[VKumar]

Hello Gentlemen

I have, myself, been the victim to a loud and proud (no so)Gentleman at a Tata dealership. For the convenience of readers, I am dividing this post into three parts:

• The car parked wrong and the Wrong Parking Ticket
• The TD and The Safari
• The Infuriated General Manager

The Car Parked Wrong and the Wrong Parking Ticket

So, I went to the dealership called 'Doon Tata', which is a small outlet located at 'Chakrata Road' in Dehradun. The purpose was rather simple, to check the Harrier Auto and of course Safari (Crysta is finally shortlisted though, thanks to these guys for helping me). So, since I was aware of the fact that this dealership has an underground parking, and there was a truck parked on its entrance (can be seen in the video, it left just 1 minute after I parked), so I was looking at the parking options. I weighed all options, and parked my car, just behind the Harried TD vehicle of the dealer, assuring that, although tight - but still the space is left for the truck to come out.

As soon as I turned the engine off, the guard of the dealership came running, and told me to park parallel to their parked Nexon TD vehicle, on the road. I even said "bhaiya gaadi sadak pe lag jayegi (The car will be on the road)", to which the guard said "Yahaan khadi rehti hai, aap lagao (Cars are always parked here, you also park)". He can be heard telling this to me in the video. So, I parked the car, and went inside, after making my entry into the register.

Note: Nobody asked me for the car key throughout this process, and the dash cam video clearly shows that the guard told me to wrongfully park the car.

The video of the time I parked the car, one can listen to the conversation between me and the guard:

https://youtu.be/6OfLP5jAKnI

I just went inside and didn't even had a glass of water, hardly 2 minutes after I went inside, that I saw a police car and a shouting cop outside. I quickly ran outside, as I was 100% sure that it's my car that is being challaned or towed. I stopped the cop, but till then the ticked was already done. The guard and the valet driver of the dealership immediately started blaming me for not handing the car key over to them. While my point was that "neither they asked me for the key, nor the driver or the guard came inside the dealership to ask me for the key when the cops came, they simply stood and watched the parking ticket being issued". I am so sure about the same, because when I visited the same dealer previously, I submitted the key after parking the car inside their parking. And, I was myself searching for a better parking space, had they told me to look for a better space, I would have done it myself. So, the ticket was issued, attached is the ticket for your reference:

The TD and The Safari

Since we were in the market for a UV, and have been awaiting the Safari itself for one look (I have in the past also given a chance to Tata, every single time they launched something, in fact bought a few too), so, I would first of all like to appreciate the sales representatives Mr. Sayam and Mr. Girish. Sayam had been dealing with me since day 1, and has been a very decent guy, responding very promptly to queries, and has been quite good in communicating all the updates too, the young lad definitely knows how to deliver a premium purchasing experience. Mr. Girish arranged the Harrier TD for me, very prompt and well spoken person, again.

Overall, the Harrier TD went well, the gearbox is conservative, and the rear of the empty car is a bit bouncy, but that's the normally behavior for any SUV, for Safari, I believe that this shall be better.

In the Safari, there are definitely a lot to love, the lighter shades may get soiled early, but they add a lot to the sense of roominess. The seats are not wide like say Innova Crysta, but they are hugging in nature, and may prove to be very comfortable on long drives I believe, especially to the people with small and medium frame. Additionally, it being a Tata, I would assume that suspension and ride quality will be the best only.

I am someone who craves for nice buttons and a nice tactile feel, the steering shall feel good to hold, the roof liner shall look good, I mean, I normally lose my heart at pure mechanicals, or the pure feel of what's inside, and the former part is already sorted with the 2.0 engine I suppose, and the latter is taken care of, by the Safari very well. And yes I take my word back from other threads, if just 4x2 we consider, it is a good successor to the S-A-F-A-R-I. Damn, this name itself has some feelings and nostalgia associated to it, I mean, who hasn't dream't of a Safari 20 years back!

Overall to Safari, I would give 7/10
I have reduced 1 mark for small (==no) boot and the stick thin armrests in middle row, else it's a very impressive vehicle to be inside, particularly if it costs up to 1.5 lac over the Harrier.

The Infuriated General Manager

Now enters the picture, the high headed and high horse riding Hon'ble General Manager, Sales - Doon Tata). After the TD was done, I was adamant that this wrong parking ticket shall be the responsibility of the dealer. Although TD went well, but I was not happy with having this traffic challan, so I asked these guys to call their GM or make me meet him. The sales rep (Girish) went upstairs and returned back to inform me that "Sir nahi mil sakte (Sir can't meet)", I mean seriously, the dealership GM is too busy to meet a customer looking for his most premium offering! I got a bit angry and told him that I will be complaining to Tata over this, and let me be honest, I told this in an angry tone too, he went back and asked me to come upstairs to meet him.

I went in, very politely greeted him (Although I am sure that this person will deny this now to prove his cooked stories right), and told him of the parking ticket. The conversation went this way:

He (Politely): I know I have parking constraints, and I have kept valet facility for the same reason.

Me (Politely): But your people never asked me for the key. Secondly, even if I was inside, this is a small dealership floor, they could have come in and taken the key from me. Your guard asked me to wrongfully park the car.

The GM called the guard and the valet driver, and asked them hy they let it happen. And..

Expectation 1: Guard and Driver will lie that they asked for the key, and I denied
Reality: As per expectation

Expectation 2: The GM will also deny any responsibility by believing his men
Reality: As per expectation

After talking to them both, the GM has directly put the blame on me for not giving the key. This got me infuriated, but I still held my horses and in a low tone, told him: "This challan has to be taken care by you only, if you want to deny, I shall be writing to Tata motors".

Now came the shocking response, a man who is over 50 years in age, we expect him to have some wisdom, but he was fully out of his senses and started shouting at me. He gave the challan to his guys, and said "jao aur turant yeh bharo (Go and immediately pay this)"

After this, he turned to me and in the loud tone said "Aur aap yahaan se bahar nikaliye, yeh 100 rupye mere liye kuch nhi hain, main bade bade kharche karta hun, jao kar lo Tata me baat, main khud dekh lunga Tata ko bhi (And you get out, this 100 rupees is nothing for me, you go and file a complaint with Tata, I will manage Tata too)".

I stayed back, tried to calm him down and said "Aap baat ko samajh hi nahi rahe hain (You are not trying to understand my point)". To which he replied "I am too busy, I don;t have time to listen to you, I have my video calls too, you just leave".

Listening to this, I replied "This way who will purchase your cars, I won't at least".

To which he replied "Even I don't need customers like you, just GET LOST".

Instead of further arguing with this man, I decided to leave the place. I handed over a 100 rupees note to the guard, and politely requested him to go and pay the fine, and get the receipt, but not by paying from his own pocket. After which, I left the place.

Another incident: While the GM was arguing with me, another sales rep came to get a TD form signed. But this (not so) Gentleman was so much lost in his anger and his pride, that in a very disrespectful manner, he said to his junior "ja yahaan se, main nahi kar raha sign (Leave from here, I am not signing anything)". All this, when there was another customer waiting for a TD downstairs.

My Question: Why doesn't Tata motors act on such people who have absolutely no sense of customer dealing, but are simply occupying the chairs in dealerships?

In Maruti, Honda, Toyota, Ford, etc I have dealt with multiple dealership managers and owners too. Multiple times there were ups and downs, but the managers always used to be the humble men, who simply used to convince us and get the process move ahead. Why it happens that we have both, the product and people based issues, mostly in the Tata itself?

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Dealership section. Thanks for sharing!

The way he spoke was appalling and the GM definitely needs a lesson on customer service. But even we - as customers - shouldn't involve higherups over such relatively trivial matters. I ran a service firm and my clients wanted to meet the "MD" whenever there was the smallest of problems, which frankly wasn't always possible.

Write to Tata, tell them about the GM's rude behaviour and move on, man. We have to be thick-skinned in this world we live in.

[paragsachania]

Two things here: 1. The GM's terrible behavior and attitude 2. The wrong Parking.

And the only way this incident would have been avoided was by parking at the right place.

We come across many such business establishments on some of the most busy areas of various towns and cities where the staff or the guards blatantly and confidently tell their customers to park right there and that nothing will happen. To me, this is WRONG!! No matter how good the relationship between business and the local cops here is, in the end, that cop with a bad mood will simply penalize you anyway. So may be it was just bad luck on this day for you.

As a responsible motorist, I just cannot think of parking in a manner that will result in the smallest of traffic pile up due to me. The situation I hate the most. This is one reason why, I have a strict policy to let all the passengers get down and I tell them to carry on while I find a proper parking spot on the bylanes of the neighborhood. I can always meet my folks later by walking back. Would give me so much relief when I know I have parked it a safer (and designated) place.

In your video, the Nexon is parked well inside the shoulder marking and I am imagining how on a seemingly not-so-wide road your car parked parallel to that would have looked, more so as an obstruction to free flowing traffic on the left lane here. No wonder, the first thing that caught the cops was your wrongly parked car and they just pounced on it!! In fact, with the car parked in that location, my mind will always be thinking about it all the times that I can never concentrate on even a basic conversation with the sales chap, let alone taking a TD.

As GTO rightly says, in such a situation, I would simply pay the fine and forget the incident altogether because the mistake is purely mine for parking wrongly in the first place.

However, It is equally appalling to read about the GM's behavior and that gentleman needs to take some lessons on customer care quite regularly and be reminded that he is there to earn more customers and not reduce them.

[ninjatalli]

I feel everyone made a mountain over a molehill.

- The challan was valid - for a car parked on the road (and outside the dealership parking area)
- The guard was primarily at fault; he probably made a spot decision basing on the lower probability of a cop being nearby
- The challan was a way way minor amount compared to what you were planning to spend; you could have admonished them and just asked the SA to take care of it if possible (or leave it at that).
- There wasn't a need to involve the GM at all. While his outburst is no where necessary and very much wrong, involving him (or the following conversation with him) probably ticked off something.

Just move on - I wouldn't even suggest reaching out to Tata for this. Unnecessary efforts for you where you'll probably just get a generic reply and the only person who might get some feedback for correction is the security guard.

And most probably he'll just shrug it off and do even less the next time this situation repeats.

[lonetraveller89]

I'm sorry, but to me, this just felt like a rant about a relatively petty issue. I'm not saying that you were at fault here. An unfortunate incident - there's probably nothing you can do about it except the above mentioned. So I suggest you let this one slide, bud.

but the managers always used to be the humble men, who simply used to convince us and get the process move ahead. Why it happens that we have both, the product and people based issues, mostly in the Tata itself?

This is based on your personal experiences alone. What if I told you about a similar story involving a Fiat or a Maruti manager? Therefore, there's no point in turning this incident into another "Oh Why, Tata, Why?" discussion.

[VKumar]

Hello Gentlemen

About Moving On: Even I was also in the same mood initially, 100 rupees is an amount which anyone here don't even count in our list of expenses, and by no way I was going to make the guard pay for it. But my question was, why? The guard could have called me from inside, the driver could have come and parked the car correctly after the truck moved out. These guys simply decided not to do their duty, and it's me who got penalized.

Rest, as suggested by all, even I too think that moving on was a better idea, It would have saved me from a lot of headache.

Looking at the same, I have just written a casual mail to Tata, and probably won't be following up too. Would request mods to close this thread here itself.

About the GM: It's a very small dealership, and if nobody at the lower rung is willing to take the responsibility, anyone would search for a man who shall be talked to. I liked the attitude of sales rep, I praise them, I liked the vehicle, I praise it too. I doubt if there is any CRM department too, else I would have talked to the CRM manager.

Parking arrangements is not the subject matter of a sales guy or a receptionist, the man sitting on the top chair needs to feel responsible for this matter. I could have got this challan issuance stopped right there, just over a phone call, still I let it happen because, once you start ignoring the mistakes, it becomes a norm.

The parking dilemma: I realize that there was an issue, but I was equally prepared to park somewhere ahead, or even wait for the truck to get removed. I have experiences where the valet has hit my car, I never even spoke in a loud tone and just shrugged it off, but in this incident, just because someone was not correctly following his duty, I was penalized. In fact, these guys never asked me for the key, even after parking the car, I made entry in the register, that time too, nobody asked me for the key.

OT: The silver lining is, I have been watching the video again and again, just to appreciate my ICE's sound, it sounds so good that it's recorded well even in the dash cam!

[vinu_h]

I am wondering if we Indians lose our temper very quickly. Dealership could've simply said sorry and agreed to knock of INR 100 from the sale. They would've got a sale and a very happy customer, both & more lost now.

Question - Are challans always printed/issued in local languages in India ?

[kiku007]

Since the traffic police have issued a fine I can safely assume that some rule related to parking has been broken.

IF as a consequence of your action of parking in that particular sport at that particular time (which I assume is not permitted) any of the following occurred then who is responsible?

1. An accident which caused injury or death to a person and/or damage to property including your own vehicle.
2. A traffic congestion was caused because the carriageway wasn't as wide as it could have been.

Are you able to contest with the reason, "The guard asked me to and hence not my responsibility."? Think about it. The buck stops with the driver.


Sorry to state the obvious. This thread might end up bringing more attention to your wrong parking decision than about the GM or the staff or TATA.

[sandeepmohan]

I feel you already do this but on this particular day, your judgement may have gone wrong. When you know it ain't the right place to park, don't park there. Even if you did not get a challan, your car was parked in the wrong place.

On a lighter note. I parked my car under a tree. Provides some shade and you don't walk in to an oven. I come back to my car and find a nice kink on the edge of my boot lid. No paint chip. A coconut fell on it. Was laughing and cursing in my head.

As for the GM, definitely unacceptable behavior. I avoid talking, arguing with such folks. Its already set in their mind that they are not going to help you.

Take it easy on yourself.

[2000rpm]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

I feel everyone made a mountain over a molehill.

One simple principle in life I follow.

Pick your battles, and your battle field. This wasn't a fight I would have picked.

This is an episode of forgive and forget, there is no point boiling blood over this.

I have seen dealership GMs in smaller towns to behave this way, especially from a brand like TATA (which is still prestigious in rural areas).

A sweet revenge will be, you buying a Safari from another dealer and driving it to his dealership with the sticker from another dealer (dealers are very territorial).

[landcruiser123]

While the behavior of the GM is certainly damnable, one shouldn't blindly follow the instructions of security guard, especially when he is suggesting breaking the law. The poor fellow is probably the lowest in the pecking order of dealership employees and would get the mouthful from the higher-ups if he asked customers to park somewhere else and walk to the showroom.

The whole incident could have been avoided, especially when you were clearly willing to park somewhere else & walk.

[MSC]

This is nothing but multiple factors tailoring in to create this mayhem.
In our congested towns especially hill towns ( nothing personal, I too belong to hills), parking is always troublesome. Two cars parked, side by side on road will always be the first to catch attention of cops, irrespective of the white/ yellow line. Of traffic is smooth, they cops may let go of wrongly parked car and if there is hindrance, they won't spare even millimetres out of white line. May be that when cops arrived there was hindrance in traffic movement and they pounced upon the car.
At the same time, the behaviour & attitude at dealership is too not acceptable at all. May be he too was having a bad day. I am not supporting rude behaviour, I myself opted for Hyundai on facing something similar at Tata showroom.
Its small amount. You already paid. Just forget it as a bad day. That's all I can say.

[CEF_Beasts]

This kind of parking issue happened with me as well outside the Landmark Jeep, Andheri West, Showroom in 2018. Since the showroom has no space to park on their premises the security guard told us to park on the road. We parked the car happily, went inside gave our personal details and started looking at the car. By then 10-15 more customers had come inside the showroom and all of them had parked their cars just like us. 10-15 mins later the security guard came in smiling and shouted ''The traffic police has come and is issuing challans." Immediately my Dad and I ran outside and the police had already issued the challan for our car. Paid the ~Rs 200 challan and went back inside again. Other 4-5 families were also issued challans. The Jeep showroom's SA, GM were ready to take the blame and apologized as well I let it pass since the petrol DDCT test-drive later didn't impress me either but till this day I remember the security guard's smile!

All these smaller showrooms/dealers do not have parking space inside and then tell us to park on the road, and they themselves very well know that the police will come and issue challans.

Definitely the GM at this Tata Dealer needs to learn how to deal with customers! It's just these small instances that make or break the deal, since the attitude at this Jeep dealership was nice other families were booking their cars as well.

[Kosfactor]

I have had such pleasant interaction with Tata showroom security guards, We did buy 3 Nano GenX at some point and was considering the Hexa as well (good lord we bought the XUV instead). The issue is that they do not have parking for customer vehicles inside their premises, even if you are coming to buy a vehicle. The manager comes and tells me that even the MD goes not get parking inside, that's the rule you have to park it outside. After that's over the sales assistant says you have to take the loan from Bank Of Hyderabad only - we have tied up with this bank, else take loan outside on your own!! (Thank you)

So we bought our 3 Nanos from a different dealer, one of those Nanos was sent to the above mentioned dealer for an accident repair after someone else crashed into the parked vehicle. It spent 3 months there waiting for a simple part in the rear end - remember Nano was still in production those days.

Of course, nowadays people have forgotten these things on the internet - but once the keyboard battles are over and you go to buy the vehicle in itself is where the reality starts to bite.

Oh during delivery of the vehicle in Concorde, the security staff stopped us on the way out and asked for money

[AMG Power]

If Tata Motors was to respond to every such trivial escalation, it would be in their interest to stop making cars.