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July 2009 Issue |
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Post Blog
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Car Woes
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Posted On:
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Friday, July 16, 2010
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Volkswagen is a respected German car brand. It is known in Europe for its extraordinary services and high customer satisfaction. So when, Volkswagen (people’s car) entered the Indian market in 2007, despite its high price and limited services centres, its reputation carried the day. It was expected that Volkswagen European model would get replicated in the Indian market. More than a good car, people desired a high standard of customer satisfaction, something that is lacking in India. I for one, who bought a Volkswagen Jetta in January 2009, lulled myself into believing that Volkswagen would care about its global reputation as much as it would for its expanding footprints in the Indian market. That there will be people who would listen to your car problems and do the best they can to connect customers with the brand for life. In all this excitement I forgot, that people manning Volkswagen India will be no different from the rest; they will not bother about a customer’s concerns. The reason why I decided to write my experience in FORCE is because the defence services are an attractive market, and it is only to be expected that Volkswagen would want to enter it. My narration may provide food for thought to the armed forces as well as senior Volkswagen management who may still care for brand value. The evening of July 12 was unusual in Delhi. There was a massive thunderstorm and lightning accompanied by a downpour in which 12 people died in the capital city. I was driving back home in my Jetta. When I was on the middle of Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) expressway, suddenly there was a blast and a flash on my side rear-view mirror. Within seconds it perished. I pulled the car to one side and on examination found charred remains of the mirror clearly indicating a case of short circuiting (the rear-view mirrors have electric cables that extend from inside to provide powerful indicator lights). I thanked god as the worse did not happen, the rear-view short-circuit could have engulfed the car’s entire electric system. Next morning, I sent Jetta to the authorised service station, DD Auto World in Okhla. To my astonishment, I was informed by them that I had met with an accident. The service manager, Sanjay Grover, gave me the accident form to fill and advised me that I get tough with the car insurance company for the claim. He and his staff refused point blank to believe me. The reason for this was clear. Since Jetta is still in the warranty period, the service centre/company would have to bear the cost of replacing the side-view mirror if indeed there was an electric fire; but if they prove accident than the cost has to be borne either by the customer or the insurance company. Mr Grover, being helpful, wrote on the form that an accident seems to have happened. However, filling the insurance claim meant that I admitted to the accident version. Clearly, I must have been comatose while driving to not realise that I have hit something or the vice versa, especially when the DND has one-way traffic and because of the pouring rain I was driving extremely slowly! What I fail to understand why a company offers warranty and extended warranty (upon payment) to customers when it has no desire of honouring the agreement. I have had a brush with Volkswagen’s reluctance to honour warranty commitments in the past also. Almost a year ago, I had sent my car to the service station (then it was Kashyap Motors, from where I had bought the car) because I felt that one of the shockers was making an unusual noise. The service station repeatedly sent my driver back saying there was no noise. Finally, when I took my complaint to the senior management at Kashyap they agreed that indeed there was some noise in the shockers and offered to replace it. But the entire exercise took nearly four months. Wisened by that experience, this time I instantly knew what Mr Grover was getting at. Hence, refusing to seek insurance compensation, I decided to call Volkswagen India customer care services. A lady, Bertha, replied to the customer care number (18001020909) and after listening to my story told me that my complaint would be passed on to the concerned department. This hardly being the response that I was expecting, I asked to talk to her superior. She asked me to call the next afternoon and hung up. Next day, her superior Altaf Sheikh repeated Bertha’s line after listening to me adding that someone will get in touch with me. He told me that he was head of the call centre with the job of passing on the complaints. Finally, I googled Volkswagen India and from its website got the number of the head office in Mumbai with names of various senior people in ‘quality management system.’ To my horror, the operator in the head office refused to pass my call to anyone and told me to leave my complaint with customer care. Needless to add, no one has called me so far from Volkswagen India.
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