Poor SVC experience: My 4-month-old Maruti Ignis mishandled

A close inspection revealed that there were multiple scratches on my car. In fact, the paint at some places was damaged, too.

BHPian sole_rider recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

This is my saga of how a service centre ruined a day of my life and the new car feeling.

Prelude

On December 18th, while going to Manipal to meet my BHPian friend @AshtonCastelino, a scooter came on the wrong side at high speed and hit my 4 months old, 5000km driven Ignis. I have shared that experience here.

Since the person who had hit me was a boy and also he had some personal tragedy happened recently in his life, I decided to go ahead with my insurance.

At the service center

I visited Shruti motors Shimoga for the repair job as well as the insurance claim. I reached the SC at 9:30 sharp just like I was asked on the previous day. But I had to wait around 40 minutes more till their routine meetings are over. Then at around 10:15 someone came and attended to me.

I explained everything to him including my intentions to get the repair jobs to be done using my insurance claim. Then the formalities for submitting a claim started. The claim process was a rather smooth affair. I had to sign a couple of documents. Then I conveyed my intentions for the repair jobs to be completed within one week as I was planning to re-locate back to Kerala by December end. After completing all formalities I left the place. On my way back I received a few messages from MSIL with the acknowledgement that they received my car and a link to the online job card. The expected date of completion of the job mentioned was 31st December. The service advisor & works manager's phone numbers were also in another message received from Maruti.

On December 22 I tried to contact the SA to get some updates on the progress of the work done on my car. But my calls were not attended. I even called the works manager which was also not attended. Another couple of days passed with no updates from the service center. Then on December 27th I contacted Maruti's toll-free number and narrated my issues. They shared the contact number of the GM of the service center. I called his number and narrated my situation. Within 5 minutes I received a call from the SA and he told me the repair job is already completed, now they are waiting for the wheel rim to arrive. I asked him to send me some photos of my car. For which he agreed he will send photos on WhatsApp. I had also requested him to paint my steel wheels black.

Then on December 28th he shared some photos. I could see in the photos that the right side of my car which had dents and paint damages was repaired also the wheels were painted black as I requested. Seeing those images I was a little relieved. I thought I could take delivery of my car within two days. But it didn't happen. Then when I called him again on December 31st, I was asked to come to the SC the next day and take delivery.

The D day and the misery

So January 1st came. My sister joined me as we were planning to go to the Tyavarekoppa zoo for the lion safari after taking the car from the SC and return in our car.

I called the SA in the morning to let him know that I will reach the SC at around 11 and I expect my car to be ready by the time I reach there. Here comes the first shock: he said he is on leave that day. So he shared someone else's number. I called him also and told him the same that I expect my car to be ready by the time I reach there. He said 'Ok sir, you come, the car will be ready'.

This was the state of my car when I reached the place:

Covered in a layer of dust. It was clear that the car was sitting there for the past couple of days unattended. The service supervisor said that the repairing jobs were completed 2 days ago. Then the SA tried to start the car but he couldn't. So the battery was dead. A technician came with a spare battery in his hand and opened the bonnet, and touched the spare battery's terminals to my car's battery. I don't have any problem with this. But being a prominent dealer and a service center in a city like Shimoga is it too much to expect them to have at least proper jump-start equipment like jump start cables and clips?

Technician trying to start my car by touching the spare battery's terminals to my car's battery:

Then the SA took my car to the washing area.

After the wash, I and my sister walked around the car to inspect the quality of the job they carried out. Then she found this:

And this:

Close up view:

Scratch marks on the left side of the bumper, paint was badly damaged at the faux skid plate. It was clear that my car was badly handled at the service center. By this time I found so many such scratch marks and paint/primer overspray at several other places including these:

Paint chipped away and bare metal was visible at the bottom side of the driver side door:

Primer overspray at the rear quarter panel, inside the rear door:

In the above image, the overspray of the primer on the painted panel was so bad. This image does not do justice to the actual problem. The primer was sprayed throughout the crevices of the rear panel till the top of the car where the rear side of the door meets the panel.

Another photo showing the primer overspray. This image is taken moments before, ie, on 3rd January.

They also managed to paint on top of the protective sheet that comes from the factory.

I also spotted a dent on the front right side fender and asked them to correct it.

By this time all my hopes of taking my car from the SC after completion of the repairs and being on our way to the zoo with my sister were all shattered. Now the only options left were either I leave the car there for a few more days or take delivery and blame it on the stars. I asked the service advisor what is he going to do, how is he going to correct these.
Then I went to the Bodyshop manager's cabin and asked for a resolution. He came with me to the workshop. When we reached the workshop the workers have started the re-repair jobs. They had sanded down the paint chip on the inside of the door and were working on correcting the dent I pointed out on the fender. The Bodyshop manager who will be addressed 'BM' from now onwards asked the workers whether they can solve all these new issues and deliver the car to me by evening 5:30. Which they agreed to. So the BM requested me to kindly wait till evening. He apologised for everything. He admitted that it was all their fault and he personally will oversee everything and make sure all my concerns are addressed. As I and my sister were planning to take our car and go to the Tyavarekoppa zoo for the lion safari, we asked the BM would it be possible for him to give me a replacement car until the work is completed so that we can be on our way as we planned. To which he said not possible sir. We don't have a replacement car. So we went to the zoo by bus and by paying exorbitant charges to autos.

Re-repair and the aftermath

We came back to the body shop at 5:30 in the evening. My car was in the paint booth/oven for drying the paint. It was taken out for inspection/delivery. Things they have corrected:

• Re-painted the left side of the front bumper
• Re-painted the silver portion of the front bumper (faux-skid plate)

Things they botched up this time:

• Blue paint was spread over rubber beadings and paint had dust particles and the paint was badly spread near the edges where they applied masking tape.
• Masking tape residue on the roof. (I may be nitpicking here, but the way it seemed it was another big scratch mark) please see the photo below:

• A small dent was visible on the front right door.

Also, the paint was very rough to the touch at so many places. Even the door handle at the inside of the front left door, the screen of my ICE was all rough.

When pointed out the improper paint masking and rough surfaces on the rear door, they quickly began to sort these out. One senior painter came with a 1500 grit sandpaper and sanded down the rough surfaces and paint flowing marks where the masking tape was applied. He applied a rubbing compound on the rear door and wiped it with cotton waste. Then somebody else came with a DA polisher and started applying rubbing compound using it.

The time was 6'o clock in the evening. I and my sister had to come back to Koppa which was around 75 kilometres away from here. Meanwhile, I asked the SA and BM whether they had taken my car for a test ride to see everything was alright. They said yes, the road test was already completed. After all this drama, it was very difficult to trust their words. So I demanded another test ride with the SA in the car. At around 6:30 pm, we went for a test drive. Approximately 3 km into the test drive, the SA stopped the car on the side of the road. The airbag warning light was glowing. I don't want to blame them for this warning because it may have happened because of the steering upgrade I tried earlier. I had converted everything back to stock including the clockspring assembly as well as the steering. But they could have spotted the warning well before the delivery if they had taken my car for a test drive. So it was clear they lied to me when I enquired about the road test. The SA called the BM and asked him to stop any electrician at the gate. After reaching back at the service center the works manager came along with some other technicians, a laptop and an OBD scanner. They connected the laptop to the port and video called a technician so that the error can be solved.

Technicians trying to solve the error:

After trying for around 20 minutes, they said they are not able to solve it. They apologised to me for every misdoing & also requested me to come back to the service center on Monday (03-Jan-2022) so that they can solve it for me. I asked them to give it in writing. To which they agreed. You can see it in the below photos. I somehow wanted to leave that place as quickly as possible since it was already dark and my sister was standing with me. Also, some of the stretches on the way back are through forests. I agreed to come back on Monday and left with a heavy heart.

Positive notes

• I was very anxious in the beginning about them failing to match the factory paint finish since this shade of blue would be very difficult to match and any imperfections in the colour could be easily spotted. But The paint matched alright.
• The service center personnel including the BM, WM as well as the Service supervisor all admitted all their wrongdoings and they tried to solve those issues for me. Quickly admitting the scratches that happened on my car at places like the front bumper as well as the paint chipping on the door and the re-painting done on these places are some of the examples. The work done at the body shop as well as the painting section is a lot to be desired though.

Closing thoughts

• My car crossed 5000km when I had dropped it at the service center. So I requested the SA to do the second service along with the repairs. Unsurprisingly, they totally forgot it.

So this is the story of how an incompetent service center ruined a day of my life as well as how the feeling of owning my new car ended in all misery.

I convey my sincere gratitude to everyone who read through my rather bitter experience and made it to the end.

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