[binand]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

On Priority, please call up Michelin and raise a complaint with the customer care. With the numbers on the tyre, i presume they are at least and year old. Fight with Whitefield dealer, or check with Michelin on the same. Dont leave them.

I have written a letter to Michelin at their Delhi office with photographs and invoice copies and such. I am not too sure how to deal with Whitefield Honda - thinking of going through the process of a Credit Card chargeback.

[scopriobharath]

I think it is next to impossible to get back the money charged on your credit card at least in india. In US there is a clause to revert the transaction, if there is a cheating or product is not upto expectations as mentioned in the advertisement, but not in India. I checked with my wife, who is associated with Credit cards for a long time. You could file a form stating the merchant cheated you, but 999/1000 times the decision will be in favour of the vendor only and not the customer. Just curious to know which Credit card you swiped.

I really doubt if you would get your phone, as the attitude in most sales transaction is that once you pay the money, you are no more a customer, but an ex customer :-: but as a goodwill to you, Michelin must give you a tyre free (5th tyre - stepnee) and include some alignment / balancing free or at least give some worthy gift and not some TShirt / Pen / Calendar etc.

[sats]

My new Toyota Etios Liva Diesel was delivered on Oct.24. So on Oct.25, went to Sai iyengar outlet in lalbagh road, Bangalore and swapped my Bridgestone 175/65 R14 OE tyres for Michelin XM+1 Energy 185/65R14's. Got a good deal from Nitin the owner on my OE tyres compared to what was offered at the Toyota dealership, with free balancing and fitment. And offcourse was given the Samsung Guru phone as part of the Michelin tyre purchase. The MRP of the phone on box was Rs.1300+.

Yokohama also has a deal going on where in you get a jabra bluetooth headset if your buy 4 tyres.

[binand]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

I think it is next to impossible to get back the money charged on your credit card at least in india. In US there is a clause to revert the transaction, if there is a cheating or product is not upto expectations as mentioned in the advertisement, but not in India. I checked with my wife, who is associated with Credit cards for a long time. You could file a form stating the merchant cheated you, but 999/1000 times the decision will be in favour of the vendor only and not the customer. Just curious to know which Credit card you swiped.

My experience is exactly the opposite - I have had to chargeback three times (in India, and once in the UK) in the past 8 years, and in all cases it has been ruled in my favour. My credit cards are all issued by Citibank. The first thing they do after receiving a chargeback request is to credit the amount of the transaction back to my account.

In any case, the reason for charging back is not to get one's money back, but:

1. It puts the onus of proving the genuineness of the transaction on the merchant. If I charge back saying I got old tires when I expected new ones, then the merchant has to prove he supplied me with new tires (showing the paper trail for the same).

2. Chargebacks beyond a certain limit can cause Visa/Mastercard to impose large penalties on the merchant. For this reason alone, most merchants dread chargebacks.

That is, the intention is not to get my money back, but to put the merchant at some inconvenience.

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

I really doubt if you would get your phone, as the attitude in most sales transaction is that once you pay the money, you are no more a customer, but an ex customer :-: but as a goodwill to you, Michelin must give you a tyre free (5th tyre - stepnee) and include some alignment / balancing free or at least give some worthy gift and not some TShirt / Pen / Calendar etc.

I got a call from Michelin today. The sales guy who called told me that a year-old tire is pretty much normal (40% of the tires on shelves at dealers would be that old!), and that these tires have shelf lives of about 3 years - I needn't worry about it. As for the mobile, he said "I'll see what I can do about it".

[scopriobharath]

Originally Posted by binand

I got a call from Michelin today. The sales guy who called told me that a year-old tire is pretty much normal (40% of the tires on shelves at dealers would be that old!), and that these tires have shelf lives of about 3 years - I needn't worry about it. As for the mobile, he said "I'll see what I can do about it".

That is really nice. Finally seeing some light at the end of tunnel. Do keep us posted. If he is unable to provide a mobile phone, settle for something of value of Rs 1500/- of genuine value and not some crappy T-shirt / Calendar etc.

Second - were you provided with any kind of warranty car / receipt from Whitefield ?

[SAS]

Originally Posted by binand

I got a call from Michelin today. The sales guy who called told me that a year-old tire is pretty much normal (40% of the tires on shelves at dealers would be that old!), and that these tires have shelf lives of about 3 years - I needn't worry about it. As for the mobile, he said "I'll see what I can do about it".

Well, that may be true however the overall tire life cannot exceed 5 years since the rubber becomes hard. It would be better to buy a tire which is less than 6 months. However you need to specify that before taking delivery and inspect the tires before accepting them.

That said, if your running is high and you would complete around 50k kms within 3 years then this should not matter and be happy with what you got since you shall use your tire in less than 5 years. The mobile phone's market price would be less than rs. 1000 so forget about it if Michelin does not provide it to you at the end and enjoy your tires.

Michelin tires are excellent and probably the best in the market. They are a more balanced tire (striking the right balance between comfort and performance) and I have been using my XM1+ for the past 1 year doing over 23k kms on it and am extremely happy with it. It was a revolution for me to change from my MRF ZVTS to these.

[binand]

Originally Posted by SAS

That said, if your running is high and you would complete around 50k kms within 3 years then this should not matter and be happy with what you got

I did 35K in the first four years of my car, but out of which 1 year it was sitting almost idle in Chennai while I was living in Kolkata (about 1500 km during that year). I reckon I average about 1000 km a month nowadays.

Update: I got calls from both Michelin and Whitefield that my mobile phone is available at the service center, I just need to drop in and pick it up. Will be doing so during the week.

[binand]

Collected the mobile today from Whitefield Honda. A Samsung Guru 1175 which Flipkart says is an entry-level phone and has been permanently discontinued. My maid is a happy lady today.

[cranky]

Glad it worked out for you

[VIVEKPPAI]

Binand... thanks to you I could avail of this offer too. Just got new shoes for my Alto. Bought 4 MICHELIN Energy XM1+ 145/80 R 12 for 2800 per tyre. This is my first tyre change and the new tyres feel really good. The stock ones lasted for 57750 kms and I hope these last the same...