This is not to say I have a bad opinion about Tata cars. This is just to show how genuine customers will get blown away by irresponsible dealer network.
After careful thought (and some compromise) I decided to buy the Tata indigo Dicor from Ms Concorde motors. After great deal of negotiations and getting a friend also to buy the same car, I got a good deal with discounts and accessories (later I found out that this was a standard deal). I had booked a Black car and my friend a grey one. This was around mid June. The salesman assured that the cars would be available by end of month as he had already ordered for it.Great!
My friend’s car was apparently always available but he chose to get the car when I was getting mine delivered. I had a fiat Palio and wanted to sell that so our salesman friend got me a used car dealer - Ansal from car bhandar. Read my review on that for further (gory) details. Anyway to cut a long story short - I didn’t sell my Palio to Ansal but instead found a buyer on my own. Suffice to say I just escaped a serious attempt to cheat me of my money!
Back to the Indigo story - By end of month I could hardly wait so I called up the salesman who said the car was due anytime and had already left Mumbai and was on its way. The next day the story changed to "delay because of excessive rains". Accepted.
After repeated inquiries, I was told they don’t know what the delay is and there is probably a strike of delivery trucks. In any case the car will be there by 14th of July.
Somewhere along the line, the ever-ready-to-speak-to-me salesman started singing a different tune and would take just that extra ring before answering my call and after a while stopped answering and replied with SMSes as to how hard he’s trying for my car.
Somewhere around 9th my friend got a call from Abdul in Concorde who was the liaison guy with Tata and said that the black car may be delayed in arriving and did he want to book a silver instead. My friend asked him to call me - which he did - a full 2 days later. According to him they NEVER heard from Tata about the car and are still a good 10 days away from delivery! When asked him about the miscommunication earlier, obviously he had no answer. I spoke to Hari the sales head at Concorde who agreed that there was a lack of communication and lot of miscommunication. He assured me on prompt communication from all parties henceforth. Just after he called almost everyone at Concorde called me - including Abdul who told me he would get me an alternate car till I get the indigo delivered and will confirm the same the next day (14th) by 12pm. Fantastic !
3pm the next day I went with my friend and cancelled the deal. I didn’t get any phone calls from anyone about anything. The people at Concorde just handed me the cancellation papers without even bothering to talk to me. The sales incharge at that time made some lame attempt to speak to me but his absolute disinterest in the talk was evident.
Before I forget - The reason for my friend’s cancellation - He went to the Concorde stockyard to see the grey indigo. He did see one - just one and that too dented. The official at the yard said they could get that "Tinkered". Amazing.
I would have loved to drive a Indian built car but the Indian nay Concorde service made me drop the idea altogether. Tata should learn from this that it’s not good to have just a good (?) product. The way you sell matters and whether you like it or not the salesmen are your face to the customer. Time for a cleanup Mr. Tata. About time.
PS: while leaving the Concorde office, I dropped a note asking to speak to Mr. Hari. If he had called I would have STILL bought the car. I’m still waiting for the non-existent call.