Sep 24, 2010 02:46 PM
11977 Views
3 months back I started planning to buy a car. My budget was max upto 450000. I took test drives for Alto, Santro, I10 - 1.1, Zen Estilo, Astar.
As I m tall person, Alto didn't suit me. I felt A start too cramped. I liked Santro , but people told it will be soon discontinued.A Star - interior space too less (especially back seats). I didn't like I10 1.1 but 1.2 was good but expensive. I also considered Ford Figo but heard that Petrol version doesn't give good mileage. My primary importance were to mileage and low maintenance Then I decided to go for Zen Estillo. There was a consumer dicounnt of 25000 and corporate discount of 2500.
I had taken test drives in pratham Motors, Trident Hyundai, Sagar Automobiles and kalyani Motors.
I decided to go with Kalyani motors as it was very near to my house. I booked my vehicle on 29th Aug 2010. I opted to to pay full cash but had strictly informed sales person that I need delivery on 19th Sep and color being Dusky Brown Vxi for which the sales person (Nagesh) agreed. While booking he asked to me to pay 50% of the total amount (almost more than 2 Lakhs) but I didn't agree and paid him 20000.
He happily took the booking amount and told that he will call me around 13th Sep to make final payments.
On Sep13th, I waited for his call, but sadly , I didn't get the call :(. The next day (Sep14th) I only called him. At that time he told "Don't worry sir - When I m committed to make the delivery 0n 19th , I will do that" and told that he will give me a call in the evening with the payment details. I waited for his call but again sadly no call :(.
By this time I was frustrated and the next day morning (Sep14th), I called him again. Then the answer was - " Sir there is delay in transit , but don't worry we have our franchises in Ramngar and Mysore road, I will arrnage the vehicle and will give you a call by afternoon". I said fine and waited till afternoon.
Once again No call...!!!. I called him up in the evening. Then the answer was - " Sir I will not be able to deliver the vehicle on 19th, But I m trying for 23rd. Please adjust". Now I got very angry and told him that I will be cancelling the booking will buy the vehicle from some other dealer during Navratri or will check with other delaer if they can deliver by Sep19th and kept the phone.
Then I called Pratham Motors. They didn't have the vehicle in stock and told will take at least 10-15 days as the vehicle is in transit.
Then I called Sagar Automobile. Luckily for me, there was one vehicle with my specification in stock. The sales person (Shaan) agreed to come to my place and take cheque and also offered more Accessories than Kalyani without much negotiation and I paid him 10000 as booking amount.
The next day, Sep14th morning I got a call from Kalyni saying they have made arrangments for the vehicle and can deliver the vehicle on 19th.!!!!!! I was already frustrated and told them that I will be cancellign the booking as I m taking the car from Sagar automobiles.
I gave them the Cancellation Reuqest to kalyani on Sep14th evening. The staff told that I will get the cheque by Monday (Sep 20th). In between on 19th I got my car delivered from Sagar. :) :).
On 20th I called Kalyani to get the cheque.Now the answer - "It will take another 10-15 days to process the cheque as it has to pass through Account Dept, GM, MD etc etc". My wife perosonally went to showroom on the same day and had to literally fight with them to get the cheque at the earliest. Now they promised to give the cheque by Sep25th (Friday)
Fianlly I got a call from Kalyani on Thursday (Sep24th) saying the cheque is ready :). I went in the evening to collect the cheque. One more surprise. they had deducted 250. When asked they told its the normal procedure to deduct 250. Again I had to argue with them. Actually in the booking form it was mentioned that if I cancel the booking I will be getting the full booking amount + the interest till cancellation date. I was not demanding interest but had to argue to get the at least the amount which I paid. After running here n there finally he agreed to pay me 250 in cash.
Overall I had a very bad experience with Kalyani.
In Kalyani I had interacted with Nagesh (Sales Person), Ganesh (Team Lead). Very pahetic customer service.
In Sagar I had interacted with Shaan (Sales Person) - Nice guy, Antony (team Lead)
The best customer service was in Pratham motors . The sales person was Pradeep. I didn't take car from Pratham as the showroom was too far.
I hope you will find my review useful.
