I recently purchased a Mahindra Bolero Invader GLX 2WD from Vijai Auto Sales in Bangalore. I want to share my pre-sale and post-sale experience here to warn other potential buyers.
In mid-July, I had approached a member of the Sales team of Vijai and mentioned that I was on the look-out for a new vehicle and the Invader was an appealing proposition for use on my farm. From that point on for about 10 days, I was contacted regularly by the Sales team of Vijai Auto Sales and they were very sugary and cooperative and bent backwards to accomodate my queries. They visited my office regularly, called me and even came home to give me a test drive. I finally committed to buying the Invader in the last week of July and this is when things went downhill completely.
First of all, I got a call from Vijai saying that my payment cheque had been misplaced! They requested me to call my bank and stop that cheque and asked me to issue a new one. In the middle of my work day I had to go to my bank, waste an hour + driving there and pay a fee of Rs. 50 to stop the cheque.
Anyways, I was given delivery of the vehicle on August 1 late in the evening. The Vijai rep. promptly made me sign a bunch of documents and coupons even before handing me the keys to the vehicle. I drove the ’’NEW’’ car out in heavy rain and within minutes realized that I had been given a car that had 1360 kms on the odometer. I promptly called the Sales rep. (Mr. Naveen) on his mobile and informed him of the situation. He very calmly told me - ’’Yes Sir, we know. The vehicle came by road from Nasik’’. In all my prior interactions with him, not once had he even breathed of this fact even though he knew about it all along!
I realized that one of the headlights were not working because there was a loose contact. The suspension was squeaking miserably and the roof of the ’’NEW’’ car was leaking!
To cut a long story short, I immediately sent a complaint in writing to Mahindra and Vijai. Barring two phone calls spanning 30 seconds, I have not got any worthy feedback or assistance from them. I paid a couple of visits to their showroom to discuss my complaint and barely got cursory attention. I guess once they have sold you the lemon and met their quota, you are no longer a customer in their books.