[harry10]

When you deal with any dealership you need to be a lot patient unless you already know someone there. I am driving a Tiago Diesel for last 2.5 yrs which has done around 40k till now. It's a fantastic car for city driving and till the speed of 100-120 handles brilliantly at highway too (haven't gone above 110 so no experience after that). My buying experience was very smooth as the GM was a family friend. On the other hand my Honda City buying experience was quite similar to yours and had to involve higher ups for the smooth delivery of the car. So, my suggestion will be to persist and pester them till you get your hands on your car and then forget them. Like GTO said you have to live with the car, not them.

[giri1.8]

Tata's cars are good (not great), had an horrendous experience with them during my Tigor's ownership, Sales team IMO are doing their best to warn you about the things that lie ahead and one must take them seriously. Even though my car had very little issues, I eventually sold it off and bought an Figo, I sleep peacefully at night without having to worry about dealing with A.S.S for all the small issues that pop up.

Only positive thing we share among our ownership Whatsapp group is crash videos of Tata vs Maruti cars just to make our bruised ego feel better.

[ike]

The car can be booke online, if you have finalized the car and the variant why not try that? You still have to select a dealer though.

The link: https://bookonline.tatamotors.com/ti...new-customer/0

[K_Drive]

Hi Abhijith,

If you would like to get Tiago from Cochin, then you can check first with Malayalam Motors. I have only interacted with one guy from sales and he was very polite and prompt. Very much impressed with him. I also have visited Gokulam Motors(prior it was Concode). Gokulam still have some staffs carried over from Concode. Interacted with couple of guys, one was polite but didn't follow up. The second guy did prompt follow ups. I can DM you contact details of these guys if you would like to. Had a pretty bad experience with Peninsular Honda when we reached their showroom for test driving Civic. We fixed slot for test drive and we spoke to sales rep before we start from home. However, when we reached the showroom, no one was there and we waited 30mins in an empty office. Everyone was out for lunch and the sales rep wasn't answering the call. As GTO mentioned, go for the product not for the sales person. The idea is build good rapport with one sales/service guy and get things done.

Cheers

[padmrajravi]

I am of the opinion that dealership experience is an important part of deciding what car to buy. If a dealer does not treat you well when you go to him with 5-7 lakhs of your hard-earned cash, there is no reason to believe he will give you royal treatment when you go to him for service.

In case of any other Tata car, I would have advised the OP to look for some other brand. But Tiago represents something unique in our current landscape. There is no other small car with that kind of safety rating. OP should escalate to Tata customer care and then take it from there.

[ps_abhijith]

Thanks everyone for the kind responses, I see my feeling echoing in most posts. So, today so far has been quite eventful. Most of it was a surprise for me, as well as left me amazed on the reach of this forum. I posted this here yesterday night and went to sleep. Woke up today morning and I had not even checked the responses on this post. I will summarize the events below. Please note I am just describing the incidents and conversations as they happened.

Around 10 am : Received a call from the Tata motors Sales head for Central Kerala. He introduced himself, and informed me that they had gone through the post in Team BHP, and wanted to discuss on the same, and how to address my concerns. He had reached out to the showroom to get my number. He acknowledged my concerns on the overall experience so far, for me that itself was a good starting point. We discussed the experience I have had so far, and he did listen patiently. He pointed that the showrooms are impacted from the Covid scenario and are getting back on track gradually, and promised that they would ensure that the showrooms offer a better experience for customers, and thanked me for voicing my concerns.

10.15 am : Received a call from the sales rep with whom I had been in contact with. He did provide me an estimated value for the nano, and requested to visit the showroom in person to get a better price as well as to test drive the tiago. I intend to do this in the coming days, as my work permits.

10.30 am : Received a call from the showroom who had not picked up our calls previously. The sales rep asked which car and which model I was interested in, provided me a price breakup and said we can discuss more once I visit the showroom in person.

Around 11 am : Received a call from the Sales head for Kerala. He also introduced himself, told me straight forward that they have gone through my post and understand the experience I have had. He said he too was concerned on the experience a customer has at their showrooms. He thanked me for voicing them as well as still being interested on buying the car and apologized on behalf of the showroom. He explained that the showrooms are reluctant to share prices on call as recently they have had multiple cases where competing car salesmen had called them, got the prices and offered better deals for their products to customers. So showrooms nowadays don't prefer to provide any official estimates / exchange values over phone.

Around 11.15 am : Received another call from the same person, and he requested me to consider updating my experience on the feedback from Tata customer care on the same post, if I am okey with doing so.

Originally Posted by DaptChatterjee

Their practice of handwritten sheet of price break-up is out of place in this day and age. Experienced the same in each of those purchases. How much would it cost to make an excel sheet and provide a printout?

Apparently showrooms prefer not to provide official price breakups over phone from bad experiences with middlemen. This may be logical, but hampers the experience of genuine customers.

Originally Posted by GBX

It could just be that the dealers are having difficulty operating during these times. Or it could be the talk of Concorde Motors shutting down which maybe affecting the morale of all Tata dealers.
!

It seems like the showrooms may be impacted by covid. In my mind, Concorde shutting down would mean more business to the other showrooms, they should be more motivated to capture the sales concorde had.

Originally Posted by GTO

If you really love the car, buy it irrespective of the sales experience

Thanks GTO for this practical advise, and this is exactly what I am going for now. The experience definitely is not a pleasant one. However, ultimately once we buy the car, its the car that stays with us.

Originally Posted by Thanos-VV

For that you have your Brother in law who can give you first hand feedbacks. Since it is your wife who will be the one who will be dealing with Service Center, this point is important.

He is more than happy with the car and has already done more than 80k kms on the car without any major issues so far. His work demands a lot of travel. He actively encourages anyone who is looking to buy a car to go for a Tata car, and has done the same with me. To be honest, the after sale and service experience he has had has not been that great,but I feel the car helps him to overlook those. The service experience definitely is something which has made me go for a new car rather than a used one, for the warranty and the peace of mind that comes with it.

Again, this is my personal experience, and may not be the experience others have had or will have with Tata showrooms. My wish is to have everyone have a better experience which leaves a customer wanting to come back and maybe put down that booking amount. Its sad to see someone who wanted to buy a better car walk out and getting another car just because the competing showroom offered a better initial experience. If this helps to improve the experience another customer has at the showroom, nothing would make me more happy.

I was pleasantly surprised to have received all these calls, and honestly I was not expecting anyone from tata to take notice of my words here. I had just wanted to share my experience with the other members here. It sure does make one feel good when so many people are talking to you and listening to your concerns like you are important.

The sales agent who has been in touch with me, never brought up this post today in our conversations, though I am more than sure that this would have already been escalated at different levels, and he might have been questioned my a lot of people. At the end of our conversation, I brought this up saying that I had received a call from the sales team from TATA on my experience and asked if he is aware of this. He broke down and accepted that he could have shown more energy to keep things active. He asked me if there is anything I would want him to change in the way he worked. I shared my honest feedback, and expressed my desire to see agents from the tata showrooms working with the same energy and enthusiasm as the competing sales men had. I hope my words help him.

It helps to know that tata is actively looking into the digital space for customer feedback and is willing to listen. Hope this continues and helps to improve the customer experience. To summarize, despite my experience so far, I am still proceeding to purchase the car. I am hoping to get a good evaluation for the nano. Also, would try outside options including maybe olx and cars24 to check for better prices. We are also evaluating and re evaluating the pros and cons of getting a new car vs just keeping the nano in the back of our mind, but the force is not so strong there. Will keep this post updated on the end results of all of this.

[ps_abhijith]

Originally Posted by ike

The car can be booke online, if you have finalized the car and the variant why not try that? You still have to select a dealer though.

Thanks, this helps. However, I am planning to exchange my car, and finance the balance. Would prefer to get those settled. If I was just buying the car, I would have booked the car already.

Originally Posted by K_Drive

Hi Abhijith,

The idea is build good rapport with one sales/service guy and get things done.

Cheers

Thanks, will reach out to you personally. I have been servicing the nano mostly at Focuz, who is no longer selling the cars, but just servicing the cars. I have a good rapport with few people there, but unfortunately they cant help with another showroom.

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

But Tiago represents something unique in our current landscape. There is no other small car with that kind of safety rating.

Same feelings here, there may be better cars out there, there may be better showrooms. But no one else is offering such a value for money product at present.

[antz.bin]

It IS really hard to buy a Tiago. During my purchase process in August 2019, I went to 2 separate Tata showrooms to check out their cars, Tiago and Tigor. I still haven't driven either of them.

Days before I finalized the Figo in September, I had been to a Tata motors showroom to check out these cars. It was a close match up in my mind at the time with Figo vs Tigor Petrols. I was greeted with "We can't help you, this showroom is shutting down". 2 weeks later, I drove past the same showroom on the newly purchased Figo, it was still functional. 3 months after, the showroom was still open, with more cars and the Nexon facelift on display.

Tata Motors showroom staff really try very hard to avoid work. Aren't sales gigs linked to the sales you make?

[landcruiser123]

My parents faced uninterested Tata dealers in Bangalore while checking out the Tiago. So, you're not alone.

Originally Posted by GTO

The Tata dealer experience can be S-A-D, but it doesn't matter to me. If you really love the car, buy it irrespective of the sales experience........The product + engineering + design + engine + quality + features + safety + suspension + gearbox are WAY more important to me than the mood / attitude of the sales dude (who could next month be selling washing machines).

True, but this is not the case with non-enthusiasts. Most of them buy based on their wallet, sales experience, and word of mouth recommendations. In India, the white glove experience is extremely important in buying cars. More millennials = Demand for better sales experience.

Needless to say, the product must also be good.

[jacobsamu]

Hi All,

Lemme share some latest experience from my visit to Tata showroom at Bhopal.

Thought I should capitalise on some BS4 /March end discounts and was looking to get a automatic car for myself and a sub 4mtr SUV for sister. Since I stay 160km from Bhopal, scheduled a complete day of hunting the options available since this was March second week. I was inclined towards Tiago AMT for me and Nexon Petrol (BS6: looked way better) for my sister.

I walk into Veer Motors at Hoshangabad road, bhopal. They had a Tiago AMT BS4 last piece in stock but due to mixed reviews & no experience with automatics, I wanted to do a TD. The SA says that you can directly book that but TD not possible. He also says that anyways they are closing down and doesn't matter. I think its the same owners and they have a Honda dealership next to it in the same premises. But the difference in the experience is that I put down the booking amount for the amaze same day with them.

Then I head to Varenyam Motors at bhopal on JK Road. The dealership experience was pretty good. They didn't had any BS4 Tiago AMT in stock so we enquire about Nexon BS6. The team is active and put down the booking amount for Nexon AMT BS6 and the Corona lockdown hits. This was on 9th March and they promise me a delivery date within a month. The production unit closes down. I knew they had a stock in Pune but probably due to some hiccups they couldn't get me that. After no response after them for past 2 1/2 month, in end of may I mail them and cancel my booking. In between they lost my advance booking amount cheque. I told them to send me a mail so that I can process the stop payment to it with no response. Told them as soon as they mail me will transfer the booking amount but no response.

As GTO said, if the car is good we should go for it and I am a 100% satisfied Tata Customer but would like to say that from a customer prespective it could be true. From a company prespective when you are at a financial turmoil like situations like today, every consumer who walks out of your showroom without the car is not acceptable at all.

Regards

Jacob

[1.2TSI7DSG]

I also think it is the incentive which the Tata Fellows offer on their products for the sales guys are screwed. Tiago is not their current star product and hence can be "socially distanced". Unlike Maruti/Hyundai where they upsell, Tata never had a buffet of products to sell in a given category at different times.

If I were the salesman there, I will get a foot in the door with Tiago and then (if the incentive is worth it) will make a case for Altroz. Sad to see stories of no motivation in selling good cars. Sad to see basic sales techniques and conversion parameters (footfall/website visit to a sale) not handled properly

The best pre-sales, I remember was from Skoda & VW (we were looking across from Rapid to Jetta). Both of the showrooms had clean cars, long testdrive and no unwanted commentary from the sales guy leaving me to experience the car. In fact both of them took me to drive on an open road where i could floor the pedal without a second thought.

[TheVegabond]

Like many others already mentioned, the car is going to stay with you while the dealer pain is for few days only and it is the after sales service that is more important.
Having said that, Tiago is a great VFM car. It's compact and peppy. The cabin is spacious for a compact hatch. Fuel economy is another plus. Couple of my colleagues are happy Tiago owners for last 2 years.

[zaheermk]

Based on the feedbacks above, I am inclined to think the Tata sales staff have no sort of incentives or motivation to sell their vehicles. I feel the Tata management needs to take a look into this immediately, else they could go down, in spite of having the safest cars in the country.

[anumod]

Very happy to see that Tata has reached to you.. I have mentioned multiple times in the forum earlier, Tata is struggling with Sales and after sales experience. Earlier I was thinking that only Hyderabad had this worst sales experience. But with your experience, the problem is very much deep routed and Tata has to change the whole hierarchy in sales ..

[abumani]

Hi,

I too have similar experience from a dealership. It was in 2017 October when I was looking for a car with ten lakh budget. The cars in my radar was Maruti Baleno, Maruti Swift Dezire, Tata Nexon and Tata Tiago. Although I was slightly inclined to own a Maruti owing to better mileage, I was impressed by the Tata products as a complete package, especially the safety aspect and the structural integrity. So I decided to walk in to the showroom at kottayam, despite having an unpleasant buying experience of my colleague.

I entered the showroom and some one inquired my purpose of visit. I expressed my intention to buy either Nexon or Tiago. I was moving from a Swift and therefore space was a concern for me. So I was a bit more inclined to buy a Nexon then. I was exploring the cars on display while I was waiting for a person to attend me. But when I sat in the nexon, I felt that the seat was a tad smaller in size. Being a guy with shape zero, I needed good support from the seats. So next logical step was to drive the car to experience the support offered by the seats. The sales guy told me that there are no nexons available for test drive and I was told that they will bring the car to my home. I accepted the reply and returned.

The sad part is that even after waiting one week, no one contacted me. So I called them back to hear the same reply as I got from the showroom. What happened after that was, as I needed my car ASAP, I booked and took delivery of a Maruti Baleno Zeta Diesel on November 26,2017. I got the call for Nexon Test drive exactly 2 weeks after that.

Looking back, if they had offered me the test drive promptly I may not have settled for the Baleno. It is like I was trying to get the car for free from Tata dealership. Yes indeed, It is very difficult to get a car from them.