[Resolved]  Fiat Palio Stile Sdx — serious after sales service issues

Address: Bhagalpur, Bihar

I have an issue which I intend to report to you. I am an owner of Fiat Palio Stile SDX. I also own a Fiat UNO Jublee model. During the purchase of Fiat Palio Stile SDX in June 2008 from ASL Motors – Jamshedpur I was told that I can pay for the extended warranty any time before standard warranty of my vehicle expires, but when I wanted to purchase extended warranty I was denied and was informed that it needs be purchased within 3 months of purchase of the vehicle. That was the first time I was misguided by the ASL guys. Now in May 2010 I gave my vehicle for servicing and instructed the advisor Mr. Ojasvi Kr. Singh that my car was taking a longer self to start. I requested him to check and correct the problem. I was told that there wasn’t any problem with the vehicle and the longer self it was taking to start was quite normal. On the way back to Bhagalpur car started to emit black smoke which I found abnormal. On reaching Bhagalpur I also noticed a little knocking sound in the engine. Fed up of ASL guys I called up Guinea Motors - Patna expecting to get a better service there. The Guinea Motors guys asked me to get the car to Patna . I informed clearly the problem with my vehicle and was advised by Mr. Anwar to get the vehicle to Patna which is around 275- 300 Kms from Bhagalpur . I made a booking for 16th July 2010. On the way to Patna on 16/07/2010 I noticed an abnormality in the pickup and by the time I reached Badh which is around 70Kms before Patna my car’s engine temp started to rise so I switched off the ignition. After half an hour when I wanted to restart the car it wouldn’t start. So I called up Mr. Anwar of Guinea Motors (at 9.00am) as I wanted towing facility to tow my car to Patna . He refused help and said that he will be able to do something only after reaching the office at 10.30 am. I pleaded to him over the phone to let me know where to tie the rope to tow the vehicle and he himself wasn’t aware of that. Anyways I hired a jeep and managed to tow my vehicle to Patna (Guinea Motors) but as I didn’t know where to tie the rope in the process my bumper got damaged. On reaching Guinea motors at around 2.30pm no one attended me for about an hour and a half. Mr. Anwar would direct me to Mr. Mazhar, Mr. Mazhar would direct me to Mr. Bibhuti but no one was attending to my problem to top it all some one commented that why did I buy a fiat car in the first place as they never have adequate parts to support the customers. Anyways at around 4 my check list was prepared and I was told that they will open the job card on 17th morning. I had to stay put at Patna that night and went to Guinea Motors on 17th Morning and still my job card wasn’t opened till 12:00 noon. I had a flight to catch so I left and Mr. Bibhuti Sinha told me that he would inform me over the phone about my vehicle. I agreed and left. There after I got a call on 17th evening and Mr. Bibhuti informed me that the turbo and some other part had conked off and they will place an order with the fiat guys after they are able to get the part nos. of the damaged parts. It was surprising that they didn’t even know the part nos. of the damaged parts. I even complained to the GM Guinea Motors Mr. Arun Kumar Singh but to no results. On 23rd I was called by Mr. Bibhuti and was asked to make some advance payment of 20000/- in their bank only then would they place the order for the part nos. [protected], [protected] (I made the payment on 23rd itself).

Till 1st August I was told that they had no Ideas as to when will they get the parts ordered so they weren’t able to give me any delivery date of my car. I complained to the fiat Guys and got to know on 2nd that the parts ordered were already invoiced and dispatched to Guinea Motors on 26th July. On 11th August I went to Guinea Motors and was shocked to learn that even though they had replaced the parts the car was not ready to be delivered as there was still some knocking in the engines and the Guinea Motors guys didn’t know further course of action. Mr. Arun (GM Guinea Motors) informed me that they had already done the best they could do and now they wanted fiat guidance to move further. Mr. Nitesh was supposed to visit them and advice further course of action. Today Morning I spoke to Mr. Bibhuti and he tells me that they have opened the head of the engine and there are a few damages there and he has no Idea as to how much more time will it take to set the car right.

My point here is that I am suffering without my car and also the cost that I will incur to get my car repaired is huge. It would have been lot less if the Advisor at ASL Mr. Ojasvi Kr. Singh had taken my problem seriously and acted promptly I would not have to suffer so much. I really am looking forward to some action from your side on this issue. I feel that this is a serious issue and needs to be addressed on priority. Your sales guys make all sort of false promises while selling the car but after the car is sold we are treated like animals and we fall in trap of these advisors and incur heavy loss. I have always been misguided by your guys and am paying a huge price for my love with Fiat cars. How is it possible that all sorts of problems started to occur immediately after my warranty expires? Your guys don’t attend to me when I take my car for servicing and then these problems occur. If this is the standard of after sales service then you can well understand the future of Fiat Cars in India .



P.S. : I have called the customer care many times but no one reverted till date. It seems you don't want to listen to our concerns after you have sold the car.



Regards,

Puneet Chadha …Once a proud Fiat Owner, now no more….