[Harbir]

I remember 4 years ago, I had trouble with a BMW dealer. I was extremely disatisfied and I said so on a forum, but somebody sent the message to the dealer who threatened to sue me for libel.

I discussed it with a lawyer who said that the dealer doesn't have a case but is just trying to throw his weight around using threats of legal action, hoping to scare me. He was right. I told the dealer "sue me. see you in court". I never heard from them again.

Of course this is dependent upon the quality of the US judicial system. Firstly, its libel if the dealer can prove that I was making false statements. but I could prove the truth of what I had said. Secondly, even if I was libeling the dealer, he would have to prove that I had caused him material harm, but how was he going to prove what harm I had caused him in $ revenue? Without that, how would the judge be able to award him damages to be paid by me?

It became clear that the dealer knew this and had no intention of going to court and was just trying to frighten me.

The situation in India is different. Anybody can register a case without much cost to them and put the accused in endless difficulties with the justice system. Evidence is easily fabricated or supressed. Witnesses easily bribed or coerced. There is no real jury to assess the evidence independently. And that bane of the court system, the stay order that is the biggest impediment to justice in India. Not to mention, the intellectual capacity of Indian judges to interpret the spirit of the law cannot be taken for granted. They treat us citizens like we are uneducated cattle. After all, our laws are made by politicians with no background in law, in legal history, our judges are not intellectual heavyweights, and rarely is a court case in India ever decided upon the ideals and principles of free society that underpin good laws.

This is a situation in which malicious people, from private citizens to corporations, misuse the law and the judiciary to cause extensive problems for innocent people who happen to be obstacles.

In light of this, I am particularly resentful of corporations using the threat of legal action against the citizens. They clothe themselves in moral saintliness by claiming that they are only asking everybody else to comply with the law, when the truth is that they are using the weaknesses of Indian Law and the Indian judicial system to stamp down the weaker parties.

Deplorable.

My best wishes are with the Team-BHP team.

[harishv]

Sad very sad. An opportunity to make 40,000 car lovers as brand ambassadors lost.

So be it.

Thanx Harbir, Regan and gang.

[sky.tata]

Just as a reminder, our contact details (as given previously) are manned by a team of customer service representatives and I would heavily encourage you to get in touch directly on any other matters you may have with any Skoda products.

This team of "customer service representatives" called me on the 16th of March to organize a test drive of the Superb....its now the 27th and they could arrange for a test drive to SELL a car, that too a Superb!! I really wonder how long they will take to assist us in service related issues. Anyway thanks to this thread and the tiiiiiiimmmmmmeeeee they have taken to arrange a test drive, I am now a proud owner of a Honda Accord.
Thanks Skoda for helping me make a wise decision, and saved myself from a lot of pain and agony.

[Harbir]

I have just read the original post with Harish Kanchan's accusations.

Skoda's clumsy attempts to silence discussion by making legal threats against team-bhp and its users has made me skeptical about Skoda's claims of innocence.

Given the corruption prevalent in India, I believe that it is Skoda's responsibility to demonstrate that it takes harsh action against any corrupt practices engaged in by its employees, dealers, and their employees.

Skoda's has two choices here.

1. Either demonstrate its openness and transparency regarding the standards of honesty it enforces upon its employees and dealers. and openly and publicly answer challenges made, even if that means opening the case here up to a full investigation, to accept any findings, and to suffer the consequences in any negative PR that may result.

2. Or to try and cover it up in order to protect the Skoda brand name and avoid negative publicity, and to hide any nefarious activities that some of its employees, dealers and their employees might have engaged in.

If the persons accused by Harish Kanchan are innocent, and Harish Kanchan is lying, then let Skoda demonstrate this by withdrawing all cases and show us all of the documentation that proves the falsehood of Harish Kanchan.

If Skoda does not do that, then it means Skoda is not interested in being transparent about the issue and is trying to use the courts to cover up something.

[Gagan.js]

Oh so many posts to enjoy reading in such a short time, fantastic.

- You are trying very hard to reach out....mhm okay you joined a car forum and made 2 posts, then threatened us, nice, im so scared i'll go book a superb so you leave me alone right now!

- You are in marketing as you say, word of mouth could just be the most important tool right? Take a guess and see if we will advise anyone to buy your cars. Heck your profile says you own a Hyundai..

-Oh oh oh I got it! You are not representing skoda, this is just some person faking...oh no maybe you are...mhm...I was just thinking of your official response, sorry my bad

-Don't give us jurisdiction crap, gimme 5 minutes and I can ruin your image further, but I won't. Don't underestimate the internet.

Google skoda sucks and see the results, maam, think twice before you make your next post.

Do what is right and no one here will do anything to harm your company image.
I'm sure you know
your dealers are crooks,
your customer service is a joke,
you can't accept what happened to Harish was wrong,
your cars are not reliable, cousins superb broke down 4th day
once something does go wrong, you treat us like crap

Sweet talking won't help okay, we have grown up, maybe you need to do the same.

As people said, this turned badly back on you, streisand effect, and we know skoda is watching, so even if you guys are going to say this account wasn't made by skoda, lets get real and try talking to this community instead of 2 frickin posts and a threat!

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by harishv

Sad very sad. An opportunity to make 40,000 car lovers as brand ambassadors lost.

So be it.

Thanx Harbir, Regan and gang.

Agreed. One would think an unknown Eastern European brand, more often than not trashed in Europe and the US, would probably treat customers in possibly the only market where Skoda looked upon as a 'premium' product a little more carefully.

I put reliability and after sales at the top of my must-have list. Skoda fails miserably on both counts.

And the cherry on the cake was this Skoda rep issuing threats to TBHP wrapped in legalese. G'bye for ever Skoda.

Rgds,

[tadukuttan]

I would like to try some examples of English usage, guys please correct me I am wrong.

Of course, these are only examples of English, and not the reality, as you all already know.

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

I'm not sure what it means to instigate someone in an ongoing court case.

Skoda India instigates it's employees to steal parts from customer cars. Correct right?

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Because the hosting or publishing of anything may instigate people or a company to go to court, but does not instigate them in a court case. That's just bad English.

Another example here would be, Skoda India is guilty of instigating employees to threaten Indian public, and use illegal means to cheat Skoda Customers by using duplicate spare parts in it's showrooms. Correct?

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Perhaps you mean to say implicate someone in the case - that would make more sense. [/i]

Skoda India falsely implicates it's customers in court cases if they complain that Skoda India is instigating it's employees to steal spares from customer cars, and replace them with Skoda duplicate spares? Correct?

Apologies for going off topic, just could not control my sudden urge to clear these english questions. I would be deeply obliged if anybody can let me know if these usages are correct.

[kb100]

I will not buy a NUT from Skoda ... or ANY VW group company - even if they PAID me for it!

From circa 2001-2, I have visited at least six dealers of Skoda - and have been uniformly shocked by their attitude to a 'paying' customer! I am a hard core sales guy - and here were a bunch of ppl treating customer walk-ins with such disdain that one actually felt apologetic for having considered buying the vehicle! I made up my mind right there and then - that if this was the 'buying' experience, then the ownership had to be nightmarish - AND IT HAS BEEN SO! I have not met a single person who owns a Skoda who has anything nice to say about them or their dealers -except of course the ones with the 'pull' . These are the ones the dealership will take extra care to ensure they are kept happy cause these are people who wont exactly react 'legally'!

Most ppl in so called 'corporate/marketing communications' dont know their front end from their rear - a sad reminder of the endless 'MBA' output! This lady just did the equivalent of stirring the proverbial 'Hornets Nest'!

My advice to the Skoda PR team - TRAVEL - and travel great distances.. you will need it to appreciate the mushroom cloud this is now going to generate!

[pranavt]

Mods, can you add "Now threatens T-BHP!" to the thread title?

[Limpid]

I was planning to buy a Laura in the near future, but not any more! I after reading this thread; I think I will not buy any Skoda product at all. I will advice same to all my relatives and friends to be aware of their bad practices.
It's a shame; this car is assembled in my home town.

[Jaggu]

We are here to share our experiences, both good and bad, and help each other in whatever way possible, as a automotive community in general. If we share our sympathies with one poor customer and support him in his fight against the malpractices of a dealer, is this what we need to expect from a manufacturer?

Glad that all this is being noticed by the concerned parties, but what i would suggest is some solution to the problem of the customer, rather than aimlessly shooting the messenger?

[sammyboy]

Way to go GTO. We all are with Harshiv and all other customers who are treated like crap by companies like Skoda.

Here are 40,000 bhpians ready for your court notices Skoda. Sue us, just make sure that you make enough arrangements as each bhpian will come with 10's more.

Tbhp is our family and we will not let any of our family members be treated like this.

[phamilyman]

Penny foolish, pound foolisher.

They want to pay legal fees.
They are okay making wild claims on a public forum (its archived for life now, lady!!)
They want to earn horrible disrepute.

But they don't want to clean up their own dirty backyard.

I had forwarded an older thread to a friend six months back - suggesting why an Octavia is a very bad long term idea. He quite unwillingly chose not to buy a Skoda - and after this thread, he's positively thrilled. How can you do this, Skoda?

PS: Even Royal Enfield, with all its shortcomings, can recognise a lemon and organize due compensation. Not bad for a company with non-stellar profitability.

[reignofchaos]

If skoda really cared even one bit about its customers, it would have started acting by now to rectify the problems with its atrocious levels of service instead of issuing lame threats such as the ones that started the thread.

I know of atleast one other manufacturer whose people frequent this forum and actively take interest in improving their service and also proactively try to fix the problems at source. Maybe skoda should learn a few things from such folks instead of threatening the very group of people who'd potentially be their clients.

[neoranjit]

Just one request GTO : Lets get rid of the red 'car' on top of this page with a better one.