[bobbyaxelrod]

Nightmare ownership experience with KIA
I took delivery of my 2020 Seltos GTX+ last month on 26th July. After 3 weeks, and merely 350kms driven, the car broke down. I was driving on a flyover and while coming down from it the car stopped accelerating. I came to a halt and these icons popped up on the cluster. The car refused to start again for a few minutes but after that I was able to pull over to the side road. The car then broke down again and refused to start.



Lousy Roadside Assistance
I immediately called KIA roadside assistance using the button on the rear view mirror and explained to them what happened. They told me that they would send someone to tow the car since it was not in a driving condition. They asked me where the car was, even though they could see my exact location by using the car GPS, and promised me that the towing service would reach to me in 60 minutes or less. After 30 minutes I got another call, this time it was from the towing service asking where I was. I gave the guy my location and he said that I was outside his towing service area and that I need to call KIA again and book another towing service. So I called roadside assistance again and they told me they will send another truck to pick me up. After a while I got another call from a towing company asking where I was. I tried sharing my location on google maps but the truck driver did not know how to use that so I had to explain my location to him. Mind you I was standing close to a metro station (Brar Square Delhi Cantt) on Ring Road in Delhi, and KIA made me feel like I was asking them to pick me up from a remote location. Few minutes later I received a message from KIA saying that the tow truck driver has left and they sent me a tracking link. The tracking link showed an ETA of 24 minutes and gave the departure location of the tow truck as Paschim Vihar in New Delhi. 10 minutes later and the tracker hadn't moved at all. So I called the truck driver and he told me he hadn't left yet and told me his departure location was Jhandewalan. Jhandewalan and Paschim Vihar are 13 kms apart from each other. So the tracking link provided by KIA was straight up false. Instead of the 24 minute ETA provided, it took more than an hour for that truck driver to get to me, and the tracker never updated at all. This whole ordeal from calling roadside assistance to getting the tow truck reach me took more than 2 hours on a weekend evening when there wasn't much traffic at all. They took the car to the nearest KIA dealership/service center (Sparsh KIA) and not the one where I got the car from (Frontier KIA). This fact will be useful later.


Faulty Fuel Pump
Next morning I got a call from the service agent asking what was wrong with the car and the usual. After running some diagnostic tests or whatever they found out my fuel pump was having connectivity issues. They assured me that the fuel pump was completely fine but they will still replace it. This part took a day to come in and the next day I was told I could either pick up the car later in the evening or get it dropped off the morning after. I chose to get the car dropped. Again I was told the car would be dropped off by 11 AM but it was delivered at 2:30 PM instead and this was after I kept calling the service agent to hurry up. Another case of KIA not respecting someone's time.

This was not even the infuriating part. I asked for the invoice for the fuel pump and I was straight up told no by the service agent. He told me that the part was issued by the vendor (KIA headquarters?) and not the service station/dealership (Sparsh KIA) so they can not provide me with an invoice for that. He told me this information is not provided to customers but he assured me that all the other KIA service centers will be able to see that the fuel pump was changed. He even said "Sir you don't own a MARUTI, you own a KIA" and that their service is way superior. I still wasn't convinced so he offered to write the part changed by hand instead of a computer generated invoice. I asked him to get this stamped and signed which he did.


Surprise at First Regular Service
A week later I sent in my car for my first regular service. I sent the car to Frontier KIA, who I had bought the car from. They asked me if the car was working fine and if I had faced any issues at all. I told them about the car breaking down and that Sparsh KIA had to replace the fuel pump. I thought they would be able to see this in my service history, as assured to me by the service agent at Sparsh KIA, but they weren't. My service history just showed a general checkup and no parts replaced from Sparsh KIA. I called the agent up at Sparsh and merged his call with the agent at Frontier. The Sparsh agent claimed that the fuel pump problem is being faced by other Seltos customers as well and that a memo was issued about this. The Frontier agent seemed to know nothing about this. Then the Sparsh agent asked if the Frontier agent could see remarks about the fuel pump being changed in the general check up, which he couldn't. Now the Sparsh agent is saying that only they can see the remarks and not other service centers. I reminded him about his Maruti quote where he assured me that all KIA service centers will be able to see that the fuel pump was changed. I told him that this is unacceptable and that they need to change the job description on the invoice from general check up to fuel pump changed. He and his senior both told me that this is not possible and they are unwilling to help. They said since they did not issue the part so they cannot create a job for it. I told them if they took out a part from my car then they have to write it down in my service history. I asked to talk to the manager but he wasn't there so I couldn't. This is making me think KIA is trying to hide that they have an issue in their new cars and it is just making me mad.

[kushagra452]

Originally Posted by bobbyaxelrod

Nightmare ownership experience with KIA
I took delivery of my 2020 Seltos GTX+ last month on 26th July. After 3 weeks, and merely 350kms driven, the car broke down.

Really sorry to hear about your ordeal. I am in the market for a new car and considering the New Honda City, Maruti Ciaz, Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos. The highest priority is for a trouble free ownership experience.

Your post clearly shows the lack of world class after sales service even for an expensive and premium product such as a Kia Seltos.

Hope you have a trouble free ownership experience henceforth!

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by bobbyaxelrod

[b][u]Nightmare. This is making me think KIA is trying to hide that they have an issue in their new cars and it is just making me mad.

In my opinion this could just be one unscrupulous SA (maybe not even the dealer)

I would make noise on social media, email Kia and call their customer care.

In the interim check online for Sparsh Kia, they might have their own escalation matrix (many auto dealers do) and escalate up their chain.

Trust me this issue will get resolved.

Originally Posted by kushagra452

Really sorry to hear about your ordeal. I am in the market for a new car and considering the New Honda City, Maruti Ciaz, Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos. The highest priority is for a trouble free ownership experience.

Your post clearly shows the lack of world class after sales service even for an expensive and premium product such as a Kia Seltos.

Hope you have a trouble free ownership experience henceforth!

It's highly unfortunate that the happened but the overwhelming majority report (there was a survey here) a very positive response for Kia after sales.

Don't let 1 unfortunate experience mar your potential buying list

[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by kushagra452

Your post clearly shows the lack of world class after sales service even for an expensive and premium product such as a Kia Seltos.

This certainly seems to be a one off case. Kia A.S.S is on par with Hyundai or even a notch better. That's not just my personal experience but many Seltos owners whom I interact with. We have whats app groups where updates are shared and owners largely are very satisfied with service.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by bobbyaxelrod

Nightmare ownership experience with KIA

Thanks for sharing, bobbyaxelrod (big fan of the TV show too!). Moving your post to a new thread.

[Keeleri_Achu]

Sorry for your experience. But at the same time it is unfair to judge a company solely based on the performance of one of it's employees. Let's just give them the benefit of doubt and think the SA was someone who recently jumped ship from a Skoda dealership to Kia.

Originally Posted by bobbyaxelrod

He even said "Sir you don't own a MARUTI, you own a KIA"

Clearly he never worked at a Maruti service center.

Jokes apart, the fact that the second dealership took interest in the matter and agreed to talk with the other SA proves that this could very well be a one off issue. You should escalate the matter with Kia and get your records sorted out to prevent any difficulties that may arise in the future (touchwood). Assuming the car is mechanically fine, I strongly urge you to try and move on from this negative episode at the earliest and start enjoying your brilliant new car.

Oh and Kia if you're reading this (I know you like to lurk around the forum), I just want to say that you guys have solid cars but you should back them up with solid service. We all know too well what happens to brilliant products backed by crappy service. Please don't go down that path.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by bobbyaxelrod

[b][u]He even said "Sir you don't own a MARUTI, you own a KIA" and that their service is way superior.

Yeah, it's not a Maruti and that's not something to be proud of given MSIL's decade old excellent track record in this country. Oh I love the attitude of these Johnny-come-lately companies trying to establish themselves in this country.

All I can tell you is there is a cover up, nothing was replaced and that's why there is no record in the car's service history. It was a small fault set right by the dealer for e.g a loose connection and they're probably trying to pump up the labor and effort in order to impress you and or scam the company on billing for their labour hours. If this guy was Toyota dealer and you as a customer had complained, this dealership would have their collective rear ends kicked black and blue.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

This certainly seems to be a one off case. Kia A.S.S is on par with Hyundai or even a notch better. That's not just my personal experience but many Seltos owners whom I interact with. We have whats app groups where updates are shared and owners largely are very satisfied with service.

Just a side thought - Hyundai is not the ideal benchmark - if you haven't had a look, I'd suggest going through this excellent thread (Hyundai India - The occasional serious quality lapse and apathetic manufacturer response!) by @CrAzY dRiVeR.

It's important to highlight such cases, even if it turns out later to be just one off case. Keeps the A.S.S. and management of new players in the Indian market on a tight rope as they (should) be scanning threads like these to proactively handle such cases. MG did so recently on a seemingly one-off case with a Hector thread.

It'll be interesting to see if Kia does the same here.

[J4J]

Originally Posted by bobbyaxelrod

Nightmare ownership experience with KIA
This is making me think KIA is trying to hide that they have an issue in their new cars and it is just making me mad.

This is really very sad to hear and not at all motivating for a future buyer.
Warranty repairs/replacements are billed but their amount is shown as zero rupees. This makes the process much more transparent.

If this is the level of transparency Kia shows, then how can we check the history of a second hand car?
I seriously hope the part was not replaced from another vehicle. I have experienced wipers, tail lights and even the headrests replaced from other vehicles(my experience was not with Kia motors as I haven't owned one yet).

Please escalate this and let Kia respond officially.

[Grease_Monkey]

Originally Posted by bobbyaxelrod

Nightmare ownership experience with KIA
I asked for the invoice for the fuel pump and I was straight up told no by the service agent. He told me that the part was issued by the vendor (KIA headquarters?) and not the service station/dealership (Sparsh KIA) so they can not provide me with an invoice for that. He told me this information is not provided to customers but he assured me that all the other KIA service centers will be able to s. He even said "Sir you don't own a MARUTI, you own a KIA" and that their service is way superior. I still wasn't convinced so he offered to write the part changed by hand instead of a computer generated invoice. I asked him to get this stamped and signed which he did.

I guess he was joking when he said their service is better than Maruti.
Anyways, on a serious note the handwritten line doesn't mean anything since it exists only on the reciept not in the system which would have been done via tab/ computer.
Secondly, any part replacement whether warranty or otherwise should be mentioned clearly in the bill. If it is warranty, the value would be zero of course. On the other hand, he has just mentioned general check up in the printed part which is what the system is showing as well.

In case there are many cases of replacement of any part, Kia engg team would investigate and probably do a recall if part found faulty, which would not be the situation in your case since the dealer has not logged it in the system properly.

I think this should be escalated, especially to KIA management

[Vid6639]

The fuel pump failed in just 372kms!

Sorry to hear about your ordeal but seriously I'm more shocked at a critical part of the car failing in 1 month with less than 500kms.

Then on top of it one dealer saying it is common issue with the Seltos Turbo.

Thirdly why is the part being supplied by a vendor? The dealer is supposed to procure the part from Kia by entering the VIN details into the system and putting in a warranty claim.

A warranty claim has to be centralized system and not just dealer specific.

The part should either be shipped by Kia or the local parts distributor hub.The manufacturer should approve the claim and then issue order for new part.

Looks like there is no process been followed at all.

I'm still in shock at a fuel pump failure at 350kms.

[RedTerrano]

Always sad when anyone suffers a major snafu in their beloved steeds, especially when it's a brand new one. I feel for you.

The way I look at things, there are two areas of worry.
1) Pump failure: This lies with Kia and kia only.
2) Passing the buck and tall promises: This lies with that particular dealer.

I would suggest you get on touch with the suits at Kia and share a link to this topic. If they value their customers, you might see some positive action.

[Raghu M]

Really sorry for your experience. I almost fell off my chair when the SA told you that you do not own a Maruti. The only reason I bought two Maruti cars back to back was that the service is top notch. You get to know every detail, bills are not inflated (mostly) and the service is clean and good. Apart from the fact that the vehicles are not really safe, Maruti has a fantastic dealer network and service spread. Kia needs to look at this seriously, I would suggest you write to the management and take it to their notice.

[Reinhard]

On one side, I am sad to see this experience from a new car. Certainly spoils the new car joy a bit when it needs to be put on a flat-bed truck so early in ownership.

However - I strenuously insist that you still consider it a small thing and move on fast. Don't let this frustrate you too much. Its a mass produced machine and once in a while a failure is going to happen. The unlucky one that gets such piece has all the right to be angry of course. No doubt about that. I still feel that KIA has resolved the matter rather fast for you. The pain is especially amplified since it happened when the car was/is brand new.

I'm not saying that they are right to not mention this part replacement in the service record but I suspect it might be just nativity on the staff's part rather than some grand plan to hide a mechanical flaw.

As for the SA's passing swipe at Maruti's service - let it slide. Its just an over-zealous human being. Quite probable that he used to work at some MSIL workshop for years without a reward he felt was due & left angry to join KIA. Some past bad tastes & rough edges surfacing beyond the polish of customer service trainings perhaps. It seems more of a personal remark that appears to be made by the brand.

Good luck - I hope you get to enjoy your car without any problems for a long duration.

[bobbyaxelrod]

UPDATE
I talked to the manager at Sparsh KIA yesterday after receiving this email. He tried assuring me that they followed protocol and got the part from the vendor as to speed up my repair. I told him that I would still need it to be reflected on my invoice. I also told him that I am not accusing him of putting an aftermarket part in my car or anything and that it is within my legal rights to ask him to update my invoice with the actual work that was done. He said he understood my concern and will try to fix this.


How do I escalate this matter with KIA? I sent them an email at kiacare@kiamotorsindia.in and also tried calling them. When I called them on their customer care number, the agent listened to my issue and then immediately cut the call. I assumed that person was not qualified to help with my issue and that's why they hung up on me.

Also, everyone who is asking me to move on and ignore this issue is missing the point. I do not really care about the car breaking down. I understand it's just a car and cars break down. What I am not happy with is the service that KIA is providing. The roadside assistance was poor and the repair was suspect. I'm also not just talking about the after sales service. When I went to get my car on the day of the delivery, I was told that the car did not have the 3D mats that I had already paid for and that it will take several days for them to come in. The sales guy told me to buy the 7D mats instead. When I told him I didn't want to, he kept pushing saying that I am buying a car worth 20 lakhs but refusing to pay a few thousand more for better mats. After going back and forth on this with him, I asked him to get his manager and guess what, the 3D mats finally reappeared. This same sales guy brought over the Seltos for a test drive to my apartment a week before that and then made a comment on how Seltos is a much better car than the ones parked on my street. I just let it slide. Sales guys are trying to promote their cars and I get it. Now this service agent told me how I bought a KIA and not a Maruti. I let that slide too at first. What I have seen from both the sales and service team is that they claim that KIA is better than Honda, Hyundai and all their competitors. But they have failed to show this to me so far.
The SA sent me this screenshot to prove the fuel pump was changed lol

Originally Posted by Keeleri_Achu

the fact that the second dealership took interest in the matter and agreed to talk with the other SA proves that this could very well be a one off issue. You should escalate the matter with Kia and get your records sorted out to prevent any difficulties that may arise in the future (touchwood).

The Frontier dealership was not really helpful in solving this tbh. I kind of ambushed them into talking to Sparsh. When I asked Frontier to check again and send me records they accepted but never delivered. I called them twice about it and they kept telling me they're sending it but never did.
The manager at Sparsh, where the fuel pump was changed, called me up yesterday and told me he's going add the manager at Frontier to the call so that he can confirm to me that these vendor part changes don't show up in invoices. The manager at Frontier immediately cut the call after he got connected. Frontier has been trying their best to stay away from this issue.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

The fuel pump failed in just 372kms!

This is the part that most people are not focusing on! It's a brand new car and it broke down in 3 weeks and 372 kms. Also the fact that the SA claims that a memo has been sent out about fuel pumps failing in other Seltos is alarming.

Originally Posted by R2D2

All I can tell you is there is a cover up, nothing was replaced and that's why there is no record in the car's service history. It was a small fault set right by the dealer for e.g a loose connection and they're probably trying to pump up the labor and effort in order to impress you and or scam the company on billing for their labour hours.

They could have just told me that a connection was loose and I would have no complaints at all.

Originally Posted by Grease_Monkey

Anyways, on a serious note the handwritten line doesn't mean anything since it exists only on the reciept not in the system which would have been done via tab/ computer.
Secondly, any part replacement whether warranty or otherwise should be mentioned clearly in the bill. If it is warranty, the value would be zero of course. On the other hand, he has just mentioned general check up in the printed part which is what the system is showing as well.

I think this should be escalated, especially to KIA management

I keep telling the SA the same thing that even if they changed the part for free under warranty, it still needs to be mentioned. The SA made me talk to his senior and that guy claimed that he has 20 years experience in servicing cars and that it is usual for parts to be changed and not be mentioned on the invoices. Both these guys made me furious and I asked them to make their manager contact me.