[Resolved]  Fiat - Wasan Motors Service — Incorrect charges for repair under warranty

Address:

Mumbai Suburban, Maharashtra

I would like to file an official complaint against the shoddy service provided to me by Wasan Motors- Kandivali/Malad Service Centre (Sai Nagar). The service centre is attempting to cheat me in terms of repairs for my car.

Car: Fiat Punto
Reg: MH 03 AR 5240
Reg Dt: 16/07/2009
Secound Service issue.

Sequence of events:
In the first week of July I called Wasan Motors for a service appointment and was being offered a date of 22nd/23/rd July. However, I had to travel to Delhi around that time and hence asked for an earlier date ..however I was informed that I could call back once I returned from Delhi and then take a fresh appointment.
On returning I called Wasan Motors again in the first week of August and this time I got an appointment date of 19th August.
I gave my car for servicing on the 19th of August stating only 1 major issue as being some cracking/squeaking noise from the front side of my car.
Deval the service advisor checked the car and told that that he would need to replace a part which would cost around Rs 3000/- but I would need to pay for it as the car was outside the 2 yr warranty period.
I explained to him how it was Wasan which delayed my service and in any case was giving me an appointment originally after my 2 yr warranty period..he did some research on his part and then conceded to getting the job done without cost for that part due to the circumstances.
I collected the car on the 23rd of August after waiting for an hour at the service centre as first Deval had gone for lunch and later he was busy and hence could not attend to me. I asked him if he had tested the vehicle and he confirmed he did.
As soon as I drove a couple of kilometers on my way to office after picking up the car from the service center , I noticed that the problem was not resolved and the noise was still there. I immediately called Deval and informed him abt the same to which he asked me to get the car back to the service center.
The next day I got a call from Fiat for feedback to which I rated the problem as not solved.
Deval calls me the next day tells me that I should not have given that feedback to Fiat as it would affect his incentive and salary..he also passed a veiled threat by saying" aap aisa karoge toh relationship mein problem aayega"(If you do this (ie:give bad feedback), it will affect my relationship with the service center)...indicating that I will have trouble the next time I get my car for servicing.
I returned the car for servicing on the 27th of August to get the fault corrected...this time Deval gave me a manual job-card.
When I collected the car on the 30th Deval told me that he had this time replaced a belt and the problem was solved..i did a test ride of around 100 meters and it seemed that the issue was resolved.
However after a week, the same noise re-surfaced all over again. However due to my busy schedule I could not immediately come back.
I returned to the service center on the 21st of September to Wasan Motors (This time I took a friend along with me to be my witness as I realised there was something fishy going on.
Deval now makes a system job card and marks Re-visit as NO and repeat issue as NO.....he claims that sine my revisit on the 27th was a manual job card, the system only acknowledges my 19th Aug visit and issue resolution and hence it will be treated as a fresh visit for a new problem....on the job card he even tries to twist this by marking the issue resolution as something related to the rear of the car.
By this time, I was totally frustrated and Deval's attitude towards me was rather insulting.
So, I escalated the issue to the Service Manager MR. Anand Tripathi who was kind enough to patiently listen through the story of my ordeal dealing with the issue and dealing with Deval.
At this time I realise that Deval has conveniently not entered my revisit on the 27th in my history which is being reviewed by Anand..he also tells Anand that all he did on the 27th was greasing and hence no entries reuqired (you will notice here that I was told by Deval on the 30th that he changed a belt the second time- a blatant lie with an intention to cheat)
Mr. Anand assures me that he will personally look into the issue and have a different engineer look into this matter.
Today I got a call stating that the resolution of the issue is changing a part which will cost me Rs. 20000/- and since the warranty officially expired in July , I will have to pay for this.
I again called Mr. Anand to understand this because this is an issue which should have been resolved in the servicing itself which in itself was a delay from Wasan Motors due to appointment date availability which happened post the expiry of the warranty..though I had called 2 weeks before the warranty for a service appointment.
Mr. Anand has informed me that he has escalated the issue to Fiat Motors who will need to pass the approval for the cost..since this approval process may take more than a week, I was advised to get the repairs done, make the payment and eventually once the matter is resolved with Fiat, I could get my refund.
Under this agreement, I have agreed for the part to be resolved and I will make the initial payment.

I have also sent a mail to Tatamotors but my I should not have to pay 20,000 in the first place for a problem which should have been rectified within the warranty period.