[rr_zen]

RE has been in the news for the wrong reason today.

A district consumer disputes redressal forum in Chennai has slapped the manufacturer and its city-based dealer with a fine of Rs 53,000, along with a direction to refund Rs 1.03 lakh as the cost of the bike.

G Suresh of Koyambedu said he purchased a new Royal Enfield Thunderbird motorcycle from Southern Motors in Anna Nagar on March 23, 2011. He started facing problems after he sent the bike for servicing the third time at Sri Velavan Motors in Virukambakkam in August 2011. Subsequent to the servicing, he noticed the clutch plate was malfunctioning. When he approached Velavan Motors, a service engineer informed him that the engine had to be dismantled to rectify the fault but before the defect could be rectified, the engine started leaking.

The bike was handed over to him after a month. But, the problem with clutch plate persisted. Velavan Motors then asked him to get the engine removed. As it was a new bike which had completed merely 7,200km, Suresh declined to have the engine removed. Despite making representations to the customer care of Royal Enfield, he failed to get a suitable response. Suresh then moved the district forum seeking compensation for mental agony along with refund of the cost of the bike.

In its counter, Southern Motors said it had delivered the bike to Suresh in a good condition. The regional office of Royal Enfield and Velavan Motors said they did not commit any deficiency in service, and had handed over the bike to Suresh after properly rectifying the defects.

A bench of president K Jayabalan and member K Kalaiyarasi said after Suresh approached the customer care of the bike manufacturer, they offered to extend the warranty. This meant Royal Enfield had agreed that there was a manufacturing defect in the vehicle. Also, Suresh had proved that the bike was not repaired by Velavan Motors despite several attempts. As such, the managing director of Royal Enfield in Thiruvottiyur and Velavan Motors had committed deficiency in services.

It then directed both to refund around Rs 1.03 lakh as the cost of the bike, along with a compensation of Rs 50,000 for mental agony and Rs 3,000 as case costs.

Source: TOI

[Fullrevs]

Wish the courts would extend such courtesy to people who have suffered buying 60 lakh and even 1+ crore cars. Case in point Mad Monkeys Discovery issue and so on.

I wonder in this case if Royal Enfield would take the bike back after paying the compensation?

[The Great]

This was bound to happen somewhere down the line as the after sales people take things for granted and give stupid reasons to customers which is not only for RE but for all manufacturers who take customers for a ride (for eg - mighty Honda ASS also ranks on top with rudeness and bad after sales service.)

What RE has to learn from this is how to rectify and improve the ASS quality, not just by paying the customer. This will ruin the reputation rather than seeing it as a good gesture.

The customers are ready to pay good amounts of their hard earned money just to keep their beloved bikes in shape. RE has to seriously concentrate on quality control and proper trained staff.

RE is a big brand now and one of the fastest growing too. Indeed the records of sales in the last few years have been mind-blowing. Improving on the ASS is just a small part which will tremendously increase their already huge fan following.

[Tushar]

This was honestly inevitable. Royal Enfields have never been reliability moguls, but with their sales charts flying high, the work quality has gone down even more. Royal Enfield owners have passed such things off as "part of the experience" (myself included), but I'm glad to see one customer take the appropriate action.

I can only imagine what financial state RE would be in, had every customer who was given a faulty bike taken them to court.

[raghu.t.k]

Glad to see success for a consumer through the consumer court rather than dragging the case for years and years.

That said, would it be a manufacturing problem if the trouble had started after the 3rd service? It looks like poor workmanship of the ASS, and imo they should also be penalised. The experience of many a good product is being spoilt by the poor ASS service, and its time they owned up their mistakes.

[sdp1975]

Originally Posted by raghu.t.k

Glad to see success for a consumer through the consumer court rather than dragging the case for years and years.

I'm sure Royal Enfield will continue to appeal till the very end - next to the State forum, followed by the National forum and finally the Supreme Court.

The case is nowhere close to being end - it will probably run into several years from now.

[Majumdarda]

With all being said, can anyone please advise if the showrooms are run by RE or by private parties who care a dime about the RE? Can any one ever share a good delivery experience from any authorized RE center?

[sumithb]

Originally Posted by Majumdarda

With all being said, can anyone please advise if the showrooms are run by RE or by private parties who care a dime about the RE? Can any one ever share a good delivery experience from any authorized RE center?

I have had decent delivery and service experience with RE so far, you can read about it in my team-bhp log here. For benchmarking, my experience has been almost at-par with what I have experienced with Maruti, is that good or bad? I'll leave it to you to decide

[Majumdarda]

Originally Posted by sumithb

I have had decent delivery and service experience with RE so far...For benchmarking, my experience has been almost at-par with what I have experienced with Maruti, is that good or bad? I'll leave it to you to decide

Originally Posted by sumithb

Delivery Experience

Not much to write here actually. This was a somber affair. Booked the bike on 4th February, took the delivery on 21st March 2015. Reached dealership around 10:30 AM on the d-day, completed formalities, was handed the keys, road the bike home. Completely forgettable! This is where Enfield could do better, make the experience a bit memorable.

Dear Sumithb, I can only quote your observations and let you decide if this can be termed as a fair expectation for a customer when he is taking the delivery of his motorcycle from a dealership. As far as the treatment you are receiving with regards to your servicing it can be either of two things :-

> You tend to agree with whatever cost expenses they come out with, whatever servicing they do with "no questions asked" ( I seriously wish you do not fall into this group). Please try to remain with your GT while the entire servicing is going on, note down all the hassles with the never-heard-of-reasons for delaying the servicing (E.g., getting hold of the guy who will make the entry on the Job card, excess load from yesterday, worker has fallen sick, ramp is not working, breakfast time, lunch time, spare parts not available, washing guy not present / busy, Urgent work of Mr. X, motorcycle unloading from truck, Ramp pulling to truck etc.) and then let us have your feedback.

> You are probably a close relative of the guy running the showroom.

Please do not misunderstand me dear friend, but I also had the same great feelings like you, but with the passage of time and efforts, I can only envy you and wish you all the very best.

As with regards to the RE Mgmt, try raising some queries with them and then be on a conference call with you, RE Mgmt and the store owner. I have had the privilege of being on such a conf call twice where I just understood one thing

RE Management is just at the pity of these dealerships and these guys care the least about any customer. Yes, I know, things fall in place and I have also made sure that things do fall in place, but not all are aware of the workarounds.

In short, delivery experience from Royal Enfield dealership is pathetic, nationwide and to get one's bike serviced at the dealership is a risk without any insurance cover.

[sumithb]

Originally Posted by sumithb

Overall dealership experience was good. The folks were polite and warm. This again busted a preconception I had about Enfield dealerships!

Originally Posted by sumithb

So either the Dealer is very proactive or Enfield have the Dealer on tight leash. Either way, my respect for the brand has gone up a notch.

Originally Posted by Majumdarda

In short, delivery experience from Royal Enfield dealership is pathetic, nationwide and to get one's bike serviced at the dealership is a risk without any insurance cover.

Lets not get into the type of customer I am or who I know (By the way, I don't have any connections to Enfield).

You wanted to know a person satisfied with Enfield experience and I volunteered that's all

[bikerzindia]

And the joke with Indian Judiciary continues. Case taken to State consumer Court by RE in 2015 and is continuing till date.

Snapshots of the status of above case

So guess we have to take the inference that the law abiding citizen is a fool and a loser even if he seems to be the winner.

Reality of Indian Judiciary

[VW2010]

This is very sad. This specific dealer, velavan motors is notorious. The sales head is some Muthu. He is just the worst person to head sales in any company. He previously seems to have worked with Harley Davidson. I guess these dealers have some political backing to get away and keep delaying justice.

RE as a good will should close this case, just give the customer a replacement new vehicle and move on.

Sri Velavan Motors in Virukambakkam - Personal experience is that this is the worst dealership from RE and the sales guy Muthu is the worst sales person i have ever met in my life.