[Resolved]  Hyundai Motor India — Non Reectification of COmplaint during Servicing and consequent heavy billing

I have a Hyundai Accent, a 2003 model, bearing registration number DL - 5CP - 0053, which developed a snag in the month of July 2007. The car was giving immense trouble while driving on Petrol and fortunately I was able to manage my drive on the CNG installation.

Before I start with the actual complaint I also would like to share a small background. I was also the owner of a Daewoo Cielo car make which developed myriad problems from time to time and I had trouble arranging for the genuine spare parts that were increasing hard to find because of the company’s shut down.

It was a most excellent car for it’s price and I was always sure that I would have maintained it if the company was operational. The constraint I felt in keeping that car was only that if the company was operating and all spares available, I would have been all willing to spend even upto a lac of rupees to make it good.

Hence the need generated for a car that I thought has sold numbers and is there to stay. A make backed by a car company that could be trusted with mechanical expertise, so that in the event of any technical nag, the company with it’s original equipment could easily be trusted to restore the car to it’s optimal performance.

Thus came the choice of the Accent make from the Hyundai stable and even the thought of looking at their company owned service outlet at the Mohan Co-operative Industrial Area at any sign of trouble.

I registered my car for fault finding on the 6th of July and was told that there is trouble with the Fuel Pump Assembly of the car. The only solution given was the replacement of the Fuel Pump Assembly for an approximate price of Rs.7,000/-.

A local mechanic that I visited, on the other hand was very sure that the problem was with the Oxygen Sensor within the Fuel Assembly. He was even sure to the extent that he had experienced a similar trouble with another Hyundai make.

He even went out to the extent of suggesting to speak to the official mechanics at the Hyundai Motors set-up and gave inputs upon saying that if the computerised settings were looked into the problem will be sorted.

Not withstanding the advice, the mechanics at Hyundai eventually changed the Fuel Pump Assembly and hence raised a bill amounting to about Rs.7,000/-. The interesting part is that the problem was temporarily resolved only while the car was being tested but otherwise still persistent.

Having a regular job in the corporate world and being unable to take too many leaves on account of a car trouble, I was groping for possible solutions and ways to save time to be able to get the car repaired without having to look out for another off from office.

Upon my phone call to the Hyundai personnel handling the case, the feedback upon the persistent problem did not evoke any responses other than having to say that I get the car back to them for another check-up. As such the senior mechanics at Hyundai’s very own service station at Mohan Co-operative were speechless about it.

The experience was frustrating and I wondered how a piece of machine built so finely from a scratch by the very hands of the people of a company, was now, so to say, irreparable in the hands of the people of the same company.

On a Sunday, at the car market at Kotla Mubarakpur, I found myself looking at having at least my CNG installation up to the mark since my mobility literally depended upon it. And to my utter surprise, while I related my experience to the mechanic there, he assured me look into helping to his utmost best.

I was expecting he would need time and hence drifted to a nearby market, only to receive a call from the same mechanic in about 15 minutes, informing that the car was done and there should not be any further trouble with it.

The car is functioning without any trouble since then and he gave me the solution that people at even Hyundai were unable to resolve.

I am unwilling to share that solution here in this mail and it is not that I am all bleeding with the incurrence of that unwanted billing of the Rs.7,000/- amount. But what the experience at Hyundai has done is to question my faith in the ability of the, so called, trained mechanics of this very BIG giant of an organization that call themselves HYNDAI.

It is now not surprising to see that their official website does not have any real time complaint box to cater to their clients. It speaks volumes for a car maker to becoming snobbish in their own way to deliver cars without promises. To nurture pride without acceding to pot holes where they can fail.

I had totally given up upon having anything to with the car company as such and planned to just depend on my local mechanics for running of my car. The thought however, still trouble me when I think of the pinch of my hard earned money having spent effortlessly. Lacking the effort of the company officials at Hyundai.

And what I look forward to with this mail is that if there are people at Hyndai, willing to LISTEN to their customers, then I shall very much be in want of a refund of the brunt of Rs.7,000/- that I have had to face on account of their negligence. And in return I can share that small solution which a local mechanic administers leasing life to the car that is otherwise HYUNDAI.