Kawasaki dealer cancels booking over handling charge dispute

Kawasaki's authorised dealer cancelled the booking of a Ninja 300 when the customer asked an explanation for the high RTO charges mentioned in the quotation given to him.

Motosaki Motorcycles in Thane was charging Rs. 56,875 as RTO charges, while the actual tax amount was much lower. When probed by a customer, the dealership revealed that the amount includes Rs. 1,100 as inspection charges, Rs. 10,000 as agent charges, Rs. 5,300 as warehousing cost and Rs. 4,000 as loading/unloading cost. Taking additional money from customers under the guise of handling charges is illegal in India.

When the customer wrote to Kawasaki about this, the company replied with a standard email apologising for the inconvenience and that the matter was being forwarded to the concerned department. In the email, the customer had mentioned that he would like to get the booking cancelled if the illegal charges are not waived off. Subsequently, he received a text message through WhatsApp from the dealer informing him that the booking had been being cancelled as the management couldn't waive of the aforementioned charges.

It has been reported that the Kawasaki's dealers in other cities like Hyderabad are also charging Rs. 10,000 over and above the mandatory charges / taxes from customers.