Pathetic experience at a Tata Motors service centre in Hosur

I ended up with a flat tyre one afternoon and we got to the village, fixed it and after a couple of kms we heard a loud hissing noise.

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I happen to be working in a remote location, 50 kms from Hosur. The nearest village where I travel to eat is a good 10 kms away from my work site. Ground conditions through all of November and December could be considered muddy and slushy with prolonged rains and the Vista doing duties day in and out. (Unable to attach pictures from the phone). The path is frequently used by Back Hoe Loaders/JCBs and it's treacherous with rocks and stones jutting out.

I ended up with a flat tyre one afternoon and we got to the village, fixed it and after a couple of kms we heard a loud hissing noise. We saw that the steel rim had developed a hole and we shifted to the spare again and went back to the village. When opened, we realized that water had managed to get in and corrode the rim to cause pinholes at three places. We then drove on to the next town, Denkanikottai, but couldn't find a replacement there either. So, I looked up Tata dealers in Hosur and found True Sai Motors.

I drove in through their narrow approach to their service section and barely stopped the car when I heard some random noises in the engine bay and the car stalled.

Two of their service staff, Balaji (didn't get the other's name) and a mechanic had a look at the car, said the pulley was wobbling and they didn't have spares and walked away. I waited for another 5 minutes and called for them again. Again, the same reply. No help or solution was offered either and I was left standing alone with my staff. There was no effort on their part to offer a solution/ask to me leave the vehicle/offer a spare vehicle (since I needed to pick up my colleague that night). Absolutely nothing.

I drove out of there and dialed another mechanic I found on Google and he was a couple of kms away. He had a look at the car and explained that the ac compressor had taken a hit and hence the pulley and the bearing were out of sync. He would need the car for at least two days to dismantle the compressor and find a spare. It wasn't an option again, because I was nowhere near any kind of help. Taxi fares to and fro over the next couple of days would cross over 10-12k. I drove the noisy car for a couple of days and then with no other option left, I had to drive all the way back to Coimbatore to get it fixed. Had to get the car towed for the last 60kms in the middle of the night after the fan belt slipped off and the car started overheating.

The Vista completed 10 years, last week and has been driven for 1,82,550 kms. The first time, that I was ever stranded with no alternative. Still drives like a dream inspite of all the challenging conditions I throw at it. If only the people at True Sai Motors had offered a solution, it wouldn't have had to be this bad.

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

Tata service centers all over India are becoming overcrowded and overworked by the day. They have all inclusive assured programs like their AMCs but the fact is that their service network hasn’t increased anywhere in proportion with their sales. This is leading to an overall poor experience for many customers, be it delay in service or parts or simply improper diagnosis by technicians who have their hands full with too many things simultaneously. I have personally seen this deterioration happen over the past 3 years. Tata Motors needs to step up and take this problem seriously. It is one thing to make good cars and sell them. But if you can’t provide adequate support, each unhappy owner will scare away 10 new buyers.

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