Mr. Michael, Nigel Ward & Sandip Sanyal
Lack of commitment, professionalism, poor quality of service & fraud – is what I experienced with the dealer (South City Ford, Noida).
I had given my car for service on Aug12, . When I went to pick my car, it was in pathetic condition. There was no cleaning, testing done. On requesting Vikas cleaning, I was told that cleaning is not part of service and was extremely rude (Vikas). He also told that the interiors have to be dry cleaned to which I asked how can plastic parts be dry cleaned the door handles has hand prints of the mechanics and grease which I told happened during the servicing and which needs cleaning. I then went and spoke to the manager (Anil) who told me cleaning is very much part of servicing and then when I approached Vikas he told me to come next day or on Monday and drop the car for an hour and he would get the necessary done and get the car dropped.
On requesting for a test drive, I was told to deposit the money.
I paid the bill and on starting the engine found that RPM was shooting up, I was all alone in the car none of the people from the dealer accompanied me for a test drive. On complaining, was told that there is a possibility that water would have entered some terminal, which they checked and was not the case. I was told to leave the car as it was 1930 in the evening. The service manger on the shop floor told that every thing was fine post the servicing was done and before the car was washed.
Vikas who was the person I was aligned to, told me that my car would be checked first thing in the morning. I gave him 3 calls at different occasion to check the status, he said that we have tested and the PCM is not working properly. I asked him how is he sure about it. He told that we have put another PCM and checked. I then went to the dealer and spoke to Mr Anil, who said he would align another person to check this fault and then Manni came into picture, who replaced a couple of things and checked different things. At about 4 in the evening on the 13th, I was told that may be the module is faulty & as it is not available in the store of the workshop (as it rarely goes faulty. They would send someone i.e. a driver to get the car from Faridabad and the PCM of that car would be tested on my CAR. I called them at 6 in the evening and was told that the car is here. I went and they demonstrated me the working of the Car with the original PCM that was fitted and also with the replacement PCM which was procured from the car that was fetched from Faridabad. So the first question I have is, how did Vikas in the morning told me that they have already checked the car by replacing its PCM with another one and they are sure that the PCM is faulty. When I asked the manager that, why has some body to travel to Faridabad when they can check it with some other cars PCM which is currently being serviced. To which the manager (Mr Anil) told me that they don’t follow this practice. Therefore, how was car checked in the morning which Vikas confirmed?
I am sure that either the PCM has been replaces or it has gone faulty at the dealers premise. As one of the issue with the car was that its parking lights and lights behind the speedo meter were not working when I handed over the car for servicing on 12th. I called Vikas and he told me at around 4 PM that the switch is faulty and needs replacement and this would cost me Ts 3200/-, I told I don’t was to get it replaced and then he confirmed that the car would be ready by 5.15 and I can then collect it. I called him again to ask him if there was any warranty for this to which he told, sir you don’t have to bother as we have repaired the switch and it should work fine for at least an year and would not require replacement.
a) Either the people at the dealer bluff or they want easy fixes by replacing the units instead of repairing them and in turn make more money from repairs
b) While repairing the switch some wires got short and the PCM was affected because of this.
I strongly believe for any fault or error there has to be a cause. You and your team of engineers are competent enough to do a Root Cause and tell me, how can some thing go faulty suddenly and such a thing which is not stalked by the dealers as it does not go faulty.
Besides, the condition of this dealer has worsened from the time they have shut down their dealership at Mathura road in Delhi. One of the engineers commented that they are capacitated to handle 35-40 cars a day and they are presently doing more than 50. I am sure this is one reason for the quality of work they are doing in the same time.
How can the PCM suddenly stop functioning when it was fine? I have doubts that it has been replaced with a faulty PCM.
I am surprised to see such incident happening with a mega American auto company and there are no complaint processes at the dealer no quality check mechanism etc.
I would strongly recommend that a surprise check be done at the dealer and feedback taken from the customers post servicing is done by FORD itself.
If this issue is not addressed appropriately, I would approach consumer forum for a solution.
P.S: Mr Ford/ Mr Boneham, Incase I have marked the mail to you in error, request you to direct me to the right people.
Regards
Gagan
+91-[protected]