I went into Linkway honda at Malad yesterday, with a pretty strong intent to finalise on one of the Honda cars: Jazz or City.
The sales agents were courteous. But that was the only aspect that was positive. While there wasn’t anything horrible, there were lots of things that I could expect from a small car showroom, not a premium brand whose cheapest cars sell at 8 lakhs!
They had big signs all over the showroom proudly claiming " If we don’t offer you a test drive, we will give you a free gift". I wanted to test drive a City, they did not have one at that time( had gone for repair.) I can understand these things can happen once in a while. They didn’t offer any gift: it’s too small a thing to ask for, but my wife still mentioned it two times to the sales agent. He just showed a smile and didn’t do anything. What’s the point of all those signs, then?
Anyway, they promised that they would bring the car to my home by 11 am next day, and will call to confirm about half an hour before. It’s 12 now, and no signs of them or a phone call.
In general, there was no attempt to’sell’ the car at all. They didn’t care to take my contact information either.(except when it came to scheduling the test drive). When I asked for some competition benchmarking, they had nothing, and all the agent had was a snigger about Maruti when I mentioned SX4. The brochure they handed me for City was outdated, with trim levels that have not been there for at least a few months.
Well, I know Honda’s a premium brand, and is the leader in this segment, but showing attitude isn’t really something that fits the brand.
I thought I’d go to the Honda site and share some feedback, but things were even worse there! there was a section for providing feedback on our sales experience. That section required me to login! On top of that, there was no way to register so that I could login! I went to the’contact us’ section, and that had no email address either!
These guys seem to survive on monopoly. Well, it’s not that strong: I’ll go to Andheri or Borlivi: hopefully the Honda dealer there would be better.
I do have an inclination to buy Honda, but it’s not that strong. Small things like this might as well end up pushing me to Hyundai or Maruti!( At least to a different dealer!)