[jayanth_yk]

All said and done, we car owners love our cars and do anything to make sure that our cars are attended handled w/o any sort of compromises. But there are few tricks in PR skills which can help on how our loved cars are handled in our favour

1. Being very nice in words and posture is important and can go a long way in grabbing that extra attention that you need for your car. Having said that it is equally important to alert (playing with soft skills) the SA that you care for your car and think no nonsense about the same.

2. If we are not happy with the way our car is serviced, embracing the aggressive attitude or approach may not help in the long run so using the soft skills to a good advantage can help overcome the matter in our favour. An example of such a statement would be "I had great faith in your service skills and ability but to my shock I was let down this time on the quality. I really hope you guys will never let this happen again", with a smile. Sometimes alerting them about writing the feedback on forums like TBP can certainly blow a wind of caution.

3. I think the most important point that most of us miss out is to personally pat the SA and the technician whenever we witness a job well done. I know all of us show this ack in the form of feedback form, I believe personally meeting the technician (usually they are not seen in the picture at all) by calling out his name, introducing yourself to him and few good words on his job can sometimes do wonders. He will certainly remember you the next time you leave your car since these instances rarely happen to them. Calling them out by their names, how often I have seen them responding with that extra cup of care. These may sound small little things but can go a long way in mutual satisfaction.

[Twiny]

Yes all said is good for building up the relationship. But what I have in my observation with SA at Honda A.S.S Cochin/Bangalore, you might not be seeing the same SA after 2-3 consecutive services, as he would have left the organistaion

[GTO]

Originally Posted by jayanth_yk

Being very nice in words and posture is important and can go a long way in grabbing that extra attention that you need for your car. Having said that it is equally important to alert (playing with soft skills) the SA that you care for your car and think no nonsense about the same.

So true! Service advisors are receiving a earful from demanding customers the entire day. A car owner who treats him well and co-operates is revered at service stations. Look him in the eye and talk to him like a team member. Remember, you two are part of the same team and, at the end of the day, want the same thing (i.e. work performed to your satisfaction on the car). The key is, to maintain respect & dignity in your interactions. Of course, its important to be assertive and let him know you are serious about the work you want performed on your car.

There's no need to get overtly friendly, neither should you think of him as the enemy. A collaborative approach (from both of you) is the need of the hour.

P.S. Hey, what I wrote above is probably applicable to marriage as well, wot . We car guys are NUTS!

[jayanth_yk]

P.S. Hey, what I wrote above is probably applicable to marriage as well, wot . We car guys are NUTS!

An no wonder the adorable "wifeees" are so envious about the car crazy "houbbiess"

[B103]

Originally Posted by jayanth_yk

All said and done, we car owners love our cars and do anything to make sure that our cars are attended handled w/o any sort of compromises. But there are few tricks in PR skills which can help on how our loved cars are handled in our favour

1. Being very nice in words and posture is important and can go a long way in grabbing that extra attention that you need for your car. Having said that it is equally important to alert (playing with soft skills) the SA that you care for your car and think no nonsense about the same.

2. If we are not happy with the way our car is serviced, embracing the aggressive attitude or approach may not help in the long run so using the soft skills to a good advantage can help overcome the matter in our favour. An example of such a statement would be "I had great faith in your service skills and ability but to my shock I was let down this time on the quality. I really hope you guys will never let this happen again", with a smile. Sometimes alerting them about writing the feedback on forums like TBP can certainly blow a wind of caution.

3. I think the most important point that most of us miss out is to personally pat the SA and the technician whenever we witness a job well done. I know all of us show this ack in the form of feedback form, I believe personally meeting the technician (usually they are not seen in the picture at all) by calling out his name, introducing yourself to him and few good words on his job can sometimes do wonders. He will certainly remember you the next time you leave your car since these instances rarely happen to them. Calling them out by their names, how often I have seen them responding with that extra cup of care. These may sound small little things but can go a long way in mutual satisfaction.

Well said Jayanth. As like what you and GTO wrote earlier, me too like the collaborative approach. I have seen that it works.

[mysticmonkey]

I own a S/AT. Just wanted everyone's view on something I found peculiar - when the car downshifts automatically it goes from 3 to 1 instead of 3 to 2 to 1. Find that a little strange since the car is trudging along at 15 km/h and yet remains on 3rd gear. I've checked other ANHCs as well and its standard across the board. Is this common to all automatics or just the ANHC.

[pratim]

@mysticmonkey, I drive an ANHC AT and my observations are same as that of yours. Even, I guess, it same in Civic AT; check Vasoo's thread. As far as I know, this is not a cause of worry. Rarely, I also noted that shift happens in the sequence like: 3->2->1.


Cheers
Pratim

[Guna]

Originally Posted by mysticmonkey

I own a S/AT. Just wanted everyone's view on something I found peculiar - when the car downshifts automatically it goes from 3 to 1 instead of 3 to 2 to 1. Find that a little strange since the car is trudging along at 15 km/h and yet remains on 3rd gear. I've checked other ANHCs as well and its standard across the board. Is this common to all automatics or just the ANHC.

Yes this happens even in my ANHC AT and I think it is by design.
Many times we do the same thing even in manual cars.

[mysticmonkey]

I do get that but we wouldn't ordinarily drive on third gear @ 15km/h would we. Also is this common across automatics or just a Honda thing?

[vasoo]

My car also does the same thing. It happily pulls with load on ghat roads even in 3rd gear, and when I bring it to near stop, less than 10kmph, it shifts to 1st gear. Looks like there is a good overlap between 3rd and 2nd gear in terms of minimum speed. I have to check the manual on this.

[mysticmonkey]

Vasoo don't think that is going to help since neither the service stations nor Honda CC themselves were aware of this. In fact, at one service station, I was told - "We could not believe what you said so we tested 4 cars and found it to be true."

[B103]

I took the delivery of the car on 12/Feb/10. It is 10/April/10 today and I have not received the smart card yet from RTO. Everytime I call the sales guy Mr. Deb in Whitefield Honda he requests me to be patient and wait further.

I see that there are other people in team-bhp who had got the car as late as 26/Mar/10 and got the smart card on 10/April/10 itself.

I'm wondering if I am taken for a ride of some sorts !! Please advice if I need to do something extra.

[raghu230506]

Originally Posted by B103

I took the delivery of the car on 12/Feb/10. It is 10/April/10 today and I have not received the smart card yet from RTO. Everytime I call the sales guy Mr. Deb in Whitefield Honda he requests me to be patient and wait further.

I see that there are other people in team-bhp who had got the car as late as 26/Mar/10 and got the smart card on 10/April/10 itself.

I'm wondering if I am taken for a ride of some sorts !! Please advice if I need to do something extra.

Hi Biju,

Just check your registration details via SMS "RTO KA-51-XX-XXXX" to 56006. If you get your details then it means data is available and you should have the card by this time, if not insist the dealer.

I played the same trick, I called dealer stating that cop stopped me and they couldn't get details in their BlackBerry's and are insisting to get the card as soon as possible, I told them I need it in a day or two as I have to travel outstation.

Just try the same.

It's almost 2 months in your case, check how long they want you wait further?

Cheers
Raghu

[joecherian]

Originally Posted by B103

I took the delivery of the car on 12/Feb/10. It is 10/April/10 today and I have not received the smart card yet from RTO. Everytime I call the sales guy Mr. Deb in Whitefield Honda he requests me to be patient and wait further.

I see that there are other people in team-bhp who had got the car as late as 26/Mar/10 and got the smart card on 10/April/10 itself.

I'm wondering if I am taken for a ride of some sorts !! Please advice if I need to do something extra.

Hey Biju, that is strange. Infact, I got my smart card within 10 days of taking delivery of my car. But, I don't think your sales agent can do anything on this aspect ( as the card has to come from RTO). Still, you can keep him in loop. Meanwhile, why don't you go to RTO office and do some enquiry? 2 months seems to be a very long time.

Meanwhile, did you enquire in your local post office ? it might also happen that when the postman came to your house, no one was present in your house and they would have left a small slip asking you to come to post office.It is very easy to lose this slip as once, in my case, the postman dropped this small bit of paper in my apartment mail box and it got accidentally dropped when I picked my mail from the box. Luckily, there was some one near the box who noticed this and gave it to me.

[jayanth_yk]

Firstly I got my smart car with in a week. Mine was Jayanagar jurisdiction.
It is better to check with the corresponding RTO rather than the dealer. I would carry acknowledgement if any when I approach the officer in RTO.

If the card is already dispatched (usually through speed post), check with the corresponding post office. If there is no one to collect the post within a week then it would be sent back to the mailer.
You may have to do little bit of running around, good luck