[Ps_o]

Disclaimer: I do not own a TATA vehicle, however have been trying for 4 years to own one. During this time have discussed and helped 3 of my friends and family to own their vehicles from TATA.

This thread should be read like a shortish. long story/journey for me, hope you have a good time reading this at my expense and can help/guide me going forward.

NOTE: When I made this account it was on a company/government email ID which I had no access to once I switched jobs, it's just after some years and various tries (maybe brain inactivity during the pandemic kickstarted something) that I could remember the password I had put in at the time of registration.
I seem to think I do have a no give-up attitude towards these things.
For those who want a TL;DR there is one provided at the bottom just 4 mouse scroll down or one large 2 finger flick of your laptop trackpad.


Background:
"The Journey" started in 2016, March. I had been a TBHP reader for some years so when it was time to own my first vehicle, I thought it would be great to apply for a membership. Got rejected the first time, waited and re-applied. This time I was successful.
Made my introduction post, you should go and say "Hi" since I believe my ownership review would be delayed seeing the callous attitude of TATA and their dealership(s):
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intro...ey-begins.html (The journey begins)

Timeline:
March 2016

First week of March:TATA had decided to launch Tiago and it seemed like a perfect city/first car for me and my family. I really like everything about it and had been so head strong I reached to Concorde Motors, West Delhi and kept following it up with them for when the booking will open and I could book one.
I had at that time read about TATA's/Mahindra's so called horror/cautious stories about to avoid initial batches however at that time nothing would stop me or so I thought.

Since the price reveal was in April and booking was not open I had registered my interest to the customer care and with Concorde, My advisor was a young fellow who had just joined TATA Concorde at his first job.

The guy being proactive within first week of March followed up and said " Sir you may book the car by paying 11,000 INR as booking will open in a day or 2. " -> This made me happy and I thought this is a WIN, TATA is changing things around, kudos to them.
Followed up to this got an SMS from TATA as well , indeed booking had opened.


9th March, 2016

Went to dealership (dealership review was nothing to write about, they were not interested at all to sell anything, still I didn't care, I had my eyes set on the orange beauty after my initial test drive itself), had a discussion and paid them 11,000 INR fully refundable. The CRM was not updated being the first initial hours they had opened booking however after waiting 30 minutes they gave me a stamped receipt. This was another WIN for me and TATA.


April, 2016

Pricing was revealed and it was fantastico, I called up my SA to tell him I would go with Top end model and we should start with the process.

He did not take my call. tried his number again in 3 days, he took my call and notified he is sick and will get back to office in some days and call me.
Meanwhile I started going through more reviews and waiting for them to call me back.
Another week passed by and no reply. I headed to Concorde and ask them to start the process. They assured me we will assign a VIN and start the process.

July, 2016

At last I was assigned a VIN, read here in this post:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offic...ml#post4018238

Till that time I had changed my mind on the color and went ahead with Expresso Brown


Sept, 2016

No update from the dealership and assigned SA is not picking any calls from me, they promised me a delivery in the first batches and I never got to experience that. Another update towards end of the month is my SA had left the job to head to Mahindra and no one had any idea what happened to my assigned allocated VIN and the vehicle itself.


2017 - 2018

Life took over, switched jobs and had to move onsite, I did keep in touch with the dealership and kept trying to purchase the vehicle even though I was not there is drive it but my family was. Notified to them to assign a SA, send him my place and get the formalities done.
My parents being old would not be able to visit the dealership, rest everything we can do online.

Ongoing emails and various international calls to the customer care all I had with me at the end of the day was complaint numbers that kept on changing and an callous attitude that stuck year on year.


July 2019

I came back to Delhi, and visited Concorde West Delhi, to my shock whole showroom had been closed. I had no idea what to do. I called up customer care and they asked me to arrange a call back which never came.

Pro tip: Do Not dial TATA customer care unless you want to make a complain as that's what TATA wants you to do " Sir if you want I can take a complaint against the dealership"
I could not get them to connect me to anyone who could listen and get an understanding that I just need to purchase a vehicle for which I had paid a booking amount for.


Nov 2019

TATA bug is still there in my system and new launches are starting to come, by this time I had reached out to another dealership who said to assign the booking amount to the same car or any other car I would be interested in.
At least initial booking amount is coming to some use. I contacted Safdarjang Branch and ask them I am interested in Nexon AMT or EV depending once I take a test drive.


Dec 2019 - Jan 2020

Nexon AMT was shortlisted and I gave the dealer my old Booking number, they were really nice and proactive and told me they would get this done soon enough. They will try and transfer the same booking amount towards the car purchase and share a new booking number for TATA Nexon with me.


Feb 2020 -> Major Update

TATA customer care over emails and calls have not been helpful, meanwhile Concorde as unit is to be shelved, I had requested TATA customer care to connect me to their Territory or Area Sales Manager someone whom I can talk to explain my position as frequent complaint numbers and department transfers were not helping me in purchasing a car.

Few points

• They seem to be somewhat positive over email and calls.
• Mr. Rishabh Kapoor, Territory Sales Manager cares and after having a positive call with him assured me he will guide my case to another dealer who are in place of Concorde
• They were not able to upgrade/transfer the booking without cancelling my existing booking and refunding me 11,000 INR.

Feb - March 2020
Life/Pandemic happened and things went slow.

Over email I had connected with the dealership Mr. Rishabh had guided me to, who had my case with them.

NOTE: I have kept whole trail of these emails, numerous of them bouncing due to unavailable/full email inbox.

March 1st onwards - crm.southex@concordemotors.com started bouncing emails, I believe the email ID no longer exists or is full.


7th March 2020

Mr. Rishabh again came to my rescue and somehow I got connected to another email.

They asked me to submit, PAN, Cancelled cheque, Copy of Booking receipt. I was promised a refund within 7 working days.


12th March 2020

I followed up on my request and acknowledgment of the documents for which I was provided with a new complaint number.


10th April 2020
By now I had been on at least 2 calls weekly with TATA customer care trying to get a follow up. Seeing we all are going through the pandemic together and most of us were working from home I was only sending out emails in 2 weeks to ask for an update or which I was getting an automated response or a new complaint number.


May 2020
Got couple of email and contact number of Concorde team who I was notified from TATA team would help my case and would speed up the refund process so I could book the car.

• sushmita -> email
• praveen -> email and contact number

8th June 2020
I had a really positive discussion with Mr. Praveen and explained him the case, he acknowledged and shared since it's an old case he would help and would need the same documents I had shared in March update above.


16th June 2020

Mr. Praveen assigned my request to another Concorde team member

• cre4.ho@concordemotors.com

By this time the request is divided into 3 email threads, all separately asking for same documents again to process the refund request.

I shared the documents as requested.


23rd June 2020 -> Major Update

Mahalaxmi from Concorde team called and gave a bit of positive news stating my refund would be done within 7-10 business days and there on I can do a fresh booking with TATA.


8th July 2020
I have been following up and sending emails every 3-4 day requesting an update/acknowledgement for my emails. I did not get any reply from the team.


16th July 2020

Tried reaching out to both Mr. Praveen and Mahalaxmi during last few days however both of them did not take my call or disconnected.
Mahalaxmi did reply after this, an email stating "they are checking with internal account team to resolve my query on the priority basis"

No email reply or acknowledgement after that.


Current Situation / TL;DR -> Booked a TATA vehicle 4 years back, trying to upgrade it since last year, awaiting refund to re-book it.
Customer care and TATA Dealership are not aligned to allow me to book/upgrade a vehicle
If anyone here has any suggestions please do share and help a fellow member.

The lack of updates and constant follow up really puts off one from acquiring a vehicle from them.

I believe where TATA is losing out are on first time owners, once you lose them the next upgrade cycle takes another 5-6 years and is an uphill battle to climb against other manufactures.

[asit.kulkarni93]

Your experience brings back horrifying memories. I had picked up an under warranty pre-owned Nano XT, it had barely done 4K KMs. It was good till 10k KMs until I sent it to the Concorde service centre-

1. The car came back with a relatively hard clutch. Apart from the regular service they had replaced the rear crankshaft seal. According to their own technician the clutch went hard because of oil leak from the seal. I wasn’t there when the car was delivered after service. When I went back they started making excuses. They kept the car for a week and said they don’t have a clutch. We needed 2 cars, hence I decided to arrange for a genuine Tata Clutch and replace it outside.

2. During all the 3 services, the coolant would be empty. I had asked them to check for leakage in the tank or the connecting pipes. Nothing was done.

3. I found the alignment a lil off so I got it done outside but something didn’t feel right. Took it Concorde and they said they need to replace the steering rack. Even After the replacement, it didn’t work well. The Alignment would never be right and the steering on full turns would get locked in one position. Then they said the Driver Side suspension needs to be replaced as they suspect of underbody hit on the lower arm. The car did see rough roads but was never driven fast because of its ride quality. All this ordeal took over 15 days. They replaced the suspension and nothing changed.

4. I complained on the Tata motors customer care and posted on their fb page. They lodged a complaint & forwarded it to the CRM of the dealership who I was already fed up with. She had audacity to call me and ask me if she should close my complaint. Another series of heated arguments later, I told her I need a loaner car.

5. My brother was made to wait there for 5 hours inspite of having an appointment. Finally they agreed for a loaner car. The loaner car broke down 100 meters away from the workshop. No one from the dealership was answering the calls. Finally my brother pushed the loaner Manza back to the dealership and started another series of arguments. We were then given a Nano which had horrible brakes. My brother returned it the next day.

6. I was speaking to a few Nano owners for a while and I realised the issue was with the steering alignment. I kept insisting Concorde to atleast try what I am suggesting. They didn’t do anything. For the above issue the car visited Concorde atleast 12 times.

7. The 13th visit was clubbed with an insurance claim. The bumper and fender needed painting. They said they will have to replace the bumper which honestly wasn’t required but I had no option. They took 18 days to give me the car back. The surveyor had done his job on the 2nd day itself. Apparently the bumper wasn’t available.

8. The staff at Concorde was rude. I had asked them for a TD of the Tiago diesel & Hexa. Glad they didn’t give me any. I would have never bought those cars either thanks to them.

9. All this while, my 12 year old corolla which had done 10x of what the Nano had run was doing all the duties.

10. We had two narrow escapes while taking a u-turn when the steering didn’t return to the centre inspite of applying normal force. Finally I was transferred to a different dealership who took 4 more tries to resolve it.

As soon as the car came back home, I drove it for 50 KMs and took atleast 10-12 u-turns. Found no issues, clicked pics and posted an AD on OLX. The car was sold off in 2 weeks. Good riddance!

I have dealt with Toyota, Ford, Yamaha, Maruti, Honda, Hyundai & Škoda for major and minor issues. I never had to go through so much pain inspite of contacting the manufacturer. This ordeal was between 2017-18.

[Ps_o]

Originally Posted by asit.kulkarni93

Your experience brings back horrifying memories. I had picked up an under warranty pre-owned Nano XT, it had barely done 4K KMs. It was good till 10k KMs until I sent it to the Concorde service centre-

1. The car came back with a relatively hard clutch. Apart from the regular service they had replaced the rear crankshaft seal. According to their own technician the clutch went hard because of oil leak from the seal. I wasn’t there when the car was delivered after service. When I went back they started making excuses. They kept the car for a week and said they don’t have a clutch. We needed 2 cars, hence I decided to arrange for a genuine Tata Clutch and replace it outside.

Thanks for sharing your experience, my problem is not just Concorde, its TATA as well and lack of clarification/communication from their team.

I want to buy a car from them, asked them I do not want a refund just upgrade the booking internally that would also work, however now am stuck in their company unit (Concorde) which kinda no longer exists and needs constant emails/telephonic reminders to align with their own accounts team.

• TATA respresentatives are the ones whom suggested I would get a refund, get the booking out of Concorde books and then I may upgrade/book from another dealer.

Now I am stuck and need suggestions/help whom should I contact to speed this process up as it's been stuck which seems like 1 step forward and 3 backwards.

[Ps_o]

Update: Still NO replies to my reminders over email, I really need some help and suggestions as to how to approach this issue.

Fellow members I request you to guide me, what can be my next steps?
This is really changing my brand perception for TATA now, thought this all "BABU" culture was over.

The initial calls and response was great, however since I have been in touch with Concorde guys(now under some other TATA franchise) this has coem to a standstill with no updates whatsoever.

[Ps_o]

Update: Still NO replies to my reminders over email, I really need some help and suggestions as to how to approach this issue.

The service advisor given my case did take my call after almost a month, however nothing great to report.
They keep on saying since I made the payment via CASH. They have a problem taking it into account.

I have shared my booking number with them which was generated after I had made the booking, to which they are not providing any satisfactory reply.

This seems to be a pattern, they take call and after that avoid taking my calls form same number for 2-3 weeks.

[AkMar]

This is really poor customer service from Tatas. They have had too much time to sort this out and arrive at some final conclusion.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by Ps_o

This seems to be a pattern, they take call and after that avoid taking my calls form same number for 2-3 weeks.

What a terrible ordeal! I think your case couldn't have been timed worse - with Concorde shutting shop & Covid19 striking in 2020.

Have you complained to TML's Twitter handle? It tends to be responsive. I think its about time you stopped trying to communicate with a non existent Concorde Motors & ask for the refund / transfer of booking from Tata Motors directly and on a public forum in addition to Team BHP.

[Ps_o]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

What a terrible ordeal! I think your case couldn't have been timed worse - with Concorde shutting shop & Covid19 striking in 2020.

Have you complained to TML's Twitter handle? It tends to be responsive. I think its about time you stopped trying to communicate with a non existent Concorde Motors & ask for the refund / transfer of booking from Tata Motors directly and on a public forum in addition to Team BHP.

Concorde has already shut shop off, the employees I am talking to are the ones that are transfered to different division however still working on Concorde issues.
I have already reached out to twitter support which DID NOT yield any help in this scenario for me.

• The case has been transfered to Concorde team via TATA motors themselves, I guess they still trust Concorde team more than they do themselves to resolve the issues.
• Customer support has no idea how to deal with it or for the matter attach/assign a complaint number. -> This I believe is the root problem, no complaint number to follow up to. So my process in these months before being connected to people (or finding their cell number and email ID myself ) was to be on hold and try and get myself someone to help which seemed counter productive for call centres.

Last update given to me by Mr. Amit Puri - Head Mumbai Business Unit Concorde (was my booking went in the old CRM and currently they use new CRM so it's been a bit difficult for them to track it (I am sceptical while keeping fingers crossed), Current resolution timeline provided by them is 15-18 days (5-6 days to check and confirm my data and rest 10-12 days for refund to process)


It is very tough for me, however for now buyer decision will be to go with TATA car, as I love the product value they have to offer (Safety and VFM).

[click]

Terrible ordeal. Hope Tata wakes up and fixes this.

No matter how vfm their products might be, knowing such stories about dealership and after sales service, I wouldn't buy a Tata vehicle.

[kushagra452]

Really sorry to hear about your poor experience. Personally speaking, I will never buy a Tata car no matter how many NCAP star ratings it gets. The poor after sales service, nightmarish customer experience and half baked products (Harrier) will keep me away from a Tata showroom in this lifetime.

For me the most important factor is a hassle free ownership experience. I can live with a lower safety rated car, a car with no fancy gizmos, no touchscreen, sunroof, uneven shut lines etc but will always be willing to pay a premium for a "fill it shut it" experience.

[Ps_o]

UPDATE: NO REFUND (awaiting updates)

Timeline:

• I had called Ms. Mahalaxmi cre4.ho@concordemotors.com, who assured me the refund will be processed since they have now recieved an update from Mr Amit Puri (as per my last update). She told me she will update me by Monday - 31st Aug 2020.
• No update was provided and my tries to reach out were not answered or went busy. On 1st Sept 2020 she picked my call and assured refund will be done in 7-8 days they are just awaiting approval from CEO now.
• 3rd Sept 2020 - I reached out to Ms. Sushmita hoping and to confirm the update shared with me till now. She confimed they have forwarded everything and No Other Approval required. This is the last stage for refund.
• Today - They are telling me they need approval from Mr. Vinu Nair, CEO, Concorde Motors, seems like a delay tactive by now. I have no idea by when the CEO will approve on this subject or even if he has had time to look in to the request.

Why are they not able to take approvals over emails? Why is it that I have to dig out emails and numbers from online or other sources to reach out/call them to remind them I have a refund process under review for them to act on it.

I for am glad Concorde got shut down, however this thread should serve as a notice to TATA consumer vehicle buyers. DO NOT yet believe TATA has turned a new leaf around, they are still in the process. Maybe wait 1-2 years before putting your money on a TATA car or before doing so do your reasearch for the dealership near your place.

I believe this is a unique situation, the reason I took time to list the timelines and share my experience as this needs to be put to the notice. I am sure there would be others out there who would have gone through such loops and hoops to get something from Concorde Motors and in terms from TATA.

Frustrating part is no one reached out to me for updates or any resolution. I have to keep calling them or dropping them emails which have now gone in 4 different threads with more than 150 messages back and forth which they do not bother to reply to.

[Ps_o]

UPDATE: NO REFUND (Keep waiting is the new mantra), tomorrow is another day.


Timeline:

Monday 14th Sept, 2020
I had been given promises everything is approved and all that is needed from me is another set of ID verification, shared that the same day. Confirmed on call and was given date of Tuesday maximum Wednesday.


Wednesday 16th Sept, 2020
No updates and no one picked my call till evening, I called Mr. Amit who shared he can check and verify it's done and I should wait one more day. I called Ms. Mahalaxmi to convey they should be transparent. She notified the refund is processed however she is not able to check exact date I will get it. She says I should wait till Thursday.

I made it clear if they need time they should take it and give me something decisive (instead of a promise to hold onto another 2-3 days), as these statements are really putting me off of buying a TATA vehicle.


Thursday 17th Sept,2020
Called Mr. Amit in the evening and asked him to share an update, to which he said I should wait another day as he can see in the system it is done, also they do it via third party so bar any issue (99.9% it's done). I asked him what could come up as an issue as I have been sharing all the documents as requested and since it's approved by Concorde then why would a third party put an onjection over it? -> Can someone with some knowledge comment on this?



Friday 18th Sept,2020
Ms. Mahalaxmi did not pick any call from me. In the evening I called Mr. Amit, who notified I should wait for another day. It should happen soon.

[WorkingGuru]

All dealers are supposed to strictly follow Tata Code of Conduct. Maybe this is part of their code ? In somewhat Mark Antony's words, "very honorable company" and not to forget so much CSR, Tata nation building, much wow. Great people. Father of Indian Industry n'all.

[greyhound82]

Originally Posted by WorkingGuru

In somewhat Mark Antony's words, "very honorable company" and not to forget so much CSR, Tata nation building, much wow. Great people. Father of Indian Industry n'all.

When I asked my dealer about sales he replied that due to Tata’s contribution towards Covid charity , it is good . The irony is , that sales is also a form of charity , may be a business model but it is tough going ahead with out being professional and process oriented.

Note : I don’t believe in charity and believe in political policies to handle social issues.

[fazayal]

Such pathetic service from Tata. Making a customer run from pillar to post for just Rs. 11,000. And in this case the customer is not even asking for refund but to adjust the amount in his new car booking! This is a time when it's difficult to get customers to buy new cars and here they are making a ready customer around in circles.

If I was the new car dealer, I would have taken the hit of Rs. 11,000 myself if it helps me sell a car which would give me earning and goodwill for a long time. If company pays me the amount later, fine. If not, I would write it off.

If I was the Tata sales manager, I would have immediately approved this amount as an additional discount to this particular customer.

Paper trail of that 11k should have been done afterwards. If found ok. If not found, at least you sold a car in a difficult market scenario!

This is common sense for any business. It's shocking that they aren't able to do this.