Tata's car sales racing ahead, service network left behind

Fuelled by demand, Tata Motors has been opening more sales outlets, but the number of service centres has remained mostly unchanged.

BHPian ps_abhijith recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Note: The below post is not meant to defame anyone / any Brand, or hurt the sentiments of any Fanboys. I am only stating the facts and inferring anyone with common sense could do. My brother and I personally use an Altroz Diesel, we also had a Tiago since 2017 which was replaced with the Altroz. I had a Tata Nano from 2017-2020 and did more than 35k km on the car during this time. The whole point of this post is to bring attention to the deteriorating After-sales experiences of Tata car owners, especially the dwindling number of service centres.

Let's go back a few years and Tata Motors had one of the lowest market shares, their products were uninspiring, and the sales numbers were usually in 1000-2000 cars per month. Fast forward to today and Tata is a key player in the Indian market, selling upwards of 15,000 cars per month. And the products cater to everyone in the market, are attractive and honestly are great. With the new Punch launch, that number is definitely set to grow higher. There was a time when if someone recommended a Tata car to you, they simply hated you. But with the new fleet of cars starting with Tiago and Nexon, they have now become the default choices for most people and I personally had recommended them to a lot of close people in my family as well as to friends.

Recently we all have seen news articles of Tata opening up hundreds of "Sales Outlets" in a day or over a span of a few days. I live in Kerala, and to be honest, Tata sales outlets have become more like ration shops here, you have one everywhere you go. And they are selling cars like hot cakes now. All good and happy there.

In the olden days, when you see a car showroom, it's mostly a showroom-service centre combo kind of deal.

Now, look back at all the news headings, all newly opened ones are "Sales Outlets". The truth is, none of these does have service centres associated with them. These are mostly stand-alone sales outlets which are under some major showrooms in that area.

Let's take a look at our current "Service" experience:

Our Altroz was due for its first service, we called up the dealer from whom we got the car to book the service. We were asked to call up their dedicated service centre at Kottayam. This was on Sep 5. The minute we mentioned service, we got a reply that the next available service slot was on Sep 21. What are we supposed to do till then, not drive the car? We had no other option but to book the service for 21 Sep, as other service centres in Kottayam were having worse waiting times for service. The most wonderful thing about this is that we have owned Marutis, Hyundais and Hondas. We always get reminder calls for service booking from the service centres well before the service due date (sometimes too many calls from Hyundai). From TATA, absolutely no call or reminder.

We went for the service on 21 September. The service centre was crowded. Reached there at 10 am, and an SA was allocated at 12.30 pm. (Honestly not exaggerating). The conversation went as below:

SA: Sir, we are too busy, we can't wash your car today. I will give you a letter, you can bring the car anytime later to wash it.

Brother: I want the oil to be changed, will pay for the oil and labour charge.

SA: Sorry sir, if you want the oil to be changed, we can only give your car back tomorrow.

Brother: I have a few other issues with the car. (Keyless entry not working occasionally, Automatic climate control fan speed not working, one of the grab holders is broken, There is a sound from the turbo when the foot is lifted off the accelerator)

SA: Sir, you can bring the car later at some point for all of this, and we will take care of this then.

Brother: This is the first service, you can't wash, you cant change oil, you cant address any issues. So what exactly are you going to do as a service?

SA: (Nervous smile) Sir, this is just an inspection. We check everything thoroughly to be sure nothing is wrong.

Brother: And if you find something is wrong, what are you going to do?

SA: Sir, we will note it down, and you can bring back the car after a few weeks.

So what is going wrong?

Tata has been selling more and more cars every month. They have been opening more sales outlets to fuel this. But the number of service centres has stood at a standstill for a few years now. With the current number of cars already sold, the service centres are squeezed to the maximum capacity.

Result? Poor service experience, poor service quality, and most customers concerns and complaints are not addressed properly. More than two weeks to book a service for your car is completely unacceptable. That too, once you get there, they cannot wash your car, they cannot do anything other than an inspection, they cannot even listen to you properly. On top of this, Tata cars these days are having more niggles than say a couple of years back.

Before someone jumps at saying it's not like this, I present the numbers for Kerala.

As of today, Kerala has 78 Tata Sales outlets across the state.

To service the cars sold by all these outlets, they have just 21 service centres all over Kerala.

Data. I do have the complete list of sales outlets and service centres from this site.

What has this led to Up until a few months ago, we would have recommended a Tata car to anyone? Our cousin is getting married in December. He wants to get a new car and was looking at Altroz or the upcoming Punch. Based on our current experience, we have asked him to check out the sonnet / Venue & Jazz, and not to go for a Tata car.

What is needed?

TATA needs to recognize this as a serious issue, address it by opening up more service centres matching their sales numbers so that all cars can be taken care of properly. What's is the point in selling all these beautiful cars, and then abandoning the customer when it comes to service?

Who is going to service them and address and fix the small niggles and issues?

And how long are the cars going to last without proper care?

Here's what GTO had to say on the matter:

Have heard similar complaints. Renaming the thread as their car sales have certainly outpaced the service network. Tata has gone from 10,000 - 15,000 monthly sales in 2015 to now 25,000 - 30,000 sales each month! What's more, Tata's cars are not as fuss-free to own or as reliable as say, a Maruti or Toyota. Hence, the burden on existing workshops is a lot.

Give it time. I think it'll take a handful of years for the service network to catch up. When Tata was selling 10 - 15k a month, it lost many good dealers and found it difficult to recruit new ones. But with their current sales volumes and higher-priced products, it's relatively easier to get new dealers onboard.

Here's what BHPian Nikhil Beke had to say on the matter:

I was told by a dealer that my new Altroz if purchased from them, would undergo the first two services at the stockyard itself ("it's only an inspection, sir!"). The other dealer has begun operations of two brand new showrooms, while the service centre is under construction (SAs couldn't even tell me where the location of the SC is going to be.)

Seriously, in the short term, they at least could try what Toyota has been doing- partner with a multi-brand workshop.

And in the long run, they should consult their newest senior (CV division) recruit who's looking after their international business and strategy He had done a stellar job with his prior company in this regard.

Here's what BHPian lsjey had to say on the matter:

Enough has been said about Tata service. Still, want to add one more:

Opening service centres is one thing. It is quite another to train the staff properly. Either this or the service centres have to poach from others with increased salary. This will only lead to poor service again.

This is expected growth pain. I'm sure TaMo will manage this the Jugaad way. So owners have to expect bad service and be watchful when they take their cars for service.

Here's what BHPian RK79 had to say on the matter:

I thought it was only a problem at my native place Kottarakkara. When I called for a periodic service appointment, I was told to bring the car after 10 days at Muthoot Tata. Since I was on Covid duty, and the car was running daily and couldn't take any risk, went to another service centre Focuz, Kollam, after booking the previous day. They took the car in the morning on my way to the hospital and returned by afternoon after my duty, washing was refused by me.

Two weeks back again approached Muthoot Tata for changing a cracked foglamp. They have the part, asked me to book an appointment which is after a week during the afternoon when my duty gets over, and when I reached there, the SA wants to keep the car for a day since changing fog lamp needed to remove the bumper and its a "big" job. Refused and came back, did a bit of exploration and found out that the fog lamp can be removed with a spanner and a screwdriver without removing the bumper in 15 min. Ordered the part from Boodmo and planning for a DIY.

For my wife's car Celerio, it was even better. Called Popular, Kottarakkara for periodic service in the morning, took the car at 3 pm, got it back by 5.30 pm, washing included.

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