Maruti Suzuki Nexa apologizes to Dad for horrible service

On contacting the Nexa customer care, an immediate call back was arranged from the showroom manager and the regional manager apologizing for the incident.

BHPian Varun_G recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My Dad owns a 2017 Baleno Alpha (P) and is based out of a hill station in Rajasthan (not too hard to guess). The nearest service center is almost 40-45 kms away and he has to plan out an entire day to get this done. Listing down the details below of how the events unfolded on the service day:

He had booked a service appointment days ago and since the weather isn't the best recently, he called the center again to avoid any last minute surprises after making the long drive!

Strike 1: The SA confirmed he can drive down and avail the service today. After reaching the center, the SA informed him that the car cannot be washed as half the staff isn't available but the other tune ups can be done.

Strike 2: He had inquired earlier if an internal TPMS can be installed by them to which they said yes. On giving the TPMS kit to the SA, he said they cannot do it and need to go to a car balancing store to get it done but they still did the wheel balancing without asking and added those charges to the final invoice.

Strike 3: After driving for a couple of kms, Dad noticed the central arm rest has been broken during service and he called the center to complain about it, but the call went unanswered. He drove back to the center to show them the arm rest and they simply refused to accept their mistake. On the contrary, the SA behaved very rudely and told him to take up the matter with the showroom manager (who was on leave) as he will be leaving for another job soon. As it was getting late and it's not advisable to drive late on hilly roads under this weather, Dad had to leave towards home.

After reaching home, when we were talking on the phone, he mentioned the entire incident to me and I immediately suggested to take up the matter with Nexa Customer Care. I will be traveling to home next week so he said to wait for a week to file the complaint, but I advised him to not wait and sent him the contact details for Nexa customer care. On contacting the Nexa customer care, an immediate call back was arranged from the showroom manager and the regional manager apologizing for the incident. They also got the SA in question on a call with Dad and let the conversation happen between both of them and finally he owned up the mistake and apologized. The showroom manager offered to replace the damaged part on his next visit and the matter was finally closed.

A few observations from this incident:

• A lot of Indian consumers especially the older generation inspite of being educated are not aware about the consumer rights and hesitate to escalate the matter to higher authorities. Given the right guidance and push, they can take things forward.
• Since most of us work away from home, the onus is on the younger generation to educate our parents/relatives about these channels. My Dad follows Team BHP now.
• Car brands are taking the complaints seriously and necessary action is taken immediately for customer satisfaction. A similar incident with Hyundai was recorded from my neighbor in Bangalore.
• One of the BHPians had posted a live stream of his car service. I think this should become the industry norm to avoid such bad experiences in the future.

Here's what GTO had to say on the matter:

Great post. There is a reason why Maruti has 50% of the market, yet just <5% of customer complaints on this forum and otherwise. When was the last time you spoke to an unhappy Maruti owner? Compare that to brands like Skoda or Nissan who have 1 - 2% market-share but a majority of customer complaints!

OEMs have to keep a tight grip on dealers. Without monitoring, there is no customer service. Quality is never arrived at by accident.

Here's what BHPian EshanS had to say on the matter:

MSIL takes customer feedback as its top priority.

During the recall for the ISG unit in my Ciaz, the billing was taking time to process because the part scanning was failing multiple times. However, around 6.30 pm the floor manager came up to me and said that it's getting late, we have your details you can leave home in your car since the job has been done and we will get in touch with you the next day for billing (I had picked up a few shampoos, cleaners, and other accessories).

The next day the billing guy calls sends the QR code for online payment and I'm done.

The next day to that, the customer care calls to know my experience on job card (recall), I tell her the entire situation which went super hassle-free but some issue was there for billing. However, I wasn't waiting for like hours it was in the time denoted before taking the car for part replacement. Yet she apologizes and says we are sorry for the billing issue, however, if you can drop your car we will give you a free interior/exterior wash. I'm like what just happened? Dumbstruck but that's how excellent their service is.

Here's what BHPian armaan_singh had to say on the matter:

I bought an S Presso last year as a second car for the home, it was my first tryst with Maruti since our esteem days in the late 90s. Since day 1 the Bluetooth mic seemed faulty and the person on the other line heard a muffled voice.

I picked it up with them on the first service itself, and they promptly had it replaced but the problem remained. I recall loosing my cool at the service advisor because it was my fourth trip for the same issue which refused to get fixed.

He eventually took me to the floor manager and he related the entire incident to his boss, while stating that he had the part replaced. The floor manager in one swift line summed up the entire incident, he asked the advisor “you changed the part but did you solve the problem” ?

2 days later the OEM came to my place and replaced the part again, it improved slightly but not completely to my liking. I lost the patience to deal with it after that, but it really made me admire Maruti more after that, they’re market leaders yet such experts at customer service. That speaks volumes while our good friends over at Honda, term every fault of theirs as Japanese quality and the lack of our ability to understand the said quality.

Here's what BHPian anand_roy had to say on the matter:

Maruti customer service is just top notch. I have had two experiences.

When I was buying our S-Cross, the dealer was delaying the delivery with some excuse of the Dealer Management System not working. Impatient and fed up, I complained to Maruti about the same. This really rattled the dealer. The number of calls I got from them were countless. More importantly, they delivered the car on the same day at 8 pm. It was very evident that they are very fearful of the complaints made by customers to Maruti.

Secondly, I made an appointment for service (the reverse parking sensor was having issues) and was at the service center at the appointed time. However, I had to wait for more than an hour to even get the Job Card created. What is the point of giving an appointment if they cannot even adhere to the timings? I again made a complaint to Maruti. Again a flurry of calls from them and apologies for the delays. And importantly, they have now better streamlined and waiting time has reduced to some extent!

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