[wheeledwanderer]

Correct me if i am wrong but doesnt the SA take an approval from the customer before the works are carried? When the initial estimate of 16k was given didnt your relative ask for what scope is covered? If the extra work is done without approval, then obviously he doesnt have to pay for it eh? I am assuring the SA might have called up and said this should be done, that should be done and your relative said ok since he doesnt know much "technicals" as you have mentioned. Hence he ended up with this bill?

[asbshyam]

I had my Honda City serviced at a FNG after 11 months of stand still in open parking. I was told no parts needed replacement and only all consumables were changed. Brakes were reset and the car was cleaned in and out. I spent about 8k out of which 4200 was for the engine oil.

I would also recommend you to drain the old petrol and flush the tank if the fuel is older than 6 months. The drained fuel from both my car and motorbike were oxidized and had started degrading. I also could feel a pleasant change in the engine's tune after a few KMs on the new fuel (I had to drive 200KMs on the old fuel).

[CarNerd]

The service centre guys are always on the lookout to charge the maximum possible amount from the customer. So it's a good practice to ask them what sort of work they intend to do and the approximate charge. They should be strictly instructed not to do any extra work without consent. Even after doing that, they might still try to fool by showing some pictures and exaggerating minor issues so that the customer panics and accepts to spend money. In such cases, it would be wise to do a quick google search on such problems to know what exactly needs to be done. We should always remember that Authorised Service Centres are authorised to fool us.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by saket77

Another achievement by Hyundai and Advaith, BLR! My BIL received a 25K bill for his Xcent service!

Attaching his invoice from Advaith Motors, Bangalore. Since his car was not used for about 9-10 months, stuff that he asked to do was:

The front brake overhaul and the rear brake cleaning are always added items in all Advaith Hyundai service centers. They are basically charging separate for cleaning and lubing the caliper pins at the front and removing and cleaning the drum brakes at the rear. This is included in the PMS but they charge it extra. I have also been ripped off by this item many times before I started insisting that I wont be paying extra for caliper greasing since that is included in the PMS.

Anyway, I started to do the caliper greasing myself once a year since the HASS does a shoddy job anyway. But one has to stand their ground and insist to remove the brake cleaning items from the bill

[Osteon206]

I get my Nios serviced at Advaith Hyundai. The service cost is alright actually, but as many of them mentioned I make it a point of inform the service advisor to not do the following - balancing and wheel alignment (they outsource this themselves, so I prefer getting this done at my regular place elsewhere), interior cleaning, exterior polish (this also I like doing it myself or get it done at a detailing shop), würth wiper liquid (I tell them before hand that I'm using wavex already, in fact I keep the wiper liquid can full before giving the car).

This may seem cheeky, but I mention to the driver/sales advisor not to disconnect the dashcam as well (I haven't yet hard-wired it fearing possible warranty issues).

The sales executive usually keeps me posted on whatsapp about the work being undertaken with pics. They are quite serious about the feedback call by Hyundai which includes questions like - whether cost was explained, whether the cost was higher than the estimate, I know the MD of this particular dealership.

He mentioned that even if the customer gives 9/10, in the feedback call, the dealership will be questioned by Hyundai.

So IMHO I feel this is an one off incident where the cost has overshot.

[nick.cs]

Originally Posted by saket77

He also admitted that they gave him an initial estimate of 16K, which he agreed to, but couldn’t decipher the details too much.

Well the trick with ASC is they will most of the time never explicitly tell you that this amount is the total cost minus GST. GST in itself will inflate your bill by 18% and to be honest it adds a good chunk of overhead.

The ASC will be able to part explain the increase in amount under this excuse. Case of being technically right but morally wrong. After all GST is what they don't charge you.

[pta320]

From what I have gathered and experience, the biggest mistake is to let the authorized service center guys take your car for service without your presence.

Don't leave the car alone even if it's authorized service center. Always keep your oversight over the work they are doing and ask them questions for everything that looks out of the ordinary.

Now I agree that due to busy schedule, it's not possible to take your car to service station all the time which is why I recommend doing preventive maintenance like changing oil and oil filter, air filter, coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid, throttle body cleaning, MAF sensor cleaning, brake pads, spark plugs, transmission fluid etc yourself. There are many excellent youtube videos which will help you out and websites like boodmo which will have all the OEM parts needed. No one takes care of your car as much as you do and these service guys hold PHD in ripping off the customers.

For jobs which can't be done at home and need to be done at A.S.S, force them that the job will be done in my presence, they will usually agree. I have personally walked off couple of times from the Toyota and Honda dealerships because they were not letting me in, but next day they agreed, at last they also want to do their business.

And lastly, these days I am observing, car SANITIZATION, interior SANITIZATION etc has become a very big scam. Most of the times they will just vaccum clean the interior and charge you a bomb. Beware of such scams.

[dozer]

Originally Posted by Osteon206

He mentioned that even if the customer gives 9/10, in the feedback call, the dealership will be questioned by Hyundai.

Yeah... This is an old trick.
I have this in Honda. I get a feedback call.
"8 for poor, 9 for ok, 10 for excellent"

How is 8/10 a poor rating? That's a 4* review for poor service.

Give the feedback you think is appropriate. According to the actual scale on 10. 9/10 means excellent.

[Small Bot]

This happened to me a few weeks ago. The silencer of my 2017 i20 Active SX started making some weird noises at above 2000 rpm. I figured there might be some part loose/broken and asked a service advisor at Hyundai Motor Plaza in Chennai to check it, as my father was to take that car out and I did not want him to suffer any breakdown.

The SA said that it was a small part that had worn loose inside the silencer. I then told him to please fix that part.

His response was and I quote: Sir, we are not allowed to fix only single part of the silencer by our company, we are mandated to replace the entire silencer set and that will cost you at least 50K. The best thing is to have this part welded outside, it will not break your warranty.

I followed his advice and got it done for 3K at a trusted friendly neighborhood garage near CMBT. And even went back and thanked that specific SA for being honest with us.

My point is, even Hyundai's SA's know how unreasonably expensive their service is.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by saket77

The ASC has finally offered to finalise the bill at 21.5K
My BIL is not too well versed with car technicals and how the service centres push useless stuff for making money. He also admitted that they gave him an initial estimate of 16K, which he agreed to.

As stated in this post, the ASC finalised the bill to 21.5K.
Some stuff that we were unhappy about were struck off from the list. Posting the copy of revised invoice that we received.





Thanks.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by saket77

As stated in this post, the ASC finalised the bill to 21.5K.

Thanks.

Still plenty of fluff in there.

What are they doing for 1650 INR (interior cleaning, item#10), that isn't included in the other sanitization kit line item #13 (700-odd)?

Item#7, AC neutralizer for 700-odd? One of those disinfectant thingies they pretend to spray in the vents? Did they give the leftover can?

Item#15, Engine dressing. Did they actually use a degreaser, or just sprayed water and blew it dry with compressed air and piled on some all-purpose polish from their interior chaps' spray bottle?

That bill, for a small car with no major issues going in, is ridiculous.

[prabhu.reddy92]

Hi,

I drive a 2019 I20 diesel in Bengaluru mostly and my current ODO reading is 35k KMS approximately.

Thanks to the Bengaluru roads, I hit a huge pot hole and my front right shock absorber is leaking oil. As the car is under warranty, I raised this issue during service and they agreed to replace it under warranty.

Now after replacing, front right shock absorber is new while left one will continue with old one which has done 35k KMS.

I informed service center that I will pay from my pocket for the left one as well but they denied as the car is under warranty and changing a part when it is fine will increase the parts failure % for manufacturer. He advised to change the right one under warranty and if you feel any difference or issues as left one is old and right one is new, then they will attend to it and check what can be done.

Should I get the right one changed alone or both?

[mjkaushal]

I still own a Getz CRDI from the last batch i.e, 2009 and still going strong at 125000 kms . Its truly bliss driving the machine with that torque and decent mileage.
I have been regularly getting it serviced at Trident Hyundai for the past 9 years and to say in one word , its " Day Light Robbery ". Every service would be costing approximately INR 20000. In fact the fuel filter was replaced every time and when checked on the car, the date on it was 2011 !
It means , they were charging me every time without changing the part. They were caught red handed and told me that the worker had been fired.
Its a well oiled scam by the entire dealership and probably Hyundai does not want to take any action on this. I had again gone to the same dealership in spite of this experience to get my AC repaired and after thorough inspection, was given a quote of around INR 45000 for the same. ( AC compressor replacement + Gas filling charges + Labour ). I wasn't really convinced and sought help in a private garage .
Guess what ! The only replacement required was the AC relay coil which had gone bad and was replaced at INR 4500 + INR 1000 towards gas filling & repair charges.

I had a similar experience of service from Trident for my earlier Duster and replaced the same with XUV 500. Now replacing the 12 year old Getz CRDI with Tata Nexon !
Enough of Hyundai products only due to the famous billing of the ASS. The products are definitely good , but the services of all their service dealers are absolute rip off !

[SR-71]

Originally Posted by saket77

As stated in this post, the ASC finalised the bill to 21.5K.
Some stuff that we were unhappy about were struck off from the list. Posting the copy of revised invoice that we received.

IMHO, there are items in this bill that could have been easily avoided, had the car owner paid attention. Here are a few based on a quick glance of the bill.

7# AC Neutralizer - 720
10# Interior Cleaning - 1650
13#Sanitization kit - 700
16#Screen wash - 101
1/14/17# Weights - 134

3#Alligntment - 700
4#Balancing - 730
5#PUC - 90

In addition to this there is a tire change whose cost and installation charges are 3741+225 = 3966. I don't understand why the tire was changed so early on. Then there is the vehicle pickup charges of 255.

If these avoidable charges are discounted then the bill comes to around only 12,600 and change. There are numerous posts in this forum that advocates for carefulness when dealing with the service folks. This cock and bull story by the SA on 'must do alignment and balancing' is a pretty good example. Its our money, we need to be careful, there is no point laying the blame entirely on the person who cheats us.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by dozer

Yeah... This is an old trick.
I have this in Honda. I get a feedback call.
"8 for poor, 9 for ok, 10 for excellent"

How is 8/10 a poor rating? That's a 4* review for poor service.

Give the feedback you think is appropriate. According to the actual scale on 10. 9/10 means excellent.

I am sure one iniquitous MBA fellow came up with this system to treat anything under 9 as poor. This would force all the service centers to push for 9 or 10 ratings resulting in the overall average rating always being above 9. Now the same MBA fellow will go and tell the top bosses that he has improved customer satisfaction by introducing innovative practices