I leased a car(Accord) from Arval India in February 2011. I will be completing my lease period on February 2014. During this period I am just amazed by the quality of service I received from Arval India. In terms of the fee that I pay - its not small by my own standards. Each time I have interacted with the people in the service department - I wonder what was I thinking when I signed the lease. I am a HR professional and prided myself in my skills and abilities to select these products for myself and my employees.
I must write down some of the very atrocious experiences in my almost three years of car lease.
Each time Arval commits to a time - almost every time they dont keep to it.
Last instance was my request to change a tyre. I was told that irrespective of the brand of OEM tires - they will only instal Goodyear tires. And further I was told that they will change only two tires. So effectively, I will drive with two goodyear tire in the front and the OEM tire(Bridgestone) in the back. FInally they changed all 4 - after I created a ruckus.
The most recent incident was when my AC malfunctioned. The diagnosis was that the AC relay switch needed changing. I was told by the service team that they will let me know when the car will be ready only on day 2. I accepted that - and was told that the car will be delivered by 2.30 PM on day 2. Guess what - it was delivered around 7 PM on day 2 after numerous phone calls.
I can go back into my email archives and keep on writing about many more instances but the only thing I want to highlight is the quality of interactions with the service team and tone of interactions. Severely lacking in empathy and I almost feel as if they are doing me a service! I am writing this to let everyone know how Arval's quality of service. The charges are absolutely in line with the market - beware!
-debashis patnaik