BHPian
avinashsg and I had a plan to go to Hyderabad for sightseeing from many days. We had planned to visit during the Gandhi Jayanthi weekend
He got his Safari Serviced on 16th September to get ready for the trip. One of the biggest problem in his car was that it was wobbling badly above 90kmph.
The problem was from the after market alloy in his vehicle. However the service centre had tried it's best to reduce the severity.
During the next weekend, he took it out for a small 100Km drive. He came back saying that it was too much and wouldn't risk it for 1300 Round trip.
So it was decided to take my GT TSI, compromising on the cramped cabin space. My vehicle ODO was at 14300 Kms. So I called up the service centre for an appointment on September 22nd.
The service centre lady told that there was no appointment till October 4th. I told them that I had to go on a long unexpected trip.
To that the lady told 600 to 700 kilometres extra wouldn't be a problem since my vehicle is over 2 months short of 1 year. The service appointment was booked for October 5th 9AM
So we took the car to Hyderabad and came back on Oct 2nd by when the ODO stood on 15600
15K milestone
On 5th, I reached the service centre at 9AM sharp. Already there were some cars. The security guided me to a slot and gave me a pink coloured slip.
I kept waiting inside my car with the slip placed on the dashboard. After 30 minutes nobody attended to me but I started to couple of cars who came later were attended to.
By the time I started to wonder how this was possible and as I was about to get out and ask, An executive came and asked me the reason why I was waiting.
I told I was waiting for someone to take the car. he took the slip and saw that mine was the 8th car. The previous car he did was the 14th car!
He asked me why i didn't give the slip inside their counter. I told no one told me.
He went to the counter and then got a job card and also spoke to the people at the counter and the security as to why they didn't look into this. They were clueless.
He later apologised to me and started to take in the car. He went around the car and noted down all things. He asked me about the problems and there were hardly any problem apart from a small squeaking noise.
I also told him to check why all contacts from my phone were not syncing. Only 400/1000 were getting imported.
He then explained what all will be part of service. All oils, filter, wash and interior cleaning, WA and WB. He suggested me to go for 3M exterior treatment which I declined.
I also told him that I'll do the WA and WB outside. He gave me an estimate of 11.5K. Upon asking he told that he'll give it the next day evening. I asked him why he needed 2 days for the 1yr service with no other major issue.
He told that there are lots of cars and for the detailed service as per German standards, it would take time. Although i didn't buy that, I agreed because I wasn't in any hurry either.
I also told him that I didn't want the Lumax Airfilter and I wanted the UFI filter. more on that in this thread.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ir-filter.html
Although I still can't believe that the Air filter could affect so much (You can see my opinion in
this post), I mentioned this just to see his reaction.
However, the service executive told and I quote "No sir, we'll put UFI only. Lumax and all we don't use at all" I asked him if he was sure and he told, "Yes sir, Lumax and all we don't don't use"
With that, I was good to go by 10:30. So far so good.
Next day till 4PM, I waited for his call and received nothing. I wanted the car by evening so called him up at around 4. He told it'll be ready by 5. Upon asking about the cost he told he'll check and let me know.
He called at 4:30 and told that it was ~12400 and I can take the vehicle by 5:30. I started from home at 4:45 and reached there in an hour's time.
The vehicle was ready and I was taken to the service desk. He asked me to wait till he got the invoice ready. Before signing, I asked him how it costed so much. he told that all oils and filters cost around 5K.
He then told labour was around 7K. I was shocked! I was looking at the display boards there the 15K service for the GT TSI was 2900 something. I asked him how it was 7K?
He told that because of the squeaking noise I had complained about, they had opened the brake assembly an had fit it again. it was 500 per wheel.
Then he told me that they had done 3M interior cleaning and AC disinfectant which cost over 3K. I was not amused. I asked him why he did that. He told I had agreed.
I was really unhappy to hear this and gave him a piece of my mind. I was told that interior cleaning was part of the cleaning service. When I told this, he replied back saying that in the normal cleaning, interiors are not cleaned.
I was totally angry by this time and i asked him why he didn't call me to explain the charges beforehand for any thing not part of the actual service. He just stood silent.
I demanded him to remove this charge. he told that it was already invoiced and can't be changed.
I was disappointed at how slyly it was included in the job card and also how I was not given the cost breakup. I finally paid it but not before a lot of argument.
then we went to the car to showed me all the work carried out. He told that the contacts importing is not any problem with the 100 numbers but a space issue. he told only 200MB is allowed and my 400 contacts would reach 200MB.
He then showed the old parts(filters basically) that were kept in the boot.
I asked him about the air filter. He told "Yes sir, we have put UFI only" I told I wanted to see.
Very confidently he called a mechanic and asked him to show. He told it'll take some time to open all 5 screws. I told I can wait.
So he opened it and not surprisingly it was Lumax! His facial expression was wonderful to watch. He took the filter in the boot. it was an UFI filter.
He asked for some time and went inside to check with his higher manager. he came back in 5 minutes and then told that this is what they have as approved part from VW and there will be no change in performance
He told me to try it and if there were any performance reduction, they'll address it. I was not very particular about this, I didn't push it further.
More than the actual filter, I was really dissatisfied at how they confidently lie. I had to show his lie and I was successful in that
It was about to rain and I decided to leave. The guy who had washed outside came to me and asked for a feedback. I told that it doesn't matter as all his work will not be spoilt in a few minutes when it starts to pour.
But since he insisted, I gave him good ratings (for the wash only as it looked clean from the exterior) and left.
The service advisor asked me to rate 5 star when I get a feedback call.
I wasn't in a good frame of mind to talk to him and left.
So all the decent work carried out on the car was marred by the attitude. Fleecing the customer and making the money seems to be the only aim.
Apart from that 3+ k, 9K for a paid service is still reasonable for me. it is this money making attitude that has build the "expensive" image to VW I felt
Even though I was careful in declining the WA & WB and the Exterior treatment, I was not careful enough which led me to being robbed of 3K.
Lesson learnt the hard way, I would approach it much more carefully next time.
After this I took the car to a family function and the car was parked for 4 hours of which 3 hours in torrential rain.
When I started to drive home from there, the windshield was really foggy. Even though I tried all sorts of demisting, nothing helped.
With great difficulty, I reached home. The culprit was some sort of liquid applied on the windshield for the interior treatment.
Saturday morning, took a 3M microfiber cloth and wiped the windshield clean. after that during rains on Saturday the misting issue was gone.
Also, the interior cleaning was pathetic with liquid marks all over the many piano black parts in the dash. I cleaned it whenever I had stopped at signals.
poor cleaning Marks everywhere
Saturday morning, when I took out the car out of my parking lot, I felt something not good with the car, the air pressure felt very low. when I went to the fuel station to get it checked, it was 28psi. I felt really bad that a small and important thing like this is not checked when the car is serviced. But they don't fail to do unnecessary things on the car.
Low air pressure
For WA and WB, I went to Madhus and got the Alignment and Roadforce balancing done as the car had completed 5k from the previous time it was done.
Alignment in progress
Monday afternoon, I got the feedback call I gave a total rating of 2 out of 5. The lady asked why and I told her everything. She told she'll take my feedback and work.
In the evening, I got a feedback survey link from VW and I wrote all this in detail. Let me see what they do with it. Expectation is nil to low.
In the last 3 days, I got a chance to check the vehicle performance on Highway roads and happy to report that there seems to be no change whatsoever.
The car is running as smooth as before. Thankfully the Lumax filter has done nothing to harm the car's performance.
Today the car is around 15800Kms. 16000 will be crossed this week or the next when the car completes 10 months.
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Alto K10
Nothing much to update here except for the fact that it's approaching 2K
However there is a mysterious deep scar that has appeared on top of the bonnet.
Sunday morning, When I wiped the car, I don't remember seeing it. But in the evening, when I came to drive it, this damage on the bonnet had appeared.
it's like a scar on the heart
Apart from my office parking lot and the parking lot at my home, it hasn't been parked anywhere else and both parking areas are rather safe. My wife also has driven it alone anywhere and when with me, no incident has happened. Some scratches on the headlamp and fender are also there. I have absolutely no idea how it has happened. Looking at the scratches too, can't imagine what could've caused it. Since it is a small one, I've decided to leave it as it is