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-   -   Paid for Z800, but no bike! Kawasaki uncooperative. EDIT: Bikes delivered (page 11) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/superbikes-imports/178878-paid-z800-but-no-bike-kawasaki-uncooperative-edit-bikes-delivered-page-11-a-4.html)

I thought the Skoda case was bad, but this one takes the bakery

Now all that's left is for a Kwacker rep to send an email to GTO saying they will "Instigate" Team-BHP & its users

To everyone who is impacted - You getting your bike or money is a given. But make them bleed through their tough hides so that even the thought of repeating such blasphemy sends shivers down their spine (if they have one) ..... pretty please!!!

This sucks and this can happen only in India.

Fraudulent dealers and apathetic manufacturers. Having owned a CB1000R myself, I can safely say that it's usually the high-end dealers/manufacturers who mete out shoddy service to their customers, rather than the mass market guys.

Neil and the others, I feel your pain guys. Sincerely hope you get your money back soon. Passing the buck seems to have become the norm in our country.

The rate at which these cases are coming up, perhaps the mods should consider starting a new "Hall of Shame" section on the forum :Frustrati

This is outrageous! Never thought Kawasaki would stoop so low. Collectively or individually Neil and other buyers should file a case for fraud and sue these buggers to the full extent of the law!

Looks like Kawasaki is going the Skoda way. Sad.

Man...Feel sorry for the plight of the folks who put in their hard earned ones on this sham dealer. Like someone else quoted, this is similar to the plethora of real estate scams out there. Caveat Emptor?

Hopefully Kawasaki steps in at the earliest and resolves this. Their Indian operations have been a bit weird-ish. Sometime back, their website had disappeared! Not to forget the bad buzz about a lot of dealers (Bangalore folks are extremely pissed with Khivraj i hear.)

Its amazing how global brands (auto sector especially) continue to mess up in our country time and again. Doesn't matter if you have a solid portfolio of products if people with low integrity are responsible for your primary customer touchpoints :Frustrati

I don't know what the terms of dealerships are between auto cos and dealers but give the repeated occurrence of such instances, I think companies need to take very serious measures to ensure such frauds do not happen with customers.

Perhaps these measures can be a combination of much closer and more frequent audit scrutiny of dealer financials to ensure they are in financially good health.

Early stop loss of order booking process where dealers have shown signs of shutting down. I won't be surprised if despite all this new bbay showroom is still listed on the Kawasaki website.

Re look at booking order money procedures. List on your website the max money a dealer can charge. Have an element of involvement in the booking process.

Perhaps even create escrow mechanisms where the booking money or a relevant portion of booking money actually gets credited into some sort of an escrow account.

Just some thoughts off the top of my head to see what could be done as potential mitigants to these situations.

In the meantime, I think the purchasers who are stuck should file cases in the consumer court as well as file police complaints maybe for fraud since the dealership doesn't seem to have given the money collected to Kawasaki at all.

Extremely sad situation for the customers.

However, there is an underlying process issue which leads to such situations.

The automobile dealerships are independent businesses, and not owned by the manufacturer. As such the control is limited in certain matters.
Now, the dealer has to send funds and place an order/indent with the company along with road permits in order to get the vehicles dispatched.
If the dealer is not doing so, the company usually does not dispatch vehicles (credit sales are very less).

In this case, it may have happened that the dealer is not doing wholesales for the past 2-3 months due to many reasons, or the company itself doesnt have vehicles to serve these orders.

Whatever be the reason, its the end user who is at the receiving end.

Oh Gosh! :Shockked: Its horrid even to read, Cant even imagine the pain that Neil & others have gone through. Very Sad. Cannot expect such type of customer service that too from Japanese Major - Kawasaki. Me being a prospective customer to Kawasaki, its creating tremors under my feet. I am hoping it is a problem only with that particular dealership. Its high time all those customers should go Legal. Hope all of them should have a speedy resolution.

Maruti sells 1 lakh cars a month - have we ever heard of such fraud from a Maruti dealer? Hero MotoCorp sold over 5 lakh vehicles in July 2016. Any such fraud there?

Manufacturers can't just leave dealerships alone and have them 'do their thing'. For one, the dealer makes or breaks the manufacturer's reputation (just ask Skoda...or the infamous 'Chor'dia). Second, it's a big ticket business where chances of fraud can be high if there are no checks & balances.

Skoda recently went through a similar ordeal and (I believe) will be making good the cheated customers by using the dealer's deposit with the company.

The sad situation here is that, Kawasaki hasn't yet solved the matter for these dozen or so customers. The silence is deafening :Frustrati:Frustrati.

Only morons think they can simply launch a product, supply it to dealers and enjoy success in India. How you treat a customer after he has paid up is of paramount importance. 'Quality after-sales' never arrives by accident - it requires effort & hard work.

Adding another bit that came to light in this case - the Kawasaki H2 motorcycle is the only one that's paid for directly to India Kawasaki Motors (IKM). It's about 30 lacs ex-showroom and that's a high-value superbike according to IKM, hence they bypass the dealer. I got to know this since one of us 11 pending is an H2 customer, and he is the only one who would be receiving his bike directly from IKM. The senior IKM team will be flying down to 'grace' the occasion too. please:

My question is, why can't IKM have the same arrangement for their other superbikes? Specially when they knew such an issue was ongoing with the Dealer in question; they could've stepped in to pause his bookings, and accept bookings directly. This Palm Beach showroom averages 10 odd bike sales per month, apart from Monsoons. That's sizeable between Navi Mumbai and Mumbai.

Attaching the response from IKM to HDFC query, and yes they've chosen not to respond to any of us. (using my phone for hotspot, proxy issues wont let me attach anything) Tarun Khanna is the Head of Services & Marketing at IKM and this HDFC query was in response to some of us; myself included, stopping/bouncing this 3rd month's EMI, just to stir things up at the Bank.

Yes GTO, and i do not disagree with you. However, there are tons of such incidents which keep happening, but are sadly not reported so publicly.
The company can obviously either make use of the dealer deposit or take penalized action towards the dealer.

The main problem though is the customers' money is stuck with the dealer principle, so they can't even shift these customers to another dealer.

If the parent company is not doing anything, customers have to take the legal route only.

IKM or any manufacturer cannot hide behind arguments like "I am not responsible for what the dealer does". The dealer is the manufacturer's authorised agent and if the agent does not deliver the goods or services promised, the manufacturer has to make good the promises or compensate the customer.

If I were in this situation, I would first send the dealer and the manufacturer a legal notice and allow them time find a solution. If that does not happen, I would then file a case of cheating against the dealer and make the manufacturer a party to it. I would also file a compensation case against both the dealer and manufacturer at the consumer court.

Chaps. I've been following this thread with a sense of deja vu and incredulity that a company can go down this path after seeing what happened to its peers.

The company IS responsible with the relationship of a dealer being that of an agent of the principal (manufacturer/NSC).

Here's what you need to do:
1. Send out a legal notice to IKM and SKN, asking them to make amends within 30 days of receiving the notice.
2. If they don't respond, file a case of cheating at your nearest police station. It will be registered under Section 420 of the IPC. Make sure to name management of IKM/SKN as accused. Submit all documentation to the police station. If possible, take a whole bunch of people who are similarly affected. Make sure the SHO gives you a copy of the FIR
3. Separately, file a case in the consumer court.
4. Wait. It'll take a while but you'll get justice.

Finally, these guys are at least doing something about addressing the elephant in the room. I hope with fingers crossed it helps. All thanks to this one post/thread from Team-BHP, this went up last night on IKM website, now to get them to pay up or deliver.

Announcement Regarding SNK Mumbai Dealership

http://www.kawasaki-india.com/2016/0...ai-dealership/

That's such a lame message from IKM.

But

So IKM did not know in advance about these delays? In the letter to HDFC it is very clear that Kawasaki knew about the dealings with Satyen well in advance. How come a company like IKM gets news about what's happening at their own company from Social Sites and customers when their own people are dealing with them day in and day out.