May 09, 2011 01:06 PM
7451 Views
I bought a new Ford Figo just 3 months ago and I never thought that I'll have to write this review for Ford regarding their customer service. As great is the car at its performance, the post sales customer service is as disappointing and pathetic. I bought a Ford expecting excellent levels of customer service but the experience that I've had makes me feel that I've made a huge mistake. The dealer took away my car's foot-mats during servicing and on my complaining about it, called me a liar.
I am dealing with the Delhi Ford, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, INDIA dealer. I had my car serviced for the first time last week at Delhi Ford's workshop. The car was picked up from my home and was dropped back by their driver "Manoj". Violating the rules here itself, the driver didn't prepare any handover document while picking up the car listing the details of my car (i.e. fuel in the car, any scratches/damage to the car, list of items in the car, etc.). Neither did the driver get any signature from me after dropping the car off.
I trusted the name "FORD" and let the driver go and I guess that was a big mistake from my end. When I checked my car, I found the foot-mats (5 in number) missing in the car. Being under the impression that the service engineer at Delhi Ford might have forgotten to put them back in the car after cleaning, I gave the service center a call and told them about the missing foot-mats. The lady responded that she'd look into the matter and let me know her findings. Let's call this 'Day 1'. No one responded the whole day.
I called them up again on Day 2 morning. I think some other representative (again a lady) picked up and she had no idea about my problem. I had to explain the matter to her again and I got the same reply "Let me check and we'll get back to you in 10 mins". I waited for 4 hours before I called up again to check the status. This time, I was diverted to a third guy "Manish" by one of these ladies and once again, I had to explain the issue to him only to hear back the same response again "I'll check and get back to you". No communication from Ford was received after this on that day.
Still under the goodwill of "FORD", I called up again on Day 3 afternoon. It was Saturday. This time I was diverted to Ms. Shobha Joshi. Once again, the lady was totally unaware of my problem so I patiently had to explain the issue again. The response I got was "Sir, we have a camp going on at our workshop right now so everyone is extremely busy with that. I won't be able to look into this matter before Monday. I'll call you on Monday and give you the status". I have no idea why, but I yet again agreed.
And once again being at par with the set expectations so far, no communication was made to me on monday. So I call up again on Tuesday only to hear from Ms. Joshi, "The foot mats are not with us. It is not possible that all your foot mats are missing from the car. It is quite possible that you are lying."
Why in the world would I lie about 1000 bucks foot-mats when I can buy a Rs.450, 000 car from you? I mean how stupid can you be to be blaming me like that?
This was the moment when I got really pissed off at that lady and demanded to speak to the Shop Manager. And there it was again, "The manager is not here at the moment. You can't speak to him right now." I said fine, let the manager come back and have him call me. Ms. Joshi agreed to this. Needless to say....MY PHONE NEVER RANG :(
Wednesday afternoon....I call up again to speak to the manager only to be told that he has left for the day. On my insisting this time, I was finally given his cellphone number. So I finally called the manager, Mr. Satyendra Kapoor. And while speaking to him, I get to know that this matter hasn't even brushed past his ears during the last whole week. The description of the matter had to be made once again to Mr. Kapoor. Mr. Kapoor makes a promise to call me back the next morning after looking into the matter.
The sun rose from the west the next day. The only good thing that had happened during this whole episode, Mr. Kapoor calls me back the next day. I was so excited that for the first time, somebody cared to call back. But my excitement was momentary. Mr. Kapoor repeated his staff's tone, "It is not possible that your foot mats are missing." I had lost it by then and the only question I had for Mr. Kapoor was " Do you have a solution for me?" The answer was a straight forward big "NO". I disconnected the call.
Now I do understand that I've written an extremely long review here and I doubt if anyone would read it. But it was important for me to at least let the Ford prospect buyers know how Ford's customers are being treated in this part of the world.I can't say about other Ford dealers but this is the worst customer service experience I've ever had in my life.
To summarize, Ford's service is far below my expectations and they have ridiculously trained staff. I'm never going to recommend anyone to buy a Ford.
