy, but they were ready to give me.

Now, its due for service. I need oil, coolant, oil filter and air filter. When AdityaHemmige asked Vecto when he recently visited for a GC upgrade, they outrightly said No!

I for sure don't want to visit Vecto for service, for the weeks together wait time + loss of confidence in them.

After seeing your reviews on Mr. Somu and also another friend Madhu Sudhan who used to visit Dairy Circle, I had left the car at Concorde. I must say that they were very very determined to find the root cause of the issue. I had really liked their attitude. Unfortunately, at that very moment I did not have enough time and by the time I could go again, the split.

Madhu Sudhan had told the entire story to SA Khan at Dairy Circle. Believe it or not, he came all the way to my home in his own interest to check the issue on my car out of his own interest. With a quick look he suspected the mounts and a possible manufacturing defect with sub frame. Other unfortunate thing was Palios were not accepted at Dairy circle center. But he had promised me to come and attend my car at Mysore road center, which I had felt fair enough. This SA had gone an extra mile out of his own interest. I was at a loss of words to appreciate him.

For a simple service that I want to get done on my own outside FASS (even though I am letting my ext. warranty go for a toss) and to live with the other 2 issues, Fiat/Vecto is ensuring I go through hardship. That's the state of affairs now.

Well, this could be viewed negatively (i.e. Dealers just won't sell OTC) or positively (i.e. Dealers will be wary of the regulator and give in); however, the ultimate decision will reside with the parent (Fiat).

Few links to news articles on this are below:

1. http://www.business-standard.com/art...2000210_1.html (The Commission is pursuing the case under Section 4 of the Competition Act that relates to abuse of dominant position by enterprises. The probe was conducted after a complaint was filed with the CCI last year against certain carmakers for allegedly abusing their dominant market position by selling spare auto parts to customers at high prices.
As per the complaint, the carmakers were accused of abusing their dominant position by making available spare parts only through their authorised dealers, who in turn sell them on high rates.
CCI has the mandate to eliminate practices that have adverse impact on competition and protect the interests of consumers.)

2. http://articles.economictimes.indiat...ompetition-act

3. http://automotivehorizon.sulekha.com..._newsitem_4719

Hope these help. Now, slightly :OT and :deadhorse but isn't it just frustrating that OEMs like Fiat & Skoda who make such fantastic cars, absolutely disregard the after-sales service! It's almost like they follow some obscure credo like "Manufacturing is virtuous, A-S-S is blasphemous"!

Oh this is news to me. So in what capacity are you associated with Vecto? I thought you was just another hardcore FIAT fan & owner :Frustrati

So do you have any commercial association with them? Are you on their payroll? Or are you a mere consultant? If so have you declared the same on the forum for the knowledge of the other members?

Involvement in understanding how the dealership activities are done, does not mean being in commercial terms my dear friend. I am still a hardcore Fiat fan and a Linea owner. So there is no need for you to get frustrated with my interactions or association as you call it with Vecto.

This is taking too far my friend. You expect me to declare everything I do over the forum please:

PS: If this had something to do with the policies of Teambhp, I would have got in touch with the mods for suitable guidance.

The consumables are still being sold over the counter at Vecto and KHT. Aadya motors is very fussy about this over the counter sale. Last week my cousin picked up a bottle of coolant from Vecto, this is what he updated me. There was no resistance.

Maybe you should get in touch with the Mods and also declare clearly your association with Vecto. Your posts indicate that you have more than a Fan/Owner interest in matters related to Vecto.

Involvement in understanding how dealership activities are done as an independent observer & to quote your own words " I was very much part of the dealership discussions when Vecto got the LOI, right from the drawings stage to set up even the showroom" is entirely different. And if you don't clarify more on this it amounts to misleading/misinforming the members of the forum who are posting here in good faith.

Most of your posts show that you are more of a Social Media advocate of Vecto rather than a passionate FIAT Owner/Fan who would Love to see the FASS improve to the acceptable levels for FIAT owners.

Any way I have reported your Posts and I hope the Mods will do the needful.

True. When I checked with Channabasappa, I was told that spares were not sold over the counter

I agree Lloyd! A few months ago, my post where I wrote what exactly exactly Enrico mentioned about Palios and the future of their service, it was purposefully misinterpreted and tried to give a new meaning. I had to clarify several times with many different posts. Thanks to J.Ravi sir who suddenly came to my rescue. At that stage all guns blazing supporting Fiat.

Now the same people are blaming things on Fiat in defense of Vecto? If one skims through the posts in previous pages, its very clear that Vecto is being advertised (Initially Fiat was even though they were at fault)!

I have had service experience at all the centers. I have visited Vecto more 5X more times that I should have visited, I really know how bad they are in competence.

nkrishnap: Being so closely involved would Vecto, now you are misinforming members that all consumables are sold over the counter? One can only wonder what made you say so.

Firstly, apologies for not making the stance clear. Yes, the discussion/interactions with Vecto was solely on how the dealership could ideally turn out. I had nothing to do with what Vecto discussed with FIAT on any commercial terms. Since being a passoniate owner, I was rather asked about a few things could be done to provide better satisfaction to customers from the drawing stage. Over a period of time, got to understand the intricities of the operations and shared the shortfalls faced during the transition here in good faith and benefit of the forum members. Hope this clarifies your query.

If you read the previous post on the consumables part, I clearly stated that my cousin picked up a bottle of coolant Over The Counter when he was passing by the dealership. How does that make you conclude that I was misinforming the forum members and you conveniently forgot about KHT too selling the consumables like air filter, wipers Over The Counter and Aadya being Fussy about the Over The Counter sale.

If over the counter sale is done to a few and not happening with other customers, its being outrightly inconsistent.

I will ask my cousin to scan the bill and send it, so that you can see it for yourself and stop repeatedly posting that I am providing false information.

As a customer, why should anyone care to know what hardships dealer faces? We do not visit them for free. Neither are we asking them for some thing out of their bound. We pay for our service and repairs. Moreover, only Vecto faces issues?

If they are facing issues, let them sort it out. Did Fiat not give them enough time to set themselves up.

Please stop taking the stance or advertising Vecto and also do not provide false information on consumables being available over the counter!

May be your Cousin could get it because of your association with Vecto. When Aditya Hemmige asked for consumables on my behalf, he was rejected right? I had called over phone few weeks ago and was said the same. I dont know about Aadya and KHT, so I wouldnt want to comment on it.

When you said available over counter, did you mean to selective customers? What do you think other readers understand about that fact?

I need Selenia oil, oil filter, air filter and Coolant! They wouldnt give to me. I can conclude in better interest of other members that consumables are NOT sold over the counter.

Thanks for clarifying that at last :)

This is a dirty world of paid news, paid reviews etc. Even global biggies like Samsung has admitted to playing the dirty game of paid online reviews with the intention to malign their competitor's products. So as a customer/consumer I'm alert to what's happening in Cyberspace.

Off late I've been taking all your posts with a pinch of Salt and I'm sure that there are other members too who share the same sentiment. All your posts are here on this thread for the Mods to see and I hope that they will scrutinize them to take appropriate action.

T-bhp has mostly been a non-partisan & neutral forum so far and I hope it will remain so in the future too.

A nice update indeed. Good news for Fiat fans. I hope Fiat sets up a good number of dealerships across the country and most importantly the service centres for present Fiat owners. If this happens, it would probably change the mindset of the people about the Fiat After-sales and service related issues.