Re: The story of Toothless: Tata Safari GX 4x2 Black Dualtone 1000 km up, getting ready for first service and everything so far has been great, except for the dealer experience at Concorde Motors, Diary Circle, BLR. It's a long story, but here is the gist.
* My car was delivered on July 16, but I was refused the offer on AMC/Ext. warranty which totals to Rs 23,500 but for July the offer was at 9,500. I paid the final amount on July 16.
* I was told that this was because my car was internally invoiced on June 30 (ostensibly to meet monthly/quarterly deadlines) even when I did my PDI in July !
* I was asked to escalate to one Mr. Praveen of TML (Territory Mgr) who finally responded to my email after one week. (Remember 1980s ?). I was told I was given a cash discount of 13,500 already !! I was not aware of this and requested a break-up but no response.
* Finally, I was offered no choice than to buy the full AMC + Warranty at Rs 23,500 or go without one (there is a 2yr, 20K available at about 13,000)
* I went to the showroom to make the payment and at the cash counter was curtly told that I would have to pay 2% extra to cover for bank/credit card charges.
Sorry, I blew my top. I had enough of this trash treatment from Concorde. Why inconveneince the customer ? Either bake it in or let the customer know upfront (I had called to confirm the cost in the morning) before they come to the showroom. Who (apart from maybe Bellary miners) carry that kind of cash ? And I am sure many people have something like a 15,000 daily withdrawal limit.
In all fairness, I was offered that TML will share 1% and I'd have to bear 1%. For me, it was insult to injury, because (and maybe it's just me) I thought it is completely unethical and inappropriate business practice to charge and additional 2%. In fact, on the day of the delivery, I had to make some payments for the accessories, but at that time, they did not charge 2% extra.
I mean, this is 2011, even the roadside "supermarket" does not charge you 2% extra.
Ah, in the meantime, one salesperson, wearing a manza t-shirt came and asked me if I owned the Safari parked outside, to which I said yes. He said, "Sir, I have a customer who wants to see the seats, can I borrow you keys for a minute ?". I obliged, esp, since I was aware that there is a trim difference in seats betwwen EX,LX and GX,VX.
I followed him to the parking lot just a few seconds later(he did not notice I was behind him). He got up into the car, gets the "customer" to climb up onto the passengers seat. Then, I see this guy slot in the key and crank up the engine even without checking the ECU lights and without depressing the clutch (which puts an unnecessary load on the starter motor). Then he & the "customer" jerk the steering around to estimate the play. Then he blasts on the AC and checks out the blower levels and all. All this took barely half a minute and I already had enough for the day. I asked my salesperson (who had by this time followed me) to ask his colleague to "get out of the car".
Finally, I had to go over to an ATM, get the cash (because I was principally stuck I would not waste 450 rupees). I asked to meet someone who was in charge and I was met by Mr. Madhusudan, the person who leads sales.
He was polite, but unable to be of any help.
Bottomline:
1. Pre-sales, Concorde creates a differentiator for themselves caliming a deep association with TML. Post-sales, that quickly disappears. In fact, they just put things on the "company" and play good cop.
2. While I would still like to believe that the people themselves are not bad, nobody seems to have any empowerment to do anything. Everything escalates up, reaches a certain level and comes back down with everyone nodding their heads but unable to make any meaningful difference.
I am now very wary of the whole Tata thing. Seemed like a well-meaning but incompetent bureaucracy to me. |