Renault India — Harassment by Manager and staff

Address:

Jalandhar, Punjab

Dear Sir/Madam:

I am an NRI, who recently visited the Renault showroom located at Guru Gobind Singh Avenue, Amritsar Bypass, Jalandhar, with my family and had booked the top model of DUSTER (WHITE color, RxZ 110) on 31st March 2015. The car they were offering me was having a reading of 185+ kms on the odometer since it was driven all the way from Ludhiana to Jalandhar, hence, i asked them if they have a car which has ZERO MILES on the odometer and is yet to undergo road testing. The Head of sales Mr Rakesh Kashyap stated that the company's main plant is in Chennai and one of their car trailers has already left for Punjab a day or two before, and that they have a brand new ZERO mile car that they can deliver to us within 10-15 days. He also stated that normally the trailer first goes to Bathinda and then to Ludhiana, but because of our need he will ensure the trailer reaches Jalandhar without stopping over at Ludhiana. I asked them if they can deliver the car on Thursday (16th April, 2015) and they assured me that the car will arrive before time and they will deliver it to us on 16th April. I gave them a booking amount of Rs.5000 in cash, which their sales girl Ankur said will be refunded (cash) in case we don't like the car or wish to drop the idea of purchasing it. I wanted to take a loan of 5Lacs from their own finance company Renault Finance, with the ROI of 6.63% for 3 years. They started working on the documentation and got a few papers signed from us.
9th April, 2015, i called the sales girl Ankur and asked her if the car had arrived. The response she gave was, "I am so sorry madam, I forgot to check. Kindly wait a moment." About 2 mins later she responded back that the trailer will be here by tomorrow morning or by evening and that i will give u call." (She NEVER reverted even after 5 days)

14th April, 2015, I received a call in the afternoon from the Renault showroom and was asked to come to the showroom to see the car that had arrived from Chennai. I went the next day (15th April) to the showroom and asked the sales staff to show the car. They made us wait for half hour before i again asked them to show the car. The reply the sales person gave was, "Sir, the car is getting washed. Kindly wait for half hour." I told the sales person why did you even call us over to check the car when u have not even cleaned it since yesterday.The sales persons reply was, "Sir, Please give us sometime. Will send you a cup of tea and by the time u finishit, the car will be outside the showroom all neat and clean."
After half hour, the sales person asked to see the car. I went outside and i must mention that I have NEVER seen such unprofessionalism in 68 years of my life. The car was only washed from the outside (not properly washed) and was still wet. I opened the doors to check the interiors and the carpets were also heavily soiled. The odometer read ZERO, the door panels inside had greased finger prints on them, which clearly shows that Renault servicemen DO NOT use gloves or take precautions NOT to grease the interiors of the car. The car DID NOT look NEW at all and looked more like a year old used car. It was so Dirty that i decided to drop the idea of buying it. I went and spoke to the head of sales Mr Kashyap, regarding the drama that unveiled. He only went on to say that car had come like this from the Chennai Plant and had to undergo massive cleaning and that he will get it washed and keep it ready for delivery tomorrow (16th April). When i refused to buy it stating it is not clean and doesnt look like a new car, Mr Kashyap said, "I will get another car of the same model from Ludhiana here tomorrow morning for you, so you can compare the two and choose either one of them.”
I got a call from the finance department the next morning (16th April, 2015) at around 10:30AM saying that they need more proofs of residence and bank details even when I had provided them with my wife’s bank account details (passbook photocopy), PAN card copy, Passport copy and a copy of the gas agency booklet. I told them that I have already given enough proofs of residence and will not given any further documents on which the finance guy said he will manage everything and try to get the finance done as soon as possible. I also asked them if the other car had arrived from Ludhiana, and they told me it is about to arrive and that I should visit their showroom soon. I, along with my wife and daughter went to the Renault showroom at around 1PM on 16th April, 2015, and asked them if the other car had arrived and was ready to be seen. Mr. Kashyap asked us to wait for 10 minutes, and after 10 minutes he took us to the service area and showed us the car. Again, the car had underwent a wash a few minutes before we saw it and was still being cleaned the service staff. The interiors were somewhat clean, rather way better cleaner than the other car I had seen a day before. My daughter saw that the odometer read ZERO miles and instantly asked Mr. Kashyap if the car was driven from Ludhiana or came in the car trailer. The reply Mr. Kashyap gave was that, “Madam, the car was driven from Ludhiana and is yet to go for Road testing.” My daughter further said if the car was driven why is the odometer showing ZERO miles? Upon which Mr. Kashyap said that the odometer wires are unplugged, and that ALL Renault cars odometer wires are unplugged when they reach the showrooms. That came as another shock, since the car that came in the trailer was also ZERO miles. On that, Mr. Kashyap said that the car infact was ZERO miles and was yet to undergo the road test . Now that’s giving two theories to the customers. Our trust factor was killed that very moment. Why lie to the customer when you know the reality? Why give two theories just to sell a car???
I further inspected the car and told him I would buy the car that had arrived from Chennai. I was asked to wait till the Loan is approved. We were kept waiting for 3 hours, and all of a sudden the finance manager Sachin came and told us that the approval needs 1 day and that the car will be delivered the next day. He also stated that he wasn’t sure if the finance company will approve of giving 5 lacs loan. Even after I had provided all the necessary documents and even after telling them that I need the delivery on that particular day, they said our finance company is still looking at your documents and confirming the same, and that they are unsure of the approval. At once, we decided to cancel the booking and asked them to refund our booking amount. About after 15 minutes of our conversation Mr. Kashyap asked us to get the 12lacs+ amount transferred into their bank account (RTGS), and once that is done he will deliver the car then and there itself. I asked them who takes the gurantee of the loan, whether it gets passed or not. Upon which the finance manager Sachin stated that, you have a solid base as per your bank passbook and all finance companies will approve your loan, but we are NOT sure if they approve of 5lacs amount or not. If they don’t then we have to go through another finance company and approve it with a different rate of interest. I declined the offer. If your company cannot take the responsibility of approving the loan why use cheap tactics to do the trading???
Mr Kashyap asked us to wait for another hour or so for the finance to be approved. We waited for more than an hour before Mr Sachin walked back again around 5PM and talked the same crap he did before that we are still not getting the approval and they are still checking the originality of the provided documents, and asked us if we can take the car delivery tomorrow. I replied back that I wanted the car on Thursday and if you and your company could not provide me with the finance on time why did they make a fool out o[censored]s and made us wait for so many hours? Mr Sachin again responded back stating that he will call the finance company again and ask if the approval had come or not. I asked him to call in front o[censored]s. He called them and we heard the other person say on the call that they needed more documentation for the loan. But Mr. Sachin without saying a word just walked away, knowing that he will have to face the harsh words of the customer. Such unprofessional people in your company! With such manners your company will only lose customers.
After a lot of harassment at the hands of the staff member and after being kept waiting for so long, my daughter went to meet Mr. Kashyap in the office and asked him to return the booking amount as we are no more interested in buying the car from a company where there is no respect for the customer. Mr. Kashyap said please give me a minute madam I will do something about it. A few minutes later, Mr.Kashyap walked out of the showroom without saying a word. We waited for him to come back. Not a single staff member told us where he went, as all the staff member went into hiding. After waiting for 20 minutes and with no signs of Mr kashyap we decided to go back home. How can a company like Renault hire such staff members who DON’T even have the courtesy to say SORRY to their customers whom they have troubled the entire day just to deliver a car? Absolutely disgusting!!!
I called them the next day to have the booking amount refunded and was told that the finance has been approved so please buy the car. Which I refused without giving it a thought! Further they told me that booking amount will come through a cheque and that there is no rule in the company by which we can return in cash. My question to them and to Renault is, if your company does not have such rules then WHY does your staff say otherwise? Is it another sale tactic?? When I paid the amount I did not pay by cheque, I paid by cash. Then why can’t the company make cash returns? They made a huge issue out of it and insisted I write a letter stating that we have dropped the idea of buying the car, sign it and hand it over to the sales head Mr. Kashyap to get the refund. I told them WHY would I write that I dropped the idea of buying the car? Why should I not write that your finance company people and the Renault staff is too dumb and couldn’t provide me with the loan and that it is their fault that I could not purchase my car on the given day and time!? They did not have a reply for this.
I did not hear from them for the next few days, so I decided to go directly to their office to meet the so great head sales Mr. Kashyap. As I asked him for the refund he again asked us to sign a letter stating that we dropped the idea of buying the car and that the company refund the money. And he insisted that the company wil pay via Cheque or transferred into my bank account and not by cash. We refused to write a letter with a lie on it, and told him that he and their staff members are so unprofessional who fail to accept their mistake. On which he started arguing with my daughter about how good his staff and company is and we responded back telling him how negligent, ignorant, inexperienced and unorganized they all were from the day we visited the showroom. After arguing for 15 minutes, Mr. Kashyap wrote a letter in which he stated that due to their negligence and non approval of loan from their company we did not purchase the car. And he asked me to sign it. When I read the paper I realized he had written the letter in broken English. How does a company like Renault hire a HEAD OF SALES as someone who doesn’t even know proper English? Sounds pretty much bizarre! I signed the paper and asked him when he will send the cheque/transfer the amount? Mr Kashyap said I will get the transfer done by tomorrow itself. For the next few days neither did I hear from Mr.Kashyap, nor did they transfer the amount. I called them again on 24th April and asked them why the amount hasn’t been transferred, on which they said, we will call you back. And they NEVER reverted again. I called them again 4 hours later and was told that the finance department is still looking at your case and will transfer the funds shortly. I called my bank the very next day to check if the amount had been transferred or not, only to be told that there has been no transfer since past 1 week. I have purchased so many cars, but NEVER ever did I face such harassment like the one we got from Padam Renault, Jalandhar. Our level of frustration can only be felt if one of them or the owner of the dumb company faces what we were made to face. Time and again, only lies, is all the foolish Head sales and finance people gave us at Padma Renault.
My wife called the Finance in-charge Sachin on the morning of 29th April 2015, and asked them again about the transfer. The reply was still the same. On which my wife responded back in fury stating that, “i[censored] cannot transfer or give cheque, give us the refund in Cash.” Again Mr Sachin said its against the company policy. My wife reverted saying, “There are already enough complaints against Renault, one such where the guy made their renowned car DUSTER the official DUSTBIN, and that we will further add and give more reasons through OUR message on social media on WHY ONE SHOULD NOT STRIKE A DEAL WITH RENAULT, and how INEXPERIENCED, UNPROFESSIONAL and DUMB staff members are hired by RENAULT, INDIA to waste peoples time and harass them to a dirty extent. And whatever you have done with us will go on social media without a second thought.” On hearing this Mr Sachin said I will call you back madam and kept the phone. 3 hours later he called back stating that the company is willing to refund back in CASH, and that we should come and collect it. We refused to go to the showroom again in order to avoid further harassment and asked them to send a sales staff to deliver it to our home. An hour later the Sales man came with a voucher and Email copy (both attached herewith) and got it signed from my wife before handing the refund amount of 5000Rs.
The email (attached) copy reads an email sent to the Cluster head Mr Ravi Verma on 22nd April 2105, by Mr.Kashyap asking for approval for booking cancelation in the name of my wife Sukhwinder kaur. And on 24th April 2015, the approval was granted to Mr. Kashyap. Even after knowing that we will not be buying the car anymore why did Mr Kashyap not get the booking cancelled the very next day of our cancellation? Why did he mail on 22nd April? Why did he harass us by NOT giving us the exact details as to why the delay was happening? Why did they not Refund the amount even after having the letter signed from us and also getting the cancellation for approval through email? It was on my wife’s instigation that they instantly sent the refund to my home.
My question is why does an international brand like Renault hire staff that is highly unprofessional, uneducated with poor marketing skills? They are so busy running behind the sales target that they forget to they need to attend he customers too. I wonder if there is something called courtesy in the dictionary of Renault!!! The harassment a customer faces at the hands of Renault staff is something I cannot put in words. Why doesn’t a company like Renault teach their staff to present a car all neat and clean to the customer, the cars they showed me were all greased up in and out, be it the one got from Chennai or the one I test drove. They were literally in a horrible condition. I wonder how they sold the previous units, or is it that it’s so easy for the staff to make a fool of the customer just to sell their product. Lies are all Renault staff will throw at you. Why did your staff lie to us stating the car is at ZERO miles when it was actually test driven? Which company sends a car with the odometer wires unplugged?? Because when a car is sent into a trailer is suppose it is driven right into the trailer or do the factory people at Renault use a crane to move the car into the trailer?
Such dumb staff at Renault!!! Keep hiring them and see how the company reputation goes from “ONLY OK” to “WORSE”…especially in India..!!! My final words to the people willing to purchase a DUSTER or ANY RENAULT PRODUCT…... PLEASE DON’T BUY ANY. All you will get is harassed at any given time at the hands of the Renault staff, be it at the time of purchasing or at the time of the after sales-service. Make sure you research enough before laying your hand on Renault!