[Rover2000]

It is a real pity to see such incidents..this is the first time I have come across such bold behavior. A real shame in terms of accountability and reliability..Hope Maruti takes SWIFT action! Looking forward to see what kind of action they take and will they enforce any measures to prevent such incidents? Well it is the end user who takes the beating as usual!

[Rev_That_V8]

Originally Posted by Magemegento

While we are at it, how much is a good enough ODO reading to have while accepting a new car at the showroom? I remember getting our new WagonR driven 53kms on the ODO some 11 years ago. While I was a little (more) naive back then, my dad was suspicious, and the showroom guys told us that they had driven it from their other branch to this. (Which is like 20kms away). Read somewhere later (memory hazy) that a new car should have done max 8kms on the ODO, inclusive of driving to/from the yard etc. Any idea?

there's nothing called a good ODO reading. Nevertheless, the number depends on a lot of factors starting from where the car is manufactured. Brand new cars are driven from the final assembly to test squeaks and rattles , then to yard then back to assembly area/repair yard for minor repairs/fuel filling. all these just adds more to the Odo especially if the plant is huge. With that said a car leaving the plant wont have more than 20kms on the odo at the worst case and will have less than 10kms at the best case.
Most ethical manufacturers won't tamper with the ODO reading.

At the dealer end, new cars are transited in trucks and are kept in a storage yard near the dealership (maximum of 10-12 kms radius).
On registration day, the car is driven to the nearest RTO (within 5-10 kms in range) and handed over to customer directly or back to dealer for extra accessories fitment or for any repairs due to unfortunate damage .A good acceptable ODO reading would be below 60 Kms plus your distance from dealership in my opinion at the max.

[arjab]

This practice is very common across India amongst most new car dealers.
Unless dealerships / dealer proprietor themselves intervene, and put in place strict checks & balances, to put a stop to this menace, nothing is going to change.
OEM's dealer development department can at the most penalise/fine dealers - provided they have tangible evidence that vehicles are being misused.
This action too has its limitations, as many "powerful" dealers, who do good "monthly offtake" numbers, can be really difficult to deal with.

ODO readings can be easily tweaked. One of my friends in the auto industry told me, that in most modern cars with digital odo's, the odo can be zeroed, only once though, provided the total odo reading is under some "xxx" kms, as pre-defined by the OEM.

Sensitisation towards customer delight and an in-built sense of honesty & integrity on part of every dealership can only overcome this menace.

[madnish30]

Originally Posted by madnish30

Thank you for sparing your time and actually going out of the way to follow the culprit and click photos etc.

I have emailed this thread to a known C level person at MSIL.

Just wanted to post an update.

Got a reply from the legal team at Rohan Motors, had written to the higher ups at MSIL as well as Rohan Motors.

Here is what it says:

Thanks very much for your efforts for giving such an important information to us by taking trouble which I think no one else would have done. We appreciate your gesture in bringing to the knowledge of Mangement such an unacceptable incident. Yes you are absolutely right that the customer has to be delivered new car and not used one. We want to inform you that in fact the driver who was driving the vehicle was not on our roll. We have given a contract to an outside transporter namely Rajesh Transport company who takes the car from our stock yard and delivers at our Showroom. We have taken cognizance of the situation and took it very seriously. The contractor has been removed immediately and no more with us. We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused to you for taking this trouble and thankful to you in bringing this vital information to our knowledge. We once again deeply regret the incident and we assure you that this type of incident is never repeated in future.

Since, I'm not an aggrieved party, current customer or potential customer - I have no locus standi to pursue the matter any further, I did what I did as a responsible citizen and a BHP-ian.

If any MSIL car owners or customers' of the said dealership want to take it up further, since you all are directly aggrieved by this mischief and the (apparent) cover-up, I will be happy to help you and even provide appropriate legal advice.

PS: I also got an unofficial confirmation from my knowns at MSIL that this matter has reached them, but unlikely to cause any stir.

[noopster]

You did good but that reeks of stock answer to me. Notice they never actually take responsibility for the lapse nor assure you it will not recur.

Sad reality is that the so called culprit will probably be back at work soon, if he indeed was ever fired. There is a saying in Marathi, "I'll pretend to hit you, you pretend to be hurt". Fits this situation perfectly.

[blacksport]

Thanks very much for your efforts for giving such an important information to us by taking trouble which I think no one else would have done.

Am I the only one who is seeing a bit of sarcasm here? Sounds like: "No thank you for unecessarily meddling in none of your business".

[Abh1nav]

I completely lost faith in Maruti dealers after a horrible experience I had while purchasing the Zen Estillo in 2007. We had purchased the model in March 2007, and took it to a local accessory shop for getting the Audio System installed.

While installing the speaker in the back-right door, the installer made us notice that the door was dented and had been repaired and repainted!

We were shocked and very disappointed hearing this about our 2-week old car.

When we took the issue up with the dealer, he was very arrogant at first but after a few mails to Maruti, he was more than willing to settle the issue amicably.

After a lot of reluctance, we settled for door replacement + Accessories + 20K compensation! But that feeling of being cheated never left! Hence, it was decided that never ever were we going to buy a Maruti again!

[GTO]

Maruti sends an official response:

Thanks for bringing to our notice about the unauthorized use of a new vehicle while in transit to the dealer showroom.

Maruti Suzuki has a high focus on customer satisfaction and delivering factory fresh vehicles is of utmost importance. The incident highlighted is a case of misconduct by the person engaged in transporting the vehicle to the dealer showroom.

Maruti Suzuki has raised the matter with the concerned dealer and the dealer has taken immediate action against his transport contractor as well as his employee.

Another person, Mr __XXX_____ (probably a Team-BHPian) had also written to Rohan Motors about the Team-BHP report. Rohan Motors have responded to Mr. __XXX_____ (email enclosed).

We appreciate your efforts in drawing our attention towards this. Thank you, this will help us improve and serve our customers better.

The dealership responds as well. This is the email they sent to Mr. __XXX_____

Dear Mr. __XXX_____

Thanks very much for your efforts for giving such an important information to us by taking trouble which I think no one else would have done.

We appreciate your gesture in bringing to the knowledge of Management such an unacceptable incident. Yes, you are absolutely right that the customer has to be delivered a new car and not a used one. We want to inform you that in fact the driver who was driving the vehicle was not on our roll. We have given a contract to an outside transporter namely Rajesh Transport company who takes the car from our stockyard and delivers at our Showroom.

We have taken cognizance of the situation and took it very seriously. The contractor has been removed immediately and is no more with us. We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused to you for taking this trouble and thankful to you in bringing this vital information to our knowledge.

We once again deeply regret the incident and we assure you that this type of incident is never repeated in future.

With warm Regards,

Virender Kumar
Vice President cum CS
Rohan Motors

[saket77]

I will appreciate Maruti for it. They have not only responded, but have an action to report. This will deter such incidents in future. Also kudos to Shivjeet (the OP) who took the pains of clicking the pictures and initiating this thread.
Well done!

[k_ajay]

Both Maruti Suzuki and Rohan Motors did not confirm that the Red Swift that was used to ferry passengers before delivery to the customer, WILL NOT BE SOLD to the customer.

Just saying.. That doesn't express commitment to customer satisfaction nor any real intent to improve better service to customers.

Originally Posted by blacksport

Am I the only one who is seeing a bit of sarcasm here? Sounds like: "No thank you for unecessarily meddling in none of your business".

Absolutely! Without a doubt. Clearly they are apologizing for the inconvenience to the person 'reporting' it and thanking him for taking the trouble that 'no one else would have'. Reeks of scarcasm.

[Grace]

Nothing new at all.

We used to regularly hitch rides from right from Hubli where our college was situated enroute to Bangalore on NH4, in brand new cars / Jeeps and tempo traveller and some times even in bus chassis. For a fraction of what a regular bus would charge, we got to travel in new vehicles.

I never gave it a thought till I read this thread, now feel guilty on putting our feet up in other peoples new car.

Andy

[saket77]

Originally Posted by k_ajay

Both Maruti Suzuki and Rohan Motors did not confirm that the Red Swift that was used to ferry passengers before delivery to the customer, WILL NOT BE SOLD to the customer.

Just saying.. That doesn't express commitment to customer satisfaction nor any real intent to improve better service to customers.

If hey had done it, it would have been brilliant. But that is probably expecting too much. In fact, companies sell lemons, repaired cars which are damaged in transit to unsuspecting customers and take no responsibility for it. Heck, they even sell display and test-drive vehicles at the same price. At least a strict action has been taken against the culprit here which will deter happenings of such incidents in future.

Regards.

[phamilyman]

Good job Shivjeet.

My old post was lost so heres a quick rehash.

Unlike others, I am not really pissed here. Unlike rash driving, which can damage the car's engine - this cannot result in lasting mechanical issues. What can happen? a torn seat plastic? Stains on the seat?

I would've accepted the car if I was the buyer - but only after feigning much rage and extracting a handsome discount. And then i wouldn't have cared. Stuff happens.

Philosophical diversion:
It is basically the symptom of a poor person trying to make an extra buck. I doubt that driver would've been paid more than 10-12k/month (~min wage in Delhi is 9k pm). He's just trying to add 30-40% to his day's earnings, and its tough for the dealership to police (noticed their vague response, well caught by k_ajay!) so they washed their hands off as well.

Key question is how we should respond and avoid such instances? Should we just identify our chosen cars at the yard, install a GPS tracker (or SMS tracker as GDsaab often did) and tell them that its under observation? That should put the fear of god into them!

[low_rider]

Originally Posted by Abh1nav

I completely lost faith in Maruti dealers after a horrible experience I had while purchasing the Zen Estillo in 2007. We had purchased the model in March 2007, and took it to a local accessory shop for getting the Audio System installed.

While installing the speaker in the back-right door, the installer made us notice that the door was dented and had been repaired and repainted!

This is not specific to Maruti, but almost all car dealers resort to such practices, including dealers of premium cars. The root cause lies in our poor implementation of consumer laws, where anyone can cheat you and get away with it.
We can be extra vigilant while buying a new car, but cannot notice a superbly concealed defect.
Atleast you got some compensation, but there are many cases where people had to just accept and move on.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by GTO

Maruti sends an official response:

Maruti Suzuki has a high focus on customer satisfaction and delivering factory fresh vehicles is of utmost importance. The incident highlighted is a case of misconduct by the person engaged in transporting the vehicle to the dealer showroom.

Maruti Suzuki has raised the matter with the concerned dealer and the dealer has taken immediate action against his transport contractor as well as his employee.

We appreciate your efforts in drawing our attention towards this. Thank you, this will help us improve and serve our customers better.

How exactly does it help them and how can the future customers be sure that such a thing will not be repeated? No mention of what will they be doing differently now to avoid such incidents. Firing the guy doesn't help one bit. The same contractor maybe enlisted by several other dealers in town, what stops this guy from being placed at another dealer?

Dealerships charge 'handling charges' inspite of HC directing against it, with even MS in full knowledge of it. For what? Common excuse, logistical and storage expenses. Is this what we pay the 'illegal' handling charges for?

Originally Posted by GTO

The dealership responds as well. This is the email they sent to Mr. __XXX________
----
We have taken cognizance of the situation and took it very seriously. The contractor has been removed immediately and is no more with us. We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused to you for taking this trouble and thankful to you in bringing this vital information to our knowledge.

We once again deeply regret the incident and we assure you that this type of incident is never repeated in future.

Again, nothing concrete in the response - no mention of any remedial steps to prevent such an incident. They will only react once they come to know of such things, won't move a limb otherwise to ensure it does not happen with everyone's car.

Originally Posted by k_ajay

Just saying.. That doesn't express commitment to customer satisfaction nor any real intent to improve better service to customers.

Bang on! Just what I was wondering on reading the replies.