[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by sbkumar

: Forgive me, I was not capable of building a relationship with my neighbor next door till I was a bachelor and I definitely don't want to spend my time and energy doing that just to get what rightfully is mine. I am not for elitism in any form.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

I'm not saying not to make comments good or bad. What I'm trying to say is, if you have a good experience with them then it's very good for you, but trying to say that there is no problem overall is not.
Even after that, how can harsh criticism be unwarranted? It is very much warranted and that's the only way a manufacturer may realise that something needs to be done.

Hi sbkumar. I appreciate your view. However, I don t really understand why you equate 'building relationships' with 'elitism'. There is no elitism here really. Im just a regular guy like anyone else. Grace of god I have been fortunate so far in the vehicles that I have bought and my relationships with people in general. And I do take time to build relationships with people. Thats been a practice in all spheres of my life in general! No elitism on my part really, because I genuinely have friends in all sorts of walks of life and circumstances as well.

Hi Vid. I dont think that I have ever stated that there is 'no problem overall'. Neither am I against 'harsh criticism'. In fact I absolutelt revel in harsh criticism of many things, as you well know.

Incidentally, I was recently 'told' on this forum that ostensibly, I was being 'excessively angry or negative'. I didnt think I was being so, because I was merely ranting at the general state of things around us.

Now, I want to point out that as per my lights, many of the posts on this thread are indeed excessively angry and negative and no one really, in all truthfulness, can deny this fact!

I am simply stating that we also need some genuine feedback about positive balance as well, in a thread that seems to be quickly deteriorating into a 'mob-like gathering to beat Skoda with clubs and rods until death' sort of scenario.
I'd say that this is not 'becoming' of us.

[Bomi]

Why does a customer have to build "relationship" with the Skoda service folks to get good service? Shouldn't that be a norm for all customers?
And if Skoda is "obsessed with quality" why do their critical parts fail? Perhaps Toyota should lay claim to that slogan.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Bomi

Why does a customer have to build "relationship" with the Skoda service folks to get good service? Shouldn't that be a norm for all customers?
And if Skoda is "obsessed with quality" why do their critical parts fail? Perhaps Toyota should lay claim to that slogan.

Good relationships simply lubricate all the moving parts.

Ive found that it works with Mahindra, Maruti, Hyundai and Skoda. Also Samsung, LG, Bosch and whoever else...

This world does not work purely based on 'process', even more so in India where most business and work related things thrive on human contact.

Hence, it is worth building relationships to ensure your work gets done smoothly.

[Bomi]

I don't agree with your view Shankar but you are entitled to your own. I get super service from Maruti when I get my Ritz serviced regardless of the service advisor.

[BackInTheFold]

@Sahil, I'm sorry to hear about the problems and can only relate to how you feel. To state the obvious, error rates apart, I'm shocked that the "recovery" aspect of Skoda's service continues to be extremely poor. A quick, proactive and considerate response will go miles towards assuaging a customer, who is justifiably angry that his expensive vehicle is out of commission.

Now on to the second part, into which I feel compelled to wade in seeing the responses to Shankar's post.

Disclaimer: I'm a Skoda owner and will likely be another VAG vehicle owner. By the way, my experience with Skoda was hardly niggle free - I had multiple instances where the A/C went kaput and had to keep visiting the ASC, so much so that the SA's joked that my car liked the garage too much. I just put up with these since (a) these were not catastrophic and (b) I felt somewhat compensated by the value/pleasure that I derived when I drove the car.

To the others who've been piping up whenever they hear some Skoda owner who has not seen any issues speak up. Let me use the example which was cited in this thread - 1000 Skoda owners, 100 with issues, 900 without issues etc.

In all topics related to Skoda, there is a considerable amount of conjecture voiced by everyone other than the 1,000 owners who have ever owned the vehicle (and/or even plan to). Given the track record of the company, this is only to be expected.

Even so, is it not fair that one among the 900 satisfied Skoda owners who've had no issues with them (e.g. Shankar) relate his/her experience with facts to provide some sense of balance/perspective? Even if one were not to agree with his view, I thought that this forum exists in order that he too may have his say, if he does so without causing offence to others.

Getting back to regular programming, I do hope that Skoda sees sense and responds to Sahil in a more appropriate fashion than they have - by putting the customer first and doing right by him.

[harishpr]

Dear all... I'm one of the proud owner of skoda vehicle. Not that I didn't have issues (nothing significant though), but it was resolved well in time without followups.
Rightly so, the 'perception' of a brand is largely dependent on its face (in cars, it's the dealers who act as face of the manufacturer).
If dealer is good, it's good for the brand. If all dealers are good (ok, most of the dealers are good), it's very good for the brand.

In bangalore, Skoda has just 2 dealers. My experience with 1 was bad (even before the purchase), while the other was delightful. Such contrast between them.
I've owned Maruti, Hyundai, Tata and Honda before entering the skoda world. My experience with Maruti and hyundai was excellent (mandovi and advaith), while Tata was average (Concorde) and Honda was poor (whitefield Honda).
For me, Skoda dealer is offering service as good as what I love experienced with Maruti and hyundai.
I love skoda.

[mints21]

Dear all... I'm one of the proud owner of skoda vehicle. Not that I didn't have issues (nothing significant though), but it was resolved well in time without followups.
Rightly so, the 'perception' of a brand is largely dependent on its face (in cars, it's the dealers who act as face of the manufacturer).
If dealer is good, it's good for the brand. If all dealers are good (ok, most of the dealers are good), it's very good for the brand.

You have a valid point here. But you can't expect such expensive cars to have frequent issues and visits to service stations. Dealers can be good or bad, but the brand also needs to live upto expectations. We see so many horror stories of skoda, some do complain of dealers but the car goes to the dealer only when something starts to malfunction. Important thing here is that the product needs to be of robust quality. They have the best in class product but the frequent breakdown of one part or the other has dented their image badly in the Indian market. The dealers on their part have only added fuel to fire.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by Bomi

And if Skoda is "obsessed with quality" why do their critical parts fail?

Probably it can be rephrased as

'Obsessed with Quality Failure!'

Originally Posted by Bomi

I don't agree with your view Shankar but you are entitled to your own. I get super service from Maruti when I get my Ritz serviced regardless of the service advisor.

You are lucky but I agree with Sankar and it helps in having good relationship with the SA's for things to go on smoothly and if there is a problem it will be solved faster.

Anurag.

[Sahil]

I think we are missing the point of this thread, it is not about how expensive it is to maintain a Skoda or about how important the dealers service is. Although the part that has failed in my car is expensive my anger and frustration is more about Skoda head office's attitude than the money.
I don't blame the dealer much here as they are helpless when the parent company is not willing to take responsibility of a defected part. However, I do find it strange that the ABS module failed just a few days after all brake pads were changed by the dealer. But I have no proof of foul play hence I am blame Skoda who are ultimately responsible eitherways.

My anger is more with Skoda not willing to take responsibility after endangering my life and my family's. Seeing that message"Brake malfunction!" light up while I'm driving with the fam did set me into panic and god forbid if I had to emergency brake it could have been a disaster. I explained this to the customer service manager and questioned her that this was not about the money for me however I would like to know what would you do if your car endangered your life and your family's. She was silent and said she would urge her senior to review my case, then again few days later her response was that they are not willing to change the offer or accept responsibility. This stone heartedness is what has pissed me off.

[shankar.balan]

Human nature being what it is, can be both perverse and capricious at times.
We do, like it or not, sometimes tend to 'scratch' an 'itch' or keep 'worrying a wound', even after the skin has become raw, because there is a perverse pleasure in the pain.

I think Skoda is a brand that many people love to hate.

Saying this, were I in the market, I would attempt to blank out the large amounts of 'white noise' which is very apparent and listen as objectively as possible, only to the owners.

Take our recent purchase decision case...I could have bought a Skoda Fabia for my parents. I elected to buy a Hyundai I20 instead.

That purchase decision was to an extent, driven by the quality of service I received from the dealer(s) that I ve been working with. Once that thread goes live you can see why.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by mints21

But you can't expect such expensive cars to have frequent issues and visits to service stations.

Totally agree with that. Skoda makes the best cars in terms of "fun to drive quotient", "safety quotient", "build quotient" etc., but sorely lack on the "reliability quotient". Unless Skoda implements root cause corrective action in their quality control, this situation is not going to get fixed anytime in the near future.

Originally Posted by BackInTheFold

In all topics related to Skoda, there is a considerable amount of conjecture voiced by everyone other than the 1,000 owners who have ever owned the vehicle (and/or even plan to)...

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Saying this, were I in the market, I would attempt to blank out the large amounts of 'white noise' which is very apparent and listen as objectively as possible, only to the owners.

It took me 2 harrowing months to make the decision to go ahead with Octavia, mainly due to the large amount of "white noise" (perfect term, Shankar) existing in the forum. As BackInTheFold has mentioned, users who have never owned a Skoda or never intend to own one contribute heavily to this noise. Take for example, the fake thread created by a user about the two Octavia 1.8TSIs failing. That thread also attracted lots of Skoda bashing even though people who were writing in the thread did not know if the actual post was genuine. Even in the survey I conducted to assess Skoda reliability, 38% of the surveys were bogus. This shows the extent some users here are willing to go to bash Skoda.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

...in a thread that seems to be quickly deteriorating into a 'mob-like gathering to beat Skoda with clubs and rods until death' sort of scenario.
I'd say that this is not 'becoming' of us.

It is not just this thread. After going through all the Skoda bashing posts in the forum, in my opinion, if one were to create a thread with title "Skoda service" and the first post with absolutely no specific information but just "I am unhappy with Skoda service...", that thread is sure to attract tens of Skoda bashing posts in a jiffy. I am not a Skoda customer yet, I have neither positive nor negative experience with Skoda, I do not intend to insult anyone, but this is the image the Skoda bashing here has created in my mind!!

Originally Posted by Sahil

I think we are missing the point of this thread, it is not about how expensive it is to maintain a Skoda or about how important the dealers service is. Although the part that has failed in my car is expensive my anger and frustration is more about Skoda head office's attitude than the money.

Having said all the above, I totally understand Sahil's anger. Anyone in his place would definitely be totally angry with Skoda. I hope the MD of Skoda is aware of all these incidents through the forum and is taking actions (as he promised) to improve the overall customer experience.

[drmohitg]

Although the term "white noise" sounds very amusing, but one cannot just pass off all these posts and the anger behind them as unwanted Skoda bashing. What do members here get from showing Skoda down? We are a very large community with members coming from various professional and cultural backgrounds spanning the length and breadth of the country. All united by a simple reason - " Love cars, Live cars". Then why do all these people start bashing Skoda or treat it with highest level of pessimism possible? The reason behind it is simple. Skoda cars are are:
1. Highly unreliable w.r.t. the competition.
2. Atrocious pricing of spares on top of it.
3. Non customer friendly attitude of the dealers ( majority of them).
4. Total disinterest shown by the company.

Skoda makes wonderful cars and the built quality is excellent- Agreed. Skoda cars are great at handling and remain stable at 3 digit speeds - Agreed. Skoda cars are sublime at corners and very involving to drive - Agreed. But all these qualities do not compensate for the high and premature failure rates coupled with zero support from the manufacturer. If we were to open a section on threads relating to car failure rates or unhappy customers then 50% of them will be Skoda, another 15-20% will be other VAG cars followed by Mercedes and BMW. And only a mere 20-30% will be about the mass market players. can anyone explain that?

Skoda cannot just say that ours cars are not accustomed to harsh Indian conditions. They have no business selling cars here with that excuse. Or if they cannot change that then they should atleast offer extended coverages, no questions asked. And the spares should be made more affordable. Until such times, I am afraid they will have to suffer this customer pessimism. Just a example: My Altis comes with 3 years/1L kms standard warranty and for mere 17k the warranty gets extended to 5 years/1L kms. Not saying that Altis is a perfect car but this shows the confidence Toyota has in its offering.

Lastly please don't discard the opinion of people who don't have a Skoda vehicle. Opinions develop after what people see and hear other than first hand experience. BMWs are very driver oriented cars. Everyone will agree. But have they all driven one? There is a reason why "suspect after sales and long term reliability" are written down as disadvantages in all Skoda reviews in our official reviews too. so what I am saying is there is no noise without a valid reason. Here it is plenty.

[BackInTheFold]

Originally Posted by Sahil

However, I do find it strange that the ABS module failed just a few days after all brake pads were changed by the dealer. But I have no proof of foul play hence I am blame Skoda who are ultimately responsible eitherways.

My anger is more with Skoda not willing to take responsibility after endangering my life and my family's. Seeing that message"Brake malfunction!" light up while I'm driving with the fam did set me into panic and god forbid if I had to emergency brake it could have been a disaster. I explained this to the customer service manager and questioned her that this was not about the money for me however I would like to know what would you do if your car endangered your life and your family's. She was silent and said she would urge her senior to review my case, then again few days later her response was that they are not willing to change the offer or accept responsibility. This stone heartedness is what has pissed me off.

I am with you on this. I had a serious accident nearly a month ago in my Laura and I don't want to conjecture regarding it while the insurance process is underway. But I intend to revisit it for closure.

Negligence or failure or whatever caused this, your expectations from Skoda in this regard are completely justified.

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Lastly please don't discard the opinion of people who don't have a Skoda vehicle. Opinions develop after what people see and hear other than first hand experience. BMWs are very driver oriented cars. Everyone will agree. But have they all driven one? There is a reason why "suspect after sales and long term reliability" are written down as disadvantages in all Skoda reviews in our official reviews too. so what I am saying is there is no noise without a valid reason. Here it is plenty.

Quite to the contrary. If you read my post carefully, I clearly mention that it is expected that people voice their conjecture about Skoda's service since the company's track record and behavior sets itself up for such views.

However, it is not in keeping with the decorum of this forum or the idea of free speech that Skoda owners who have a counter-opinion get "shouted down".

It is very easy to agree with what "everyone agrees". It is important that one has one's say even if it is to disagree with what "everyone else agrees", provided one does it politely and with reason.

I'm getting off my soapbox now

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by graaja

It took me 2 harrowing months to make the decision to go ahead with Octavia, mainly due to the large amount of "white noise" (perfect term, Shankar) existing in the forum. As BackInTheFold has mentioned, users who have never owned a Skoda or never intend to own one contribute heavily to this noise. Take for example, the fake thread created by a user about the two Octavia 1.8TSIs failing. That thread also attracted lots of Skoda bashing even though people who were writing in the thread did not know if the actual post was genuine. Even in the survey I conducted to assess Skoda reliability, 38% of the surveys were bogus. This shows the extent some users here are willing to go to bash Skoda.

It is not just this thread. After going through all the Skoda bashing posts in the forum, in my opinion, if one were to create a thread with title "Skoda service" and the first post with absolutely no specific information but just "I am unhappy with Skoda service...", that thread is sure to attract tens of Skoda bashing posts in a jiffy. I am not a Skoda customer yet, I have neither positive nor negative experience with Skoda, I do not intend to insult anyone, but this is the image the Skoda bashing here has created .

This is an interesting view and set of insights from someone who is not yet a customer.
I also agree that lots of the worst brickbats come from non -owners. Wonder why. I think we can all guess, but I do not want to speculate further here.

Anyway, I do hope the authorities at Skoda at reading this and other threads and I hope they are working towards a satisfactory resolution for all Skoda owners. I hope we do get superlative customer care and service in the near future.

We deserve that, having spent vast sums of hard earned money to be a part of the brand!

[blacksport]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

...

If there is one thing I have learned from discussion forums, it is this: "never talk against popular opinion". The sin you did here is that you said something nice about Skoda in a Skoda bashing thread. Well, why did you have to do it anyway? To prove the rest wrong? Often, when I am in the firing end I justify myself by saying that I am trying to provide a different perspective. A perspective that has not been tainted by a bad experience.

When a mob is formed, reason takes a back seat. Any amount of reason you try to bring into the discussion would be trashed without a consideration and the person who brought it would be condemned. That is how mobs work. Unlike street mobs, fortunately, we enjoy the anonymity of the internet. We can just close the browser and pretend it never happened. I advise you to do so.