I took my car in for service on the 19th, and the service rep (Mr. Thomas Jacob) told me that he would do the service for 20, 000 km. The estimate is above 4500/-, which included changing the gear oil. I told him to go ahead. They didn’t give a detailed estimate, only a handwritten estimate on the checkin bill, and that in itself should have set off alarm bells. I got a call in the evening that the amount was 5124/-. I paid the complete amount by check without looking at anything else. While this amount was on the higher side, I thought that it was the price of going to a high quality establishment. The next few days would prove how wrong I was.
Anyhow, on the first day I took the car out I found that the brakes were grabbing, and making some noise when applied. And to make matters worse, I found a metallic scraping noise, as if some rotating system is contacting another metallic piece. The noise disappeared after a couple of minutes. I was contacted by an Indus rep on Friday, and he asked me if there was any problem. I told him about the scraping noise. He said that he would fix it if I brought it in early in the morning 8:30. Accordingly I took a day off work and sent took it to Indus in the morning.
They, however, took the vehicle in and said that it would be about an hour and a half after people got there. The guy told him without even looking at the car that it was inadequate lubrication in some coil. After that, they said that they had set the tires again, and that the noise was due to rain. Now, I find that they have replaced the cylinder assy for the rear brake, and that is the general area from where noise originated. The brake problem seems to be brake pads which are not even, with one engaging before another.
I went to indus on the 23rd and talked to Thomas Jacob. He claimed at first that the engine flushing (for which they had charged 625/-) was part of the regular service. Then on pressing he said that most people opted for it anyway. I told him that I had not. He admitted that he hadn’t asked my permission to do this work. I asked him if it was a Maruti recommended operation. They were unable to produce anything, even though they said they had some circular to that effect. I talked to Mr. Abu, who appeared to be Mr. Jacob’s superior. At one point Mr. Abu claimed that he wouldn’t dream about doing that procedure for a car which had 15, 000 km on it. I pointed out that my car had less than 18, 000 kms on it when I brought it in.
I then asked him for a refund of the 625/- they had charged me. He said he couldn’t do that since the works manager was not in. He promised to call me at 10am the next day. I asked Mr. Jacob for some written documentation of what they had done about my brake problem. He claimed that he did it in my presence (an obvious lie, no one is allowed into the workshop), so it did not have a job code. A better explanation would be that there is no job code because they didn’t do anything. I pointed out that they hadn’t given me a detailed estimate. They said that they had gotten the sign on a form, which they do not give to the customer. However, they were unable to produce this form. I asked Jacob if he had cleaned my battery and he said that he had.
However, it was caked with deposits. Mr. Abu claimed that the deposits had appeared in one or two days. In conclusion, Indus motors charged me 625/- for work that I did not authorize and is not part of the regular service. I have been unable to get a refund or any sort of response from them regarding this matter. Also, their work on my brakes seems to have created lot of problems. What is even more galling is that this vehicle was running flawlessly till I took it for the regular service. It is said that the sign of a completely unethical company is that their most profitable customers are the most dissatisfied ones. After having paid in excess of 5, 000/- for regular service of an entry level car, I find myself with a vehicle which is in worse shape than when it was taken to their shop. I strongly recommend everyone to avoid this company and all its ilk like the plague. I am also writing to Maruti to see if they condone this sort of activity.
Update: I find that after this "engine improvement" my mileage has gone from about 16 to 9! The squealing noise has returned and I took it back to Indus. They told me that it was probably just sand in the bearings (is that supposed to make me feel better?).