[lazy]

hey ho ...... busy weekend, Skoda ?
Ensuring at least 40k of your core target market don't ever list you in their consideration set while making their car purchase decision. Why, many have even successfully convinced booked Skodas to be cancelled.

We, at Team-BHP, are what you marketing people would term as opinion-leaders.
Bad idea to spoil relations with these. Esp. in India, where car buying decisions are most influenced by word-of-mouth.

Kindly help Harish (and the others), listen to them and sort out their cars.

Team,
I am extremely proud to be a member here.

cheers
lazy

[maverickxx2006]

Originally Posted by harishv

Dealership was terminated on 5th September 2008. Their ego trip against me continues.

Harishv,

Hats off to you for your courage and grit to fight against unfair Skoda and its entities. I sincerely hope and pray that no one goes through the fate you have gone through.

Mods,

I think now its time to remove the red Skoda car pic from the Team-BHp site. Can we have some better representation of the automobile industry/ Torque / bhp etc?

I really hate to see the Skoda car on this site now after reading the horror stories. The car might be great, but considering the company as a whole it does not deserve to be representing on the team-bhp site.

No offence meant, this is my personal opinion.

[dockap]

Originally Posted by harishv

Dealership was terminated on 5th September 2008. Their ego trip against me continues.

The way things are going that trip is going to be short lived
best of luck bro hope you finally get a fair deal

[yzfrj]

Harish, we all are with you buddy.

Just because "Skoda" has a lot more zeros in their balance sheet does't give them the right to treat people/customers like crap.

Just because team-bhp helped a fellow member to bring out the truth, skoda is gonna take every bhp'n to court ?

This is INDIA we are not afraid to speak the truth, its our constitutional right the "O so great" skoda.

[harishv]

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

Nothing out of the way in the Counter/W.S./Version of events, that is scanned and posted here. There are no statements therein that are either wrong, contradictory or audacious. In fact these first paragraphs are 'boilerplate' or standard formats.

'Principal to principal' has a specific connotation in law, and is a standard denial in every case.

Sorry to be a wet blanket but, I see nothing untoward, unusual, unethical or audacious in the pages posted.

Cheers,

I am surprised Ravveendraa

So it does not matter that I have bought and serviced my car from this dealership since they are authorized dealers of the reputed multinational company.?

What has the company authorized them for, to do what, if they are not responsible for their actions.?

In that case our road side mechanic also, automatically becomes a dealer of Skoda.

You are saying it is not unethical?.

Well if that is true, so be it.

At least let the buyers be aware of Skoda's stand if the dealer plays truant.

They have to handle it on their own.

On a limb.

WOW

[loving_alaap]

Dear GTO and Mods.

Can we do something?

Can we do a signature campaign that we write or names and "designations" and we sign that i will never buy a skoda because of these reasons.

Initially we BHPians will sign this & late on our relatives / known persons.

After that we can represent the "Big" list to skoda. (also their international counter part)


IMO that will definitely open up their eyes.

TOGETHER WE CAN ACHIEVE ANYTHING!

[lamborghini]

@Harish, how can Skoda mention that? The dealers are agents of Skoda, who is the principal. The agents are representing the principal in this case, with his consent and knowledge and therefore, the principal has to be liable for the actions of his agents.
What makes this worse is that the agents have used the Skoda name to do their business, with the consent of the principal (Skoda).
Remember, this isn't a case of it being Pappu Independant Garage that took on repairing Harish's Skoda, without being affiliated with Skoda Company or vice versa. This is a case of Pappu Skoda Garage which was affiliated with Skoda that took on the work.
Skoda in no way can wash their hands of this, specially since there was a person from Skoda who was assisting in trying to dispose off the spurious parts.

Atleast that is the case out here in the States from what I have understood in my Legals Intro class.
Harish, this would question the whole contract that was drawn between Skoda and the A.S.C. right? Because if there was a clause that said that the A.S.C aren't representing Skoda, wouldn't the A.S.C be questioned as to why they were calling themselves A.S.C. of Skoda India?
Also, since Skoda didn't object and knew about them using their names (it is there on their website so they can't even deny it), but was aware of the same, it makes them liable as well.

[rahuldeodhar]

Hi,

I was considering Skoda Superb despite acknowledged issues like high price of parts etc. I am not going to buy anything Skoda or even Volkswagon. So who is the loser?

@ Meghna consider this -

this is the post powerful group of people who are really really enthusiastic about cars. Most of them have really good background in automobiles and are considered in-family experts about part costs, service center feedback, trip routes, driving habits and what not. Thie group was a real fan of Skoda Octavia vRS - you can see post related to that as well.

Even if you muscle out harish or a few others - the group will continue to hit your ratings. you should rather win the group and hopefully sales might increase. This will be much better than making skoda official car of India fashion week.

My 2 cents
Rahul

[shubhodeepdas@g]

1. Skoda is not in a position to challenge and threaten an online consumer forum, weather it's of 1 person or 40,000. We have a right to speak, in the past we have spoken in their favor (with a Red Octavia on the banner) and now we are voicing our opinion against them.

2. Team BHP can actually sue Skoda for them trying to infringe on freedom of speech. No one is maligning Skoda without evidence, they are here in this spot because of years of Excellent Cars and Equally Shoddy Service.

3. This particular case should be used as a model to form stringent guidelines in the Automobile Service Industry. It should also serve as a wake up call for the other similarly managed dealerships.

4. In case of any product, the Manufacturer is liable for any service by authorized agents. Be it a computer, a cell phone, or a car. There is no way to escape that.

5. If Skoda really wants to Muscle Around, we will gather the Facts and start support programs on Facebook, Myspace and other platforms as well.

Good to see the support, and good luck Harish.

[crackingride]

Originally Posted by rahuldeodhar

Hi,



@ Meghna consider this -

this is the post powerful group of people who are really really enthusiastic about cars.

Do we have to tell Marketing people how to do their job? Then what are the MNCs paying these people for? It's not the first time, nor will it be the last.
Even the Fabia launch was not without its share of high handed dealings. See here (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...tml#post819264) and here (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...tml#post851119)

We exist to pony up hard earned money, take whatever rubbish comes our way, and "feel special" or any of the other tag lines a brand might choose to do business behind.

[vinayvtec]

Originally Posted by nareshtrao

I own a Civic for two years and still own/have owned brands like Lancer, Maruti, Hyundai etc. in the past.

Honda Service has also not been outstanding in the past. (refer discussion on the V6 Thread). Perhaps that can be attributed to the dealer I bought the car from (Dakshin Honda). The service was indifferent and my attempts to reach the owner was scuttled by a Sales Person. Later contacting them on phone was also difficult and finally I shifted to another Dealer (Whitefield Honda). Now the service is excellent and the attention is far better. Even the General Manager Service is available for feedback which I find quite heartening.

Hence the conclusion is simple. In some of the cases the dealers make the difference. I will not hold Honda responsible but I will never go back to Dakshin Honda.

My experience with Skoda a few years back when I wanted to buy an RS was so horrible that I decided not to proceed. The Sales people were lax, irresponsive and had not technical details. I wonderd if the Pre-Sales was so poor, how the Post Sales Service would be.

I finally managed to reach the GM at the Dealer (TAFE Access) who promised to act and also wrote to Ahmednagar. However, the follow-up was so poor that I finally never bought the RS and instead went for Civic.

Last bt the not the least, my close to 9 year old Lancer is still rocking and in best shape (touchwood) due to great service by Dealers (Southern Motors). I can buy a Mitsubishi with my eyes closed any time because of this experience.

Food for thought. In all cases perhaps the Dealers make the difference. If they are keen, the company will go by their recommendation and make amends. Perhaps the same hold good in case of Harsh who has been wronged here by Skoda. I extend my Moral support to him and his family.

Oh my god Dakshin Honda???? There is a Thread on Dakshin Honda and people in Team-Bhp knows how good the Whitefield Honda is.. I think we need to forward that link to Skoda so that they will at least understand that we are not speaking bull, we have people with personal experience.

[rajismine]

Man..cant believe these skoda guys,

I was just about to book a octavia...will be in jaipur in 2nd wk of april and were to buy it for parents there

SKODA: I am no more buying one from you......there are better companies around.

Me as a customer do not care so much about product as I do for after sales. I mean its just a bad luck probably to get a defective product so can be excused....but bad quality of service cant be excused,

Rajeev

[VahanPujari]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skoda Corporate
Hello all,
for us at Skoda Auto, customer service is of prime importance.
A system is being put in place to address customer service issues online.
Our customer service department will scrutinize each issue and work proactively to resolve them on merit.

That is our commitment to you.
Many thanks,
Skoda.

Pls do not give us a beginning with training, competance etc. There is an earlier stage which is more important.

Father of our Nation has said 1 very very simple thing which is so essential for every business to succeed & he was not a management graduate from a world renowned univ. He said -

"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.
He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him.
He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it.
He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it.
We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so."

-Mahatma Gandhi

Can you see the relevance of this here? Can you now see the issues raised by various customers' grievances & what is the common root cause? Can you see now the 1st step i.e. what needs to improve first instead of training, communication medium, competance etc? Check each of the statements above & see how many times it was violated & abused in the cases in question here & you'll get the answer.

It's so simple yet so far

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by TakeOnMe

IMHO there is unprecendented vitriol in this thread.

And what the manufacturer has done is totally acceptable? Of course there is vitriol - what else do you expect people to do when they read about such experiences?

Originally Posted by TakeOnMe

Team-BHP is an automotive community. The industry is why Team-BHP exists, both have to co-exist.

Agreed, but perhaps Skoda needs to realize that it is an automaker and this is a community of automotive enthusiasts that actually buy cars. Perhaps the 'industry' will understand one day that it exists because there are buyers, not the other way around.

Whether they want to co-exist with us or not is their call - the threat came from Skoda, not from Team BHP. How come you only see one side of the coin?

Originally Posted by TakeOnMe

The carmaker has certainly paid attention. And this is what the supposedly aggrieved consumer originally wanted.

Perhaps you could clarify why you feel that the action taken by the automaker is 'certain' while the customer's grievance is 'alleged'?

Originally Posted by TakeOnMe

The thread should now be closed to allow reconciliation.

The thread is a response to Skoda's threat to take this forum to court - have they taken this threat back or at the very least have they bothered to apologise?

I'm sorry, but I really cant understand where you're coming from. Perhaps this is because I've never been to Aurangabad.

[Perakath]

Pardon me, but is the first instance T-BHP is taking an "official" anti-manufacturer stance? I thought there was a deep 'no commercial bias' (plus or anti) sentiment in this forum? I'm just a newbie, but I'd like to know the stated T-BHP policy on this, please? These may be exceptional circumstances, but I don't think it's right to align the entire community against one manufacturer, for whatever cause.

User harishv, my words aren't meant to detract from your suffering in any manner. I've read your story and salute your indefatigable spirit.

IMHO, the header picture of the red Octavia (in the 'BHP-Silver' skin) is gorgeous and looks much better than the black jeep that sometimes appears. Removing the picture simply because it's a Skoda car (as someone has suggested) seems an insecure and pointless idea.