[amvj]

Reading all these scams made me feel very very scary.

BTW thank you for sharing this.

[D C]

**ALERT** Woman Requesting Help with Medicines at Traffic Signals in Chennai

Last week, while I was on the LB Road Signal heading towards Kottivakkam, this old lady approached me asking for help to buy some medicines. She was very old and apparently cannot walk without a walking stick. She was carrying a couple of wrappers and requested money to buy those medicines. She looked genuine and I asked if it is okay if I give her the medicines instead of money and she agreed. I asked her to wait there and went further and parked the car after crossing the signal.

I went back to her, collected the wrappers to identify the medicines and walked to a store. The possibility of she returning the medicines and getting the money was in mind and for that reason I went to a store that is inside a lane, completely out of her sight. One of the tablet was a dietary supplement and that triggered an alert. I have decided to check the genuineness and approached some of the nearby medical stores.

The second store identified the wrappers and confirmed that the woman indeed is trying to make money. If people give her medicines instead of money, she return them to the stores and get the money (Around Rs. 300). I have reported this to the police on the signal and requested them to check if she genuinely need any help and I went to work.

The reason why I am writing this now is that I have seen the lady again yesterday at the Kottivakkam signal, doing the same exercise.

[aashishnb]

Originally Posted by Derezzed

I was tricked last Sunday at the HP factory pump on the Pune-Mumbai expressway service road. (the 1st one on the left on the way to Mumbai 3 kms after the Hinjewadi bridge)

I stopped at this fuel station to top up my tank of petrol: another Rs. 1500 worth of petrol. I always get out of my car, lock it and stand next to the refueling attendant to oversee the entire process and avoid any scams. However this time as soon as the attendant inserted the fuel delivery nozzle inside my car and started pumping petrol a second attendant made his way to the front of my car. He casually asked me to switch on the car's windshield washer so that he could clean the glass.
I didn't see anything wrong with this, probably he didn't have clean water to wash the glass, and I activated the wiper washer for 10 seconds. When I got back to my original position next to the fuel attendant I immediately realized that I had been fooled.
The fuel pump was stuck at Rs. 400 and the attendant told me that there was no electricity and it had already dispensed Rs. 400 worth of petrol. He pressed some buttons and voila the pump started again. I was expecting the fuel delivery to auto cut-off at around approx. Rs. 1100 as by then my tank would have been full again, however to my horror the pump kept on dispensing petrol and it finally got auto cut-off at approx. Rs. 1600. So I ended up paying close to Rs. 2000 for an actual Rs. 1500 worth of petrol.

These guys had robbed me of my hard earned money with their dirty tactics. I swear I'll never go to that pump again and add this incident to my list of experiences.

Try complaining on the pgpportal (petroleum & gas ministry) - they're very prompt and do seem to take action. I did one recently and got a call & a letter from the company in a week. They even invited me to come and verify the quantity along with govt weight & measurement Dept people.

[poloman]

My Polo is now 7.5 years old. Recently I had given the car for 7 th year service at VW Whitefield. The car had no complaints. But as usual the SA guy called up and asked for link road replacement. This part was already replaced once with no visible strain or noise. So I refused the approval and the car was returned with out the part being replaced.

But from day two after service I started getting noise from the front part of the car like metal clunking on metal or something is loose. The noise was so repulsive that you won't be able to sit inside the car with out music in full volume. I called up the service center and they were like " We warned you so" and nothing can be done other than fixing one more appointment which had 1.5 weeks away.Mind you this was a service follow up, but no drive in follow ups allowed since they are loaded to brim. The work costed minimum 4K + taxes.

I decided to take opinion from a neighborhood garage. They cleaned up the entire front wheel setup and tightened all the bolts. The noise disappeared with out a trace. The bill came to Rs500. So either the service center had not done any standard service procedures like looking for loose nuts and providing lubrication to moving parts. Or in worst case they tampered with link rod setup to aggravate the problem. Since I don't have any direct proof of tampering, I would call this a sham if not a scam.

Since VW has a monopoly on parts it is not very easy to get the service done outside. But if you have your own doubts about such dubious replacement requests please consult a local garage. This can save you a good sum of money.

[tharian]

It looks like these A.S.S have a list of parts they have decided on, to throw at the customer saying it needs replacement.

Probably they decide this on basis of the name of the part and how important it may sound to a usual customer so he thinks if it is not replaced, it is a dangerous situation and that is how the technicians at the service center make it sound too.

Link rod story has been pushed on me every time I used to give my Figo for service. Every time I give them the same reply, grease it and leave it.

Recently I had to drop off a friend's Figo for a full service since it hadn't been done in more than 3 years. This was at the same service center I give my car for the last 7 years. Most of the chaps there know me and usually don't try bumping of some part or the other saying it needs to be replaced. They call and I tell them hold on and go to the service center and give my approval, since I stay close by.
This time since they knew the car hadn't been serviced in a while, they had options to throw at me. It is a petrol Figo and normally there is not many parts to be replaced as part of maintenance apart from the usual.
They wanted to replace the belt, gear lever bush, of course link rod and cabin filter. I don't think the Figo even had a cabin filter.

Long story short, the SA was not known to me and tried his best to convince me to replace of all this. I clearly told him nothing has to be replaced for now. As a precaution , I agreed to only the belt. For the gear lever bush, one of them passed a comment saying he will know once he gets stuck on the road.

I don't think these guys go the extent of making something loose deliberately for the the customer to return cannot say about VW

[amitk26]

Always take 2nd opinion on anything related to suspension , brakes and clutch. The common favorite parts of service advisors are

(1) Tie rods (2) link rods (3) Bush (4) Disk/rotor (5) Brake pads (6) clutch

The reason is easy to understand the labor/time involved is generally minimal if there is a lift available and some pneumatic /power tools are at disposal. Unlike turbo , electrical parts or engine there is no additional complexity associated with diagnostics using some modern tools and there is no risk of failure either. Any available rookie mechanic can do the job. The billing is generally done under some generic item like brake checkup and overhaul or front/rear suspension setup/overhaul so the labor rate billed is same irrespective of amount of work done in brakes or suspension

Originally Posted by poloman

My Polo is now 7.5 years old. Recently I had given the car for 7 th year service at VW Whitefield. The car had no complaints. But as usual the SA guy called up and asked for link road replacement. This part was already replaced once with no visible strain or noise. So I refused the approval and the car was returned with out the part being replaced.

Since I don't have any direct proof of tampering, I would call this a sham if not a scam.

[Highh5]

Have gone through the same treatment recently and can totally relate to it. Though in my case I got this royal treatment from MASS. I took my Baleno for 20K (Fourth) service and mentioned about the noise whenever one applies brake in Stop Go traffic.

So at the end according to SA brake pads should be replaced though there is healthy amount of life remaining, disk rotor should be replaced (for a car which has done just 20k km) and Link rods are weak too which may give up after some time. When enquired about the warranty claim, SA came up with the reply warranty is not applied to movable parts and those prone to wear & tear. Now there are two completely different abstracts, in our car most of the parts involves movement but that doesn't mean we can't claim warranty on those parts. Though parts like tires, battery, clutch are prone to wear and tear and rarely get honoured when claimed warranty which is understandable.

Since I denied replacement of any of the parts at my expense except brake pads, SA got rattled and stated in the service copy which is shared with Maruti that following parts are weak and customer denied replacement at will.

Shows how far they used to go in order to inflate their bills/targets. Pathetic attitude and behaviour, I had enough of such sour and harassing incidents/events with MASS. This has reinforced my belief only in one thing that my next car is not going to be a MS.

[bhavik.1991]

Originally Posted by Highh5

Shows how far they used to go in order to inflate their bills/targets. Pathetic attitude and behaviour, I had enough of such sour and harassing incidents/events with MASS. This has reinforced my belief only in one thing that my next car is not going to be a MS.

I second that. I don't know my next car's segment, type(Hatch,sedan or suv), fuel type or color but one thing I know for sure is that it won't be a MS [thanks to the ownership experiences of Dzire (2010-16) & Brezza (2016-present)]

[Dr.Vikas]

Recently I happened to be in Pune, where I had faced the common roadside puncturewala scam..

The entire incident took place within just few minutes only.
We entered the city at Narhe (from the Bye pass road) & soon a biker while overtaking us, pointed out at the front passenger side tyre and said, 'Check the tyre pressure..'
Eventually, our car was just near a roadside puncturewala then, who immediately got into the scene & asked for the problem.

Further when I was still asking my son to see what the matter was, the punctrewala promptly started checking the tyre pressure. And while doing so, he almost deflated the tyre to 20 psi and said, "Puncture hai, Saab.."


By the time, I also got out of the car and asked him, "Kya hai, bhaiya ?"
He again said confidently, "Puncture huwa hai, Saab ! Hawa chadh nahi raha."

I immediately came to know the trick he just played while checking the tyre pressure!

I did nothing but asked my son to get our own Air Pressure Gauge to recheck. It was 20 psi then, so I asked him to fill the air up to 30 psi.

He again said, "Hawa chadhega nahi, Saab. Puncture hai, Nikal du kya?"

Without any contradiction I said, "No thanks. Puncture nikaalne ki koi jarurat nahi, sirf hawa bharwani thi, aage petrol pump pe dekhte hai!" and we left..

Then on the nearby pump, we got the tyre inflated up to 35 psi, waited for some time & rechecked again.

Obviously, there was no any drop in the pressure !

So, it was an escape for us from the puncturewala scam, who surely was either going to fix at least 2-3 punctures or was going to ask us for the Nozzle change & of course, that for the price of his own will..

Thus, we could be able to counter the probable scam successfully & effectively.

[Shamegz]

The process of up-selling is persuade a customer to buy something additional or more expensive.
It is not uncommon when we visit the showroom the service advisor does insist on various service which are optional but still pushes the user to go for it.
The purpose of this thread is to identify such practices and create a awareness.

Here is a video on by CBC Marketplace which finds aggressive up-selling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-avpx8UTakI

The most common ones are:
Providing different engine oil option
Providing additional service like: Under body coat, rodent protection, Car polish.
Pushing for additional warranty, RSA.

Please share your experience of dealing with up-selling by Car showroom.

PS: Although Up-selling is very common practice in most of the regular things, lets limit discussion to Automotive only.

[MissionManali]

So it happened but we were lucky.

Self & wife were enjoying Dussehra by driving around Panchkula yesterday. I stopped at a roadside market to buy liquor. My wife was sitting in the car with AC on, and only I went out. When I came back,I noticed a very intense foul smell near the car while opening rear left door and at the same time my wife told me that a man just cautioned her that there was oil & smoke coming from the engine. As the car was on, I immediately checked the instrument cluster, but there were no warnings.

Meanwhile, such was the intensity of fumes that we both had to come out. Checked the front grill and there was oil or some viscous liquid. Opened the bonnet and checked the engine bay but could not find any leakage. Took my time in rechecking and analyzing the whole scenario and decided to call roadside assistance, given the reputation XUV 7OO is enjoying these days

Went to the service station today & get the car checked thoroughly but no leakage, whatsoever, was found. Then remembered that car has got 360 camera recordings & decided to explore and voila!

Refer attached video. Around 20:02:14, a man comes with a bottle in hand and spills some liquid over the front grill/ radiator. A few seconds later, another man, points out to my wife about the spill but she does not come out. Meanwhile, I am back around 20:03:33 mark ( reverse camera), and the person vanishes. Though we both came out of the car at one point of time but luckily nothing unwanted happened.

This will be a lesson.

PS: Though 360-view recording is a boon but there is no particular sequence in which files are saved. It was really a pain to search for this video. Also, pardon the poor quality, as this was made using my mobile, as Mahindra does not give the option to save videos from the memory card. I hope they give it sooner or later.

Thanks
MM

[aditya.s.s]

Hello everyone, I am quite new to Team BHP's interface, so please excuse me if I am posting my experience in the wrong thread.

I recently got my 8 year old Alto 800 LXI CNG serviced, I was told that parts such as Brake calipers, brake pads, water pump etc. need to be replaced.

I gave a go ahead for the repairs, and the bill was Rs.15,000. I am attaching within this reply, the whole bill, and am really looking for some kind of advice as to what all things are a part of 'extra' charges, that I might've made unknowingly.

For example - Within the bill they have considered tax twice. Once at 14% and then added it again at 9%. I could not really understand why was this done and found it a bit confusing.

I would really appreciate some help as I am trying to learn more about it.

[hyper-VTEC]

Originally Posted by aditya.s.s

For example - Within the bill they have considered tax twice. Once at 14% and then added it again at 9%. I could not really understand why was this done and found it a bit confusing.[/ATTACH]

Some items are charged at 28% GST (14+14 State+Central) - Mostly the parts used
Some are charged at 18% GST (9+) - Mostly the service (labour) charges

[raunaksaha2008]

Scammed by Traffic Police on red light violation!

Hello everyone,

I have a small experience which I would like to share with you all.

My wife and I were traveling to Barog, Himachal for a staycation over the long weekend of Holi.

On our way, we were stopped by traffic police near Pinjore and asked to park my car.

Route I was traveling -


Junction where I was stopped -



He asked for my DL, which I gave him. He said I had violated a red light. I was surprised! I am not the kind of driver to violate red lights and told him I was following the car ahead of me as I couldn't remember clearly about the light.

He told me sympathetically that the driver ahead made a mistake and now I would also be fined for no fault. He asked me to wait in the car and they would talk with me soon.

By then, I knew I had to pay some amount of money.

I saw the Baleno car driver (car which was ahead of me) returning to his vehicle after dealing with the police, and I got out and inquired how much he had paid. He said 500 rupees.

I went and started talking with the police, and they said it's 5000 for red light violation. They would fine me for not wearing a seatbelt (which I was wearing) for 1000 rupees.

All the time, they were very polite and cordial and tried to do small talk with me like what do I do, where do I work, etc.

I was unsure what to do at the moment and decided to pay and leave to avoid spoiling my trip. They did not give me a receipt and said I will receive the paid challan soon.

I left the area, parked the car a few hundred meters ahead, and remembered the Dashcam. I checked the video and found no red light was on!

Dashcam Footage -

https://youtu.be/229SDkYHj30

I also looked up the fines for red light violation - it was 1000 for a first-time offender and 5000 for a repeat offense.

I was disappointed, also angry over being scammed.

While it did take me a day to get over the fact that I was scammed, I decided to share my experience to help others.

Take-Home Messages -

1. Be calm when dealing with traffic police. Try to look up the fines for the offenses you have been charged with. We usually get nervous and anxious when faced with such situations, which affect our decision-making abilities.

2. Traffic Police are usually looking to make a quick buck, and hence they are polite and cordial. (Not generalizing).

3. Evidence in the form of Dashcam can be very helpful.

4. Challans can be usually less/equal to what the traffic police charges. It's better to ask them to send an online Challan instead of settling on the spot. They also have to provide evidence of the offense. Court challans are usually settled for much less than the maximum fine for the offense.

Disclaimer - These are just my opinions. Comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Thank you for reading and safe driving!

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by raunaksaha2008

Scammed by Traffic Police on red light violation!

Not sure I'd call this a scam....

Originally Posted by raunaksaha2008

I checked the video and found no red light was on!

You're right that no red light was on. However, it seems a case of a malfunctioning red light, and the police seem to be happily making hay while the sun shines.

See this clip from ~@00:33 in your video, it shows the green light going off as soon as the clip plays, just before you pass the signal.



This is just another story of how we are getting screwed by normalized corruption.

To explain that further...
The same normalized corruption that enables a 1000 "fine" for a claimed "5000" offense...
Is the same normalized corruption that pays the 1000 without asking for a challan...
Is the same normalized corruption that is probably responsible for the contract to maintain the signals but has swallowed the money and doesn't actually bother to ensure they are working as expected.

Not finger-pointing at you specifically, as I think 95%+ of Indians would do the same thing as you did in this situation....

All I'm saying is that we should see how things end up coming full circle.

The chain has to break somewhere if things are to change.