[locusjag]

I have a vague memory of a Skoda vs. customer case from 2011 playing out on Team-BHP.com. I wasn't a forum member back then. I don't know if this is the same or a different instance as then...but I've since 2011 ensured that no one that I know has bought even a used Skoda. I'm doing the same with MG now.

A company that feels conceited enough to go after their customer simply cannot provide the requisite levels of after sales service and support. I mean, who knows what else they'd do to you?

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

A Multiple ongoing legal & reputational catastrophes were mediated and settled including the famous one where BLR Vinayak Skoda tried to pass off an ordinary Rapid as the Monte Carlo / Black Edition!

Originally Posted by carboy

So I quickly went through the thread. Did Suhas get any compensation other than replacing the car - I mean he spent a lot of time & effort on the follow-up. At the end, all he seems to have got was what he should have got in the beginning. Were there any repercussions for Vinayak Skoda - I mean they are still up & running.

To the contrary Suhas did not get much help from Skoda. He was made to run around for a long time, then made to attend court hearings where Skoda and the dealer dragged the issue for ages and finally when the court was about to award a sentence in his favour, he felt the new Skoda management might be more receptive to his ordeal. It was then, in the face of an impending court order anyway, that Skoda asked the dealer to give him a new car. It was the car that he had anyways paid for upfront and hence does not qualify as any compensation whatsoever. Moreover even in the car's registration, the dealer made him run here and there till the end. So that particular case was in no way a reflection of things getting even close to normal in the world of Skoda.

[libranof1987]

More power to the likes of Harish and Team-BHP. Both, Harish and the Mods here, must've had to take some really tough calls in seeing this through.

Several companies have been foolish to underestimate the power of internet and social media; especially, when it comes to hiding their own wrong-doing. I do hope someone within the VW Group thought it necessary to understand why this happened: Skoda India protecting the dealer, doing everything to allow this issue to be swept under the carpet, making life as miserable as possible for the victim.

This has to be a systemic, organic problem with Skoda. There cannot have been one person behind it all. Had it been so, Suhas would not have to struggle when he was cheated on his Black edition. The rot lies within.

[KiloAlpha]

I had followed the case very closely back then. At that time, I had also just recently relocated back to India from UK. In UK and in Western Europe, I had seen that Skoda and their dealers had a very good reputation for friendly and a very high standard of customer service. I found it inexplicable that the very same company would allow a situation like this to escalate to the level that it had. Something was not right, and that something had to have started at the very top.

Until I am thoroughly convinced that Skoda's principles, strategy, processes & procedures of dealer management, and their approach to resolving escalated customer complaints, have changed - i.e., done a complete U-turn - I would be very reluctant to recommend or even consider a Skoda.

Question is, since this case closed, am I convinced? I am slowly getting there.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by carboy

Did Suhas get any compensation other than replacing the car - I mean he spent a lot of time & effort on the follow-up. At the end, all he seems to have got was what he should have got in the beginning. Were there any repercussions for Vinayak Skoda - I mean they are still up & running.

Getting people to do what they originally did isn't good enough. This is why even if American Tort has a lot of issues, it's good in it's own way.

My limited point was that Skoda IN seems to have improved / is improving in the last few years. I still stand by my point that IN & HO management was reshuffled, mid-senior people were eased out, experienced expats were brought in, a comprehensive dealer assessment was carried out and significant investment made in many, new parts distribution centres established across India, legal cases were arbitrated and settled, customer outreach and feedback was improved and general agility is being shown nowadays in the transition to BS-VI and introduction of new products.

What I do not know why the courts did not see through the shabby ruse used by Skoda & its dealers, why punitive damages were not decreed, why class actions were not filed etc. etc. Those are systemic and legacy corporate governance, legal & ethical issues way beyond this case.

In an utopian world, Skoda would have settled immediately with Harish (not Suhas) and give him a new car plus hefty compensation, Skoda (again) would have been royally rammed for the DQ200 debacle like in China, GM would not have dared fudge the Tavera's CoP testing, Ford would not have dared remove a structural member from the IN Endeavour, Renault would not have dared put inferior body integrity into its IN cars, MG would be fined for overreporting the Hector's petrol DCT mileage & ARAI themselves would be in court for the same, and lastly the less said about Maruti-Suzuki the better