I am a person who just loves his Skoda; I know my friends and others who own from a Fabia to a Superb; and each and every one of us have the same crib; the service centers are completely shitty; they only want to slice you off. The minimum they charge you is 6K.
My last service has been the worst ever experience, thanks to Vinayak Skoda in Bangalore. This is how it began.
This happened on 12.Nov.2010. I stay in Pune, but had to be in Bangalore to meet my family. I went there with about 2000 kms to spare for the next service. While there, the dashboard started indicating "INSP" and of course, not wanting any issues on the way back, I called up TAFE Access first (after all I bought our Fabia there). The first mistake of the day:
Kiran - me (on phone)
Hi, I got your number from Just Dial. Is this Skoda service and am I speaking to Louis?
Louis (not sure what he was mad at)
Who the hell gave you this number? Don’t you know I am on leave?
Me (thinking to myself, what arrogance)
(thinking again) Oh yea, I forgot that they showed y’day on BBC that you would be on leave!
Me
I am sorry, but can you give me the right number please?
Louis
Why dont you call up Just Dial and take the other number?
What rudeness? Not sure what he eats daily? (food or shit)
Not planning to give up so easily, I called up Vinayak Skoda (from whom I had got my first servicing done)
The lady on the other side of the phone was pleasently mild and understanding, and when I requested her that I would at-least want the oil check and other things done, she was ok with it. She called me in a few minutes and confirmed "come along and drop your car"
I, of course, was delighted about this, and drove all the way from Kengeri Satellite town to KR Puram (manoevering took me about 2.5 hours, even with the NICE road being there)
Upon reaching, the sweet talking receptionist asked me to wait for "5 minutes" and finally, after about 1.5 hours or so, this extremely busy person Nandu comes over to my rescue. you see, these guys literally think they are saving your life. So, what’s so different about Nandu? Well, there was! He too was a sweet-talking person! Damn TAFE, I thought to myself; these guys really are cool! But its already 1:00 PM... and the next day morning at 6:00 is when I plan to leave back to Pune
Nandu took a note of all the issues and all the dents and bends on the car.. Then told me "Sir, have your lunch and come here by 6:00, I will give the car in a perfect condition". I went on, "Nandu, what can I do in K.R. Puram? I dont even know if some decent restaurant is here". He was kind enough to guide me to Bhagini (eat all you can for a dollar kind of place). I went there, hogged on some Andhra stye chilli chicken along with rice and was back in an hour. I saw my car still lying in the Sun, till about 3:00 PM or so.
I was asked to wait in the "AC" customer lounge. I did that, watching TV, and dont know when I fell asleep, while sitting.. I suddenly got up and checked my Casio, it was 1/2 past 6 PM. I asked for Nandu, and got the answer that he was very busy and would see me soon. I waited.
There is one man clinged to the front of the bullet train and trying to stop the antagonist, that was the last scene of Speed; Keanu was waiting to get hold of Dennis Hopper and I am trying as much, to get hold of Nandu! The only difference, in the movie, both are getting paid, and here, I am paying and Nandu is getting!
At 7:45 PM, Nandu runs in saying how sorry he was about this delay, and that I need to wait for another 1/2 hour or so. Finally, at 8:45PM, Nandu comes over and says he personally took care of everything and got it done. He said "Sir see I finished the servicing within the same time and you wanted only top up". I didnt know at that time, I will be wishing I had only done the topup!
Of course they dint allow me to take a test drive claiming it was tooo late for them all, and the cashier was more straight-forward in showing out his agitation. "Its 8:45 sir, we too have a home and want to be with our family u c", for which I said "hey sorry, Nandu had finished his work at 5:30 itself, and it was I who asked him to wait as I wanted to see Speed till the end".
Now comes the climax of the day, the bill, Rs. 10, 731! And nothing more I need to pay on top of this, reassured Nandu
Having taken care of this business, I went back home, had a couple of beers and settled down!
We started at 7:00 in the morning to Pune. Hubli is 395 KMS from Bangalore, and on any usual day I need to fill about 1300 Rs. of Petrol to reach there. But not today! I ended up spending Rs. 4000 to reach Hubli!! My car was drinking fuel like a drunkard who’s not seen a drop of liquor for a year!! Not knowing what to do (whether to return back to Bangalore and screw up those guys or to spend another 4K to reach Pune) I continued inside Hubli. On the Hubli-Dharwad road, to my good luck, I found Priti Skoda (authorized delaer and service station in Hubli). I went to them, they used some synchronizer or some thing, a sophisticated machine which when plugged to your car can tell you whats fine and what’s not! Yet another amazing thing from Skoda. They confirmed everything was fine, and it was time to check the wheels. To the service engineer’s and my surprise, he said the brakes were jammed!!! OMG!! I was running on jammed brakes for 390 KMS! They charged me about 400 bucks and closed this issue. I shouted at Nandu over phone and nothing else I could do from there.
So the morals of the story:
Skoda is a fantastic company and all their vehicles are swell... but if they dont do anything about their partners in India, believe me, they will wind up their business here, in a few more months. So we will be owning a car whose parts cost as much as a new Maruti!
The other thing, if you are planning to buy a Skoda, first check with other Skoda owners how the service is in your city and confirm (or check on Mouthshut). They can really leave your pockets with deep holes, and still not get a smile on your face!! Believe me, it seems they are trained to do that successfully.
And finally, I want to sell my Skoda Fabia, any buyers? Skoda, its time you give your ear to the customers, and not just your partners!
And as per Nandu, they have a service target of Rs. 30 Lakhs per quarter, so what else do you think they would do to you?
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