Are Dealerships Creating More Dent on Tata Motors' Image?


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Hey Guys,

Many years ago, as many people would have gone through, Tata Safari was my dream car.
When I was looking for buying my own car in 2011, I was thinking of getting a pre-owned Tata Safari (due to budget crunch), but everybody including friends & family discouraged me.

Presently, in 2013, when I was planning for my first new car, I had made up my mind it got to be an SUV, with a decent ground clearance.
The reason for that was my bad experiences with my Honda City GC.
So among the real SUVs, I had considered Tata Safari, Safari Storme & XUV5OO.
Since there were lot many niggles that I have been hearing about the XUV, I was a bit reluctant about it, so first went to check out Tata Safari. :stupid:

We stepped into one of the big Tata dealers in Bangalore, the welcome was very cold, the staff attending the customers were not good at handling English to start with.
They are trained to deal with only local Cab people it seems, do not really know how to behave and talk.
None of them were professional and were not even dressed properly, moreover they were all wearing days, may be weeks old unwashed dress it was stinking all the time.
I was with my wife and felt sorry that we had walked into that space. [frustration]
The moment I told Safari, the person went inside and called some one else.
I told him what I have come for and asked him to brief me about the details, he was having less knowledge about the car itself.
He was even telling the ground clearance, power, torque values wrong, I knew more than him, thanks to TAI & other Auto forums.
I asked him for test drive, No Car for TD at the showroom, they assured that the car will be brought at my place for TD.
They did bring the car but not on the agreed day, but 2, 3 days later, but no worries for that.
I had the TD for Safari Dicor & Storme, since I liked Storme better and found EX version to be VFM than VX, asked them to show me one EX car.
Told them that I will drop in to their service center to have a look at a customer's EX car as the dealer had only a VX for TD.
They agreed and told me they will give me a call as soon as they get one EX for service.
The call never came to me, I called them couple of time, but no positive response, every time got a comment that no EX available in the workshop saar.
But on observing the road, one can clearly make out that they were really genuine.
There are no much Stormes on the B'lore road, the sales figures were really bad, I personally could spot only 3 cars yet in B'lore.
The follow up from the dealer after the TD was just NIL, I never got a follow-up call.

After having the bad experience with that dealer, thought to try with Concord, since its directly run by Tata, thought the experience would be better.
Disappointment was the result.
I called up the showroom on a Saturday morning and checked for availability of the TD vehicle, they said the car is available and I confirmed them my visit at 4PM.
The idea was to TD XUV & Storme on the same day and compare them.
Did the TD of XUV at Sireesh and then drove to Concorde Motors, where we were welcomed by well dressed sales team.
They were well behaving and courteous, but the initial impression was not the real one and realized that soon.
We discussed for sometime about the features, price, offers & Explorer version and later asked for TD, they said the car is nearby and need 15-20 mins to arrange it, we agreed.
In the meantime they asked me to fill up the TD form, only my personal details and I did so.
Waited and waited for almost one hour and they said the car is almost 30, 40 KMs away, have been taken for TD to a customer location.
Was disappointed yet again and went back home without a TD, they also promised a TD at my place the very next day.
They never called me back, I called and checked with them couple of times, they fix up an appointment for the next day but did not show up.

A few weeks after that I received a call from a lady from Tata Motors asking about the comments on Storme TD at Concorde, I said it never happened.
They told they have received my TD form and are calling customers randomly.
I think the Concord sales guy would have filled up the form on my behalf and submitted, they were so unlucky that I was picked up by TATA for counter check.
I explained to the lady about all my grievances and my feeling about Tata and their dealerships in B'lore based on my experience.
What else can she do but to apologize?
She promised that the same would be reported to the higher authorities and necessary action would be taken, Also that the Concord team would contact me the very next day and offer test drive.
But again I was surprised - Concord never again called me.
The same lady called me next week and asked if Concorde had contacted me and did I do the TD, I said NO, again she apologized and told she will escalate it.
Again the next week she called with the same question and I repeated the same answer and I told her am no more interested in Tata and am offended with their behavior.
She said the same will again be escalated and I can expect a call back soon, which never happened, as expected and it seems even she did give up after that.

If the Tata dealers are so lousy in pre-sales, How can a customer trust them?
Already Tata is having a bad name in the market for their bad customer care and After Sales Service & Assistance.
These unprofessional approach from the dealers are the final nails in Tata Motor's coffin.
How much ever effort, thought process, money & innovation goes into the R&D, ADs & Marketing, at the top end, nothing would holdup for Tata's unless the people on the ground do not support them promptly.
They are not able to conquer the market and get the trust of people due to people chosen to work on the ground for them are inefficient, unprofessional & not properly qualified.
I will never again trust Tata Motors, after all these, unless I feel the change in them.
I don't think I will ever consider a Tata Motors product. [thumbsdown]

Disclaimer : The above comments have been formulated purely based on my (bad) experience with the Tata Dealers in Bangalore, no offence meant to any Tata car owners or their cars.

Thanks,
Arvind S.
 
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Re: Are Dealerships Making More Dent on Tata Motors' Image?

you should not keep quite
He has not kept quite. He has exposed them here on TAI.
take this matter to the top level management.
Rather than going to top level management of TATAs he went to lowest level of Mahindra management (dealers) and they obliged him with a brand new XUV. [glasses]
 
Thread Starter #4
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Re: Are Dealerships Making More Dent on Tata Motors' Image?

@sbhokray & Tornado, When there was no response to this thread even after 10 days, thought nobody was interested in this topic.

@Tornado, I have put up this topic for discussion here to open up myself and express my discomfort and unhappy experience with Tata dealerships.
Am quite sure me taking this to the top management is not going to make a major difference.
Am pretty confident that am not the first person who have been treated so and definitely not the last as well, many such people would have escalated it already.
Taking it up the hierarchy might get me a consoling comment saying that - "...will look into this matter and you will never have to face this again and will make the same dealer to call you back for test drive at your place at your convenience..." [gun]
Am not interested in this anymore and as mentioned in my above post, am not going to buy a Tata product anytime in my future.

As Tornado had mentioned, On having this bad experience from Tata, I went to M&M and they happily treated me the best way they can and am happy & satisfied, so far.
And as of date, am a happy customer of M&M Silver XUV500 W8 FWD [:D]
 
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this is the sad state of affairs at tata.

some might call it honesty (good only until sales: to not so after sales). they might be consistent on that front :tongue:

seeing how in a auto slowdown, an erstwhile slow seller fiat is now improving its sales with limited portfolio selling 3-5 year older vehicles, i tend to agree on your assessment.
 
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TATA and its dealer are moving happily with the Indica sale.
TATA's potential customer are cabbies and Travel agent. So the dealer are focusing more on them.
Like you said, the SE were not good at basic English, do you think they really need that in terms of the customer they are handling.
In other blog I have read like, when a Safari/area owner goes for the servicing, they are being treated same as cabbies. Because the SA dose know whether you are the owner of the car or a cabbies driver or a chauffeur. So they treat every body equally.
See no gender bias,no rich poor funda,no racism nothing , all are equal. So they have taken the standard of cabbies for all customer.

So it's a no wonder,you are being treated like that.
 
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I think the topic of the thread is proper. No one cares for you in TATA Passenger Vehicle showrooms. It seems customers are favoring dealers by buying TATA cars from them.

Not only with TATA Motors showroom, it is a problem with all TATA organizations. The government like babu culture refuses to die.
 
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I think the topic of the thread is proper. No one cares for you in TATA Passenger Vehicle showrooms. It seems customers are favoring dealers by buying TATA cars from them.

Not only with TATA Motors showroom, it is a problem with all TATA organizations. The government like babu culture refuses to die.
You are rite.
I always have a question running on my mind. Y the tata guys don’t follow forums like this.
 
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AFA dealership experience is concerned it is the customer's duty to do research and purchase the car if he feels the car is MOST VFM for him. It is better to move on to other automaker if he finds a similar car in same budget.
@sbhokray,
Already similar thread is going on.
http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...-wrong-tata-motors-open-letter-karl-slym.html

If they haven't read that thread why would they read this thread.?
 
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I too had a very Bad experience with Tata Motors dealers.

I had booked my 1st car Indica Xeta from Wasan Motors. I had purchased Indica Xeta in December 2008. I was not aware of the checklist for the PDI and hence was fooled by them.

- I booked the car in December 1st week and got the delivery within 1 week. I was not aware that the car is March 2008 Manufactured [frustration] Niether i was told by the dealer. So Practically i had taken 9 months old car.

- During the delivery the car was dirty. I had to ask them to clean it from inside.

- During the disbursement of cheques i was asked to give one cheque for the Insurance for the amount of premium as mentioned in the Price list. Further I was asked not to mention the benificiary name on the cheque as they were not sure of the name whether it was "Reliance General Insurance" or "Reliance Insurance". I did the needful as per the advice of the Sales Executive Mr, Alok Pundir to only realise that this cheque was later deposited by Mr. Alok to his personal Account. This was a clear fraud !!! and further to this Wasan Motors are not taking any responsibility as Mr. Alok has immediately left Wasan Motors after this fraudulent act.

- How the sales person did this:-
The Discount offered by the Sales person to me was Rs.7000/-. However he got Rs. 20,000 discount passed in my name. He encashed the difference by depositing the insurance cheque in his name. I got the insurance from Wasan Motors from Rs.13000/- discount they offered me (which i was not aware of)

further I was annoyed by the Tata after sales service which prompted me to sell of my Indica after 4years / 30,000kms. I loved this car for its toughness and space in 2nd row.

A Lesson to learn for me from the above helped me to be more alert when dealing with Maruti dealer when i bought my Ertiga.

I personally Love Tata Cars but the dealership and aftersale service are letting Tata Cars down.
 
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I too had a very Bad experience with Tata Motors dealers.

- I booked the car in December 1st week and got the delivery within 1 week. I was not aware that the car is March 2008 Manufactured [frustration] Niether i was told by the dealer. So Practically i had taken 9 months old car.
It seems the problem is not TATA specific, here is link for other automaker The Kothari Wheels - Maruti dealer - Demo car has been sold

- During the disbursement of cheques i was asked to give one cheque for the Insurance for the amount of premium as mentioned in the Price list. Further I was asked not to mention the benificiary name on the cheque as they were not sure of the name whether it was "Reliance General Insurance" or "Reliance Insurance". I did the needful as per the advice of the Sales Executive Mr, Alok Pundir to only realise that this cheque was later deposited by Mr. Alok to his personal Account. This was a clear fraud !!! and further to this Wasan Motors are not taking any responsibility as Mr. Alok has immediately left Wasan Motors after this fraudulent act.
Do you still follow this practice of leaving beneficiary's name vacant in your day to day life,? If yes, then who takes responsibility of potential misuse?
- How the sales person did this:-
The Discount offered by the Sales person to me was Rs.7000/-. However he got Rs. 20,000 discount passed in my name. He encashed the difference by depositing the insurance cheque in his name. I got the insurance from Wasan Motors from Rs.13000/- discount they offered me (which i was not aware of)
Who helped you to identify this fraud and fraudulent man, Police or insurance Co? Because similar fraud was uncovered by a owner of a car with the help of insurance company man. Here is a link http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...insurance-scam-maruti-dealer-scam-beware.html
A Lesson to learn for me from the above helped me to be more alert when dealing with Maruti dealer when i bought my Ertiga.
.
Good to read that you exercised caution while purchasing the car from maruti too, as you see from above links that irrespective of the brand name it is the research and vigilance on the part of customer which matters more.
 
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@amit1km, You are absolutely correct, Tata Automobiles make profit out of the Indica & other taxi class vehicles and as I mentioned in the initial post the SAs & service people are trained to deal with them only.
My reasoning is that the Safari Dicor/ Storme customers go ahead with the decision majorly due to two reasons:-
1. Due to the immense love for the machine for a long time, which will force them to overlook the post service troubles
2. People who want an offroader 4X4 at sub 10L-12L price range - currently in market, the best & stylish options would be M&M Thar & Tata Safari

I do not think the govt office kind of attitude & approach will ever take them to success in future.
Am afraid the fate of Jaguar & LandRover is also going to be the same under the management of the Tatas.
GOD save their customers...
 
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Yes TrafficHacker, Most of the people go by the reputation of the Safari/Strome, not by the face value of TATA motors.
FIAT owner also faced such problem initially when TATA had a tie up with them. I am not sure whether the tie up is still continuing.

It is not about government attitude, they are already succeeded in capturing the taxi segment and they are doing well on that.Their job is done.
Like you said for the love of machine people are buying Safari/Strome, so who ever would like to own Jaguar or Land Rover they will definitely go ahead.
 
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It is not about government attitude, they are already succeeded in capturing the taxi segment and they are doing well on that.Their job is done.
Like you said for the love of machine people are buying Safari/Strome, so who ever would like to own Jaguar or Land Rover they will definitely go ahead.[/QUOTE]

Succeeded selling taxi?
No! I don’t think so.
They are not even good in selling taxis this days.
Nun of there employees are bothered about sales and services.
Then what is the management doing?
I think they are busy in focusing there oversees market.
 
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I agree with many members here along with the topic starter.
No matter how well or good tata built and get us their passenger vehicle in market, first and formost is their dealership department which needs to be scrutinised, which leaves and makes the whole tata branding devalued from a prospective buyers.
Tata motors are improving and so is their range of cars, no doubt in that but not their dealerships and empolyees trained for this.
Have seen the SE's giving looks of you sure want to buy a TATA car? i mean why the heck would i be into your showroom then.
This is when i was looking to buy new car last year.
 

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