[naru80]

Originally Posted by KNL_Bandi

My dealer added to the cart without my knowledge in early July and today, they booked my vehicle without my knowledge again.

Originally Posted by n13tzsche

I never booked anything but got a message that the dealer had booked in my name with introductory pricing applicable.

Originally Posted by Knightrider

I had not added in my cart, nor did I ask the dealer to book. Still I got this message from Mahindra at 11:12 am:

Congratulations on booking your Big Daddy of SUVs, All-New Scorpio-N. Please find below details of your SUV: SCORPIO N, Z8L D MT 4WD, in EVEREST WHITE. Looking forward to having you in the Mahindra family. Here is your Online Booking Ref No. xxxxxx . Do check your email for details. TnC Apply. <Dealer Name>

Originally Posted by MetalClank

I thought even the booking from the dealers require OTP sent to the mobile number of the purchaser?

Mahindra being too clever by half. They gave dealers a back door to boost booking numbers that would in turn create hype. Some unscrupulous dealers exploited this by adding even inquiries to bookings.

That leaves ordinary folks like us fuming but it gives Mahindra breathless headlines like "25k cars gone in 60 seconds".

Mahindra can now either brazen it out and go all out with publicity about it's 1 minute sales record and ignore the rest.

Or it can play the magnanimous card and say some customers faced difficulties so we are extending the initial benefits to more people. This wins them publicity + goodwill.

Either way it's win-win for Mahindra.

[84.monsoon]

Auto industry is increasingly testing ethical boundaries with these "introductory price" schemes.

The biggest recent fiasco was with the Kia Carens - not a single unit was delivered at the advertised introductory price of 8.99 lakhs. They promised a 7 seater minivan with 6 airbags at that price point and we all know that is a promise that is impossible to deliver on without making significant losses. So they just splash full page ads on every newspaper screaming the introductory price, get the eyeballs and bookings and then not delivery ber a single unit for a few weeks, announcement ng a price hike of 60K on the base variant within 6 weeks of launch.

There are plenty of other examples as well, where automakers advertise these prices but with no intention of honouring them. This is an unethical practice and the government and courts have to do something to stop them from misleading and forcefully up-selling gullible custom mers.

M&M were the only automaker to honour introductory prices in a transparent way. With the XUV700, they closed bookings as soon as 25K units were sold. But now with ScorpioN, they have created a bad precedent - by apparently not honouring the introductory prices for practically everybody.

[rambomumbai]

I cancelled my Add to Cart option yesterday...but I am experiencing a different kind of excitement - hoping that of the first 25K ScorpioN bookings, atleast 50 to 60% are holding bookings for the XUV700 and will cancel them.....thereby expediting the delivery of my XUV700 D AT booking (due Feb-Mar '24) by atleast a year!
Wishful thinking, no doubt!

[MetalClank]

Originally Posted by KNL_Bandi

My dealer added to the cart without my knowledge in early July and today, they booked my vehicle without my knowledge again.

Originally Posted by n13tzsche

I never booked anything but got a message that the dealer had booked in my name with introductory pricing applicable.

So both of you did NOT pay 21K to the dealer as booking advance?

By when would delivery dates be shared? I am assuming we don't have to pay a dime more than 21K till the delivery dates are shared from official M&M?

[F458]

I think I was one of the few, who was able to do an online booking and get this confirmation.
Surprisingly the dealer in Goa, refused to do the booking on my behalf.
The surprising thing is that I was also trying to book a second car . A Z4 Manual 4wd which did not go through. I spoke to a friend and most of them were only able to book the higher versions in the first 15 minutes.

[Venkatesh]

Mahindra receives over 1,00,000 bookings for the Scorpio-N in 30 minutes. Over 25,000 bookings were made in the first minute itself. Deliveries to begin on Sep 26.





Link

[Pulse500]

Very unethical of Mahindra!


I clicked at the booking button at exactly 11 am, as soon as it was available. I was directed to 'secure.payu.in/_payment' repeatedly giving me "502 Bad Gateway" error on every attempt. I finally gave up at 11:06 am

In past, XUV700 booking process also had failures on day1, and later company claimed that their systems crashed due to load. Later on escalation, I was offered to make payment on day-2 and attempt another booking, that failed too. Extremely disappointing booking process.

Rather, I strongly felt this was intentionally done by Mahindra with some manipulations at the backend to ensure their dealers and employees only benefit, or customers in specific cities only benefit. It cannot be coincidence three times in a row. Flash sales are legally banned, however, Mahindra is using different name for the same 'flash sale' scheme, and should be heavily penalized by authorities.

[XRoader_001]

Official Press Release by Mahindra on Scorpio N Bookings :

Over 25,000 bookings were clocked within 1 minute of bookings commencement, at 11:00 am, 30th July 2022.

Over 1,00,000 bookings registered in under 30 minutes, translating into an ex-showroom
value of $18,000 crores or USD 2.3 billion.

Deliveries to commence on September 26, 2022.

[naru80]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

Mahindra receives over 1,00,000 bookings for the Scorpio-N in 30 minutes. Over 25,000 bookings were made in the first minute itself.

First 25,000 bookings took 01 minute
Next 75,000 bookings took 29 minutes

Mr Mahindra should take the tech team to task.

At 25,000 per minute, they should have received 3,75,000 bookings in the 15 minutes that the payment gateway was down.

Or maybe the dealers ran out of dummy bookings.

[StarVector]

Similar to the XUV700 booking fiasco where M&M had extended Price Protection even to the people who could not book on day 1, I feel that people who could not complete booking for Scorpio N within the first minute can expect some surprise from M&M.

[ask99]

As easy as it is to be cynical, I think it's clear that Mahindra is reaping the benefits of their transparent booking process. They are a rare manufacturer who have announced prices, provided test drives and clearly outlined their price protection strategy, all before taking a single booking.

To those who couldn't get in on the first 25,000 bookings this process might seem unfair/unscrupulous, but I would much rather be in this position of going into a booking process with all the information available to me. Compare this with other market leaders who start taking bookings, many times even before variant details are out.

Sarcasm and cynicism about their booking numbers may abound, but Mahindra are bringing to market obviously desirable products at relatively sane prices, being upfront with all details before taking the customers money.

[alokk0912]

Originally Posted by rodeoz

Got a call from Mahindra Finance offering a 6.99% interest rate on car loan. Is there a catch? Anyone has prior experience with Mahindra Finance? Banks seem to offering a higher interest rate.

I have loan from them for my Thar. No issues as such. As good or bad as any other bank. Only thing is that they have penalty clause for pre-payment...

[ajayc123]

Originally Posted by ask99

As easy as it is to be cynical, I think it's clear that Mahindra is reaping the benefits of their transparent booking process. They are a rare manufacturer who have announced prices, provided test drives and clearly outlined their price protection strategy, all before taking a single booking.

See here"s the point. If there so many payment gateway failures, as seen in the preceding posts, they cannot be covered by all the sweet sounding words by you. It is like a lottery, hampered by an uneven playing field, when probably all 1 lakh who ultimately booked potentially would have clicked on the book button right at eleven.

Moreover, hampered by fake booking examples as called out by quite a few people. If subject to an audit, more can be revealed.

I am not in the booking queue, but it has not left a good impression.

[GrammarNazi]

Reading everyone's experience here, I guessed that this could happen.

Originally Posted by GrammarNazi

...But one major thing I don't see transparent is how would a customer actually know (in real time) if they're amongst the first 25k who successfully booked on 30th July ?

Last year this was relatively transparent as it was "booking-date" based price protection, Almost nobody would've anticipated they'd stop the bookings after an hour on Day 1. Now that people know the system, this time there must be plenty individuals who'd like to "Game" the system because they know the cars would likely sell at a premium even in the 2nd hand market - all at a time when we know that car prices are not going to go down.

When these things happen, IMO, it is next to impossible for Mahindra to offer a transparent/rational booking process in the regular way.

IMO, one of the solutions is to utilise closed communities...

As a company if they're pure-bred hardcore car enthusiasts, they'd choose prioritising/filtering/verifying bookings thru credible online automotive forums.

While they may claim bookings were on first come first serve basis, I'm guessing they took possibly bookings of just the higher variants, which would be most profitable to them, to fill the 25k quota.

I would really be surprised if I came across someone who booked the VFM/lower variants online in the first 25k allotments.

Maybe it would've been reasonable if they offered the enthusiast community with some specific opportunity - afterall it is us who appreciate the real life use case of the car.

Btw, finally some load off the IT department website. lol

[rooster.ram]

What does anand mahindra want to tell here?