[ps_abhijith]

Note :
The below post is not meant to defame anyone / any Brand, or hurt the sentiments of any any Fanboys. I am only stating the facts and inferring anyone with common sense could do. My brother and I personally use an Altroz Diesel, we also had a Tiago since 2017 which was replaced with the Altroz. I had a TATA nano from 2017-2020, and did more than 35k km on the car during this time. The whole point of this post is to bring attention to the deteriorating After sales experiences of TATA car owners, especially the dwindling number of service centres.

Lets go back a few years and TATA motors had one of the lowest market share, their products were uninspiring, and the sales numbers were usually in 1000-2000 cars per month. Fast forward to today and TATA is a key player in the Indian market, selling upwards of 15000 cars per month. And the products cater to everyone in the market, are attractive and honestly are great. With the new Punch launch, that number is definitely set to grow higher. There was a time when if someone recommended a TATA car to you, they simply hated you. But with the new fleet of cars starting with Tiago and Nexon, they have now become the default choices for most people and I personally had recommended them to a lot of close people in my family as well as to friends.

Recently we all have seen news articles of TATA opening up hundreds of "Sales Outlets" in a day, or over a span of few days. I live in Kerala, and to be honest, TATA Sales outlets has become more like ration shops here, you have one everywhere you go. And they are selling cars like hot cakes now. All good and happy there.
In the olden days, when you see a car showroom, its mostly a showroom-service centre combo kind of deal.
Now, look back at all the news headings, all newly opened ones are "Sales Outlets". The truth is, none of these do have service centres associated with them. These are mostly stand alone sales outlets which are under some major showroom in that area.

Lets take a look at our current "Service" experience:
Our Altroz was due for its first service, we called up the dealer from whom we got the car to book the service. We were asked to call up their dedicated service centre at Kottayam. This was on Sep 5. The minute we mentioned service, we got a reply that next available service slot was on Sep 21. What are we supposed to do till then, not drive the car? We had no other option but to book the service for 21 Sep, as other service centres in Kottayam were having worse waiting times for service. The most wonderful thing about this is that we have owned Maruthis, Hyundais and Hondas. We always get reminder calls for service booking from the service centres well before the service due date (sometimes too many calls from Hyundai). From TATA, absolutely no call or reminder.

We went for the service on 21 September. The service centre was crowded. Reached there at 10 am, and an SA was allocated at 12.30 pm. (Honestly not exaggerating). The conversation went as below:

SA : Sir, we are too busy, we cant wash your car today. I will give you a letter, you can bring the car anytime later to wash it.
Brother : I want the oil to be changed, will pay for the oil and labour charge.
SA : Sorry sir, if you want the oil to be changed, we can only give your car back tomorrow.
Brother : I have few other issues on the car. (Keyless entry not working occasionally, Automatic climate control fan speed not working, one of the grab holders is broken, There is a sound from turbo when the foot is lifted off the accelerator)
SA : Sir, you can bring the car later at some point for all of this, and we will take care of this then.
Brother: This is the first service, you cant wash, you cant change oil, you cant address any issues. So what exactly are you going to do as service?
SA : (Nervous smile) Sir, this is just an inspection. We check everything thoroughly to be sure nothing is wrong.
Brother : And if you find something is wrong, what are you going to do?
SA : Sir, we will note it down, and you can bring back the car after few weeks.

So what is going wrong?
Tata has been selling more and more cars every month. They have been opening more sales outlets to fuel this. But the number of service centres has stood at a standstill for a few years now. With the current number of cars already sold, the service centres are squeezed to the maximum capacity.
Result? Poor service experience, poor service quality, and mostly customers concerns and complaints are not addressed properly. More than two weeks to book a service for your car is completely unacceptable. That too, once you get there, they cannot wash your car, they cannot do anything other than an inspection, they cannot even listen to you properly. On top of this, TATA cars of these days are having more niggles than say couple of years back.

Before someone jumps at saying its not like this, I present the numbers for Kerala.

As of today, Kerala has 78 TATA Sales outlets across the state.
To service the cars sold by all these outlets, they have just 21 service centres all over Kerala.
Data from https://dealer-locator.cars.tatamotors.com/) I do have the complete list of sales outlets and service centres from this site.
ServiceList.pdf

What has this led to : Up until a few months ago, we would have recommended a TATA car to anyone. Our cousin is getting married in December. He wants to get a new car, and was looking at Altroz or the upcoming Punch. Based on our current experience, we have asked him to check out the sonnet / Venue & Jazz, and not to go for a TATA car.

What is needed?
TATA needs to recognize this as a serious issue, address it by opening up more service centres matching their sales numbers, so that all cars can be taken care of properly. What's is the point in selling all these beautiful cars, and then abandoning the customer when it comes to service?
Who is going to service them and address and fix the small niggles and issues?
And how long are the cars going to last without proper care?

[Nikhil Beke]

In the olden days, when you see a car showroom, its mostly a showroom-service centre combo kind of deal.

I was told by a dealer that my new Altroz, if purchased from them, would undergo first two services at the stockyard itself("it's only an inspection, sir!"). The other dealer has begun operations of two brand new showrooms, while the service centre is under construction (SAs couldn't even tell me where the location of the SC is going to be.)
Seriously, in the short term, they at least could try what Toyota has been doing- partner with a multi-brand workshop.https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...yota-cars.html (In a first, Toyota to partner with multi-brand workshops to service Toyota cars)

And in the long run, they should consult their newest senior (CV division) recruit who's looking after their international business and strategy He had done a stellar job with his prior company in this regard.

[lsjey]

Enough has been said about Tata service. Still, want to add one more:

1. Opening service centres is one thing. It is quite another to train the staff properly. Either this or the service centres have to poach from others with increased salary. This will only lead to poor service again.
2. This is expected growth pain. I'm sure TaMo will manage this the Jugaad way. So owners have to expect bad service and be watchful when they take their cars for service.

Regards,
lsjey

[RK79]

I thought,it was only a problem at my native place Kottarakkara. When I called for a periodic service appointment,I was told to bring the car after 10 days at Muthoot Tata. Since I was on Covid duty,and the car was running daily and couldn't take any risk , went to another service center Focuz, Kollam, after booking the previous day. They took the car in the morning on my way to hospital, and returned by afternoon after my duty,washing was refused by me.

Two weeks back again approached Muthoot Tata for changing a cracked foglamp.They have the part, asked me to book an appointment which is after a week during afternoon when my duty gets over, and when I reached there, the SA wants to keep the car for a day since changing fog lamp needed to remove the bumper and its a "big" job. Refused and came back, did a bit of exploration and found out that the fog lamp can be removed with a spanner and a screw driver without removing the bumper in 15 min.Ordered the part from Boodmo and planning for a DIY.

For my wife's car Celerio, it was even better. Called Popular, Kottarakkara for periodic service in the morning, took the car at 3 pm, got it back by 5.30 pm,washing included.

[aswin ajith]

Originally Posted by ps_abhijith

Note :
My brother and I personally use an Altroz Diesel

Hi Abhijith,

Just read through your entire ordeal. I am also from Cochin, and I just picked up a diesel Altroz in July. The car came with niggles off the factory itself which was missed at PDI. Before I went ahead and raised hell, they somehow fixed all of it at first service. And I agree with your point regarding appointment, I got an appointment almost 3 weeks after booking for first service, which I told them was completely unacceptable to me. They said, they were bombarded with cars due to lockdown and had a huge queue.

However, all points were addressed exactly the way I wanted. Made friends with a guy there who is an SA. I asked for an oil change as well which was promptly done. Refused wash.

All in all, I am having a good experience. I expect the WORST in terms of service and attitude from Tata. Even though I am having a good experience now, I still expect the worst in future services and visits. I have clearly communicated this to them as well.

Just ready to deal with these guys for a few years to come, only because I loved driving the car, nothing else worked for me in that segment. I feel that if we are firm and give across a message that we mean business, we are pretty much covered.

The dealer in question is Gokulam Motors.

Also just like you mentioned in your posts, I am also looking forward to that day when Tata announces opening of a few more service outlets more than sales. A section of them are completely ruining it for TaMo.

Do feel free to reach out via PM. May be we could help each other out when time comes.

Cheers !!!

[GTO]

Have heard similar complaints. Renaming the thread as their car sales have certainly outpaced the service network. Tata has gone from 10000 - 15000 monthly sales in 2015 to now 25000 - 30000 sales each month! What's more, Tata's cars are not as fuss-free to own or as reliable as say, a Maruti or Toyota. Hence, the burden on existing workshops is a lot.

Give it time. I think it'll take a handful of years for the service network to catch up. When Tata was selling 10 - 15k a month, it lost many good dealers and found it difficult to recruit new ones. But with their current sales volumes and higher priced products, it's relatively easier to get new dealers onboard.

[CARDEEP]

In my opinion for Maruti, Hyundai & Tata there ought to service only company authorised outlets. There are few for first two in NCR,bit haven't heard about Tata's such outlets here. In my opinion & experience with one such for my Hyundais they are better at work than a regular dealer who operates sales showroom & service centre both.

Makes better business sense too IMO.

[ps_abhijith]

Originally Posted by aswin ajith

Hi Abhijith,

Just read through your entire ordeal. I am also from Cochin, and I just picked up a diesel Altroz in July.

From my experience in Kochi, your best option would be to stick to Focuz Motors at Edapally. They no longer have sales outlets, so does "focus" on service mostly. This includes a good body shop too.

[shortbread]

They got the country boss, they're planning to buy the factories, then why not pick up Ford dealerships as well. Trained sales and service staff, very experienced and a wide network.

Am I missing something?

[ArTigor]

As a Tigor Diesel owner for the past 4 years, I completely agree with this thread. During 2017 end, Tata was probably at rock bottom, their Service centers and sales outlets had hardly any rush. I enjoyed prompt service during that time. Gradually the rush started increasing with new launches. Their workshops are now overcrowded, and another issue (if not atleast the quality of service) is the efficiency of the service men, they are slow, this I can say after watching Maruti service men working at the bay v/s Tata guys at the bay, whenever I go to the service station I monitor my car from the service lounge, for a Major 15k km service the car is generally occupying the bay for 3-4 hours and mostly they have one person working at a time on one car, this as compared to MASS which has 2-3 people working simultaneously on my K10 which generally requires 2 hours at the bay. This surely impacts the efficiency, recently in Navi Mumbai, Tata shifted their service center and showroom to a very big(literally 3 times the size of their earlier workshop) facility which was earlier occupied by Maruti. Last time I visited this workshop for replacement of fuel inlet pipe due to rat bite damage, a simple job like this needed 3 hours, this when atleast 4 service bays were lying empty! Tata needs to train their service staff for better time management and efficiency, they need to employ more mechanics. As far as I have observed their workmanship for regular service has improved here in Navi Mumbai, but time management is an issue, there has been one time when I have got my car back only on the 2nd day. But apart from that every time I have received my car promptly on time, due to good relation with my service center.
Another major thing is the number of service centers, city of Panvel has no Tata service center, my colleague who stays in Rasayani near Panvel has to drive down to Navi Mumbai for service, thats almost 40 km one way. It is just because of the lack of service center that he is looking forward to a FNG now, or else he would have always prefered TASS.

[JJ1991]

Tata service especially in kerala is sub-par in my district, Kottayam in kerala they have two service centers one is focuz motors who mostly do only regular service and other one is is mk motors whose service centre is located in the middle of nowhere and the quality of their work is abysmal( just search on google and the reviews show the real picture). I've been to concorde, gokulam and malayalam services too in Ernakulam and haven't had any satisfactory services yet.seems like the technicians are living in indica, indigo era. With the increase in sales the already poor service quality will again deteriorate. Tata surely makes some great cars, but it's all downhill as soon as you collect the key. Attached photos were taken during the delivery after a minor accidental repair with misaligned tail lamps paints and scaratchs all over, they even debadge the car for you ( nexon mascot was stuck on with some fevigum and it fell off when I touched)

[4by4]

Originally Posted by ps_abhijith

Note :
The below post is not meant to defame anyone / any Brand, or hurt the sentiments of any any Fanboys. I am only stating the facts and inferring anyone with common sense could do. My brother and I personally use an Altroz Diesel, we also had a Tiago since 2017 which was replaced with the Altroz. I had a TATA nano from 2017-2020, and did more than 35k km on the car during this time. The whole point of this post is to bring attention to the deteriorating After sales experiences of TATA car owners, especially the dwindling number of service centres.

Couldn't Agree More. Here in Chandigarh they just have one dealer. The service center is overwhelmed with rush.
1. Tata certainly needs additional dealers
2. The level of finesse of existing dealers need improvement by several notch. The difference as compared to Hyundai, Honda or Toyota is stark, especially for clients with high end SUVs.

Mod Note: Please quote ONLY the relevant bits of a post. Quoting a full, long post inconveniences our mobile readers.

[charanreddy]

+1. I have personally seen getting my Tata Nexon serviced difficult over the years. In 2018, it had a maximum lead time of a few days, now it’s in weeks and forget pick up and drop off, the appointment is so far ahead that no one will actually bother.

For my 3rd year service, I had to visit the service Center 3 times. The first time they changed oil and the filters only. I needed a timing kit change as well as the SA informed me that to get the extended warranty this was needed. I was asked to visit exactly at 8 AM to get it done and it took me two days (30+ KMs distance to service Center.) for my car to get ‘accepted’ .

In Bangalore I stay near Sarjapura and have two service Center only which are relatively accessible. Kropex motors near Singasandra, Hosur Road and KHT near Whitefield. Both of there are super busy. It’s high time Tata adds atleast 2 more service centres.

[Sebring]

While I'm happy with Key Motors, and to an extent - Adishakti I agree with you that Tata Motors needs to expand their Service Centers. The other dealer led outlets just don't measure up. How can they just increase Sales outlets by leaps, and not cater to the burgeoning Service demand?

[jeepster]

Not so off-topic.

Can any one help me connect to concerned official to get a authorized service center for tata passenger and commercial vehicles.

I am interested in setting one up in Osmanabad district (MH25) of Maharashtra.

rgds,
Nikhil