Battery drain issues on my Creta & pathetic experience with Hyundai RSA

After much deliberation and escalation they eventually agreed to send both the technician and tow truck together.

BHPian abhisekbit recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Complete lack of Common Sense from Hyundai RSA:

So my Hyundai Creta 1.5 petrol manual (Age 1 yr, 12k km ODO) had a drained Battery (2nd Time in 3 months) when the car was not started for 2-3 weeks at a stretch.

1st time issue: Called Hyundai RSA, very prompt in their service and sent a person to jump start the car within an hour. The person came in a scooty and jump started the car and asked me to drive for 7-8km or keep the engine started with 1000-2000 rpm for 1 hr. I asked him if he could follow me while I drive and if the engine stops and he could again jump start. I offered him a drive route which he will take to return home and he obliged. Drove for 5-6kms, stopped and started the engine and the engine started. No issues. Thanked him and left

2nd time Issue: Me being out of home location, the car was again kept idle for 3weeks and my mom wanted to visit someone and use the car. Again the car would not start. Called Hyundai RSA, again a person came within 1hr and jump started the car and told to keep the car on for 1hr with minimum revv which my driver did. But this time this guy was in a hurry and left within 10mins saying his job is done. After 1hr when my driver restarted the car, it would not turn on. All this was happening in the garage.

So I called the service center and explained to them the issue and asked them for a home service and pickup of the car. But came to know that this service is chargeable(650+ GST + 350 pickup charges, pickup and drop is only free when you send for service). They asked me to contact RSA and get the car towed to the service center free of cost as the car was within warranty (big mistake to save a few bucks),

So next day I called up the RSA and asked them for a towing service. In the next 30mins I got a call from the tow truck driver asking about the location. Asked him if he has a jumper cable and battery as he needs to start the car so that the steering unlocks and he can take it out of the garage. He said it was not his responsibility to start the car and he can only tow...!!!!

Called Hyundai RSA again and to my dismay they said as per process they will send a separate technician to start and take the car out of the garage and then a tow truck would come to tow the car. My argument was if the car is left on the road(alley) it would be an issue as it would block traffic. Again they started explaining the process and I got irritated and gave them a mouthful and asked for escalation. My argument was once my Honda Amaze had the same starting issue in the middle of the road at night and Honda sent a tow truck where the tow truck person had a jumper cable, battery and and managed to start the car before towing. So I had the same expectation.

After much deliberation and escalation they eventually agreed to send both the technician and tow truck together....and guess what...!!!! the same impatient Technician who came yesterday arrived without the tow truck and the tow truck was minimum 1.5hrs away...!!!!

Again the same argument and remotely doing all these calls and follow up irritated me no ends.

This time the technician jump started the car, kept it on for 15mins, stopped and started and it started normally. Tried multiple times and it worked. Maybe it had some juice from yesterday when it was kept on for nearly an hour.

Cancelled the tow truck and arranged for a driver personally and asked him to drop to the nearest service center for a battery checkup and possibly a battery change under warranty.

The entire episode has left a sour taste in ownership.

Always was of the opinion that Hyundai service was excellent until now when experiencing 1st hand.

Couple of areas of concern:

• 1 yr old car with 12k in the ODO is having a dead battery if not started for 2-3 weeks. This cannot be normal because I have seen my relative's Hyundai Grand i10 and i20 sitting idle for more than a month or two. Even my old Honda Amaze with a 4yr old battery started normally when it was sitting idle for a month during COVID-19 time. Before anyone asks, there is no external accessories except the touchscreen as this is a Executive version. There might be some current leakage here but let Hyundai establish that. I made it a point to disable the quick boot option in the Android Headunit. Also the same Headunit was installed in my old car(i ported the same unit from my old car to this) and it never had any issues.
• What is this process with Hyundai RSA ? Completely lacks logic and common sense. They are saying once the technician starts the car and if you feel there is an issue with the battery then drive to the service center. What happens if the car stops in between and cannot be started. Their argument is then call the towing service and then the car would be towed, so basically asking the customer to be stranded on the road. Also a complete lack of Communication and Coordination between Hyundai RSA, Alliance or something who assigns another 3rd party for the towing service/technician plus the people on ground.

To top that up, once it reached the service center, the service advisor's first dialogue was -- this is quite normal. If you don't start the car for 15 days the battery will be dead. Asked to give me this in writing and then he said would look into the issue and revert back. Lets see where this goes.

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