[Resolved]  Jalan Distributors, Kolkata Maruti Suzuki Wagon - R Car — Atrocious experience during car purchase

Hi All,

I would like to share with you the atrocious experience that I have gathered after purchasing a new Maruti Suzuki Wagon-R Vxi car from Jalan Distributors, Teghoria, Kolkata. I have purchased this car on 20th September 2009, but were not provided with the 3rd Year extended warranty documents along with the new car even when we have made payments for the same. We were also, not provided with money receipts for the entire money that we paid to the Jalan sales team during the purchase of our car. We were forcibly asked to drive home the car with a TC number in the no. plate when we actually asked them for a temporary registration for our car. We were ready to pay the temporary registration charges, but the Jalan sales team had provided us with false information and compelled us to go for Barasat registration. Car owners are not allowed to ply their vehicles with a TC number in the number plate. It is an offence as per the Indian Motor Vehicles Act. The TC number is strictly meant for use by motor dealers. The dealer can use it while transporting the vehicle from the manufacturing unit to the store or garage. At the most, it can also be used for test rides, according to the officials of the public vehicles department. I was later surprised to learn about all this information from News-Paper sources. It is clearly mentioned in The Telegraph, Kolkata edition dated 7th October’09 that “the police had launched a drive against vehicles using the TC number after sale, which can attract a fine o[censored]p to Rs 3,000 for the first time and Rs 6,000 on subsequent occasions for private cars”. The News-Paper also stated that “Such vehicles are a threat to law and order as the user can commit crime and escape as police cannot trace the owner in the absence of a registration number. Also, the owner of such a vehicle cannot claim insurance in case of an accident”. Even after being aware about all these facts, the Jalan sales team had made us drive the car from Kolkata to Durgapur (220 Kms, Crossing 3 District Toll gates) with a TC number in the number plate. I am really unable to understand whether Jalan Distributors/ Maruti Suzuki India Limited considers this deadly act as a part of their core Values (Customer obsession).

After a long telephonic and e-mail battle with the Jalan Sales team we were provided with the Vehicle Registration Smart Card on 05th October’09 and the 3rd Year Extended Warranty documents on 04th November’09. Along with the 3rd Year Extended Warranty documents, based on our previous several complaints, Jalan Distributors have finally sent us the Road Tax and Vehicle Registration Challan receipt of INR 22,220/-. During the time of purchase, they have charged us INR 31,750/- towards Vehicle Registration and Road tax charges. I am unable to understand the reason behind them charging us INR 9,530/- extra towards the same? Also, it is clearly mentioned in the Tax Challan document as a special note by the Government of West Bengal, that "the token must be exhibited in the vehicle and non-exhibition makes owner punishable". Still, the Jalan sales team members did not hand over the document to us earlier even when we have repeatedly asked them about the same. They kept providing us false information saying that the Token is not meant to be handed over to the vehicle owner.

I would also like to share with you about the poor standard of service that we received from Jalan Distributors, Kolkata on the day of purchase of our car. We are a permanent resident of Durgapur and had travelled all the way to Kolkata to take the delivery of the car, but to our surprise, we found that there was no representative from Jalan waiting in the show-room to greet us @ 10AM IST on 20th September’09. For a glass of water we had to go out of the show-room and manage from a nearby stall. I had purchased the car to gift it to my father and hence took my dad along with me to complete the paper-work formalities. In spite of me informing about this to the Jalan sales team in advance, there was no little arrangement made to make the day a little special for my father. There was no enthusiasm seen in the staff to make the delivery process enjoyable and memorable and even there was no little ceremony that took place during the delivery time. We had to wait for a long time for the delivery process to take place and at the end we only realized that we were not at all introduced to anybody from the service department. We were never contacted after delivery to ensure everything was satisfactory. To add more to the agony, the vehicle was not delivered with all the additional features promised at the time of sales.

I am currently working for an MNC in Bangalore, and have accompanied many of my friends in the past to take delivery of their new cars in the show-rooms. I was really delighted to see the way the cars were delivered to them by the dealers. I cannot anywhere compare Jalan Distributor’s service to the services rendered here in the Bangalore car show-rooms. I have written several e-mails to Jalan Distributors and to the Maruti Suzuki CRM team stating all the different issues that I have faced during the purchase of my car, but I did not find any of them doing enough to help me in resolving my issues!

Earlier, during August-September’09, Beekay Auto, Chanda More, Asansol Showroom had refunded us the advance booking amount after 1.5 Months of booking the Wagon-R Vxi car stating a silly reason - unavailability of stock. I am now tired of receiving poor standard of services from Maruti Suzuki India Limited. All these issues have together put my morals down! These burning issues have killed the great impression that I had about Maruti Suzuki India Limited!!


Regards,
Moloy Kumar Mukherjee