[Aish_4761]

Hello everyone,

Time and again we have seen a lot of people complaining about the constantly degrading after-sales service of their well-kept cars. Since from a reader's perspective, I have been associated with Team-BHP for more than a decade as of now, I can't recall reading so many bad experiences related to the after-sales service part, but lately.

Recently, I read about disappointing experiences from Maruti, Honda, Hyundai, and even Toyota for that matter. When a person pays nearly INR 20 Lakhs for an Innova, he does not want its engine to be replaced or steering vibrating at a high speed. Heck, we don't deserve such problems even in the cheapest of all the cars in the world since we pour in our hard-earned money into it.

Getting absurd, illogical, and heated replies from Honda service technicians, well after reading a thread today, I realized that I am not the only one. All they want is to make your car a money pit without any proper diagnosis.

Charging extra bucks from their customers in under add-ons and various other names has been one of the major tricks by Hyundai, as repeatedly discussed within the forum.

Kinda, Volkswagen specifically in Bangalore not at all providing after-sales service to cars not registered with KA numbers is another issue. (got to know this from a friend of mine owning GTi).

I am anyway spared from such problems and hence thought of starting this thread where-in it would be possible for all of us to share all our experiences at one place.

MODS; kindly place this post under an appropriate thread if required.

To begin with, my family owns two cars and I am the sole person responsible for taking care of the service, maintenance, etc. Amongst the two, I am literally fed-up with the after-sales service offered by Honda.

My cars do not clock miles at a high rate, for instance, my 2015 Jazz VX has clocked 196XX km as of yet and my '03 Alto LX has done close to 488XX Kms but both are duly taken care of.

Since 2016, we shifted to a bigger city but the service quality has degraded, could that be due to a high number of cars that they cater to, maybe, but hey, everyone pays equally in terms of labour then how can you not take proper care of one car, or could that be with every car? Yes I believe..!

There have been instances when I was so angry and helpless that I might not have returned but, because the other workshop is only after 25 Km, crossing the whole city, and I visit parents only once a month, so they might not be treated well if they have to visit the workshop during my absence, I kept quiet. At one time, they were replacing the horn under warranty, WITHOUT REMOVING THE BUMPER and pulling the driver's side part down and when I ran to get things done the correct way, my SA did not allow me to head to the shed stating various reasons. As far as I remember, he also presented a Dialogue "Sir, itna bada workshop aise he thodai na leke baitha hu, fit kar denge wapas bumper". "PS: The bumper never aligned"

Then, the heater unit would give way in the coming time and as suggested by my SA, it would be replaced under warranty. However, during their diagnosis, they opened some internal trim which was not put back, I had to visit the service center again just to get that trim piece placed at its position.

Another instance is when the SA suggested me to replace the entire boot liner worth INR 2,500 (plus labor plus tax) because just one, I repeat just one button (INR 5) on the right was not holding the trim at its position. I literally lost it that day and told him, you are not the first to suggest such freaking things and just leave me, alone man. I mean, what kind of stupidity was that?

I have written numerous emails to Honda only to receive a call from their call centers from people WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING, not only about cars but not even about which ASS am I talking about since they generally as from where I bought the vehicle!!

And the list continues for eternity if I include smaller instances.

Coming to Maruti Suzuki, I simply wish, the way they speak would have been the way they get the job done man...!! These people are nothing but polite but their work is never satisfactorily done. My Alto, when bought brand new in 2003, the way service centers were sincere in maintaining their customer's cars, vs the way they do it today, it definitely is a day-night difference. Since it is a 17-year-old car, I can understand this degradation in better terms.

In late Feb and early March 2020, because of something falling on the windshield, it cracked and there was some damage to the passenger side A-Pillar. I took my car to the nearest Maruti workshop in Pune and got all of that repaired. Even opted for a suggested INR 1,200 diagnostic service as advised. I also told the SA to see the alignment as the steering (Non-PS) always used to turn towards the left to which he promptly told me that a session of alignment, balancing, and tire rotation would be performed and I gave a go-ahead to it.

I told the Body Shop Manager to take utmost care of the windshield part as I was skeptical about the leaking part. Then after 3 days, I took my car back (did pay another visit the day work began) but as I live in the eastern side of Pune and commute less than 11 km a day, I never took the car to highway speeds. However, did notice the front passenger door to be misaligned and the body shop guy promptly pulled the fender out instead of taking the door alignment into consideration (the door was removed while painting the A-Pillar). Several visits and the alignment never came to my satisfaction. Only after a week, the COVID scenario started in India. I left my place in Pune for Vadodara and as soon as I hit the highway, there is a lot, literally a lot of vibrations in the steering.

Called my SA, and he casually said sir kindly bring the car back we will get everything sorted and this was just a day before the Junta Curfew hence, everything, literally everything was shut as I tried reaching a couple of wheel balancing guys in Panvel, but to no avail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOlFEXcI0Rk

Finally after driving for 6 hours straight on unbalanced wheels at 70-85 kmph in Talasari I found a Maruti Suzuki Workshop on the Highway itself. Went in straight and informed the first SA about the issue, he happened to be the works manager as well BTW. He took a test drive and confirmed that it was indeed an issue of unbalanced wheels. The funny part however is that even that workshop could not get the balancing right and they blamed a bent rim for this. My beloved car was like "see son, we are in this together and we are not leaving each other's side, you understand...!" and we both managed to get home during such unprecedented times when a world-wide emergency was just around the corner.

As soon as the Lockdown was lifted, I took it to twitter, how a perfectly lovely machine was ruined by unskilled Pune service center. The case was then transferred to a workshop in Vadodara where I used to get my car serviced when the stayed home.

The first thing they did was balance the wheels, this cured the problem by 100% but at triple digit speeds, the problem is still visible. They blame the enlarged lug holes for this and have suggested me to replace all the rims. I have postponed this to replace the aging rims with alloys preferably and hence the plan is put on hold for the time being.

Then the monsoons arrived and the car was parked outside for a couple of days. The thing that I was skeptical about (yes, leaking windshield), IT HAPPENED.

Took the matters to the regional manager again and hence got the windshield re-pasted since not drops but heap loads of water was coming in from the top-left corner and Left A-Pillar. Additionally, the carpet was all wet and needed drying separately, WHICH WAS LEFT AS SOAKING WET and I was told that it was only 20% wet which could be dried with news papers..!

Kept on changing newspapers after newspapers but the papers always came out moist and the car started to smell bad. I was literally so worried about the carpet that I took the car again to the workshop thinking the AC water was leaking inside.

One Saturday, I opened the trim myself and was surprised to see the amount of water still in the carpet. I was taken aback by the fact that even after the car staying at workshop for the entire week, the carpet was not dried. Also, the manager that was taking care of my car's case told me that they cleaned the floor, but nope, it wasn't probably even opened.

Condition of the Floor




In the first gen Alto, this damping sheet made out of recycled material is stuck with the synthetic carpet and I had to detach and cut this for better drying.


With the help of 20 mins and some elbow grease, I removed this much of dust and debris.


The end result,


After this, I called my service manager and sent him photos on WhatsApp to which he apologized and asked to bring the car in for a quick respray over the rusted areas.

Although I was in no mood but he assured me that the damping sheet would also be pasted to the carpet, the way it came from the factory hence I took the car there and got both the things done.

Meanwhile that day, I had certain jobs to be done so he lent me a loaner which was this.


Definitely not in the best of its shape:






However, my question remains the same, do we really deserve this bad of a service?

Can we do anything about it or not?

Since Team-BHP is India's one of the most respectable forums, can we collectively make an impact on the Auto industry over this?

I would request you guys to share your experiences as well so the readers and our members can get a better understanding of what scenarios.

I deliberately did not take any names because I do not want to hold any grudges but definitely, a mental harassment is suffered by all those who undergo such activities.

[drmohitg]

Honda has been going down the drain. They, along with Hyundai I believe, were the pioneers among the other main stream brands, to have introduced the skill of adding unwanted tasks during your service citing them as mandatory or required. I recall multiple sour instances with Honda after sales during 2005-2012 when we had the dolphin shaped Honda City.

Recently my uncle narrated an interesting experience with his Honda Amaze CVT. Apparently his son got a new horn installed from an after market shop who possibly ignored the need to upgrade the wiring to match the horn. Anyways a couple of days later, the cars gearbox gave up and it stopped slotting. At the same time, the headlights too stopped working. They got the car towed to Honda service centre where after a few hours of apparent testing and diagnosis, first the mechanic and later the chief engineer assured them that they have to get the CVT box replaced for an apparent cost of 2L. Luckily uncle had the presence of mind to ask them why the headlight also stopped working at the same time and they didn't have an answer to that other than assuring him that they are highly competent and the gear box replacement is the only solution. Uncle instead used his wisdom gained over the years and connected these issues with the horn installation. On checking, there was a fuse that was blown. Once replaced, everything started working fine. So much for quality and competency!