Fiat Palio D & FortPoint Dealer review

mmmjgm · 4th November 2004, 22:17

Hi everyone,

I'd like to post an experience I had with FortPoint Autombiles with a Palio test drive during Dec' 2002. This is one of the weirdest customer interactions I have had so far.

I stay in Powai, Hiranandani Gardens, on Thursday I had called Fortpoint for a test drive of the Palio Diesel when Fiat had launched the vehicle. They said that someone would be there with the vehicle for a test drive at 12 pm on a saturday.

The salesman (forget the name) and the driver show up at 2 pm.

Really nice looking Metallic green coloured palio diesel fresh from the factory had plastic on the seats & was really new. The speedo had been disconnected as well, must be a pre-delivery piece. There was no number plate nor any number on the vehicle but that red sticker displaying that this is a pre-delivery piece. There was a temporary registration sticker on the bumper.

I always test diesel vehicles on a slope going up, since we did not have a decent enough slope in Hiranandani I asked the salesperson whether we could drive till LBS Marg at Kanjur Marg. He said okay, pretty decent vehicle. Very smooth as compared to the Indica DLS I later bought.

Now while coming down the slope from powai towards LBS Kanjur Marg I wanted to take a U turn and go up hill to see the car's performance on the slope.

There as I neared the signal at LBS Marg a traffic sub inspector at the side of the road signalled us to pull over. I was midway through the signal therefore I slowed down and parked the car below the flyover (under construction over LBS at Kanjur Marg).

Now the driver frantically shoved a form in my hand and asked me to fill up my licence number and sign before I could pull over and stop the car.

I did once the car was stopped and by that time a traffic constable was alongside the car, the air con was on so I lowered the driver's side window and continued to fill the form.

The cop then took the form and my licence and took it to the sub inspector waiting behind.

Lo & Behold, the sub inspector tells us that the car is not registered and only the person on the form is allowed to drive the vehicle for transit purposes only not for test drives as the sales man had countered to the cop.

The cop said that there is a fine of Rs. 2000.00 for driving an unregistered vehicle.

Fine, since my licence was in the mess I asked the cop that doesnt the form suffice ? The cop (constable) who had come alongside the car and had seen me signing on the form said that " they have filled the form right now". So the sub inspector said nothing doing and told to park the car at the side. So the sales man says "keep the licence but let us go"

At that point of time i was about to go ballistic, I told the Fortpoint salesman whats wrong with my licence ? The sub inspector intervened and told me that the licence will not be withheld but the car will be. - once again the tide turned.

The sub inspector then told the cop to take the keys and to take the car to Vikhroli Police station. By that the salesman had lost half the colour on his face

The sales man says that we were only taking a test drive- to that the cop retorts that do it in a field not on a road, anyways you need to have a registered car to test drive, and that you have filled the form incorrectly because the customer does not look like your employee.

So the sales man takes the sub inspector to the side and tells him that please keep the licence as a surety we will go and get the money for the fine.

I tell the cop that ive not done anything wrong why do you want to take my licence away if you want to take it gimme a challan. The sub insp. gives me back my licence and asks the driver for the keys.

By then the salesman from Fort Point asks me for my mobile and calls his boss up. Boss wants to talk to me into paying the cops 1500.00 because salesman + driver dont have money, wow. At this i told the manager of fort point that i dont have that kinda cash as we just came in for a test drive.

I knew that had i given the money, I would never have seen the money back. I would have been asked to buy a car so that the funds can be "adjusted" against my future purchase.

The sales man kept on pestering the cop to take the licence and let the car go so that they could get the money and give it to them. The cop knew what the game the salesman and driver were playing knew it .

By now I was extremely fed up of the situation and considerable time had past I wanted to go home rather than stand out on that polluted intersection.. I told the salesman to send his driver with me and "ill see what i can do for him" once i reach home. Asked the driver to come along with me.

By this time the salesman had drained my cell phone battery talking to his manager on the phone.

Took an auto from the intersection with driver (fortpoint) and reached home the driver didnt even volunteer to pay for the auto but walked out of the auto nonchallantly. Gave the driver some "jhol" about my family having left so didnt have the cash at home and that I had received several phone calls to leave to go for an important family meeting. Saying so the driver wanted to call his boss. I told him try a payphone and wished him bye with a glass of water.

Such is the integrity of the people dealing in FortPoint.

First of all any vehicle with a red sticker or temporary registration is only for dealer's employees to drive and that too has to be documented with the licence number and car chassis number and other details before driving out onto the streets. The document should bear your (test driver's) licence number and the car details along with stamp and sign of the dealer.

I will never recommend Fort Point to any one. Leave alone test driving a vehicle I was coerced into parting with my licence and had the rules not been in my favour the salesman would have made sure i would have suffered Fortpoint's lunacy and suffered monetarily.

Hope this helps.

regards
M M M

aadix · 5th November 2004, 01:27

very bad
u should have hit the salesman on the spot the moment he said "keepthe license"

Deeps · 5th November 2004, 02:09

This is a new story. Haven't heard anything like this. Why didn't u react more actively when the salesperson suggested that the cop keep your license??? Can't believe the kind of bs the potential customer has to bear even before booking the car!!!

RJK · 5th November 2004, 02:47

Damn..it just gets worse about Fiat! As far as I remember all the vehicles I test drove were registered cars except the Palio D which had come to me from Fortpoint as well. I'd once tested a Lancer D for which the the dealer(again Fortpoint) got me their Manager's '99 SLXd which had 65k kms on the Odo..not to mention that the car was all dusty from inside plus the sales person was arrogant to the hilt! I must mention Honda here for being thoroughly professional in this regard..they have proper Test Drive vehicles which are not sold to the customers...not only that they're serviced from time to time (have seen the TD cars being serviced in Linkway)wonder who else does that..not even Hyundai..

RJK · 5th November 2004, 02:50

Hey mmmjgm,

You should have just walked away when the inspector said that its not your fault. Gosh..the sales person had some audacity to say that keep the license ! I must say you were courteous enough to offer the driver water...I'd have told him to take another Auto from there itself & get lost.

Btw where in Hiranandani do you stay? 'coz I live in hiranandani as well

mmmjgm · 5th November 2004, 16:46

Hi Rjkulkarni,

I stay in Jal Vayu Vihar in Powai.

PM me for more details. Had I agravated the situation the cop would have taken us three for a royal ride. My licence would have been stuck and thanks to the Fort Point staff.

It was not the driver's fault, the salesman should know what procedures are meant to be followed for a test drive. Its not my job to know what documentation a temp regn car needs.

At the end of the day these people (Fortpoint staff) work at FortPoint because they need the money. Also they may loose money at the end of the day from their own salaries if they had to pay the cop at that point of time (going forward I am sure they did, because the manager also called me at home to release some cash).

Now just because their systems and operating procedures are non existent thats why their staff suffers, in the end due to lax management and pushy bosses the staff suffers all over again.

What would I have achieved by getting angry or aggravated at the salesman ? My licence came home free, I had to spend 12 bucks to get home thats it. But the driver and salesman got the lesson of their lives and most probably would have had to pay from their pockets which they cannot afford. I guess it would have been half a month's salary for the driver.

Anyway I cut my losses and came back home. I yet believe its the management's problem for being so pushy onto the staff. Believe me being in management the attitute of the senior management percolates down.

If there are good managers at the helm they do a good job of the staff for e.g. Concorde had really motivated and trained staff. Mr Bafna (head of FortPoint) needs to wake up & educate himself in Customer Response Management techniques.

As for the water -

well any one who comes to my house gets water atleast.

Keep clear of Fort Point end of the day message loud and clear.
Hope this helps.

Manish.

GTO · 5th November 2004, 19:17

Not considered a review of the Palio D at all. Even the dealership has been evaluated on a test drive experience. Topic moved to Indian Car Scene. Thanks for sharing the experience

GTO

normally_crazy · 6th November 2004, 13:30

This fortpoint is turning out to be quite a character , maan !!!

no way to treat a potential customer there , mmm pal u shud have slapped the sales guy on the spot and left taking ur license......

maan these multi car showrooms really suck....

cheers

sridhar24 · 7th November 2004, 12:11

I totally agree with you

shravan316 · 7th November 2004, 12:43

Wow, a terrible experience u had there mmm!
Take the license?? [img]http://www.team-bhp.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/***.gif[/img]

X-Machine · 7th November 2004, 22:28

Wooo,now that is surely a horrible experience.Had i been in ur position,i wud've seriously lost cool and screwed the car up.Perhaps,u shud've made a trip down Fortpoint for a test drive again....crashed thier car from several ends and ran away to get some mental satisfaction outta it.

X

Deeps · 8th November 2004, 00:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (X-Machine @ Nov. 07 2004,19:58)]Wooo,now that is surely a horrible experience.Had i been in ur position,i wud've seriously lost cool and screwed the car up.Perhaps,u shud've made a trip down Fortpoint for a test drive again....crashed thier car from several ends and ran away to get some mental satisfaction outta it.

X

Yeh this is the kind of treatment these guys deserve!!

lamborghini · 8th November 2004, 19:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (normally_crazy @ Nov. 06 2004,11:00)]This fortpoint is turning out to be quite a character , maan !!!

no way to treat a potential customer there , mmm pal u shud have slapped the sales guy on the spot and left taking ur license......

maan these multi car showrooms really suck....

cheers

faced the same problem while dealing with fortpoint
the guys actually had the nerve to ask me to buy a corsa instead of a siena...
had a tough time convincing him than i wanted the siena for my brother...

4th November 2004, 22:17	#1
mmmjgm BHPian Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: BOM, PNQ, DXB Posts: 398 Thanked: 30 Times	Hi everyone, I'd like to post an experience I had with FortPoint Autombiles with a Palio test drive during Dec' 2002. This is one of the weirdest customer interactions I have had so far. I stay in Powai, Hiranandani Gardens, on Thursday I had called Fortpoint for a test drive of the Palio Diesel when Fiat had launched the vehicle. They said that someone would be there with the vehicle for a test drive at 12 pm on a saturday. The salesman (forget the name) and the driver show up at 2 pm. Really nice looking Metallic green coloured palio diesel fresh from the factory had plastic on the seats & was really new. The speedo had been disconnected as well, must be a pre-delivery piece. There was no number plate nor any number on the vehicle but that red sticker displaying that this is a pre-delivery piece. There was a temporary registration sticker on the bumper. I always test diesel vehicles on a slope going up, since we did not have a decent enough slope in Hiranandani I asked the salesperson whether we could drive till LBS Marg at Kanjur Marg. He said okay, pretty decent vehicle. Very smooth as compared to the Indica DLS I later bought. Now while coming down the slope from powai towards LBS Kanjur Marg I wanted to take a U turn and go up hill to see the car's performance on the slope. There as I neared the signal at LBS Marg a traffic sub inspector at the side of the road signalled us to pull over. I was midway through the signal therefore I slowed down and parked the car below the flyover (under construction over LBS at Kanjur Marg). Now the driver frantically shoved a form in my hand and asked me to fill up my licence number and sign before I could pull over and stop the car. I did once the car was stopped and by that time a traffic constable was alongside the car, the air con was on so I lowered the driver's side window and continued to fill the form. The cop then took the form and my licence and took it to the sub inspector waiting behind. Lo & Behold, the sub inspector tells us that the car is not registered and only the person on the form is allowed to drive the vehicle for transit purposes only not for test drives as the sales man had countered to the cop. The cop said that there is a fine of Rs. 2000.00 for driving an unregistered vehicle. Fine, since my licence was in the mess I asked the cop that doesnt the form suffice ? The cop (constable) who had come alongside the car and had seen me signing on the form said that " they have filled the form right now". So the sub inspector said nothing doing and told to park the car at the side. So the sales man says "keep the licence but let us go" At that point of time i was about to go ballistic, I told the Fortpoint salesman whats wrong with my licence ? The sub inspector intervened and told me that the licence will not be withheld but the car will be. - once again the tide turned. The sub inspector then told the cop to take the keys and to take the car to Vikhroli Police station. By that the salesman had lost half the colour on his face The sales man says that we were only taking a test drive- to that the cop retorts that do it in a field not on a road, anyways you need to have a registered car to test drive, and that you have filled the form incorrectly because the customer does not look like your employee. So the sales man takes the sub inspector to the side and tells him that please keep the licence as a surety we will go and get the money for the fine. I tell the cop that ive not done anything wrong why do you want to take my licence away if you want to take it gimme a challan. The sub insp. gives me back my licence and asks the driver for the keys. By then the salesman from Fort Point asks me for my mobile and calls his boss up. Boss wants to talk to me into paying the cops 1500.00 because salesman + driver dont have money, wow. At this i told the manager of fort point that i dont have that kinda cash as we just came in for a test drive. I knew that had i given the money, I would never have seen the money back. I would have been asked to buy a car so that the funds can be "adjusted" against my future purchase. The sales man kept on pestering the cop to take the licence and let the car go so that they could get the money and give it to them. The cop knew what the game the salesman and driver were playing knew it . By now I was extremely fed up of the situation and considerable time had past I wanted to go home rather than stand out on that polluted intersection.. I told the salesman to send his driver with me and "ill see what i can do for him" once i reach home. Asked the driver to come along with me. By this time the salesman had drained my cell phone battery talking to his manager on the phone. Took an auto from the intersection with driver (fortpoint) and reached home the driver didnt even volunteer to pay for the auto but walked out of the auto nonchallantly. Gave the driver some "jhol" about my family having left so didnt have the cash at home and that I had received several phone calls to leave to go for an important family meeting. Saying so the driver wanted to call his boss. I told him try a payphone and wished him bye with a glass of water. Such is the integrity of the people dealing in FortPoint. First of all any vehicle with a red sticker or temporary registration is only for dealer's employees to drive and that too has to be documented with the licence number and car chassis number and other details before driving out onto the streets. The document should bear your (test driver's) licence number and the car details along with stamp and sign of the dealer. I will never recommend Fort Point to any one. Leave alone test driving a vehicle I was coerced into parting with my licence and had the rules not been in my favour the salesman would have made sure i would have suffered Fortpoint's lunacy and suffered monetarily. Hope this helps. regards M M M
	() Thanks

5th November 2004, 01:27	#2
aadix Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: hyderabad Posts: 1,597 Thanked: 14 Times	very bad u should have hit the salesman on the spot the moment he said "keepthe license"
	() Thanks

5th November 2004, 02:09	#3
Deeps Senior - BHPian Join Date: May 2004 Location: Delhi/Noida Posts: 1,116 Thanked: 170 Times	This is a new story. Haven't heard anything like this. Why didn't u react more actively when the salesperson suggested that the cop keep your license??? Can't believe the kind of bs the potential customer has to bear even before booking the car!!!
	() Thanks

5th November 2004, 02:47	#4
RJK Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Bombay Posts: 1,139 Thanked: 697 Times	Damn..it just gets worse about Fiat! As far as I remember all the vehicles I test drove were registered cars except the Palio D which had come to me from Fortpoint as well. I'd once tested a Lancer D for which the the dealer(again Fortpoint) got me their Manager's '99 SLXd which had 65k kms on the Odo..not to mention that the car was all dusty from inside plus the sales person was arrogant to the hilt! I must mention Honda here for being thoroughly professional in this regard..they have proper Test Drive vehicles which are not sold to the customers...not only that they're serviced from time to time (have seen the TD cars being serviced in Linkway)wonder who else does that..not even Hyundai..
	() Thanks

5th November 2004, 02:50	#5
RJK Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Bombay Posts: 1,139 Thanked: 697 Times	Hey mmmjgm, You should have just walked away when the inspector said that its not your fault. Gosh..the sales person had some audacity to say that keep the license ! I must say you were courteous enough to offer the driver water...I'd have told him to take another Auto from there itself & get lost. Btw where in Hiranandani do you stay? 'coz I live in hiranandani as well
	() Thanks

5th November 2004, 16:46	#6
mmmjgm BHPian Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: BOM, PNQ, DXB Posts: 398 Thanked: 30 Times	Hi Rjkulkarni, I stay in Jal Vayu Vihar in Powai. PM me for more details. Had I agravated the situation the cop would have taken us three for a royal ride. My licence would have been stuck and thanks to the Fort Point staff. It was not the driver's fault, the salesman should know what procedures are meant to be followed for a test drive. Its not my job to know what documentation a temp regn car needs. At the end of the day these people (Fortpoint staff) work at FortPoint because they need the money. Also they may loose money at the end of the day from their own salaries if they had to pay the cop at that point of time (going forward I am sure they did, because the manager also called me at home to release some cash). Now just because their systems and operating procedures are non existent thats why their staff suffers, in the end due to lax management and pushy bosses the staff suffers all over again. What would I have achieved by getting angry or aggravated at the salesman ? My licence came home free, I had to spend 12 bucks to get home thats it. But the driver and salesman got the lesson of their lives and most probably would have had to pay from their pockets which they cannot afford. I guess it would have been half a month's salary for the driver. Anyway I cut my losses and came back home. I yet believe its the management's problem for being so pushy onto the staff. Believe me being in management the attitute of the senior management percolates down. If there are good managers at the helm they do a good job of the staff for e.g. Concorde had really motivated and trained staff. Mr Bafna (head of FortPoint) needs to wake up & educate himself in Customer Response Management techniques. As for the water - well any one who comes to my house gets water atleast. Keep clear of Fort Point end of the day message loud and clear. Hope this helps. Manish.
	() Thanks

5th November 2004, 19:17	#7
GTO Team-BHP Support Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Bombay Posts: 70,464 Thanked: 300,016 Times View My Garage	Not considered a review of the Palio D at all. Even the dealership has been evaluated on a test drive experience. Topic moved to Indian Car Scene. Thanks for sharing the experience GTO
	() Thanks

6th November 2004, 13:30	#8
normally_crazy Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Mumbai Posts: 4,369 Thanked: 528 Times View My Garage	This fortpoint is turning out to be quite a character , maan !!! no way to treat a potential customer there , mmm pal u shud have slapped the sales guy on the spot and left taking ur license...... maan these multi car showrooms really suck.... cheers
	() Thanks

7th November 2004, 12:11	#9
sridhar24 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Bengaluru Posts: 1,046 Thanked: 88 Times	I totally agree with you
	() Thanks

7th November 2004, 12:43	#10
shravan316 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,029 Thanked: 9 Times	Wow, a terrible experience u had there mmm! Take the license?? [img]http://www.team-bhp.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/***.gif[/img]
	() Thanks

7th November 2004, 22:28	#11
X-Machine Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Mumbai/Tokyo Posts: 1,475 Thanked: 29 Times	Wooo,now that is surely a horrible experience.Had i been in ur position,i wud've seriously lost cool and screwed the car up.Perhaps,u shud've made a trip down Fortpoint for a test drive again....crashed thier car from several ends and ran away to get some mental satisfaction outta it. X
	() Thanks

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