[pranava999]

Aren't we Linea owners the most involved car buyers ever? I mean in which other company do we even think of contacting top management so often? Though they do have a few issues which I think is primarily due to their partnership with an Industrial behemoth, I still applaud Fiat's top mgmnt. team for listening to our concerns and keeping all communication lines open.

Lets now hope that Fiat gets it spares in order.

[bnzjon]

Originally Posted by Sunilrj

TASS might have placed the Indent. have they followed it up ? very often the spares section recieves the spares and they do not inform the concerned SA. happend to me with maruti once!

Sunil, you were absolutely right.

Went to the service centre today morning. The service advisor as usual gave me the standard reply " saar, order placed, its delayed at FIAT end.We are following up".

Insisted that i want to meet the stores incharge and found that the spares reached the TASS 3 days back and this was not communicated to the Service Advisor.

Again, there is a goof up. Instead of the Seat belt Casing, the guys have ordered seat belt without the casing !!

Tried reaching Mangesh and Aashish, both were not available.

The only thing i dint do in the morning was slapping the Service Manager. Damn, how can some organisation be hell bent on spoiling 2 beautiful products they have in hand.

I dont have any energy to write anymore. Its been a very bad day for me. First at the TASS and then a long 15 hours at the office. The visit to the TASS have spoiled my whole day.

I have given these guys an ultimatum of 2 workings days to get me the spares. Otherwise, i need to think of either to going to the court/media (or) sell my beauty with a heavy heart (& at a loss) and settle for the so called overpriced car paying a premium (atleast i could sleep peacefully - less visit to the service station, less phone calls and no waiting period for spares).

I sincerely wish i get a solution for the problems i have in hand. God!, i am so madly in love with my beauty, i have become so emotionally attached to her.

Linea is such a wonderful car. Wish and sincerely pray that the TASS and FIAT guys do not mess it up again.

guys at FIAT India - are you listening ????

[Sunilrj]

Originally Posted by bnzjon

Sunil, you were absolutely right.

Went to the service centre today morning. The service advisor as usual gave me the standard reply " saar, order placed, its delayed at FIAT end.We are following up".

Insisted that i want to meet the stores incharge and found that the spares reached the TASS 3 days back and this was not communicated to the Service Advisor.

Again, there is a goof up. Instead of the Seat belt Casing, the guys have ordered seat belt without the casing !!

Tried reaching Mangesh and Aashish, both were not available.

The only thing i dint do in the morning was slapping the Service Manager. Damn, how can some organisation be hell bent on spoiling 2 beautiful products they have in hand.

I dont have any energy to write anymore. Its been a very bad day for me. First at the TASS and then a long 15 hours at the office. The visit to the TASS have spoiled my whole day.

I have given these guys an ultimatum of 2 workings days to get me the spares. Otherwise, i need to think of either to going to the court/media (or) sell my beauty with a heavy heart (& at a loss) and settle for the so called overpriced car paying a premium (atleast i could sleep peacefully - less visit to the service station, less phone calls and no waiting period for spares).

I sincerely wish i get a solution for the problems i have in hand. God!, i am so madly in love with my beauty, i have become so emotionally attached to her.

Linea is such a wonderful car. Wish and sincerely pray that the TASS and FIAT guys do not mess it up again.

guys at FIAT India - are you listening ????

Bnzjon! having practically lived with the automobiles listed in my signature, i have knowledge of how every A.S.S works. be it GM, maruti, Honda, Hyundai, mahindra or tata, the people are the same. they keep jumping from one company to the other.

if you further enquire with your TASS you will be shocked to know that the spares had reached much before than the 3 days that they are telling you about. atleast 23 days before!

infact a few days ago i happend to speak to the terittory head of FIAT & TATA where i made a suggestion that they should make available the parts manual to every customer ofcourse at some price so that the customer can give the part number and order the part. he said it was a positive suggestion which they will try to implement.

let me narrate an incident that happend 15 days ago with Honda ***. an elderly customer bought a ANHC. the sales people rushed him thru the delivery process so that they could send the car for accessorising - sun control, full floor PVC matting, parking sensors etc etc. so the customary photo was clicked, the keys given and the car was taken back by the sales guys and the customer informed to collect the car in the evening.

the sales guys drove it down to an accessory shop where they get a commission. now the accessory shop guy was out and one of his staff handled the car. the tyre of the car was on a stone and he attempted to reverse the car away from the stone. pressed the accelerator and boom the car flew, hit against a compound wall and had a crumpled rear end, the repair estimate of which was about 1.6 lakhs.

when the customer came in the evening to the honda Showroom, the sales and service guys all started telling him that his car had a small brush and it will be given in 15 days time. this was when i stepped in and demanded that i see the car. the car was a total mess at the rear. i immediately told this elderly gentleman to refuse to take delivery of the car and demand a new car, and the honda guys started playing up saying the car is registered / delivered etc etc.

it was only when i threatened them of legal complications and showed them a bill given by them on their letter head for the accessories and asked them how they took the car outside without the customers knowledge that they relented. further i told them when the customer hasnt driven out of the showroom, they cannot thrust the damaged car on him.!!

[aks_karthik]

Hi bnzjon,
Don't get tensed.It's all in the game.
We have bought a very good car but TASS messed up the full enjoyment.
Everybody in the service has done the same thing.Even they don't have courtesy to let us know the happening.
If we go forward and enquire then only they pretend to say something/excuses.
yesterday i have sent my car to VST for Seat Belt Assembly and sent them a mail with listed issues.
Still now i don't know what are the issues handled/attended by them and the curent status.
For this i have to send a mail or call them to clear my doubts.
For them,This is after all somebodies car and they never have give full attention to fix the issues.
They try to move the car from the Service station by saying all gimmicks to the customers.
Lack in service knowledge and coordination is big trouble in TASS.
Go to hell TASS.
I wish FIAT will step into this unbearable service and open thier own service stations in a speedy manner.

[sridharp77]

Sorry for off topic. Guys pardon my ignorance are you referring to Concorde Motors as TASS. Or is it different service center.

[Sunilrj]

Originally Posted by sridharp77

Sorry for off topic. Guys pardon my ignorance are you referring to Concorde Motors as TASS. Or is it different service center.

any TATA Authorised Sales and Service is TASS. Concorde is one of them!

[Pragmites]

Bnzjon
I agree that Fiat/Tata have a long way to go. But let me give you my very recent experience with Honda. I had just sold my NHC ( to be replaced by Linea!). Two days before I had to give delivery of the same, the driver side lock stopped working and the key would'ntunlock the door. Called Deccan Honda who asked me to bring the car to the workshop. Examined it and said they need to change the lock assembly. But the part is not in stock. It will take 7 days and cost Rs.1700. I said I have extended warranty. They checked in their system and confirmed I have extended warranty. I asked for reference of complaint and they said they don't have any system, but they will give me a call as soon as the part arrives. I said who should I contact. They refused to give me a name but gave me a number and said, just call on this and whoever answers will help you

10 days later there was no call. When I called, they asked for Service Advisor's name. Without it is difficult to trace! After argument, they managed to track the requisition. Asked to bring the car. After fixing it, they started raising a bill. When extended warranty was mentioned, they asked for the extended warranty card. I said it is showing in your system. ( As far as I recall, they had told me that the original warranty booklet was enough and the record would be maintained in the system). But we still need the extended warranty card. Since the new owner had taken the car to Honda, and since I did not want to break my head over a car that I had sold, I asked him to pay the amount and collect it from me.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the same people move around from one service centre to another. On my first service visit to Honda, I was attended to by a service advisor who I knew from Jay-Vijay motors ( Fiat dealership) and got special attention from him because of my previous ( Siena) relationship!

[neotraveller]

bnzjon,
chill, don't sell Linea. In my view the automotive workforce in India are all like this semi-skilled and lack professionalism.

I have horror stories from maruti MASS too.
Last year, my zen had some underbody damage and apparently some part had broken.
I said insurance should cover it na.
The SA discouraged me saying "sir, it will cost 8000 and insurance wont honor this claim. We can get it done "outside" for 1500 bucks."
I ended up doing it "outside". I guess I was conned into going to the SA's friend's shop.

[geeash]

bnzjon
i can understand what predicament you are in. i know we chennai guys who have purchased linea from concorde are suffering of lacklustre service. I had ordered the alloys and it took 4 weeks for it to come and that too after a series of calls to mangesh and others.

May be me, you , sathya , redone and others who have got linea from concorde should go there togather and threten them to buckel things up.

May i start a thread about concorde ambattur in indian car dealership??
so that we can gather views and mail the thread to fiat to make them look into it??

[bnzjon]

Hi Guys, thanks a lot for your comments and support.
After the threatening and heated discussions, things are falling in place today.

Received atleast 3 calls from senior guys confirming to me that the Parts are despatched from Pune and will reach Chennai tommorrow ( i am not sure and i dont want beleive these guys until its received).

Hopefully things should get resolved in a day or two.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by JayD

Really sad to see that the A.S.S situation is not much better even with the Linea. I wonder if they are determined to kill this product too.

OT: Forgive me for saying this but on every Fiat related thread you have nothing worthwhile to say or to contribute to the ongoing discussion but "they can never learn" and "determined to kill" glibber.
It now feels as if you derive some some sort of sadistic pleasure reading about someone's problems in dealing with the A$$ when it a FIAT. For what its worth, you dont own a even single product from the brand and never had any first hand experience with their A$$.

[VahanPujari]

Binze & "Lineans",

Based on these few posts & some posts on my thread & other threads, and my earlier experience with my other car, my views are as below:

I had a Ford Ikon whose A.S.S. is also generally "abused". However, my experience with A.S.S. was spotless (except for cost of spares!!) for 6 years spanning 4 different A.S.S. at Ahmedabad & Mumbai. Items once said to be done were always done above my satisfaction. No niggles & no minor issues. Visit to A.S.S. limited to regular service visits or accidental repairs. The differential part was though that I was not a bhpian (hence may not be aware about micro micro items to be looked at.

Coming back to Linea, the difference in my attitude initially which I thought is derived from below:

• I became a bhpian - more knowledge, more attention to details, wider exposure to other users of Linea.
• Niggles or minor issues increase TASS visits & increases irritation levels. Though have seen none of the niggles is serious, all are very minor related to fittings
• Lack of Techincal knowledge & finnesse in TASS service advisors/ technicians. This increases many niggles/ small issues which are not supposed to be there at all.
• Most of us did not have a Fiat earlier. Almost all of us were skeptical about Service levels & Spares availabilities. This was the single-most negative which made our buying decision difficult. When we finally decided for Linea inspite of this negative, it became an extremely sensitive point for us. So, every time this negative comes up, we're prone to react & understandably so, nothing wrong in it.
• Some Linea spares availability are taking much longer time. I never experienced it with Ford though their A.S.S. was also held very low. But then the equipment level was low & Niggles were almost non-existent.
• For Ford, because of imeccable A.S.S. experience, I used to put blind faith that whatever they'll do, they'll do it above my expectations (which were not very high). I never spent a single minute at Ford SS except for droping or picking the car. For Linea, I'm always skeptical about TASS, hence I end up being at the TASS always when my Linea is being worked upon, often in service bay itself peeping into what all they are doing to my car.

Last but not the least, even if TASS technicians are over-trained on Fiat cars, more than 50% of niggles will not come, thats my observation

Long post but could not resist to express my thoughts. Over to you guys

[Sunilrj]

regarding spares availability heres some first hand experience:

i decided to change the side blinker assembly on both sides as the blinker assembly was a bit loose on account of various factors. the right side blinker assembly was pulled out by a person wearing cargoes when he was leaning againt the car. the elft side assembly came loose i presume on account of wiping / cleaning / polishing exercises that damaged the plastic lock inside.

the TASS had no stock of the same, as this is the first time someone is replacing the assembly for a trivial reason. most people would put it back inside using a little bit of feviquick to fit the lock. and since the assembly costs rs. 64/- much lesser than of an Indica, i decided to replace it. the order was placed on saturday 8th August, the Item was in the TASS on 13th August.!

and the SA and technicians still consider me to be stupid for replacing the blinker assemblies

[geeash]

sunilrj

i think you are taking everything positively.

but just think about this. it has been 8 months since the launch of the car and if the dealers dont even have a small blinker assembly and cover in their stock does that augur good for fiat?.
I have owned a maruti omni/ tata sumo/ ford ikon/ hyundai verna before this and not even once i have been made to wait for spares.

The main step taken by these other MNC is that they make the stocks spares available at dealers even before the launch of the car. These guys in fiat still are searching for part numbers in the manual. and they place order for wrong parts. How long am i going to tolerate?.

I am not venting my anger at the sheer stupidity of concorde but rather vfeel sorry for myself and binze as we are puppets at the hands of stupid concorde.
And all the more these fiat guys put meetings to say the spare part problem is over... which is sheer worthlessness.

i have stopped going to concorde nowadays as i know these guys cannot practically solve the issues. I dont trust them anymore. i am just waiting for the next outset to book a legal case on them just in case they goof up things. i have lost all my patience wth them.

Afterall we are getting a car for a happy ownership experience but now i dont feel anything happy regarding the company...........

[VahanPujari]

Originally Posted by geeash

but just think about this. it has been 8 months since the launch of the car and if the dealers dont even have a small blinker assembly and cover in their stock does that augur good for fiat?.
......

I agree.
I order a Wiper Fluid Tank. I was coordinating not with Technician,not with Advisor, not with Service Manager but with AGM for ordering this. Because earlier for some goof up I created so much noise & called Fiat guys from Pune that the AGM knows me well. Still the Wiper Fluid Tank took 14 days to come. And by that time, that great fellow Fiat Corp Quality person sent the Vendor of Wiper Fluid Tank to Mumbai carrying a tank for my car.

My service experience is heavily influence by that Corp Quality person who is a great great help & without whom my experience would also have been worse.

I became a bhpian - more knowledge, more attention to details, wider exposure to other users of Linea.

Another example of mine came to my mind today.

My Ford ownership experience was very good (except for very costly spares!!). This is despite the fact that they've a serious flow in Brakes which I did not know before I became bhpian.

I experienced Ikon braking to be inadequate at certain instances. And at those critical instances when you want the brakes to work flawlessly & jam the car, the brakes do not work properly & the car moves on. I had 1 accident on highway due to this & 2-3 near escapes after which I was always afraid of it & hence extra careful. That time I never imagined that it was a brake fault but thought its my driving style & I may be pressing clutch before the brake & hence car would have kept moving in such critical moments.

However, I've seen some threads here on tbhp that its a flaw with Ikon & is expereienced by many. There is a separate thread on it as well.

Had I been aware of this earlier, my perception about the Ikon ownership (which is very good till now) would have been seriously dented as this is a critical flaw related to safety.