[Resolved]  Skoda — Customer Service

Address:

Gujarat

I bought a Skoda Laura from Torque Automotive, Ahmedabad on the last day of March 2011. This is the fourth car I've bought and am utterly dismayed by the state of affairs at Skoda. It seems they are in their own monopolistic world. All those stories of how a customer was at the mercy of Premier or HM during pre-liberalisation days have just come alive. At first, they refused to offer breakup quote for the car price, mentioning ex-showroom to on-road items. Then, when they mentioned about insurance and extended warranty prices, I decided to have insurance done separately. They declined outright to sell the car if we don't buy insurance from them. I complained on Skoda customer care number to which they replied that the dealer has the right to choose how to sell. Since I was forced to buy insurance from them at 2.63 times the price that it was available in open market, I'd asked for Nil depreciation policy in the same premium amount to which they agreed. At the time of delivery of the car, they showed me insurance cover note that was without Nil Dep clause. They charged me additional 19k for adding Nil Dep. I'd got my car financed by SBI who kept asking for original insurance and invoice documents which they submitted to me after 9 phone calls and 6 days. I missed my chosen number from RTO because they forgot to apply at the right time despite my incessant phone calls to them after reading in the newspaper about new series opening. Unfortunately, my office or I have to call them all the time. Not once in last 3 months have they called me to update the status of any activity. Not only that, I tried complaining to Skoda when I was blackmailed for additional 19k (total 92k for an insurance which is available in the market for about 35k), but they just heard the story on the phone without taking any action on it. It's an amazing car and I love every time I use the kickdown mode on the gas pedal. But I wish they had hired humans to be dealers. Not one person at Torque Automotive is concerned about service. If you are driving Japanese vehicles all the time, changing to German technology and Czech lineage is indeed a cultural shift.