Here is my mail to Trident which summarizes what happened. To The Management Team of Trident Hyundai & The RM of Hyundai,
I wanted to share with you a very bitter experience with Trident Hyundai.
About 6-7 years ago I had walked into the Trident Hyundai showroom on Sankey Road to see the newly launched Hyundai Sonata Emberra. I was told by the sales person (I dont remember his name) that "this car is really expensive, why dont you look at the Hyundai Accent". I felt that was absolutely ridiculous, anyway I didnt say anything and just walked out never wanting to buy a Hyundai again. I later bought the Skoda Laura L&K which I thought was a far superior car and liked it so much that we landed up buying 3 more Lauras for other family members. Now I have upgraded to the Superb continuing my loyalty to the brand.
On sharing my experience with friends, I heard that another person had walked into the Trident Hyundai showroom in Indiranagar and got the same treatment. He was looking to buy the Hyundai Tuscon and was told by the sales person that "its too expensive, why dont you look at the Accent". He too disgusted walked out and bought an Audi.
I really dont know where you get your sales people from or how you train them, their statements and attitude of measuring what a customer can afford and suggesting cars is hurting your brand alot. So much to the extent that those people will probably never look at the Hyundai brand again. With today’s word of mouth, it only gets worse.
Right now we are in the look out for a mid sized car and out of major hesitation of my last experience, I had to force myself to also consider the Hyundai Accent which a friend recommended to me. Yamini from Trident Hyundai called me and was nice enough to bring the car for a test drive almost immediately. I had told her to give me time till Monday or Tuesday to decide and that I would call her back. She had entered my number into some system and the next day I got almost 6 calls from your call centre executives harassing me about my decision. They were rude, did not answer my questions, refused to transfer the call to a manager and could not even communicate. I really dont understand the need for this, I dont think its right to pass on customers numbers to a call center and get them to harass you with numerous phone calls on Saturday. When I asked them questions, they were incompetent to answer them and just hung up. Your sales person Yamini was aware of my last experience, I feel she should have taken more care to ensure I dont get harassed. Its not easy to get back a customer you have lost. I feel if Yamini was keen on closing the sale she should have followed up personally instead of passing it onto a low grade call centre.
This has been another terrible experience for me and now I will probably never look back at Hyundai.
However, I thought I should write this note to the management as I know on one side you put in alot of effort to market the car and the brand, however, you might not realise that on the other end you have people in your company butchering your brand. I might be only one case, however, there might be plenty other potential customers you have lost.
I hope that you will accept this feedback and look into this matter to fix your system. I hate to see companies with processes such as this.