Sold my old Swift at a loss of 15K due to Maruti service centre's fault

I came to know about the blunder after I got the delivery of my Mahindra XUV700 & decided to sell my 8-year-old car.

BHPian AB737Max recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi All,

Last week I encountered a very specific issue while trying to sell my ~8 yrs. old Swift. I want to share it with the forum and want guidance from the members on how to tackle it (although I hope it doesn't happen to me or anyone else in the future).

Background

I own a 2015 Swift VXi, which I bought new from Pratham Motors, Bellandur, Bangalore. I have been the only driver of the car as my wife doesn't drive. Till now, it has been a niggle free experience and the car is a pleasure to drive, saying that I have clocked ~66060 KMs to date and the vehicle is smooth as butter. The vehicle has always been timely serviced at Pratham Maruti (PM), barring a few accessories / very small repairs at Surakshaa Maruti (SM).

Last month, I finally got the delivery of my XUV 700 and after a month of ownership of XUV, I have now decided to sell my Swift.

Issue

As I am talking to dealers to sell my Swift, I almost finalized the deal with First Choice. However, at the last step of finalizing the deal, the dealer told me that my odometer is TAMPERED! I was surprised to hear that as it's a self-driven, accident-free vehicle and I can vouch on my life for the same.

After enquiring with the dealer, he showed me the discrepancies in the odometer readings as mentioned by Pratham Maruti in the service history. The odometer readings according to Maruti's service history are as follows:

• PM - 14-Aug-2015 - 1st Free Service - Odo Reading (765 KM) - Correct Entry
• PM - 05-Dec-2015 - 2nd Free Service - Odo Reading (4759 KM) - Correct Entry
• PM - 27-Apr-2016 - 3rd Free Service - Odo Reading (9106 KM) - Correct Entry
• PM - 11-May-2017 - 4th Paid Service - Odo Reading (11332 KM) - Correct Entry - I was out of India for most of the year hence vehicle is very less driven.
• PM - 02-Mar-2018 - Some minor accessory/ repair costing Rs.1404 - Odo Reading (14000 KM) - Correct Entry
• PM - 15-Mar-2018 - 5th Paid Service - Odo Reading (14303 KM) - Correct Entry
• SM - 04-Apr-2018 - Some minor accessory/ repair costing Rs.846 - Odo Reading (15416 KM) - Correct Entry
• SM - 27-Sep-2018 - Rear bumper replacement due to clips breaking after being touched by a water tanker at EC signal. Only the rear bumper replacement cost Rs.13187 and got covered by insurance. Not a single scratch/damage anywhere else in the car body. - Odo Reading (20414 KM) - Correct Entry
• SM - 04-Oct-2018 - Some fitment issues Rs.0 - Odo Reading (20568 KM) - Correct Entry
• PM - 15-Nov-2018 - 6th Paid Service - Odo Reading (22753 KM) - Correct Entry
• PM - 26-Mar-2019 - 7th Paid Service - Odo Reading (29796 KM) - Correct Entry
• PM - 09-Jun-2019 - Some service camp of something at PM. Charged Rs.0 - Odo Reading (32182 KM) - Correct Entry
• PM - 04-Oct-2019 - Some minor issue. I think it was related to brakes or something, cost me Rs.6619 - Odo Reading (35162 KM) - Correct Entry
• PM - 26-Jun-2020 - 8th Paid Service - Odo Reading (65001 KM) - INCORRECT Entry - This is where the discrepancies start. The first discrepancy in the order.
• PM - 22-Nov-2020 - Minor adjustments as I was going to drive to Goa and wanted to make sure that it's in good shape, cost me Rs.3042 - Odo Reading (85157 KM) - INCORRECT Entry - Second discrepancy in the order. How can I drive 20K in 5 months during covid times when traveling within the city was a challenge?
• PM - 19-Dec-2020 - Some minor checks, cost me Rs.0 - Odo Reading (48118 KM) - Correct Entry - Readings are back to normal.
• SM - 15-Feb-2021 - Key replacement, I think, cost me Rs.1553 - Odo Reading (49759 KM) - Correct Entry
• PM - 02-Aug-2021 - 9th Paid Service - Odo Reading (95600 KM) - INCORRECT Entry - Third discrepancy in the order - To remind you all, this was the time of the deadly 2nd covid wave when the entire country was in lockdown and I was in bed for a month.
• SM - 27-Oct-2021 - Some minor work, cost me Rs.776 - Odo Reading (54293 KM) - Correct Entry - Readings are again back to normal.
• PM - 31-May-2022 - 10th Paid Service - Odo Reading (105294 KM) - INCORRECT Entry - Fourth discrepancy in the order
• PM - 04-Jun-2022 - Was facing some issues after service, which cost me Rs.0 - Odo Reading (58480 KM) - Correct Entry.

Next Steps

I got in touch with my service advisor from Pratham and he accepted that it was a mistake from their side and would have happened due to a system error. It sounded very fishy to me as a system error can happen once or twice but not 4 times and that too, happening every time at an interval of almost 10000 kms. The service advisor seems like a genuine guy and has always provided me with good service but I suspect that the whole fiasco is created by someone and cannot be a mere system error.

When I asked them to update the service history, I was told that it is not possible, however, they sent me an email stating that the above-mentioned 4 odometer entries in the service history are incorrect and Odometer has not been tampered with.

Now, the other dealer (First Choice) also backed out from the deal, hence I talked to Pratham to sell it to their 'True Value' franchise. All other dealers I am talking to, are not offering me more than 4.2L, even though I have an email from Pratham to show.

Even after many negotiations, I was not able to achieve the price quoted by FC i.e. 4.5L and the maximum I could get from True Value was 4.35L. I had to take a loss of 15K, just because the service center didn't do their job properly, so sold it to Pratham True Value itself.

Lessons Learnt

• If you buy a Maruti, don’t get it serviced from Maruti
• Find a 'trusted' 3rd party service center and get all the vehicles serviced there
• Check the odo reading in the service bills. I always check the parts, costs, etc. but always overlooked the odo reading. I have to be more careful in the future.

(Any other suggestions are welcome)

Questions to the Forum

I want to know from the forum:

• Is it common across other service centers of the same or different brands?
• How can we get it changed in case we check that there is a reading mismatch in the service history, after receiving the vehicle back from the service?
• Any good and trusted 3rd party service centers in Bangalore?

And lastly, isn't it a way that dealers are making sure that they can buy your vehicle at a cost lower than the market from you as you'll be left with no choice but to sell it to them?

Thanks and have a good day!

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