| Insurance Work, loads of surprises & Service Issues Resolution
Incident 1:
Got news from Harley that he was looking to buy a new car, he wanted to look at i10, so visited Sharayu for a td. Since he didn’t know how to drive, this was my the first TD of my life. It was fun but harley tried to compared a i10 with a i20 and found that it was short of many features. But was it financially possible to afford an i20? Made few calculation and it was clear that he could actually go for an i20.
There was a small issue though, he wasn’t sure if an i20 could fit inside his parking lot. It had a tight right-angled turn. I decide to test it out with my driving skills. Getting in was tricky. While getting the car out, I misread harley’s interpretation of the distance and scratched the front left side fog light area. Since it was the bumper area, I decided to delay the insurance part for some time, as there was no chance of developing rust.
Incident 2:
A Scorpio driver decided to make way through my car, there wasn’t enough space for it to pass and I was boxed in. Scorpio’s rear bumper scratched against the right side rear bumper causing a lot a paint to scrape out. Angry as I was, kept my cool. The guilty drive commented that, these things can be removed by buffing, I felt like smacking him, took a deep breath and let it pass. I took a snap of the registration details of the vehicle and the insurance copy and left without any argument or any fuss. Most people around were utterly surprised.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take snaps of the damage before giving the car for insurance, could have shared it. Sorry about this folks.
Gave the vehicle for insurance on 31st January. Later I came to know that I had to submit two separate claims, I was initially told the car would be ready by 4th, because of the two claims issue, that had got delayed till 6th.
BTW There were four different color i20’s present at that moment all parked next to each other, mine include. I manage to sit inside two different ones and checked the tremors. Harley, who had come along, found my car to have the least amount of vibrations / tremors. I still believe a car of this premium shouldn’t have any tremors/vibrations present.
The 1st Visit:
6th Jan, Visited the service center late in the evening only to find that the car wasn’t ready and the rear bumper has undergone some issues while repainting. After probing around, found out that the fitter has actually scratched the rear bumper while doing some work. So it had to be repainted and thus the delay. There was no way this work could have been completed that evening.
While trying to locate my i, I found couple of brand new i20’s parked there. Geo and I decided to quickly checked them for the tremors and found them to absent or very less. Located the service manager who had handled my first service issues and showed him what I had meant by very less vibrations / tremors. He agreed on the issue and prepared a job card to carry on the work once the insurance work was completed. Highlighted the rear view mirror rattling too. Told him about the loose screw thing too. Mentally I was prepared for the delay, I just wanted all these issues sorted out.
The 2nd Visit:
Regular calls for updates where disappointing, with no resolution to be found. The service team in-charge remembered the pending auto-locking issue and called up. I gladly gave the contact details again, personally spoke with wildon’s service manager and asked of him to share across the info. Later found out that my service manager had asked him to send across everything in writing, thru mail, as the senior managers didn't want to take anything verbally. I really wanted to curse them for putting the poor chap who volunteered to help out thru all this. Got an update couple of hours later that it was done and vehicle was queued up for washing. Thanked wildon's SM. I was asked to come at 5.45pm.
Thrilled, ashley and I visited the service center at 5.30pm. Found one of the sales guy was showing off my car to a client, explaining its feature. We checked up the damaged area for the repair work. Shockingly, found small amount of scratches on the newly painted rear bumper, two new big scratches on the right hand side rear door, the finish on the front left fog light had a slight shade difference and a scratch mark at the junction of the dickey and the bumper lock. Showed all these issues to the insurance coordinator, he apologized and told that will be fixed by the next day. Assured him that even if I get the car a day late i.e. by sat 13th , it would be fine.
Meanwhile, ashley had check out an diesel i20 and said the amount of vibrations/tremors was similar to my car. We also checked out another i20 Asta petrol, which was driven around 2k km and found that the vibrations/tremors was less than my car. By this time, the service manager handling my case had arrived and I asked him if we could check the other issues by doing a test run, he agreed. He admited the the petrol car we were checking was used as a reference. I asked what work had been done so far, the reply - the entire car was serviced, petrol changed, oil changed and the engine bay area was fixed. They had suspected the engine clamp might have been loose. I immediately felt the difference, the cabin noise was very less; vibrations/tremors had reduced a lot; the rear view mirror rattling was gone but found one more squeaking noise from the dashboard. Asked the SM to look into this. Everything else was good as new. Some good news at last, to live with. I asked the SM about fixing an extra horn and he said no issues.
The 3rd Visit:
After few phone calls, had finally managed to get a time for delivered fixed at saturday 13th around 3pm. Geo was with me this time. I spotted my vehicle, which was been cleaned up. Looked the car for more scratches and geo spotted one. A very thin scar on the right side of the bottom of the A-pillar which is next to the bonnet (apologies for the vague description but I can’t seem to find the name of the area I’m referring to). Showed the same to the insurance coordinator and he immediately called up a person, who removed the scratch using a 3M solution. Rest of the car was fine.
The insurance coordinator admitted that he was fed up of issues coming up because of the service managers not handling a car properly. I thought, whether I was his customer or his lunch buddy, decided to let it pass. Normal people would have screamed at him but then anger never resolves anything. Stop grinning.
For the test run, I let geo drive as he the best guy to test any car; he does scare the people sitting inside though. He acknowledged that the tremors/vibrations to be minimal, however, I still found the squeaking sound from the dashboard. Told the new service manager and he was confused. I suspected the source of the noise to be rear view mirrors rattling and I asked geo to extend the run and take the car into few portholes. With me holding the rear view mirrors base, the noise disappeared. Asked the SM to fix the issue. He obliged.
Geo parked the car inside the service station and I reminded the SM about the rear view mirror issues. He went around and got a mechanic, who banged the rear view mirror with his bear hands, as if that would permanently fix it. I asked the SM the same question and but then the chap over heard me and removed the rear view mirror completely. He went inside and came back and fixed it, I had gone to relieve myself to natures call, only to came back and find that the car had disappeared.
Geo had decided to take a short test run to check the rear view mirror noise and he confirmed it had gone. He parked the car inside the service station; I remembered about the scratch mark near the bumper lock, went around to check it. Surprisingly, I found the dickey door’s locking was as smooth as before and I had to press a lot to close it. Showed the same to the SM and he asked us to wait inside the customer lounge and he will call us once the same is fixed.
About 5 minutes after that we called and the issue wasn’t resolved. On further inspection, I found that the rubber belt, which runs along the inside body of the dickey’s door was loose and I could easily pull it out. Noticed that the plastic part near the hook where the lock fits, was broken and another part, towards the left side of hook, had its clip broken/exposed. By then the SM looked like he wanted to pull out his hair and bang his head somewhere, I admit, I wanted to do the same to him. Instead, I kept a straight face and asked him about this. He said they would replace the parts immediately. Geo suspected that, the service mechanic must have banged the door with a lot of force to cause this damage. We were again told to wait inside the customer lounge. Sigh!
Another 10 minutes passed, we were called to check the dickey door related issue. They had changed the broken center piece which covers the hook on which the dickey's door gets locked; also fixed the rubber completely, we couldn’t remove the same to check if they had fixed the clipping portion or not. Asked the SM, he said yes, in a very sorry sort of way.
Finally, the moment I was waiting for 13 days arrived now, the payment and gate pass thing. Total bill – Rs 2,004; 1.3k for insurance (2 claims), 11 liters of fuel was added to get the servicing done. Around Rs 240 for the extra horn and it sounded really good. After all this mess, I remembered later that evening that I had paid 2010 and never collected the rest of the change money.
In all, a very lengthy experience with loads of heartaches, but the net result was that all issues were resolved. I don’t know what to make of my experience; was it just bad luck or just conicidence? I’ll let you guys tell me.
14 days the car was in the service center, I’m sure the turnaround time could have been reduced. It’s been 10 days since the car is with me; so far everything is fine and normal. Have clocked 3300 km so far and car is at it’s best. Touch wood!
A small note on the vkool, most of the small bubbles have disappeared too. Phew!
Things looking forward to are buying a vacuum cleaner, car polish, cleaning materials, seat polish, car covers etc. | 
26th January 2010, 01:49
and ya even I want that keychain
