Kia service centre review: My 2023 Seltos spends 3 days in workshop

I really feel Kia really needs to up their game, as I found the overall experience to be average.

BHPian VigneshMC recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Here is my experience and review of Second Service at Capital Kia , Perungudi , Chennai.

Issues I wanted to fix and things I wanted to get it done as part of this service:

1. ECU update
2. Minor scratch in front bumper as a part of scratch care program
3. Dent in the rear boot door

I booked my service around 20 days in advance on a Thursday so that I could avoid rush and also planned my day such that I can personally drop the car as I wanted to discuss about these dents and scratch with SA in person.

I did not get any confirmation message after booking , so I called them day before the booking to reconfirm the booking and opening hours ( since its a weekday , I wanted to go as early as possible). I was informed they are open from 8 AM.

Whole Servicing took 3 days , so I will go day by day

Day 1 :

I was there around 8.50 AM , I was asked to wait in their lounge .

Lounge Review :

Lounge was very basic it had AC , Sofa , two day old newspaper and TV's playing Kia's ad . No other refreshments , even the water is available only in reception which is right outside. From the lounge , you can see the service center operations .

Service Review :

There was one customer before me . I had to wait more than 30 mins before an SA was assigned to me .

After that things began to move faster , as there is no specific issues in car . I asked him if there is an ECU update for this model , he was not sure , he said they will do it , if it shows up in system . I showed him the scratch and asked him to take care of it part of scratch care program , as expected he did not know about this , so I explained him about it and asked to check with his manager about this . SA took photos all around the car and sent me through WhatsApp.

Then I showed him the dent in the rear , another person body shop took over and he gave me a approximate quote and then he went inside to exact quote. Returns back only to say dent is in a tricky place and hence they can bring back only up to 80% of original shape or he asked me to go for insurance and replace the entire boot door .

I am not an expert in the repairs but it might be tricky but I am in a authorized service center and paying an premium , I expect a top notch level of service quality . I left service center asking them not to do dent repair , which is around 1 hour from my time of arrival.

I was not handed any slips for acknowledgement , I was just told I will get message . I was told car will delivered same day evening or next day afternoon.

While I was returning , I wanted to reconfirm about their dent removal situation , so I contacted their body shop manager and explained him the issue . He said he will call back in few mins after checking. He did not call back.

Day 2 :

Around 10.30 AM, I wanted to check the time of delivery , so I got couple of messages from KIA to track the service status , it also had the SA's number , I called him multiple times and it went unanswered . I called their front office and asked for a call back . SA calls me from a different number and confirms me that car will be delivered in afternoon . Only then I realized, SA in the tracking link is not the actual SA working on the car and the tracking link also does not show actual service status as well and their tracking basically useless.

Around 1 PM , I get a call from SA saying scratch in front bumper is deep hence it would require repainting , so they cannot do it . I told him that is what scratch care program is for and asked him to check with his manager again.

He calls me after few mins says they can do it , but can deliver the car only on Tuesday ( 5 days later) .

I called their service manager and explained him the issue . I also told him about call-back promised from their body shop manager, which never got.

Within few mins, I get call from body shop manager about the dent, he reiterated what body shop person informed , dent its tricky and they can do only around 80 - 90 % look as before. I asked him to confirm this via email.

Service manager calls again to inform that car can be delivered next day , I had no option other than accepting it.

Day 3 :

I get a call around 3 PM that car is ready for pickup , as its part of MCP , I had to pay only for windshield washer fluid and added weights during wheel balancing . I paid Rs.260 .

I got to know there is no ECU update done, as it was not available for this variant. Scratch is front bumper was removed properly , no issues with that

Cleaning of interior and exterior was not great either . All over the body, I can see water and swirl marks left due to cleaning.

Overall Service experience was very average , I feel Kia should really up their game . Their tracking links does not work or give accurate information , timelines are not met , needs escalation even to get small things done . I don't blame SA, as I feel they are untrained .

Now coming back to the dent , Here is a picture of the dent.

Here is the screenshot of email from them

Although I appreciate that they informed me about it before starting the work , but I am not convinced enough to ask them to fix it. As these percentages are subjective , so I not sure if they trying to play safe or trying to charge me more or trying to get away if they do a sloppy job.
I would have accepted it if they would have said it tricky , we are going to take 2 weeks to fix it but I cannot accept the fact that they cannot fix it properly (although I understand its difficult/impossible to achieve factory finish) .

May be experts here , can comment if its that hard to repair . I am not ready to replace it as its not affecting any function of the car . Also , if you know someone in Chennai , who can fix this , please let me know.

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