Dear Friends,
I had gone through some 4 months of deliberations about which car to buy (yes you can call me a wierdo). I bought a zen ultimately. Dealers in Pune and PCMC had to put up with my endless queries for about one and a half months. But the decision is not what I am writing about in my review today, its my experience with the Pune dealers.
I was aware of 4 dealers in Pune -- Sai Service, Chowgule Motors, Wonder Cars and Millenium Mobility.
Sai service Pune was ruled out. We had terrible experience from Sai service in Mumbai and by an unwritten rule, services in Pune are worse than those at Mumbai. Also reviews at mouthshut and feedback from other existing customers turned me off Sai service.
That left the other three. Chowgule motors was very far from our house and we had a true value car from there. Servicing there became a headache just for the travel part so we had to rule that out. Besides the showroom was not that impressive.
I tried Wonder Cars and Millenium Mobility. The courtesy and the service from Millenium appeared better. Also the showroom, service center of MM was quite impressive. I had a lot of questions. What struck me was that at MM even when the salesperson could not answer, the tech persons there immediately pitched in with the answers. There was a collaborative atmosphere at the showroom even though there were a lot of customers at the shop which was not so at Wonder Cars. Both the dealers were ready to give us demos at home and this is common for all dealers at Pune.
One of the apprehensions was with the distance between the showroom and worskhop being some ten odd kms. But we found out that there is a shuttle that runs back and forth between the two locations AND also includes Deccan and Chinchwad (two nodal areas of Pune and PCMC) for the benefit of customers at pre defined times.
After having purchased the car, we had the usual delays of paperwork for RCTC but that did not impact the delivery. I had to follow up for paperwork related to security locks and other accessories and that was the only negative part but then the good part is that they call you up once the papers arrive.
Service station is one hell of an impressive place particularly the car wash and the staff. Also if you see the internal the evidence of inspection processes appear to be quite meticulate. However for some reason, one or two minor things do get left off and I have had to return to workshop after servicing to get a few things fixed.
One of the best things I liked about the service was that no matter how much the load they attend to customers with patience and courtesy. And when your car is done, they will call you up and fix a time of discharge.
Oh one more thing, this is faced by many in Pune. If you hold a credit card you pay up an extra 2 p.c. in many car shops but this is not the case at MM. This may sound like a ridiculous point to review but it matters for customers.
One more thing about the service station which is not the best is that the on road service may not be adequately staffed and there is generally a wait time of more than an hour.
Overall if you are contemplating buying a car in Pune, this is one shop you would definitely like to try out.
Regards,
Gautam