[s.prashanth]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Your statement is very extreme and wholly unwarranted in my opinion. Not acceptable at all to one who has had good experiences so far.

I agree, but majority of people who have owned or currently own including me in the former will more or less agree to this statement considering the cost of spares.

[Equus]

Commendable move, and a very welcome one! This thread has brought out some good stories as well about Skoda A$$ which is very welcome.

I would love to own one - but they must wait. Harish has waited a long time (and waiting)..

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by s.prashanth

I agree, but majority of people who have owned or currently own including me in the former will more or less agree to this statement considering the cost of spares.

Too general a supposition and statement. Sorry.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by suman

Please note that there is a big difference between a standard 5 year warranty and a 2+2. In the case of the latter, the Extended Warranty is not provided by the Manufacturer but by an Insurance company. As a result, there are a number of claims which are "rejected" for not meeting the fine print criteria. The criteria is far more stringent than in the original 2 year warranty provided by the Manufacturer.

IMHO, a standard 5 year warranty is far more comprehensive than a 2+2 and would offer much better peace of mind!

I agree 5 years manufacturer-provided standard warranty is better than the 2 yrs standard+ 2 yrs extended combination, but my point was more about Skoda improving their existing service offering before introducing something new. Not all bad experiences reported on this forum are due to rejected claims not meeting fine-print criteria. There are a fair number of horror stories out there with no real extenuating circumstances.

Good service is a pre-requisite if they intend to keep a customer satisfied over a larger warranty period. As a potential customer, if I want to buy a Skoda, all I would want is the company assuring me they'll deliver after-sales services as promised. Fair expectation, you would agree?

And this isn't limited to Skoda. My family has owned cars from 4 different brands over the last 2 decades, and service levels have gone down overall, while costs shot up. Every player in the market needs to become more customer-centric, not just Skoda.

[s.prashanth]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Too general a supposition and statement. Sorry.

Well to each his own. These are my feelings after being through their after sales. My thoughts are definitely shared by quite a few people on the forum. There are dedicated threads for it. No threads appreciating skoda.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by s.prashanth

Well to each his own. These are my feelings after being through their after sales. My thoughts are definitely shared by quite a few people on the forum. There are dedicated threads for it. No threads appreciating skoda.

Way too much negativity and bashing this one brand. I have had excellent, consistent treatment by their people. I have, however, absolutely no interest in sparking off one more worthless debate on this subject but do you really think that all the other manufacturers are as pure as the driven snow?
I shall leave it at that.

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I bought from Vinayak in Bangalore. An old established Skoda dealer who deals only in Skoda cars as far as I know.

I have a hypothesis (which really can't be aired in an open forum) as to why there are so many horror stories about Skoda ownership experiences in India. But another side to the same theory says that there should have been few problems with Skodas bought/ serviced from Vinayak. Anyone with experiences refuting this?

Is Vinayak a busy dealership?

Regards
Sutripta

[suman]

Originally Posted by thoma

I have received certificates from Nissan and Volkswagen themselves than the insurer.

The certificates would be from the manufacturers themselves. However, in the event of a claim, the manufacturer would lodge a claim with the insurer, get an approval (or rejection) and only thereafter do the needful.

Originally Posted by s.prashanth

But they should be freindly also. Currently tge dealers are obnoxious. They hate customers, sales or service irrespective.

That's a sweeping statement, I presume you may have had some unpleasant personal experience but not sure how that translates into a generalization. I, for one, have had pleasant experiences with Skoda so far

Originally Posted by s.prashanth

No threads appreciating skoda.

Please go through some of the ownership threads, you may be pleasantly surprised

[hrman]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

I have a hypothesis (which really can't be aired in an open forum) as to why there are so many horror stories about Skoda ownership experiences in India. But another side to the same theory says that there should have been few problems with Skodas bought/ serviced from Vinayak. Anyone with experiences refuting this?

Is Vinayak a busy dealership?

Regards
Sutripta

Well. I have had a case of a friend whose Laura's passenger side mirror was broken in an accident. Vinayaka's KR puram workshop replaced the mirror with a plain mirror rather than a convex mirror. When questioned, they feigned ignorance and even said the Original car came with plain mirror (which is not true).

Eventually, after emails escalating the matter to the owner and GM, the matter was resolved.

My own personal experience with them has been good and at par with Honda. Even Honda does mess up at times and does not completely resolve service complaints. What I liked about Vinayak Skoda, is I have not seen them trying to push for unwanted add-ons like Hyundai or someone else. On one occasion, when my friend wanted to have his rear bumper replaced and repainted, they picked up the car from his home at 9 am, got the work done and re-delivered the car back to him at his office at 3.30 pm the same day. I don't need to look beyond this for an example of great customer service.

Yes, there may be the occasional bad eggs, but the general experience with Vinayaka has been great compared to maybe Tafe.

[Steeroid]

Good move by Skoda, should drive up confidence in their vehicles which are good anyway. The company though needs a culture change, which Mr Rao will hopefully be able to force - Skoda India has a people problem and not a product issue.

Perhaps they need to move out of their tin shed in Aurangabad, and lose a lot of staff that came with the said shed.

[harishpr]

Originally Posted by s.prashanth

Well to each his own. These are my feelings after being through their after sales. My thoughts are definitely shared by quite a few people on the forum. There are dedicated threads for it. No threads appreciating skoda.

There isn't any thread appreciating any manufacturer either. Skoda had its share of trouble, while other manufacturers had more or less. Even the brand like mercs, BMW or lamborgini isn't spared. People like to complaint openly in public, while appreciations are rarely widely spoken.
Let's not get too worked up with past; this thread is for new service offering which no other manufacturer has done in past.
Let's give credit where it's due

[mempheS.D]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

given time and the right focus, they will come up trumps because their cars are really lovely and all they need to do is look after the consumer care aspect.

That's probably a statement from most Skoda owners if not all. Agree, that some have burnt their fingers really bad - then again, its an issue that could have been resolved if the after-sales-service were better, and not that cars are unreliable in terms of safety or quality or style!

Gosh, I miss seeing a Skoda here and even more, seeing MY Skoda!

With this 5 years warranty, my resolve to upgrade to a Yeti as soon as I'm back just got stronger. Btw, here's a link to the possible Yeti upgrade that's long overdue.

[JohnyBoy]

I do not own or owned a Skoda. I have 2 friends owning Lauras and are proud of their cars. I know couple of friends who decided against buying Skoda in last 1 year.

Here are some points I observed.

1. All Skoda owners are happy and proud about the car quality. I have not seen anyone saying bad about their cars.

2. There is a level of unsatisfaction with the service and the attitude of the service centres & dealers. The percentage of bad service may not be worse compared to service centres of other cars.

3. But there is a good amount of Skoda bashing going on. May be more than what they deserve.

I think the bashing is a matter of perception. The perception in the market is that their service and attitude are bad. Anyone getting a good service is seen as an exception. On the otherhand say, Honda has a good image of service and attitude. Any lapse from their side is more or less pardoned and considered as an exception.

This is what Skoda has to tackle. We can argue whether their cars are good or bad. Whether their attitude is good or bad. But there is no doubt that the perception in the market is a bad one.

Launching 5 years warranty - is it good? It is not just good, it is great. Nobody else is doing this. But is this enough? No. As few members mentioned, this may be seen as a gimmick to show they care, blah, blah. They are not convinced that the service level will improve.
Announcing the program shows the management's intent to improve and give more value to customers. But this has to be driven down to the lowest level - service centres and dealers. Skoda has to work on things like.
a. Giving more training to the customer service representatives, Service advisors, dealers, sales people - they are the first point of contact for customers/prospects. Give them training on customer management, how to talk to customer, what to do if there is an issue etc. Give incentives to service reps who are doing great.
d. Increase commission, incentives to sales and service centres. And demand better customer handling. And penalise faulty sales centres.
c. Launch customer service level programs. Like TD in 2 days, normal services done in 4 hours. Free pickup and drop for service. Little things like this which actually matter and will change the perception that Skoda is a don't-care company.
d. And on a strategic level, close Harish's case. This has been going on for ever and 90% of the bashers cite this case. It makes business sense for Skoda to close the case - they should go whatever extent to make him happy. The negative publicity it is generating is creating more harm than even if they have to give him 5 cars free of cost.

They have great cars. They have intentions to take care of the customers. They have to implement and show it. Programs announced from the top is not enough, the message has to reach the lowest guy in the chain (say receptionist in the service centre), try to change the perception in the market.

[hrman]

Originally Posted by JohnyBoy

They have great cars. They have intentions to take care of the customers. They have to implement and show it. Programs announced from the top is not enough, the message has to reach the lowest guy in the chain (say receptionist in the service centre), try to change the perception in the market.

One of the most matured and considered posts on this thread. You have summed it up well!

[k_ajay]

Originally Posted by s.prashanth

There are dedicated threads for it. No threads appreciating skoda.

Only shows how people choose to read what they 'want' to read. Even when there are threads where Skoda has been appreciated, we still only see this.

To each his own, yes. True!