[carboy]

I have serviced my car at Tune-Up Plus & interacted with Mr. Lonkar

Pros
-----
- There was a tear in my bumper - he did plastic welding & fixed it, charges were reasonable. Other Maruti guys didn't offer any alternative other than changing the bumper.
- I also had broken exhaust pipe - he welded it fine without asking me to replace it - it's still running fine after 30000 kms more.
- Routine service was fine.

Cons
------
- It's impossible to have a proper 10 minute conversation with him. He will take 10 phone calls in the 10 minutes.
- He told me that I should change oil at 5000 kms - I don't believe this is neccessary, 10000 kms is fine as per everything I have researched.
- At 25000kms, he said I would need a clutch change very soon. My clutch is still fine at 61000 kms, though I a feeling that I might need one soon now
- When I gave my car for service, I told him that if anything else crops up, he needs to contact me by phone before repairing/replacing or whatever. He didn't like this - though he agreed to follow it.

[Meer]

I have had excellent experience with TUP for many years and would recommend to everyone. Both my cars and some of my close friends cars have been serviced at Abhijit's garage. I have always found the entire experience to be very professional and happy.

Key observations:
1. I mostly get the cars picked up from & dropped at home, it is done without any issues. Yes, time adjustment is required on both sides, but that is much better than what I have experienced in some of the Maruti service stations.

2. Job cards have been filled up properly, all issues I have mentioned are listed.

3. The ambiance of the place is very good, unlike other garages I have visited where no one has any time for you. It is neat and clean and the mechanics are well mannered.

4. Abhijit has an excellent knowledge of cars / engines to the point of discussing internals, dynamics, handling etc.

5. As mentioned earlier he is a reserved person, does not talk much out of turn. My personal view is that he does have a habit of saying "no" to unwanted upgrades or something which you might want him to do. e.g. if I have some scratches and it may require lot of cost to fix, he might say just let it be. Some customers may not like it, but it works for me

6. Costs are slightly high, but you get value for your money. Best thing is all records are maintained, all bills are in order, adding to the overall professional experience.

[Amey]

PLEASE NOTE : The following content is not my own, I am merely copy pasting on behalf of Abhijit because he does not have permission to post here because of insufficient posts since he isn't active much.His ID here is 'Abhijitl'

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

My Vista completed 25k KMs and so was due for its 5th service. I had already changed engine oil to Fully Synthetic Mobil1 oil along with fuel filter. So there was not much work except the following 2 major issues:

1) Front suspensions were making "karr karr" sound while going over a speed braker
2) Power window switch on the driver's control panel for the rear LHS window was not working.

I called Mr. Lonkar on 28th Feb and he said that I will need an appointment. So I asked him for one and got Tuesday's (6th March) appointment. I did not like the first question he asked me on the phone when I asked for an appointment. The questions was LOUD and clear "Which car is it???". When I said Indica Vista, he paused for a few seconds and then said get it next week. It might be my imagination, but did not like the tone of this question. Probably, if I had said Audi A4, he would said "Get it now!". Anyways...

Problem # 1:
I reached the place at 9:30 AM sharp as scheduled. There were two guys and one guy started filling up the job card, with not very useful information. He filled up my name, car's reg number and mobile number. When I started listing the issues to be tackled, he was like "Sir sab ho jayega, dont' worry". He did not write down any of the issues I reported.

Problem # 2:
Mr. Lonkar first told me he will reach the garage by 9:45. He did not. I called him up again at 10 and he said he will take another 15-20 minutes. So I left and told him to call me back.

Problem # 3:
He never called me back till 2 PM. So I called to check status. The car was not ready and the required part had to be ordered and Mr. Lonkar was not sure whether it will reach him by today evening. So he said he will call me back by 5 PM to update the status. He did not call me back. I again called him at 5:30 and said that "why do you never call me back, when you say you will?" His response "Sir, today i do not have my mechanics and so I am busy". When I left the garage at 10 AM in the morning, there were at least 7 mechanics already at job.

Problem # 4:
The car was not to be ready by EOD 6th March, as expected. So he tells me that he will call me by 11:30 AM next day (7th March) and will update me the status.

Problem # 5:
He called me today morning (7th march) at 10:45 itself saying that the car is ready to go. It was unbelievable. How did he manage to get the part so early in the morning and fit it and get the car ready??? Anyways, so I told him to send the car ASAP, if its really ready. He sends it.

The car reached me in 10 minutes, checked everything as per the list and he had not resolved the power window switch problem. He had informed me that his electrician is looking into it, but at last he tells me that the whole power window assembly needs to be replaced and that assembly can come only in 3-4 days.

Problem # 6:
So the driver leaves after I take charge of the car. I take it to the parking and while I am parking, I had to reverse the car a bit to get the right angle and boom... The reverse sound not working. FINE...I still parked the car. Got out and I try to lock the car with remote and BOOM! Remote lock not working. I can not lock the car AT ALL.

I called Mr. Lonkar immediately and he said he will pick the car and rectify the issue ASAP. So the car goes back to garage.

Problem # 7:
I have having lunch at a place far from the drop off point of the car. He calls me and tells me, that the car has already left the garage and it should reach me in 5 minutes. I told him that I am not there right now and will take atleast an hour to reach. So the car goes back to garage for the 3rd time. WHY could not he call me before leaving the garage???

Problem # 8:
He never called me for the next 2 hours. So I called him at 3 to ask about delivery. He says no driver is available to drop the car. He called me after 20 minutes and said that he will himself drop the car now. So he reached me and I checked everything. He handed the keys to me. I checked whether remote lock is working and it was, thank God. So i told him to wait and let me check the reverse music. When I slotted the reverse gear and turned to tell him that its working now, he had already crossed the road and was on the other side entering some car. WHAT THE HELL?

Overall, very disappointing experience from customer relationship POV. He may be knowledgeable, experienced, but needs to learn to talk to customers, be it an Indica Vista customer or Audi A4.

Now, I will have to visit TASS to fix the power window problem, which I did not want to do in the first place.

I called Mr. Lonkar on 28th Feb and he said that I will need an appointment. So I asked him for one and got Tuesday's (6th March) appointment. I did not like the first question he asked me on the phone when I asked for an appointment. The questions was LOUD and clear "Which car is it???". When I said Indica Vista, he paused for a few seconds and then said get it next week. It might be my imagination, but did not like the tone of this question. Probably, if I had said Audi A4, he would said "Get it now!". Anyways...

I'd like to mention that this is standard practice, irrespective of who the owner is, to ask our customers to take prior appointment, which depends on the workload that we have. It also depends on the make of the car, as smaller cars are done faster. So more small cars can be worked on in a day.

As for your 'assumption' regarding Vista/Audi, that is not at all true. It is not possible for me to remember the car make of every customer, so I ask for the car details. Even if you had said you had an Audi A4, that would not have made any difference in terms of giving priority with respect to appointment. It could well have been just the opposite, as working on these cars is really time consuming. The pause before giving the appointment is for going through my appointment diary to allot a slot for your car. Even fleet owners who come to us call for prior appointment & get an appointment as per our schedule.

If what you say were true, then there would have been only Audis, Mercedes, BMW & other high end cars in our workshop. We work on almost ALL types of cars right from Nanos to Range Rovers and also Jeep, Golf restorations & some modification jobs.

Problem # 1:
I reached the place at 9:30 AM sharp as scheduled. There were two guys and one guy started filling up the job card, with not very useful information. He filled up my name, car's reg number and mobile number. When I started listing the issues to be tackled, he was like "Sir sab ho jayega, dont' worry". He did not write down any of the issues I reported.

Problem # 2:
Mr. Lonkar first told me he will reach the garage by 9:45. He did not. I called him up again at 10 and he said he will take another 15-20 minutes. So I left and told him to call me back.

Every garage, or for that matter every car dealership, enters your name, vehicle no. and contact details on the job card. It is standard practice and required information.
Here is a scan of the job card filled up for your car.

Attachment 900573

Could you please point out which part of the filled in information is 'not very useful' ?
As you can see, the job card has listed all your complaints.

You were given an appointment of 9.30AM to drop the car and when you reached the workshop, our supervisor filled out a job card for your car, for which I don’t necessarily have to be present.

Everyday in the morning on my way to the garage I have to visit my suppliers or collect cars, as we have a collection & deliver system. This takes time and sometimes its gets a bit late by the time I reach the garage due to the early morning heavy traffic. I had not as yet reached and that's why you had to wait because you specifically wanted to talk to me. It's not as if I was in the office and kept you waiting outside for an indefinite period of time.

Problem # 3:
He never called me back till 2 PM. So I called to check status. The car was not ready and the required part had to be ordered and Mr. Lonkar was not sure whether it will reach him by today evening. So he said he will call me back by 5 PM to update the status. He did not call me back. I again called him at 5:30 and said that "why do you never call me back, when you say you will?" His response "Sir, today i do not have my mechanics and so I am busy". When I left the garage at 10 AM in the morning, there were at least 7 mechanics already at job.

I agree, I did not call back, and I apologize for the same. I should have, but honestly I lost track of time attending to other jobs.
Even if you saw a couple of mechanics in the morning, some of them have to go to collect material ordered for that day or have to attend to breakdowns. There are appointments lined up everyday & we have to complete the cars which were not completed the previous day, first, & also work on cars which have come in that day. Even if 1 or 2 mechanics do not turn up for work, my schedule goes for a toss. As every car has to be delivered at a specific time, things do get a bit tricky sometimes. I hope you can understand.

Problem # 4:
The car was not to be ready by EOD 6th March, as expected. So he tells me that he will call me by 11:30 AM next day (7th March) and will update me the status.

Problem # 5:
He called me today morning (7th march) at 10:45 itself saying that the car is ready to go. It was unbelievable. How did he manage to get the part so early in the morning and fit it and get the car ready??? Anyways, so I told him to send the car ASAP, if its really ready. He sends it.
The car reached me in 10 minutes, checked everything as per the list and he had not resolved the power window switch problem. He had informed me that his electrician is looking into it, but at last he tells me that the whole power window assembly needs to be replaced and that assembly can come only in 3-4 days.

You had specifically mentioned a 'kur kur' noise that the car makes while going over bumps, didn't you ? When it comes to suspension related issues, unless these are inspected thoroughly, it is hard to pin point exactly which part is faulty and whether it needs to be replaced or can be repaired. In your case, we had to check suspension related parts ,which meant disassembling a few things, remove certain parts and check them in order to be absolutely certain. In your case, the RHS ball joint had gone bad and needed replacement.

We take these efforts to try and keep customer expenditure low and replace only those parts which really HAVE to be replaced otherwise we try and repair things as far as possible. Wouldn't it have been a lot easier for me to call you and tell you that some suspension related parts need to be replaced and the expenditure will be X Rupees ? Isn't this what happens in most dealerships ?
I do not work on these lines. It's sad that while I am trying to keep parts expenditure as low as possible, people misinterpret it as too much time taken.

As soon as we figured out that the ball joint that needs to be replaced, we placed the order with our regular supplier. All my suppliers are based in the city and there are none in Baner, Balewadi, or Aundh While going home in the evening, I collect the parts from the supplier, bring them with me to the garage the next morning & ask my guys to fix it first, since that car has first priority and then take up work on any other car. So that's how I managed to fix your car so early at 10.45 am. Why the car being ready before time is an issue is honestly beyond my comprehension.

I run a private garage and cater to all cars. Even the most basic of cars like the Nano has thousands of parts. It is practically impossible for me to stock each and every part for every brand and model. We have all the usual consumable items in stock but, like in your case, a ball joint is a part which doesn't need to be replaced every 5-10k kms. like filters and oils do and therefore is not in stock and has to be ordered. Had I been running a dealership workshop then the expectation of having most of the parts in stock for that specific vehicle is valid.

Regarding your switch, I had informed you that my regular electrician was on leave that day but my other guys were competent enough to open and check for loose connections, blown fuses, cut wires and so on. The next day when my electrician did come, I asked him to check if anything could be done to repair it, otherwise the last resort would be to replace the part. Unfortunately that was the case and so you were informed accordingly.
As I mentioned earlier, due to practical difficulties related to parts stocking, we would have had to order the power window assembly, delivery for which can be 3-4 days according to the availability of the part. This is not in our hands at all. It totally depends on the supplier.

Problem # 6:
So the driver leaves after I take charge of the car. I take it to the parking and while I am parking, I had to reverse the car a bit to get the right angle and boom... The reverse sound not working. FINE...I still parked the car. Got out and I try to lock the car with remote and BOOM! Remote lock not working. I cannot lock the car AT ALL.

I called Mr. Lonkar immediately and he said he will pick the car and rectify the issue ASAP. So the car goes back to garage.

While working on the car, the central locking unit was making that annoying sound so my guys had unplugged it so that it won't keep sounding while working. It was supposed to be reconnected before delivering the car. I accept that they forgot to reconnect it, our fault, no two ways about it.
When you called and informed me about it, I asked my person to leave immediately and fix it there itself or get the car back here and fix it.
When my guy came to pick up the car, you made some serious allegations and yelled at my guy saying, 'You guys have ruined my wiring' and what not ? Was that really necessary ?

Problem # 7:
I have having lunch at a place far from the drop off point of the car. He calls me and tells me, that the car has already left the garage and it should reach me in 5 minutes. I told him that I am not there right now and will take atleast an hour to reach. So the car goes back to garage for the 3rd time. WHY could not he call me before leaving the garage???

Since the reverse horn and central locking issue cropped up due to our mistake, we made it a point to fix it and redeliver the car ASAP. It was just unfortunate that you were not in the office at that time. We tried to fix the issue on top priority and deliver the car without further delay. As we have other deadlines to meet, delivering the car at a specific time may not always be possible. Normally, there is a charge for collection & delivery, as 2 people have to be sent for this job. But since the mistake was from our end, we fixed it & just tried to deliver the car without further delay.

Problem # 8:
He never called me for the next 2 hours. So I called him at 3 to ask about delivery. He says no driver is available to drop the car. He called me after 20 minutes and said that he will himself drop the car now. So he reached me and I checked everything. He handed the keys to me. I checked whether remote lock is working and it was, thank God. So i told him to wait and let me check the reverse music. When I slotted the reverse gear and turned to tell him that its working now, he had already crossed the road and was on the other side entering some car. WHAT THE HELL?

There was nobody to drop the car for the next 2 hours. When we did have the time to drop it, you were not available. Since another car was headed that way, I called you to say I would come personally to drop it. I myself had checked that everything was working properly and THEN I came to deliver the car. As for leaving after handing over the keys, since I had personally verified that the reverse horn was working and had pressing issues to address at the garage, I took your leave.

Overall, very disappointing experience from customer relationship POV. He may be knowledgeable, experienced, but needs to learn to talk to customers, be it an Indica Vista customer or Audi A4.

Now, I will have to visit TASS to fix the power window problem, which I did not want to do in the first place.

I would have truly appreciated it had you brought your issues and dissatisfaction to my notice before posting it on this forum. It would have given me a fair chance to address your issues and maybe sort everything amicably then and there itself. It's also possible that this post would have then been unnecessary and you might have left with a very different impression. In all honesty and fairness, it is impossible for me to know what's on your mind unless you let me know about it. I am always open to genuine feedback and suggestions irrespective of them being positive or negative. That's the only way any person, establishment or business learns and grows.

I have never claimed that my garage is the best or is perfect. Mistakes are bound to happen and I do have good sense to accept my faults and mistakes and rectify them.

I hope this answers most, if not all, of your concerns. In case you have any more questions or concerns, do feel free to get in touch

[amoghchaphalkar]

Since both sides have spoken I guess it's best not to discuss this topic anymore. The fact that Mr.Lonkar has taken the time & effort to give a honest response to every concern is a good indicator that he is serious about his work, reputation and garage.

[vinit.merchant]

Gentlemen, peace out. It's the best way forward.
If someone likes some services, He mentions it here. If someone doesn't, he posts it here too.

I would like to mention this quote here, as I feel its apt.
There are always three sides to an argument. Your side, my side and the right side.

[Swanand Inamdar]

Guys, Im posting here cause many of you are known to me personally.

As far as the argument is concerned, both have a valid point. I aint getting on who did what and who didnt. All I can say is, yes a member has a right to post an unbiased review of any particular service. Agreed, some wont agree to that. Well, to each his own.

I am only saying, if one did not like any particular center's service, then dont go there again! Simple. Why argue on how and why and what! Leave it at that.

As far as TUP is concerned, we all know that he is a reputed guy who has done some great work to his credit. Maybe, again, maybe one member didnt like the way he ran his shop. So be it. Why get into how good a person he is.

Again, I am not taking any sides here. A humble request from a fellow Pune BHPian - Leave the argument at that. We can always agree to disagree.

[shridhar.s.i]

Hello,
I have read the posts and I can see there was a clear breach of privacy and i strongly suggest we refrain from doing this
This thread's purpose is to share the good and bad experiences about the garage, members advocating / justifying to responses is really not appreciated, this can be done outside but here it does not set a good example
I request we post our honest responses here
I am also planning a restoration of my Tata Estate and i will try and visit this shop to get a quote (without letting the remarks making me judgmental)
This is my view and i don't intend to have any argument or debate on this please

[cyclops]

I agree with the last 3 posts made here. This is an open forum and everybody is entitled for an opinion.

[GTO]

I thank Ajay for sharing his review, and Abhijitl for providing clarifications with the utmost courtesy. The professional tone is appreciated. Either party has expressed their views and we consider the matter closed.

[xPK]

Hi guys, I'm looking for a new mechanic/service station for my car, as my mechanic doesn't seem to fancy about his business any more.
Recently I came across this thread. I'm looking forward to take my Optra to them for regular servicing and to sort out some niggles. I saw quite a lot members from pune recommending it. However the posts are quite old. Not sure if the verdict still stands true about Tune Up Plus. Has anybody visited this place recently? Will it be a good choice for me?

[Amey]

I still get work done on all my cars except the bimmer at Tune Up plus. Their service is still the same as it was before. I will definitely recommend.

[amoghchaphalkar]

Originally Posted by xPK

Has anybody visited this place recently? Will it be a good choice for me?

I recommended Tune Up Plus to a friend who was looking to get his Honda City serviced. He was finding the rates at Honda ASC very high.

He got his car serviced from Tune Up Plus and was happy with the quality of work and the charges.

This update is form last month. So I guess Tune Up Plus is still a good choice.

[selfdrive]

Does Tune up plus work only on the mechanicals or do they also have an accesories counter?
Even if they do not have a sales counter, would they install accessories bought from elsewhere? Of course, I would expect this to be done with a regular servicing and not only for installing accessories.

[xPK]

Originally Posted by Amey

...I will definitely recommend.

Originally Posted by amoghchaphalkar

...So I guess Tune Up Plus is still a good choice.

Thanks Amey and Amogh. Sounds like a good bet. So my lady is going to Tune Up Plus. Let's see how things go. Will post the updates then.
Thanks again!

[EDIT]Any particular mechanic of representative I should be definitely meeting there? Not sure if Mr. Lonkar will be reachable.

[neerajdan]

Originally Posted by xPK

Any particular mechanic of representative I should be definitely meeting there? Not sure if Mr. Lonkar will be reachable.

The main advantage of TuneUp Plus in my experience is that Mr. Lonkar is always personally available and you will find him most of the times on the shop floor working on cars himself.