Team-BHP - Want to buy a new car in Allahabad within 6 lacs on the road

The Tata dealer is not telling me the whole truth. My bank has sanctioned the loan and prepared the DD in favour of them. They are supposed to deliver the vehicle around 22-24th of April. I started pressurizing them from this week. Yesterday they told me : "gaRi truck main chaR rahi hai". I was quite happy. Today when I called them to tell him that the DD has been prepared, the sales manager said: "saab, apko red chhoRke dusre koi colour chalega? red diesel hyay lekin petrol nehi hain abhi." I went crazy. I asked him why he said that my car has boarded the truck. He had no answer. I said that I want my car around that time and the colour must be red and nothing else. Moreover, there should not be any further delay. After I hang up, I called the sales agent who first dealt with me and finalized the deal. He said that the demand is too high for a small town like Allahabad and supply is less. Suddenly he asked : "saab, aap palio lenge? apko to pahle se pasand tha." It took much effort to control my anger. I told him that they should not play game with me and tell me the truth and keep me posted about the development.

I saw that many people in this forum has faced similar problem with the dealer. In this case, what should I do? How should I deal with them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by crosscap (Post 798497)

This is really unfortunate.

It is really difficult to understand why car dealers behave in such a manner, why professionalism is alien concept to them. How much of an effort is required to find out the real delivery time and communicate it to the customer?? I am sure Tata being a professional group will have systems in place to know the tentative timelines for production and delivery.

It’s high time that car dealers realize that today's customer values transparency, honesty and commitment. These things generate confidence. It’s high time that dealers realize that training their employees (sales guys) for customer delight is absolutely must in today's time. I have seen so many employees talking to customers in a casual manner, not answering them with sincerity, casually lying like nobodies business and just being careless.

My personal experience with Hyundai has been like that. The sales guy laughed at me for insisting on ABS and wanted me to buy an Accent against my interest in Verna !!! Ultimately Hyundai lost a customer coz’ of a guy who was least bothered about anything related to customer or the company. For how long the car companies can afford such liabilities (dealer employees)

Man, get in touch with the owner of the dealer ship showroom. If that does not work straight get in touch with Tata's sales office in that region (you should get the contact from the Tata website) - write letters to all the heads including the sales & marketing and attach the order booking copy. Am sure things will start moving quickly.

All the best !!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ezee (Post 798839)

They were playing a game to sell their TD car to you and you got the point before so now its over for them, you must either wait for a RED or talk to any other dealer .... may be anyone from Lucknow, Pratapgarh, Sultanpur, Faizabad, Barabanki or Kanpur.

I would just like to suggest you that most crucial part of car purchase is delivery time, please dont just take delivery in a hurry .... leave car for proper inspections for atleast 2 days when it arrives at dealer and check everything possible for you before driving out.

Hey ezee, thank you very much for your reply. I shall not hurry. After the vehicle reaches the dealer(if at all), I shall do the PDI as given in this forum. At the moment I am not willing to talk to the other dealers from other towns. In fact in Allahabad there is only one dealer : Motorsales LTD. They have their offices in all other major cities like Kanpur, Lucknow. I didn't check with other towns.

Can somebody clarify one point? Is it a point of return? Since my bank has prepared the DD in favour of the dealer and I have done the booking with some amount, can I cancel the booking, if worst comes worst, at this stage?

Quote:

Originally Posted by crosscap (Post 799067)

Can somebody clarify one point? Is it a point of return? Since my bank has prepared the DD in favour of the dealer and I have done the booking with some amount, can I cancel the booking, if worst comes worst, at this stage?

I think all the companies have provision of cancelling the booking and you should get back the entire booking amount refunded.

Hope you have proper receipt of the booking with a mention of the booked car and variant. Normally receipts do mention that booking amount will be refunded through only cheque. Though, dealer may misguide you that cancelling the booking may forfeit your booking amount.

Quote:

Originally Posted by an10 (Post 799101)

an10, thank you for both of your messages. I do have a booking receipt but nowhere I find it's written the booking amount will be refunded. I have both the booking receipt and the performa invoice quoting the price of the vehicle for my bank with the make and model variant of the car.

Today I am going to pay a surprise visit to their office. If necessary, I shall try to talk to the owner or MD of the dealer.

i wanted a white , and the dealer said it would take a week. the black/grey/red he had in stock were all a few months old. Eventually it took a month.
Just be patient , and wait you'll get a new vehicle. Dont ask for delivery on a public holiday/weekend as PDI might take ages due to the already heavy workload.

They will force you to sign an evaluation form for their service. DO NOT fill it up until you have gotten the car , and you're satisfied. Just helped a friend of mine get a xeta last week. By the time I'd arrived, he'd already given the form, and they made him wait 4 hours . Eventually we made such a fuss that they offered to do a "teflon coating" and a left side mirror to sweeten the deal.
Also , on checking the road tax they charged , and what they actually paid , his dad spotted a 1.6k difference. They refused to refund the amount in cash, only in acessories, no matter how much we argued.
The car is quite good, while the same cannot be said of the dealers.

Again, i remind you , Do NOT fill the form until the car is in front of you and you're satisfied that it works. Other than your cash, it is the only thing of value they want from you, as apparently tata monitors customer feedback, and they're quite strict about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenhorn (Post 799250)

Oh! I really feel relaxed when I find that I am in the safe hand of BHP-ians. Greenhorn, many many thanks for informing me about it. I just came back from the dealer's office. I talked to the sales manager first. He was a bit surprised to find me. However, he was apologetic and immediately called their Lucknow office to enquire about the red petrol variant of Indigo CS GLS. they said that they can see(probably on their computer) one such vehicle but they don't know when and how it is going to board the truck. As I am from academics, the sales manager showed a lot of respect and agreed that it's a pity that they couldnot deliver the vehicle even after 21 days of the booking. They admitted it is happening due to heavy demand of Indigo CS which Tata didn't expect.

Still not convinced, I talked to the GM. The sales manager happily agreed to to introduce me to him. The GM was a nice chap, looked at my file carefully and said that they feel perplexed with my case. He said that they stopped taking any further order of Indigo CS after seeing my case. He instructed the sales manager in front of me to get hold of some influential person at their Lucknow office. In particular he advied me to write an email to the Area Sales manager, located in Lucknow. In fact I also know this person since when I was planning to buy this vehicle the area sales manager paid a visit to my place with the sales manager.

Just now I have finished writing the email to the area sales manager, requesting him to speed up the process for my vehicle. I keep my finger crossed, wait and watch what happens next. As per your suggestion, I am not hurrying. However, the day temp. here shoots up to 43-44C even around 10AM. My home is almost 1 km away from my office. Were it not so hot, I have no problem walking. But believe me, it's almost impossible to walk for 10-15 mins. in the sun with hot air blowing all around you. Without a vehicle, I will not survive this hot and dry weather.

In my experience, the senior folks play good cop- bad cop with the sales personnel. they act all apologetic for the bad conduct of the sales guys , and might even shout at them in front of you to placate you. Their job is to make the customer happy now , not in the long term, that;s a job for after sales. they'll lie to you now to make you happy for now , but wont deliver on the promise. When i went there , there was a guy who was taking delivery of a red indigo CS LS. apparently the dealer screwed up the registration and had given them temp registration instead of permanent. even though i was there for 4 hours , it still hadnt been resolved by the time i left.

There is a way to decode the engine / chassis numbers.
Yahoo! Groups
take a printout of this to verify the age of the "new" car
I hope that your wait will be rewarded by a brand new car :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenhorn (Post 810092)

Hi greenhorn, thanks for the tip. I have already anticipated that kind of game. Meanwhile two days back the sales agent called me to tell me that my car will board the truck a within a day or two. On my way back after taking the driving lesson, I visited the showroom that day. The sales manager confirmed the same report. I told them to give the engine and chassis numbers. I told them that only then I will hand over the draft. Tomorrow the sales agent will come with those numbers and in return I shall hand over the draft. If some problem turns up, I shall get back the full refund: the sales manager promised.

Thanks for that link. I had already dug it up from this forum. I was looking for VIN decoder and quite happy to find that for Tata cars, it's already been cracked. The VIN of the last car which they tried to sell me(with odometer reading 602 km on it), is still with me. I found that it's made in January, 2008 at Pune.