I was reading other’s reviews on competent and thought of sharing my experience with them.
I had bought my Maruti Alto from Competent in Connaught Place in 2002. My experience with them at the time of buying the car was good enough.
This prompted me to take my car to their Ghazipur service centre and I was pretty much satisfied with their service for the next two years.
Later I took my car to Bangalore for 2 years and have recently come back to Delhi.
But since coming back I have seen a marked deterioration in the service level and it has come to such a state that I have now decided not to take my car to them anymore.
I would like to illustrate the experiences I have had which have made me take this decision
Experience 1: The keys to my car were lost and I had to take the car to their service centre to get the locks replaced. A service manager by name of S D Sharma was assigned to me. The guy had such a disinterested attitude. I had to literally run after him for half an hour to show the car to him and explain the issue. Once he agreed to see the car, he just said lock will be changed and he will call back when I could take the car. I am not sure if I have high expectations but atleast I expected him to check the oil etc in the car and suggest if anything extra needed to be done.
Well, thats besides the point. I went home and kept waiting for a call which never came. I called up competent and was told that they would ask him to call me.
Again, no call. Again.. I called..again same reply..again no call.
Finally I asked to speak to the manager and within 5 minutes I got a call from the supervisor saying the lock had been replaced and I could collect the car.
I went to collect the car and again I had to keep running after him to show me what was done so that I could pay and collect the car. The guy just kept walking around without even acknowledging the fact that I was waiting for him to show me the car !!
Experience 2: I gave the benefit of doubt to competent for this experience(maybe the guy had some tensions in life) and decided to take the car for the annual maintenance servicing. I took the car for servicing on Rakhi day after confirming by phone that the service centre was open that day. I went to the reception, got the job card and kept waiting besides the vehicle before somebody came to inspect the car. This time I got a person named Benny. The guy started complaining that I should not have brought the car that day since most engineers were on leave due to Rakhi. When I told him that they should not have opened the center if this was the case then he shut up. I explained the problems of the car to him which he just listened to and wrote the basic maintenance jobs like oil change and engine cleaning expected on 5th annual service. He just ignored the other points I mentioned related to noise coming from rear tyres at high speed and gear change not being smooth. I would have expected him to take a test drive which was not done.
This time I got the call from him with the estimate and got the car delivered on time.
The problems with the tyre noise and gear change were still there and ultimately I went to another service centre to get them rectified.
A service engineer is like a doctor who listens to the patients complaints and diagnoses the disease. This guy did not listen to the issues I told him and just said that the engine cleaning and oil change would solve them which they didnt. Finally the problem with tyre noise turned out to be issue with the bearings which were replaced at the other service centre.
Experience 3: Despite all this, I thought atleast the insurance renewal dept would be OK. I called to get my insurance renewed and I got a quote for the premium for 3400/-. I checked with another dealer and the quote was 2700/-. When I called up Competent about this they said that I was being given 20% NCB by them. I should get 50% NCB since my car is 5 years old with no claim so far. The lady actually started bargaining and said OK she will give 25% NCB instead of 50% !!!! I have no idea what kind of people Competent is hiring these days but such incidents will make them lose their reputation and clients.
I am sadly disappointed with Competent. When a company becomes too big it just loses touch with the customers and just earn from their reputation.
Its been a long review. Thanks for reading this patiently.