This review is about my experience with Advaith Hyundai, Residency Road Bangalore. I was interested in buying Accent Executive and in this regard, I made a web enquiry on Hyundai Website. I got a call from Advaith and Trident dealers within a couple hours offering a test drive. I decided to go with Advaith, as it’s pretty close to my office. A sales guy (SG from now on) came to see me in the office and explained the features and advised me to go with Axis Bank for finance. I decided to book in the car in my dad’s name as there was an offer for PSU employees (12k discount, 3rd year extended warranty).
A couple of days later, I emailed all the documents (as told to me by SG) to Axis Bank agent at Advaith showroom. He confirmed that everything was in order and processing would take a couple of days. Two days later I got a call from the SG saying since my account is with Citi Bank; I need to give 59 cheques, as Axis Bank cannot organize a direct debit from Citi Bank accounts. This came as a surprise since the Axis Bank agent did not mention this when I emailed my bank statements as a part docs required for loan processing. Why did it take two full days for the agent to realize that my salary account was with Citi? Anyways, I asked the SG if they have a tie up with another bank.
He immediately arranged for a HDFC agent to get in touch with me. I went through the same process with the HDFC agent. After looking at my documents, the agent convinced me that the entire ex-showroom (4.99 lks) price of the car would be funded. In order to re-confirm this, I asked if he was sure about 100% ex-showroom price funding. I also suggested that if he was not sure, I could get my dad to apply for the loan (assuming he would get 100% funding considering the fact that he is a PSU employee for almost 4 decades). He then gave a call to his credit team to confirm the same, they gave a similar opinion and I was finally convinced and decided to process the loan with HDFC. This happened on a Thursday, and I was told the loan would be approved on the following Monday.
On Saturday, I visited the showroom and paid the booking amount. The same afternoon I got a call from the HDFC agent saying, keeping in view my employment history and “other factors” the loan amount sanctioned is 4.49 lacs , a good 50k short of what I was promised earlier. When questioned, the agent got defensive by saying he personally does not have any say on the amount sanctioned and that HDFC credit team decided the amount. Wait a minute, I was of the assumption that your credit manager confirmed 100% funding when contacted over the phone!! ...anyways he was not ready to accept the fact that he made a false promise.
I spent the rest of the day scratching my head on how to arrange for the extra 50k. Finally, by Sunday morning I was somehow able to arrange for the funds. I visited the showroom again and gave them a cheque and was told the pre-delivery inspection (PDI) would be completed by the end of the day and the car would be sent for registration on Monday morning and delivered to me by 6.30 pm.
At around 11 am on Monday, I called the SG to confirm the delivery time and he confirmed everything was on schedule. At 4.30 pm I got a call from the SG saying the car cannot be delivered as promised as it was damaged while unloading from the truck and that the damage was detected during the PDI. He also went on to say that he was being very fair and honest with me by not delivering a damaged vehicle, which he could have very easily done. After listening patiently, I put the following questions to him:
· Why was the PDI not completed on Sunday (as promised)
· If it was completed, why did it take so long for them to inform the customer about the damage
As expected, he had no answer. I cut the line on him and decided to go to the showroom to get an explanation. Once I was there, I demanded that I meet the director of sales. After a short wait, I got to meet him and raised the same questions put forth to the SG. He accepted it was a big mistake on their part not to have completed the PDI on Sunday, and having lied to me at 11 am that the car would be ready for delivery. Now, I was promised a delivery on Friday 11 am.
On Tuesday, I got an SMS from the SG asking for my dad’s ID, and payslips. I was like.. what was he doing all these days???? I called him back and asked why now??.. and got a reply saying these were the pending documents for registration!!! So this was indeed a confirmation of Advaith having lied to me on Sunday regarding the delivery. The SG also went on to enquire about my dad’s employer, I replied saying he works for an organization which is a Govt of India Undertaking. For this he said – Saar you have just saved 53k , life time road tax is waived off for central govt employees!!
Now, if this was told to me before I made the booking, or while the loan was being processed, I would not have struggled to arrange for the extra 50k that the bank refused to fund. This was too little too late for me. I decided not to argue and asked him to collect the documents the same evening. I went to the showroom on Friday 11 am after confirming the delivery time the previous evening. After completing the paper work, one of their staff offered to explain the features. While he was doing this, it was discovered that the remote locking system and the head light were not functioning. Totally frustrated I walked into to the director’s cabin and asked for an explanation. After having heard my entire experience with their showroom, he was speechless and said – “My sorry would not make any difference to you now”. He made a series of calls to his staff and asked for the vehicle to be checked thoroughly (another PDI!!!). Finally at 1 pm I was handed over the keys and shown the way out of Advaith Showroom, Residency Road Bangalore.
I am sure many of you would have had a hassle free delivery of your vehicles, but Advaith had other plans for me!!!!