[ajayr]

Originally Posted by evo

Ok guys, I was just wondering, is there any constructive next step that we can take?

Sorry to be so very repetitive, but guys, please Digg this thread: Skoda Auto sucks - threatens users describing their service

(I see only 50 odd Diggs so far).

If each one of the 1100+ members who have voted YES in this poll digg this, I am sure this thread will feature in the homepage of Digg.com and we will get a lot of attention.

Originally Posted by RakishRam

Brilliant, so far one of the best actions done from our side on this regard.

Thanks a lot

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by blacmagic

heres an attempt to fill in the double quotes...
...exceed our expectations...

This was exceptionally funny. ROFLMAO... I guess this dose of humour was sincerely required in a thread containing discussions which progressively expressed our anger at Skoda India's attitude towards its customers.

[VahanPujari]

Originally Posted by harishv

BTW, I am trying to find out the supply chain and the origin of these Skoda spurious parts. Got a few leads. Will try and discover actual delivery to one of these dealers. Let's see..... Might pull off a coup.

harishv - in all probability, you'll pull of the coupe. My guess is you would find the suppliers of spurious parts having links, in all probabilities, to Skoda India Officials or Dealerships.

Such practice followed by several dealers across the country does not mean an exception. It becomes then a philosphy in which Skoda India operates & encourages.

Originally Posted by harishv

aaggo

I am ready to put my neck on the line. Hang me if I am wrong.

Let us have a clinic, for all Skoda cars serviced by Nummer Eins ( lets start with them ), to verify parts for their originality. We can start with BHPian cars.

Let us have an expert on Skoda parts, somebody like ajmat ?, conduct this.

Let us have the media in on the party.

Trust me my friend, this will be the right one to hit the 'Breaking News'.

Let us advertise this gathering in leading newspapers and see how Skoda comes out of its shell, faster than a vRS, with the fire brigade clanging behind.

Skoda cannot take action against us for checking our own cars. can they?

But of course, you have to contend with the now famous tag line,

'these parts were not ascertained to have been put by our dealer'

Damn good idea.
I think this would be the most effective one.
harish - i'm ready to help whatever I can on this one.

[sidwadia]

Originally Posted by theMAG

Mod's note: Gents, lets please continue to focus on the original message of this thread - Skoda India's unacceptable attitude towards the truth and the Indian buyers' ownership experience, and NOT any tangential topics. We want to ensure this thread continues to drive home the point to Skoda India. Thank you.

I am tired of living in the hope that Skoda would revert with a responsible action plan if we just continue to "DRIVE WITH A LIGHT FOOT". Mods , allow me explain why i feel so :-
A) A Parent company that is willing to put it in writing that "Skoda India" is an independent Unit and do whatever the hell it wants.
B) The latest communication received from the customer servicing team calling Harish's case exceptional ? Am I hallucinating or does Skoda not see all the others complaints/links to dis-satisfied customers posted on this thread
C) No contact yet established with any of the aggrieved customers. If I try and empathize with the wicked Skoda management (try to think & act they way they would have ) - I would try and do good to a few aggrieved customers like Kapil + few others and sideline Harish (since I seem to have a ego issue with Him ) and earn some brownie points from the members in this thread. Hmmmm that would cost me less and also help me wriggle out of the issue of being non-responsive to ALL COMPLAINTS.

Wonder why Skoda hasnt tried anything OVERTLY to assuage the situation. My two cents -
A) They havent yet realized the extent of the damage OR
B) They believe our efforts will not get amplified beyond a few chain mails / blogs.

Well my intention is to help them see clearly the damage OVERTLY and CLEARLY. Thus my appeal to all the passionate members of this forum to do stuff that will catch the eyeballs of every SKODA employee :
i) Can we design a car sticker
- "OWN A SKODA - ACCEPT MY CONDOLANCES "
- "Allow us to take some weight off your wallet - with compliments : Skoda"
- " Friend in need is a friend indeed - is it not, damn Its Skoda's indeed"
- "Obsessed with Quality - of the Japanese cars"

ii) Lets get a electronic signature campaign with going within T-BHP and send out a formal letter to all concerned - Skoda India, All auto programs , News channels , Consumer forums etc

iii) Lets orchestrate a solidarity march / Pink chaddi on a pre decided date in front of the Skoda office / dealers.

Any more ideas ? Mods - may be I am sounding a little over the top : but guess what - Had skoda been a consumer centric company , We would have heard/seen far more concrete steps being taken - contacting the aggrieved members to say the least. It aint happening, and it aint gonna happen unless we shake them out of their superiority complex.

pls delete/ modify at will to make this post acceptable to the Forum.
thx
Sid

[navin]

Originally Posted by tortoiseNhare

1. Own up their mistake immediately and compensate Harish and apologise to the TBHP community

2. Bring down spare prices to acceptable levels (should be possible because taxi operators over there are definitely not paying through their noses to maintain those cars).

Sure we would all love to see Skoda
a. compensate Harish by giving him a new car
b. take back it's threat to this forum
c. on a war footing put in place processes and systems and a mechanisim to improve dealer management, quality of service and cost of spares.

However I dont see either a. or b. happening.

Originally Posted by blacmagic

has put a mischevious idea in my head...maybe Ill get pulled up again for a personal attack - happens a lot these days - but I dont care.

Blacmagic please refrain from such posts. If you want to be part of TBHP you have to care.

[w 12]

" I hope the sales falls after people read this thread and wisely decide not to buy a Skoda till the company decides to amend its ways. "

There was a thread by Arun Roy, where he documented the nightmarish service experience he had with Tata for his Sumo.

We saw many pledges in that thread not to buy tata products & also to discourage others from buying one.

Did that thread have any impact on sales of Tatas vehicles?

If at all thee is any impact on their sales numbers, it will be minimal imo. As long as a skoda car is considered a status symbol & is offered with good diesels, it will continue to sell., ( sadly most forums tend to exaggerate their own influence on the buying public )

P.s.? i am all for collective action against skoda & feel a class law suit by all aggrieved parties in a consumer court is the best way forward. Continue with the campaign on the net but please do not think that it can be a substitute for actual legal action against skoda.

About Skoda threatening legal action for online content here - here is an interesting link to the latest supreme court judgement on the subject "
Free to blog but accountable you are. The Supreme Court of India weighs in on blogging and online expression. "

Free to blog but accountable you are. The Supreme Court of India weighs in on blogging and online expression. | /home/dhananjay

I am not suggesting that aggrieved customers cave in to corporates like Skoda , but this judgement has considerably mellowed down many blogging sites recently.

[zenx]

I'd mentioned this thread in my blog - and Skoda seems to have left a one line note this morning!
Our life in Bangalore: Skoda : Skeletons in the Closet ?

Please get in touch with Mr. Sudhir Srinivas from the Skoda after sales department on sudhir.srinivas@skoda-auto.co.in or 0240 663 1256 to resolve your concerns

Well, not really my concerns, but Skoda's really They either seem to be taking this not-too-seriously or perhaps are waiting to see if it has a real impact. I wish them luck, and wisdom.

[ajayr]

Originally Posted by zenx

I'd mentioned this thread in my blog - and Skoda seems to have left a one line note this morning!
Our life in Bangalore: Skoda : Skeletons in the Closet ?

Please get in touch with Mr. Sudhir Srinivas from the Skoda after sales department on sudhir.srinivas@skoda-auto.co.in or 0240 663 1256 to resolve your concerns

Well, not really my concerns, but Skoda's really They either seem to be taking this not-too-seriously or perhaps are waiting to see if it has a real impact. I wish them luck, and wisdom.

The very same comment was posted in the Digg entry about this thread: Skoda Auto sucks - threatens users describing their service

Hopefully we should be receiving some kind of a response from them.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by w 12

There was a thread by Arun Roy, where he documented the nightmarish service experience he had with Tata for his Sumo.

Some key differences:

1. One expects a Tata product to have its share of issues. I was fully prepared for niggling problems when I bought my Indigo. The car is large (relatively for the segment) & cheap to start with. Clearly a case of exceeding quantity expectations with acceptable levels of quality. Tata's success is a testament to this statement.

2. If things do go wrong, Tata's customer service & warranty are solid. Even outside of the warranty period, repairs are cheap.

3. There may be an odd complaint or two against Tata, just as there are for Maruti, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota etc. As I stated earlier, it is impossible for a brand to keep a 100% of its customers satisfied. Thus, what we have to consider is a specific sample size and the number of complaints per...say....a 100 owners. This is where Skoda & its dealers beat the others hands down. A premium product ought to deliver on premium service. Look at the sheer number of Skoda complaints on this thread, around the forum and on other websites (for e.g. some consumer website has the number of Skoda complaints second only to PAN card issues). Without a doubt, Skoda's after-sales is amongst the most rotten in the country.

4. Tata is a VFM brand that focuses on a different segment of the market vis a vis Skoda which is at the higher end. The customer has a RIGHT to different expectation levels from the brands.

As long as a skoda car is considered a status symbol & is offered with good diesels, it will continue to sell.

Actually, even before this thread came up, potential customers who do NOT know of Team-BHP have skipped on a Skoda due to their high cost of repairs & shoddy service. It is the word on the street now. Ever wonder why the Fabia was a flop? Or Octavia + Laura sales (combined) have been at 300 cars in some recent months? The Indian buyer is amongst the most discerning out there. And the segment that spends 15 lakhs on a car has a higher internet penetration / literacy level as well.

About Skoda threatening legal action for online content here - here is an interesting link to the latest supreme court judgement on the subject "

Interesting. What we must consider is, we are speaking the TRUTH and have a 100 cases to back our statements up of their shoddy service quality and lack of standards. I am entitled to my opinion and history shows that the Indian Judiciary System agrees. Our wise panel of Judges respect and highly value the Indian citizens right to freedom of speech. We aren't making statements from air out here, our opinion is based on hundreds of reviews by actual Skoda owners. Team-BHP has a massive consumer activist side to itself, and NO ONE can try to drown the voice of the end customer. Least of all, a company like Skoda that treats its customers in such a shoddy manner.

Originally Posted by zenx

I'd mentioned this thread in my blog - and Skoda seems to have left a one line note this morning!

Are they going to do anything else about this? I hope, for their own sake, that they pull up their socks. Long way to go.

[RajaTaurus]

Originally Posted by zenx

I'd mentioned this thread in my blog - and Skoda seems to have left a one line note this morning!
Our life in Bangalore: Skoda : Skeletons in the Closet ?

Please get in touch with Mr. Sudhir Srinivas from the Skoda after sales department on sudhir.srinivas@skoda-auto.co.in or 0240 663 1256 to resolve your concerns

Well, not really my concerns, but Skoda's really They either seem to be taking this not-too-seriously or perhaps are waiting to see if it has a real impact. I wish them luck, and wisdom.

Well, exactly the same words got posted in my blog too on the same subject at the following link.. by some AutoSko..!!!

Click to see the comment

It looks like Skoda is googling around and copy-pasting the same reply in the campaign Team-bhp has already started...

Are they getting jittery ot are they clueless as to what to do?

[diffsoft]

I was looking at Vasudeva's monthly sales figures to see among other things how is Skoda sales faring this year 2009

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ml#post1205017

It turns out that Skoda's sales are down by 55% in Jan / Feb 09 vs year ago. Overall auto sales remained marginally up at 3%.

Since Skoda's line-up is in the so called Executive / Premium segment (4500mm and above), I looked to see how is it faring vs others in that segment. The Executive / Premium segment was flat, but Skoda's sales were again down by 53%.

I then looked at the Fabia (compact segment). The compact segment grew 7% in Jan / Feb 09 vs Jan / Feb 08; but Fabia sales fell by a whopping 48%!

If Jan / Feb are any indications then Skoda sales have more than halved. Since these figures are ex-factory (a guess since I find sales figures before month of launch) Skoda doesn't expect March to be great either.

Further Skoda's share in this segment is also coming down as per these numbers contrary to what I hear their officials say - their Jan / Feb 2009 share in the Octavia / Laura segment (called Executive segment) is 10.4% vs 25.6% a year ago - the aberration could be because of Linea's introduction and Linea gets counted in this segment. Even if I remove Linea its share has fallen to 19.4% vs 25.6% year ago. Of course Skoda may be defining its segments differently and may be a market leader the way it defines them (for eg its share in premium compact segment may be 100%).

Overall Skoda sold 638 vehicles monthly and that means about 10 - 11 vehicles per dealer monthly assuming all 60 dealers are active. The dealers must be running at a loss, especially the newer ones opened at the height of the real estate boom!

I guess Skoda officials and dealers must be busy getting their share right than responding to this thread

Cheers (and let me get back to work)

[loving_alaap]

After convincing many of our friends / relatives no to buy skoda, with our "awareness program", what will be its impact on skoda???

Lets calculate.

Assuming that we have stopped 100 car purchase from skoda.

Now considering the average price of 12 lacs (from fabia to superb), in these few days Skoda has lost a whooping 12 crore just by insulting a BHP family.



Now as per the sale chart of month Jan, 09 & Feb, 09. [source: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ml#post1205017 (Indian Car Sales Figures and Analysis) ]

Skoda sold 573 cars in Jan, 09 & 702 cars in Fab.09.

So, Skoda lost their 17.45% of business (based on Jan, 09 sales) or 14.25% of business (based on Feb, 09 sales).

Looking like a very costly insult though.

Jai ho Team BHP.

Mods & friends: Please fprward these figures to Skoda.

[Sabareesh]

People check this,

Someone has posted this issue on Wikipedia too, Skoda Auto India Private Ltd. is going to lose its profits bigtime because of their stupid ego.

Jai Ho Internet, Jai Ho Team-BHP

[samyakmodi]

@loving alaap

dude these figures somehow seem to b increasing every month.

and definitely the march sales figures would be substantially higher, inspite of the entire team-bhp family uniting against skoda auto. if the march 09 figures are lower than march 08 figures, they can easily say that its because of the recession or economy slump.

what actually would make them realise is the no. of cancellations in their bookings.

and guess what?!?!?
skoda auto has managed to get the team-bhp link off the first page when you search for skoda auto on google.
some efforts to control the damage huhh??

[navin]

Originally Posted by w 12

" I hope the sales falls after people read this thread and wisely decide not to buy a Skoda till the company decides to amend its ways. "
If at all thee is any impact on their sales numbers, it will be minimal imo.

I would not worry about Skoda's sales targets. Our goal here is to get Skoda to improve their quality of service, reduce the cost of pats, and in the very short term - resolve Harish's problems and compensate him for his troubles and formally take back any threats issued to TBHP or it's members.

I suspect Skoda is not in a postion to resolve Harish's issues or to formally take back any threats they so willingly made.

Originally Posted by GTO

2. If things do go wrong, Tata's customer service & warranty are solid. Even outside of the warranty period, repairs are cheap.

Exactly. From 1991-1994 I had a Tata Estate. It was one of the first Indian cars with power steering, power windows, etc.. While it did have a lot of niggling issues Tata fixed every small issue including replacing the power window switches well beyond the warranty period (I had this car for 4 years) with NO charge.

Whatever problems Tata has with their cars (and there are many for someone as nutty as me) quality of service and cost of spares were never an issue.

Originally Posted by loving_alaap

Skoda sold 573 cars in Jan, 09 & 702 cars in Fab.09.
So, Skoda lost their 17.45% of business (based on Jan, 09 sales) or 14.25% of business (based on Feb, 09 sales).
Looking like a very costly insult though.

Harish's thread came up in March. If the effect of this thread is to be realised we must compare March figures to April. So untill April figures are tou we will not know is Skoda sales have suffered and if so to what extent.