Apollo Tyres — Warranty claim

Address:

East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh

Hello there, Greetings,
I have purchased Hyundai I20 passenger car in November 2011 from Sri Jayalakshmi Hyundai, Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh showroom. This car came fitted with APOLLO 185/65 R14 86 II ACELERE TL-D TUBELESS RADIALS including the spare one.

One fine morning in August 2012, while I was visually checking the tyre pressures before I set onto the road for a long drive, I have noticed a small bubble of size 5 to 8 millimeters on the front RH tyre wall. At this time the car has just done less than 6000 KM. Immediately I went to a professional tyre shop in my area and swapped the defective tyre with the spare one and asked the same technician to examine and advise his opinion on the defective tyre.
After a close examination, he confirmed that it is a minor manufacturing defect, nevertheless, it is not safe to use as the defect could propagate and lead to tyre burst. He also advised me that it can be repaired with vulcanizing from inside to gain full strength and can be used as a spare type. As a second option, he suggested to install a tube in the tubeless tyre.

However, since the tyre is still under warranty, I have taken it to the nearest APOLLO tyre dealer in Rajahmundry for evaluation for warranty claim. The tyre was retained by them for examination. Since the car doesn’t have a spare tyre, I have purchased a new tyre from the dealer then and there.
After few days, I have received a call from the tyre dealer saying that the defect is not from manufacturing and cannot be replaced under warrantee and advised me to collect the tyre back. The following week I went to their shop to collect the tyre. After I was kept on waiting for nearly 45 minutes I was advised to come some other time as the tyre could not be located in their shop and the concerned person is on vacation. Again I went to them after another 2 weeks and the story is still the same this time also. At this point of time, the tyre dealer advised me that I will be informed over the phone as soon as the tyre is found with them.

To my surprise, 3 months passed until today and they have not contacted me and not responding to my calls. From the foregoing, what I presume is, since the tyre is pretty new and has only a minor defect which can be readily rectified and used, this might have been sold in the seconds market by one of the staff members. This kind of acts is not unusual with these people.

Now my concern is, I shall either get back my defective tyre or a replacement tyre from Apollo. I searched their website to take up this matter with their sales/customer support department and lodge a complaint. Astonishingly, no email address is given in the “contact us” section of their website. I think this is another dirty trick played by Apollo to keep discouraging their customers from making any online complaints.

Nowadays, while most of the companies in such business have a very good customer support base with email addresses and toll free numbers published on their websites, this particular Apollo Tyres is hiding themselves. This is not going to help their business in the long run.
Can anybody please help me in providing their email address or advise me how to contact Apollo to take up this case with them.

With warm regards

Gangadhara, “[protected]@yahoo.com”