Dear Sir,
I wish to bring to your notice my harrowing experience with Hyundai Cars Dealer Arsh Hyundai, which is located at Unit No.1, Ground Floor, A Wing Godrej Colesium, Near Somaiya Hospital, Off, Eastern Express Hwy, Everard Nagar, Sion, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400070.
I had Booked Hyundai Venue SX+ DCT (Petrol) model with Arsh Hyundai, Sion on September 19, 2021 and paid the booking amount of INR 21, 000. At the time of booking, the sale was facilitated by a Sales executive of Arsh Hyundai, Mr. Saurav. I had categorically told him that I will get the finance and insurance of the car myself, as I am working in a Bank and get car loans from my employer. Further, my brother is working in the insurance sector and my car Insurance is handled by him. The same was discussed with Mr. Saurav and the company offered me accessories of worth INR 13, 000 i.e. Door Visors, Floor Lamination and Teflon Coating. However, the order booking form which I was made to sign, nothing was mentioned about the free accessories as well as of the fact that I will be taking the insurance myself. The fact that I will get the insurance myself was again mentioned by me in Whatsapp group (created by Arsh Hyundai) on September 30, 2021 (Screenshot enclosed).
I got the email from Arch Hyundai on October 26, 2021 at 4:11 pm that the car Hyundai VENUE 1.0 Turbo GDI DCT SX+ PETROL IN DEEP FOREST with Chassis no: 268990 and Engine no .: 412661 has been allocated to me. However, with the allocation of the car, the executives of the dealership started forcing me to take the insurance from them, without giving any heed to the fact that I had at the time of booking categorically told to Mr. Saurav (their sales executive) that I will get the insurance and finance myself. It may please be noted that the insurance quote given by Arsh Hyundai had a premium of whopping INR 58, 819. However, I am getting the insurance at INR 30, 026 on my own. Thus, there was a difference of more than INR 28, 000 in the insurance being forced on me by the dealer and the insurance that I wanted to get on my own. I explained this fact to the executives but they still forced me to take the insurance from them. When I told them that at the time of booking, I had told Mr. Saurav that I will get the insurance myself, they conveyed that Mr. Saurav has left the company and they are not bothered what I conveyed to Mr. Saurav. They repeatedly showed me the booking form wherein nothing was mentioned about me tsking insurance myself. When I continues to resist, they started blackmailing me that if I don’t take the insurance from them, they will not give me the accessories which were promised at the time of booking.
As per the extant rules, a dealer cannot force a customer to take the insurance from the dealer, however, Arsh Hyundai has been doing that since the beginning. The executives of Arch Hyundai further conveyed to me that they get the margins from Insurance and therefore, were forcing me to take it from them. They further said that since there is a shortage of cars currently, the dealers have to recover margins from insurance. When I told them I will complaint about these malpractices to Consumer Forums and Hyundai India as well as Hyundai Korea, to which they replied that if I report this matter or complaint, they will have to see about what to do about the car allocation which was given to me, which means they were blackmailing me that if I complaint, they will give the allotted car to someone else. They are continuously forcing me to cancel the booking, as they are not getting margins from insurance.
Given the continuous harassment and blackmailing from the dealer, to break the deadlock I offered to the dealer that instead of 3 accessories, they can give me 2, to which they did not agree. I again told that I will complaint to the appropriate agencies but they did not paid any heed and said they will see what to do with my car allocation. When I told them that they cannot give my allotted car to someone else without my consent, they did not paid any heed. I decided to close the matter and told them that I don’t need any accessories but I will get the insurance myself. This discussion happened on October 30 (Saturday) when I was travelling to Nainital from Delhi and was not in Mumbai. The dealer told me that the car is currently in transit and shall reach Mumbai in 15 days i.e. approx.. November 10. However, after half an hour, they again called me and told that the car has arrived in their stockyard and forced me to make payment immediately, otherwise they will give the car to someone else.
This was astonishing. Half an hour ago, they told me the car is in transit and after 30 minutes, they told me the car has arrived in their stockyard ! I told them I will send someone to their stockyard to inspect the car, as I doubted their intention. However, they threatened me to make immediate payment otherwise they will allot my car to the next customer. They were well aware that I was not in Mumbai at that time and will not be able to make immediate payment, that’s why they used this tactics to threaten me. Still, I offered them to make payment of INR 250, 000 and balance after November 08, as I would have been back to Mumbai on November 07. I again cautioned them that if they give my allotted car to someone else, I will escalate the matter. However, they did not bother and sent an email to me saying that since I could not make immediate payment and it was a month end, they are de-allotting my car and giving to someone else. I did not get any reply on my last email to them.
I have faced this harrowing experience from Arsh Hyundai. All the necessary emails and screenshots are enclosed with this email. The dealer has been harassing me and has allotted my car to someone else, and the way their staff behaved, I am sure that I will not get the car from them. I am writing this email with copies to Hyundai India and Hyundai Korea executives, as well as sending a complaint to consumer forums, highlighting the malpractices being followed by the dealer.
