I had a horrible experience getting my car repaired at Dakshin Honda. Thought I should share my experience with you so that it would become helpful for others in future.
I gave my car for body work on 2nd May 2008. The estimate was given and I was told - "it would take about 10 days to repair". The insurance surveyor visited the shop on 3rd May and gave a go ahead for the repair. I never received a call from the repair shop.
I kept on calling to check the status. After about a week, I was told about a "part not available". When I asked about what part is not available, and I asked for the part number, The customer rep, Mr. Saleem, could not give an answer. My car was hit by truck from behind and the damage was small, I could say this with confidence because the rear lights where still working and were not damaged. The lights assembly was damaged though.
Last week of May, I realize that I am not able to reach any one at Dakshin. The service rep who took the order, Mr. Saleem, can not be reached. So I show up at the repair shop. I landed at their shop at 1030am. I reported at the service desk to Ms Lakshmi Gowda, no one attended me until 11:30. Finally Lakshmi puts me into Mr. Muneer Ahmed, the CR Manager. Muneer asks me to sit down for "2 minutes" and vanishes for 40 minutes.
I remind him about my car when he comes back. He vanishes again and comes back after 30 minutes, this time, with the news saying that the car is ready and it will be inspected by the insurance surveyor again today and I can take the vehicle afterwards. I left Dakshin at 2pm.
I called up insurance company and came to know about the status of -re-survey, all the time, no one from Dakshin called me.
I went to Dakshin Honda on 3rd June to take the delivery of the car at
around 11am. The CR Manager, Muneer Ahmed, made me wait for about an
hour, while making me wait, he called the insurance company for
negotiating labor charges. I ran out of time and Left Dakshin at 1:30pm, without taking the delivery of the car, because I had to leave for some
other work. Dakshin could not deliver the car within that time.
When I asked why their is a delay in delivering the car, Muneer said the
rates were not finalized with the insurance. He had the entire 2nd June to do this rate finalization, but he preferred to do it only after me,
the customer visited and making me wait.
I went again on 4th June at 12pm to pick up the car.
When I saw the invoice, one of the main part was different from what was
written in the estimate. Estimate said "PANL SET, RR, FLR" costing Rs.
11792, where as the invoice said "PANEL SET L, RR OU" costing 16800.
When I asked why there is a discrepancy, no one was able to give me a
convincing answer. One funny explanation I received is that the estimate
is for a right side part where as the actual part is a left side part.
I am not sure how a right part has a different rate from left side part
in the trunk of the car!.
Overall, the Invoice was different from estimate. Invoice said 44k Parts
- 35K Labour totalling to 89K with tax etc.), where as initial Estimate
was 98k (31k Parts + 46K Labour + Taxes).
When I spoke to My Insurance company, the surveyor told me that the
Labour charges of Dakshin Honda is much higher than those of the other
dealer in Bangalore, Whitefield Honda.
Muneer Ahmed, CR Manager in Dakshin told me that Insurance will pay only
a certain amount of labor charges, rest I have to pay.
I explained about all this to one Mr. Satya who was interacting with me
then told him that I am going to share my experience with Dakshin to
others but he cared little.
After I settled the bill, when I looked at the car, there was no spare
tire in the trunk. When I asked for it, Syed, a CR representative
blatantly told me that probably there was no spare tyre in the trunk
when I gave it for repair. I asked for proof. I sensed something fishy
and started video recording using my cellphone and started asking
probing questions, then Syed and the mechanic came down, gave me a silly
excuse (The number "I thought was X67Y, not X76Y" is the explanation
given. Funny, I have all this caught in video, I will put it up on
youtube for the world to see, under the title "Dakshin Honda trying to
steal the spare tyre by cheating customer".)
Now after this episode, when I drive home the car, the AC light is not
coming up, the anti-theft alarm is not functioning.
I had to drive back to the dealer to get it fixed again.
They were quick in fixing this problem though - the only positive from
the whole experience.
Through out the whole experience, I never received a call from Dakshin
Honda. Everytime, I had to call up to follow up.
In Summary,
- Dakshin Honda charges exorbitant labor charges. Insurance may not pay all the
labor charges Dakshin Charges, you have to cough up from your pocket.
Anyone interested to know their charges, Please see the attached estimate sheet.
(Under "Product Details" -> Member Uploaded Photos)
- Be careful about parts and labor costs mentioned in the initial
estimate. It appears that when they realized that they are not going to get money from
Insurance for Labor charges as quoted, Labor charges went down and parts
charges went up.
- Dakshin Honda never calls you to update about your car status. Even
after it is ready for delivery. You need to call up to find it out.
- Everyone I met at the waiting lobby at the service counters had
complaints about no one attending them.
I have owned a Honda car for more than three years and I always had
better than this service level from Whitefield Honda.