Honda — Charged for no repairs, just for damage estimation

Address:

E-212, Kitchlu Nagar

Dear Honda Team,

I have been a loyal Honda advocate for a very long time, but my recent experience with a particular Honda service center was very disappointing, to say the least. I met with an accident while driving my Honda City ZX, yesterday morning at 9 AM. There was considerable damage on the front body, but no mechanical parts were affected so I drove to the nearest Honda Service center - Vidhata Honda, Gahaur, Ludhiana. (GM – Abhay Sharma)

I asked the service advisor to tell me an estimate of the damage. The advisor gave me an estimate of Rs 1, 10, 000 and told me about the 5% charges that would be levied if I sign the claim intimation form. Thereafter, I decided to not sign the claim form and approach an alternative workshop to decide where I wanted my car to be repaired. However, when I was leaving the dealership the below incidents happened:

• I was told to pay an estimation charges of Rs 5000, later negotiated to Rs 2000 (for no repair, no labor cost, just to make an estimate)
• The Service Advisor accepted his mistake of not informing me about estimation charges beforehand. Still I had to pay, despite being not intimated of the charges involved. (I had not asked anyone to open a Job Card)
• I was forcefully detained in the dealership and not allowed to take away my vehicle (citing no gate pass would be given until I paid)
• My repeated requests to talk to Honda ASM were vehemently denied. Despite there being a dispute between the dealership and myself.
• To hide their folly, they have mentioned in the invoice

Highly disappointing experience, such dealerships are bringing down the reputation of Honda OEM. It seems Honda dealerships are finding creative ways of exploiting Honda customers in a bid to extract money for no reason (no repair, no labor). I think these are the reasons why Honda has not been able to grow in recent years. I’ll ensure that none of my friends or family go for a Honda car ever again.