[2000rpm]

Originally Posted by nikhilthegunner

This is a rather premature statement to make. I agree that this is not the ideal way of dealing with a customer but again, this seems to be a one-off. You can't judge the sustenance of the business basis this one incident. If they repeat it more frequently then we can say that MG will go the Skoda way.

How many manufacturers do we know in India who have sued the customer? What kind of a tactic is this? If the customer has any problem with the vehicle, he is expected to take it up with the dealer, but if the customer makes a public complaint, the company will intervene and sue the customer? If the vehicle had clutch issues at 2000 kms, the customer has full right to be angry. After all this is a 20 lakh car.

Maruti must be dealing with 1000 such customers on a daily basis, however none of this issue has been reported like this. Same with Tata, Mahindra and Hyundai. Hence I see them going the Skoda way i.e. unsuccessful because of poor customer orientation.

This is a fear tactic and if not dealt with, will become the new norm in auto customer service.

This is what happens when a Chinese mindset company enters a market like India, where the customer still remains to be the king.

[G-One]

I guess all it needs is both parties to sit over a coffee and discuss and sort it out.

[car love]

The other day, i saw a brand new MG with full of occupants (a family with small children too) stranded in the middle of the road with the car not starting. It even had its showroom ribbons on it. (Just beside RMZ Infinity on Old Madras road). Couple of people including me tried to help and we called the showroom finally after all attempts to start it failed.
They promptly sent a mechanic over who after considerable amount of time fiddling with the vehicle was unsuccessful in starting it. He then declared that it has to be towed to the dealer place.
Just imagine what that family will be going through after having forked out so much and being stranded in a brand new vehicle. The engineering integrity of the thing is really suspect and it sells more on wham bham looks and glitter. How many of us have seen even a decade old Toyota with bonnet up and stranded in the middle of the road? Guess hardly any.
(I did not take any pics so as not to offend the owners and make them feel more lousy).

[gautam109]

Originally Posted by gutsy

I am aghast and speechless. Initially, I thought it was just a casual comment by MG. Then I browsed to see MG's FB wall, they are copy pasting the same reply, clearly indicating stance taken by them:

Damn! If MG's facebook page handlers are using this as a template reply to persistent complaints or strong criticism, they're doing a FAR better job of defaming MG than any customer ever could!

I remember the Toyota-Etios fb page also being quite passive-aggressive in thier replies to disgruntled customers / potential-customers who had negative dealership experiences. Although they certainly never threatened to sue them.

Car companies need to either stay away from social media or hire folks who actually have some people skills instead of what seem to be disgruntled teenagers.

Edit:
Seeing the number of complaints on the fb page about the clutch plate overheating / burning, MG would do well to initiate a mass recall and fix along with an apology. They had dream launch in India, would be such a shame to fritter it away.

[devarshi84]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

MG's response on FB is in line with their brand, it's Chinese and they aren't the ones to take criticism positively.

So what next MG? You're going to deny warranty to those who do not praise you in every online forum? I hope this goes to court and MG gets a taste of our judiciary.

Couldn't have put it in a more simpler manner. MG is a Chinese car in and out except the brand name. Their sales are already dwindling vis-a-vis Seltos and Creta

We have seen all kinds of cars being pulled by animals when a customer is not happy including Skoda, VW, BMW, Mercedes, Audi etc. Only Skoda has tried to sue customer and fallen flat on the face.

All I can say is, if the company is more keen to sue the customer rather than solve his/her issues, they do not deserve to be in operation globally.

[veyron_head]

I am rather appalled at the way MG is dealing with this issue. Did the customer parade the car with the donkey without first trying to solve the issue with the dealer/MG? I am sure he did this as a last resort to gain attention. If a brand new car I paid 20 lacs for has problems, I would raise hell. Naturally.

[amit1agrawal]

I have also seen a Red MG Hector stranded on the Outer Ring Road somewhere near Marathalli. MG Hector is removing its sheen quite quickly (like any Chinese product).
Btw, this issue was shared in our residents WhatsApp group, which is usually silent on things not related to society, and I in turn forwarded to other groups. So I suppose this issue is getting a lot of publicity on Whatsapp and doing quite damage to the MG brand.

Originally Posted by car love

The other day, i saw a brand new MG with full of occupants (a family with small children too) stranded in the middle of the road with the car not starting. It even had its showroom ribbons on it. (Just beside RMZ Infinity on Old Madras road). Couple of people including me tried to help and we called the showroom finally after all attempts to start it failed.
They promptly sent a mechanic over who after considerable amount of time fiddling with the vehicle was unsuccessful in starting it. He then declared that it has to be towed to the dealer place.
Just imagine what that family will be going through after having forked out so much and being stranded in a brand new vehicle. The engineering integrity of the thing is really suspect and it sells more on wham bham looks and glitter. How many of us have seen even a decade old Toyota with bonnet up and stranded in the middle of the road? Guess hardly any.
(I did not take any pics so as not to offend the owners and make them feel more lousy).

[superbad]

Taking things at face value, this seems to me a customer burning out the clutch early, the dealer replacing it, & the same problem happening all over again. Hard to pinpoint blame without objective facts.

[roy_libran]

Hector may or may not be a Chinese car, and I fail to see how that may be a material factor in 2019/2020; it might have been in 2009/2010!


At the same time, I would want to know this particular owner/driver's driving style. Does he/she ride the clutch constantly, like so many other locals here?

[tarik.arora]

I will play the devils advocate here.

What if this whole thing is driven by the competition? I know, the chances are very less but we can not rule out the possibility. May be MG knows something which we are not aware of. We anyways do not have full details (the vehicle is not even registered). If this is an attempt to hurt MG's reputation, then a legal action is justified. I am sure MG has done its share of due diligence here.

[xjosephjacob]

This is scary. As a new entrant to the market, when they should be going lengths to delight the customer, are they really going to the court with this ? With all those claims of being customer centric and ethical.

Interestingly a lot of cases of Hector getting stranded on the roads is popping up. But then, I've heard from the services department of Europeans and Americans that they do face a lot of attacks consistently, driven by the most dominant players in the market, in different forms including social media, with most of them targeting the services rather than the product.

[arvind71181]

Originally Posted by tarik.arora

I will play the devils advocate here.

What if this whole thing is driven by the competition? I know, the chances are very less but we can not rule out the possibility. May be MG knows something which we are not aware of. We anyways do not have full details (the vehicle is not even registered). If this is an attempt to hurt MG's reputation, then a legal action is justified. I am sure MG has done its share of due diligence here.

Even if what you are saying is true, the best way to stop this would be to let it die down on its own and not sue the customer, which has now inadvertently created the Streisand effect

[blackbeast]

Originally Posted by GTO

@ Vishal Pancholi: If you're reading this, please share the full story via our share page (include emails, scans of service invoices / job cards, pictures etc.). We will publish it.

If possible, move this post so that it iseen right after the opening post or edit the same. its unlikely he will run through the thread. I am curious to hear the issue. Customer wont go to the extent of hiring a donkey if he is not pissed off at multiple levels. Also, there are news reports that used hector going at almost the same price as the new. He could have washed his hands off it.

[charanreddy]

Geez.. this is a really stupid move by MG. They are claiming that the customer has "Vested Interest" ..They must clearly spell out what it is. Has he colluded with a rival manufacturer and is unnecessarily defaming the brand? Or is the consumer at fault and trying to get MG to pay.. If the latter then the question is how come a new car with relatively few miles on the Odo already facing a clutch problem? Is it a design flaw? Just because MG does not acknowledge, do concerns go away ?

Also to a certain extent, A customer after spending 20 lakhs is entitled to show his displeasure on the brand if he has cause to be unhappy. That he has chosen to compare it with a donkey is hilarious and a bit overboard, but how else will you register your displeasure in a country with zero lemon laws ? All that will happen : Customer will register a counter case against MG in consumer court and for good measure in criminal court as well. Both with spend 10 years at the minimum by which time the issue would have been forgotten..

MG needs to do all it can to shake of its Chinese roots and it would be well advised to stop threatening customers and find ways to diffuse the situation. There is no way this ends well for MG even if it wins the case.

[dicor]

Originally Posted by swissknife

I see this as a publicity stunt more than anything else.

Originally Posted by aravind.anand

The whole "pulling-with-a-donkey" act is in cheap taste and the only intention is to make the TRP hungry news feeds to take notice of this and blow it out of proportions. This is just another way of blackmailing a manufacturer.

Why would someone spend 2 million to do Publicity Stunt and TRP? These can be done free on social media nowadays.

We should pray to God that we never fall in lemon car issues. Our country does not have strong laws to protect the consumer from lemon cars.

I can feel this guy's feeling, who didn't buy a traditional, tried and proven Creta, XUV, Harrier but gone for a brand that is yet to be proven. He must have done a lot of research before shelling out 20 lakhs and in return he got a lemon, lot of embarrassment, preaching from veterans like "dude I told you to go for Maruti / Hyundai.

Vishal Pancholi, you've my full support.