Awful VW Polo GT buying experience in Kerala

They told me they had escalated the issue and I would get a call. No Response from Volkswagen after that.

BHPian jimmzmatt recently shared this with others.

To start with, I am new to Team BHP and I also do not own a car as of now. Unfortunately, my experience to own my first car has not been smooth which is why I was advised by my friends who are car enthusiasts to seek suggestions from Team-BHP.

Below is the series of events that I am going through and any sort of help or advice from fellow BHPians to escalate this issue would be very much appreciated.

January:

I had decided to buy a Volkswagen Polo Highline AT (Toffee Brown) and had booked with EVM dealers at Perumbavoor, Kerala on January 1st, 2021. The booking amount they took was Rs 5000/-, refundable if I decide to cancel. The sales executive told me the waiting period is three months to which I said I am completely fine with it. The vehicle's on-road price they quoted was Rs 10.70 lakh. I wanted to give a surprise to my family, so I had not discussed this with them. However, my 10-year-old son found the brochure in the same week, and I had to break my surprise. This also made me to change the colour from Toffee brown to Flash Red. I at once informed the sales rep about the change in my colour preference and asked them if it was possible to do so; if not, I was fine with it. They told me that it can be arranged.

February:

I was called by EVM Perumbavoor, Kerala that there is Highline AT available, and the price is Rs 10.80 lakh. I mentioned that I am fine with the price, but colour is flash red of my son's choice. They said it was fine.

March:

EVM Perumbavoor quotes the price as Rs 10.90 lakh, but this time the colour is Carbon steel. I very politely told them, I'm fine with the price but cannot change my son's decision to go for flash red. Sometime near the end of the March, when I called to check the status of the car, as 3 months was nearing, they tell me that Volkswagen has stopped the manufacturing of Highline. I was completely shocked. What happened to my booking? If the car was not manufactured, then why did they accept the booking? If after the booking, the car is manufactured, isn't it the dealer's responsibility to honour their commitment? What are the dealers doing with the booking amount (There is a specific reason for this question)?

April:

I tweeted about this experience to Volkswagen on Twitter and I did get a call from them. The Customer care rep told me Highline AT was not stopped, and it could be that the dealer does not have the car. They told me they had escalated the issue and I would get a call. No Response from Volkswagen after that.

I checked with few people and one guy recommended me to check with EVM Kottayam. The sales Rep told me Highline AT is not available, but GT is, and it can be delivered on April 20th. The price quoted was Rs 11.50 lakh. Since I waited for three months, and considering the urgency, I decided to go for GT variant now. He asked me to place a cancellation request to EVM Perumbavoor, and do a fresh booking of GT by paying Rs 5,000 to which I agreed as well. I was reconfirming with the sales exec about the delivery date on every call that I made, and he reassured me the same. The invoice raised by them however had the price as Rs 11,67,804. They had included Ceramic quoting charge of Rs 22,600. I did not want that, but the sales rep was continuously pressuring me to go for it and when he found that my stand was clear, he asked me to get an approval directly from Volkswagen Regional manager. They even pressurized me to take the finance from EVM to which I said no, as my finance from SBI was already in place. After lot of pestering, the sales rep sent the invoice of Rs 11,49,604, our final agreed upon price so that SBI can sanction the loan. This was on 16th of April. On 19th when I checked about the status of the car, I’m informed that there is a price hike, and he is not aware how much that amount is.

• Are the car dealers so greedy? Don’t they have an iota of ethics in this line of business or is it that their sales executives behave this way?
• Does Volkswagen have no say on this?
• What do they do with the booking amount? Is that a source of revenue too?

I understand that this post long, but any advice or suggestion to escalate this issue or way forward from fellow BHPians and Petrolheads is welcome and much appreciated. Thank You.

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