Why you should not get your car serviced at Maruti?

Today I will tell you my ordeal as to why you should not visit any authorised Maruti service centre to get your car fixed in servicing. This happened 3 weeks back when I decided to give my Maruti 800 at Anand Motors, Aliganj, Lucknow. Nothing substantial had to be done, there was no wheel alignment, wheel balancing, it was just a simple service with a few things like this sensor setting on the wiper was not working, the gear stick had become very loose, the backside bulb on the number plate was not lighting properly. We gave the car at around 9 AM in the morning in the hope that we’ll get it back by 12 pm - 1 pm at the very most. The trouble started after that. 

During the test run, the engineer took around in the car without me or my father in the passenger side to know what was the issue with the car. At around 12 pm we got an SMS from the Service Associate Mr Shakti that car was almost ready. Then we called up, he said that it would take another 45 minutes to do the job. We reached the service centre after 3 pm to pick up the car thinking that it was all done. We reached there to find that the work was still going on, some part of the gear was not available with the service centre so they had spent a man to procure the same from Chinhat (a place quite far away). We were told that we would receive a call when it would be all done. We finally received a call at around 6:45 pm and when we reached the service centre around 7, we saw that our car was still in the washing bay area. Nevertheless we went to the reception and enquired about the car. We were told that the work was still going on. We checked the washing area where a few mechanics were wiping the car. My father tried the car for possible rectifications that needed to be done and found out that the wiper issue hadn’t been touched and neither was the backlight working properly. I confronted the SA as to why a simple servicing had taken 10 – 11 hours and was still continuing? He was dumbfounded and started making excuses that due to the fact that it was Sunday it was a very heavy rush and they couldn’t deliver the cars on time, I was like, “You are the centre, you should know the capacity of servicing and hand over the cars accordingly”. Why waste the time of the customers and even then the car hadn’t been done .

Angry at such pathetic, 3rd class service my father told Mr. Shakti to leave the problem as it was and just hand over the car to us. To hell with such a servicing. The guys made a bill of Rs. 3800 and the payment was hard cash as their so called card machine was not working. SA keept saying that he’ll get somebody to work on the issues but we were in no mood to listen after having wasted so much time in the day . I had warned the people that I’ll complain about the servicing to the higher authorities and he didn’t take that seriously. Back, I wrote a mail to head office, regional office about the experience. Just to save the job a customer care executive from the same service centre, Ms Komal and an engineer Mr Govind reached my home enquiring about the issue the next day and this visit was purely to save their asses from being fired. Visibility pissed off, my father heard them for two hours and then gave an undertaking that he was satisfied with a home visit (not the service by any means). Two days later I got a reply from that TSM saying that a thorough investigation had been done and it was all a negligence on the part of the service centre and Mr. Shakti had been fired from the job. I had told him that I don’t want any further calls or home visit from the service centre executives in the future  otherwise they’ll have it in a very good way. Two days later, an issue started developing when we took the car for a long drive . The car started jerking in the second gear itself, I immediately called up the TSM but as his phone went unanswered I called up the RSM and told him the whole matter from start to end and the issue we were facing then. He had assured us that it would be taken care of.

The next day there was a call from Mr Govind again which we missed. I had complained to Maruti on Twitter about the issue and they had called me up, noted down the complaint and I got a call from the TSM again in this regard. My father was not ready to talk to anybody from Maruti after such a horrific experience. The TSM was giving me an option that he would attach Mr Govind with us and we could get the car checked again at any other service centre of our choice in Lucknow. Spare me, we don’t have such time that we would roam around with our car leaving all the necessary household work behind. When I told him that after such a third-grade experience we are not in the mood for any Maruti service and the newfound issue is serious. He said that he had checked the job sheet of the car and he had found that there was a remark in regards to the carburettor. That got me thinking that inspite it of being in remarks in the servicing, why weren’t they checked at the service centre itself. Its simply a case of negligence, shirking of duty, wasting the time and money of the customer, giving a pathetic service and after service, wasting more time again and then thinking of getting away by either saying sorry for doing this and about attaching  service engineers from the service centre and making around of the city for a second opinion.

The car is still giving me trouble but this time I would rather get it checked at any other locality mechanic rather than at any authorised service centre Maruti. We might be incurring a few expenses again but at least that would make sure that no issues with the cars remain.

My advice to all car owners is to be beware when you give your car at any authorised Maruti Centre for servicing, chances are that you would be left of your hard earned money, time but the issues with either remain or the car would be handed over to you in a worst state than before.