[TCS66SPDLSD]

This is great news, hats off to Mr Ratan, he sure did have a lot of patience to get to the end of this, I'm sure lot of people must have discouraged him, offers from the dealership to settle and bury the hatchet, but held on.

I’m sure this has far reaching effects as any one who googles about buying a new car or about these ‘ handling charges ‘ will come to know that they are just excuses to make dealers’ profits bigger.

Thanks OP for posting such useful information.

[mahen_narang]

Wonderful post.
About five years back when I got my first car, I too had objected to the handling charge. But my fight ended up after arguing with couple of sales executive and manager at the dealer's showroom.

Hats off to Mr ratan for fighting this through. It requires, time and dedication to set things right and you have done so for many other people.

Whether such charges continue in hidden or roundabout way is another argument but this judgement atleast represents that customers are not to be taken casually for their righteously earned hard money.

[srinath34]

Source - Motorbeam article



A Hyderabad techie by name of Mr. Ratan Grandhi has managed to make some breakthrough on a 2-year case regarding the so-called "handling charges" that dealers used to charge car buyers in the invoice value. He had purchased a Hyundai Xcent in 2014

The reason for such charges was fuel charges and labor charges and this was to be paid mandatory before the release of the car to the buyer.

Mr. Ratan paid the money and purchased the car, but vowed to get the money paid as handling charges back. He wrote a series of emails to Hyundai, from whom he got unsatisfactory replies and when he realized that this will not help him, he lodged a complaint with the Joint Transport Commissioner (JTC) about these charges.

Central Zone Transport Officer (RTO) G.P.N Prasad took on from there and started his investigation. They were successful in discovering that the handling charges were illegal and warned all the showrooms and also suspended licenses of two showrooms for these practices.

As a result of this, Hyundai started issuing circulars to all their showrooms across the country canceling the handling charges.Transport officials are alerting the general public about this kind of hidden charges and have asked the public to be careful while purchasing a motor vehicle.

Mr. Ratan has also been reimbursed Rs. 3000/- towards registration charges collected before, along with the Rs. 6950/- collected as handling charges.

Hope all other manufacturers also issue such a notice to their dealers to stop this illegal activity.

Mods - Please move this to appropriate thread if already available

[Kestrel5915]

But is there any circular or any kind of proof to show to the dealer in case the car maker hasn't issued any?

[Nonstop-driver]

Originally Posted by Kestrel5915

But is there any circular or any kind of proof to show to the dealer in case the car maker hasn't issued any?

+1. Unless there's an abridged version of this judgement or a Company circular against handling charges, I doubt the dealers will give it up.

[centaur]

There is a supreme court ruling on this which I too had used against my dealer when I got the refund. I am unable to find it for now but this is the closest what I got-

http://archive.indianexpress.com/new...arges/1007304/

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Defau...0701&AppName=1

[deerhunter]

Originally Posted by centaur

There is a supreme court ruling on this which I too had used against my dealer when I got the refund. I am unable to find it for now but this is the closest what I got-....

Here is the link for the Delhi high court ruling. The name of the case is C.Rajaram vs GNCT of Delhi.

Link

Also the pdf of the same.
C._Rajaram,_Advocate_&_Anr._vs_Gnct_Of_Delhi_&_Ors._on_20_April,_2012.PDF

[RavenAvi]

I can confirm this now.

Here is a quotation for the 2017 Hyundai Grand i10 Asta (petrol) which I received on behalf of a colleague recently. The "Handling" part is struck off, and replaced with Extended Warranty.

As per dealer, except for Insurance and RTO charges, everything else is optional.

Ex-showroom price is the same as on the official website.

[civic-sense]

1) A techie who gets billed at anything around Rs 1000 an hour, spending days behind a court case does not make economic sense.

2) Handling charges supplements the dealers margins, so be assured that he'd make up for the loss by offering lesser discounts.

3) If the handling charges are struck off by law, the dealers may pressure car manufacturers to jack up prices to accommodate higher margins.

4) If manufacturers can price their products according to their will, I wonder why dealers should not price their services according to their will. Funnily, the higher the authority is we fail to question them.

5) When you feel that the price of a car is high, you vote with your wallet. Similarly, if you feel that handling charges are unfair, you should rather vote with your wallet.

6) You cannot beat market forces by enacting laws. It is better to let market forces determine how money changes hands.

[deerhunter]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

4) If manufacturers can price their products according to their will, I wonder why dealers should not price their services according to their will.

Delhi high court and supreme court agrees to what you say. Delhi high court ruled that charges can be levied by the dealers for all the services rendered with the sole exception being commission for registration. Supreme court too supported this view. Even though SC opposed the handling charges initially, in the final order they passed a few month back, they supported the Delhi HC judgment. So handling charges per se is not illegal. Only that part of it, which is charged as a commission for registration, is illegal.

[Djay]

Wanted to provide an update on the Handling Charges issue based on a buying experience in Pune. I believe same will be applicable all over India.

I purchased a TVS Jupiter from a Pune authorised dealer last month. He added Rs. 1250 as 'Registration Service Charges' which was initially quoted in RTO Taxes & Others. Checked that the situation was same with other dealers. Protested with the showroom manager, who said its decided by management and not in his hands. Anyways went ahead with the purchase . Subsequently I raised a complaint with Pune RTO and informed the media.

Based on many such complaints a popular newspaper ran an investigation and subsequently Pune RTO clarified that such charges are illegal. They informed dealers to stop charging and put up a notice at all showrooms to this effect.

Armed with this update, I raised a complaint with TVS. The dealer manager called me up and after much discussion I received a full refund. However he informed that these are paid to RTO officials as bribes to quickly register vehicles without inspection. Now even if Pune RTO is denying the same and warning dealers, the practice of corruption has continued and no dealer risks challenging it. Even if all dealers were part of a recent meeting with Pune RTO, nobody raised the actual issue and all agreed that they do not pay anything to RTO (which I consider was a huge missed opportunity to stand up against this corruption). Worst part is that even manufacturers like TVS are turning a blind eye towards this and are asking dealers to just deal with any complaints from their own pocket.

The dealer has informed that they have started asking customers to go ahead with the registration process themselves, if they do not want to pay these charges (which is supposedly allowed as per Motor Vehicles Act). I urge all BHPians to avoid paying any such charges and try registering vehicles on their own . This may take additional 1-2 visits to the RTO, but will bring a slowdown to this huge corruption cycle which runs into crores of rupees if the volume of vehicle sales is considered.


The links of the newspaper articles in Sakal (Marathi) and the Indian Express provided below -

http://124.30.219.86/EpaperData/Saka..._1508_2406.jpg

http://124.30.219.86/EpaperData/Saka..._1906_1422.jpg

http://epaper.indianexpress.com/c/28903974

[Cooltronics]

I am buying a Hyundai Grand i10 for my parents and I notice that the Quotation has 3000 handling charges mentioned.
While I understand Hyundai has scrapped these charges, I need to have a proof to show to them to not levy.
I am also being charged 1800 for basic kit and 1200 for 4th year RSA.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

1) A techie who gets billed at anything around Rs 1000 an hour, spending days behind a court case does not make economic sense.

Originally Posted by Djay

The dealer has informed that they have started asking customers to go ahead with the registration process themselves, if they do not want to pay these charges (which is supposedly allowed as per Motor Vehicles Act). I urge all BHPians to avoid paying any such charges and try registering vehicles on their own . This may take additional 1-2 visits to the RTO, but will bring a slowdown to this huge corruption cycle which runs into crores of rupees if the volume of vehicle sales is considered.

Quoting 2 posts on this same page/ thread.
Bribes or convenience charges are offered usually by people who think (or really do) have better things to do than run around in circles of bureacracy. How many will take the actual effort is quite subjective. The amount is usually considered as payoff for the time, effort and cost of visits to the RTO. Unfortunately this has become so entrenched over a period of time that it has built itself into 'handling charges'

[Sheel]

Please, do not agree to these malicious charges. The dealer is bound to sell you the car, its on you if you wish to pay for insurance, registration or get them your self.

I do recommend getting extended warranty and that is it.

If the dealer is adamant, try contacting HMIL over email. That should help, if not, not worth buying Hyundai IMHO.

[andyb]

Had this negative experience with a couple of Hyundai dealers regarding the handling charges, in Mumbai last week. Even wrote to HMIL regarding the same. They had the dealer call me to sort it out. Nothing came out of it. Dealer was adamant, and went to the extent of telling me that it is in fact Hyundai who insists on these charges across the city and if he does not charge me, he gets into trouble with HMIL.

He asked me to take up the matter with them instead. Unfortunately I didn't have the patience to go back and forth anymore given the amount of time I had already wasted on the verbal and written communication with both the dealer and HMIL.

In addition to this, the dealership even went to the extent of insisting that I buy the insurance through them only, failing which they will not be able to sell me the Creta facelift.
I obviously took my business elsewhere but the important thing to note was he didn't budge from that decision. Amazed that dealers still think they can get away with this.