My Jeep Compass: How the after sales experience has been over 2 years

It was supposed to be a plain vanilla experience - no complaints, just regular oil and air filter change.

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The Jeep Experience - The two sides of the coin

We own a 2021 Jeep Compass petrol, and the vehicle itself has been nothing short of amazing. We have done multiple road trips in the last 2 years and we keep wanting to do these more. I have posted before about my love for the machine, and it keeps growing.

The after-sales experience though is a completely different story. And this in Bangalore, where supposedly it's better than the rest of the country.

Year 1 service: It was supposed to be a plain vanilla experience - no complaints, just regular oil and air filter change. To collect the car, I arrived at the time the SA asked me to come, and then was made to wait for an hour. Apparently, the car was in the queue to get cleaned!. Bored, I went through the JeepLife app and saw that earlier that day the car had been taken on the roads and a couple of high speed sorties (much above legal speed limits) had been done. I called the manager and the SA and raised hell. Reason given was they were checking for rattles. I asked them - did I complain about rattles? And what happens if there is a traffic challan, or worse? No response. Manager gave a verbal commitment that they would not take the car out in the future without taking explicit approval.

Year 2 service: Again, supposed to be a painless experience - or so I thought as I had no complaints from my side. Just asked them to check the battery as I had heard about the battery dying randomly on other Jeeps. Now here comes the interesting bit. The battery has a 2 year manufacturer warranty, and the date of the service was a couple of days before my 2 year delivery date anniversary. As it turned out, the battery SoC was at 55%, and the SA recommended that it be replaced under warranty as it was under 70%. Sometime later, the SA called back and said that Warranty cannot be raised as the battery warranty is from the date of invoice and not date of delivery (???). Spoke to the service manager, Chethan, and explained to him that the car was invoiced in the middle of the 2nd wave of Covid (booking was before the wave hit), and hence the delivery happened a month or so after, when things opened up. So asked him to raise an exception and get a goodwill warranty. I agreed to get the battery replaced, pay for the battery, take back the car and get a refund later (that's a story for another day - checking and replacing the battery took 3 days, and I did not want to leave it in the workshop for any longer). It's been 2 months since - from saying that they will cover part of the cost, to saying they have approval for the full cost, to saying the refund is stuck somewhere. I keep following up and I just hear requests for more time. The job card for the service meanwhile is still open (ever heard of SLAs Jeep?).

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but its just very frustrating. Especially when I compare the after-sales experience of our other car - a 12 year old Maruti Swift - which has been very efficient (just as after sales should be).

@Jeep India: Great job sabotaging what is an excellent car. I know people keep complaining about the lean product portfolio and the price - but what will drive you out is your after-sales experience which is anything but premium. Make that right, and my next car will also be a Jeep - else, there's plenty to choose from.

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