Fiat India — worst customer service

Address: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600096

Hi friends,

This is the second time with in 2 years i have to raise a complaint for the vehicle that i no longer wish to own (Last time was a brake failure when driving), fiat avventura. However, this time it is not only the vehicle, it the so called service center who treat a customer like piece of [censored].

Note: the following issue was dealt by two of the service centers for ramkay, thoraipakkam and kattupakkam branch.

Please find the synopsis of the issue:

Received a call for service due and since i work for night shifts asked to arrange a pickup for vehichle.

Vehichle was picked the next day by driver from kattupakkam branch and the following issues were reported:

general oil and filter change
wheel alignment & balancing
waterwash
door lock tight and hard to unlock the vehicle
car key battery change
abs & airbag error (Started a week before and vehicle was never used since had brake failure in the past)
mild rattling noise in the right suspernsion when turning the vehicle at slow speeds (Say 10km - 20km)

The service advisor called me explained him the issue and said that all the issues are fixed except there is a problem with the suspension connecting rod and had to be replaced.
The total service bill was 7000 inr for parts and 6000 inr for labor.
Mentioned him that this was an issue in the past and was supposed to be replaced in this serice as promised in previous service.

What happened in the past?

The suspension stud was repalced once and i reported the same issue when i had a minor accident and took the vehicle to sevice center to get my windshield replaced.
The service advisor mentioned that "i do not have the parts available now and will make sure you get it replaced in the next service."
Since this is a very minor issue, i did not bother much.

Continuation:

The service advisor from kattupakkam branch said that they have worked on the issue and you can operated the vehicle with no issues.
I got the vehicle delivered on march 23, 2018 at my office in dlf.
After shift was over, i picked 4 of my friends dropped at home and car was parked at home for 5 days.
My parents took the car to a marriage fuction and was driven by my sister husband who is an employee of nissan.
He said that there seem to be major issue with the suspension and will full load there is no problem. However, if you drive the vehicle with 1 or two passengers there is a huge noise from both the suspension unit.
I informed that this was a know issue and was suppose to be rectified and did not bother much.

I took the vehicle the next day to drop my wife and daughter in airport and in high ways the noise was much audible and guess what?
The noise is not from one suspension, instead it was from both the suspension.
I felt that the wheel will be ripped out of the vehicle, i was so scared that i drove the vehicle in 20km.
I was so angry i called the service advisor at 7am after dropping them in airport however, no reponse.
I sent him a message to call to discuss about the service. He called me at around 9.30 am and i was not furious, i patiently explained the situation to him and he said he will pick the car again to look in to the problem.

He called again and i explained him that this was a know issue and i've already raised this concern in the past to the thoraipakkam branch.
He said he checked with the thoraipakkam branch and spoken to the service manager and can confirm that they have mention that there is a problem with the suspension and it was mentioned as a recommendation in their record.
The next day around 11:30 am a driver picked the car again from thoraipakkam branch.

Thoraipakkam branch:

The person said that he will check and call back again.
He called again said that there are a lot of vehicle to be delieverd and will look in to the problem tomorrow and i said ok.
He called the next day april 7th, 2018 and said that the problem is not with one suspension it's with both the suspension and had to be repalced.
I said clearly that the issue was not a big concern, it was only during slow speeds in right side and now you are claiming that it is in both.
Since your car warranty expired on february 2018, you have to replace all and pay for the parts.
I mentioned it was very very minor issue and it was reported earlier in your branch that is the reason a pick up was arranged from your service center.
He now says that the last servcie advisor was mahesh, he is not with the company no more and he cannot retrieve the records.

Question to fiat:

how come one serive center advisor said that it was under recomendation and the other cannot see that information.
if parts were not available in the previous service and if my vehicle warrant lapsed should the customer bare the expenses.
if it was mentioned under recommendation why was the part not replaced? It logically explains that part not available was tampered by your advisors to mention under recomendations.
when you report a very very minor issue with one suspesnion how the hell did i end up with issues in both the suspensions.
are your mechanics trained by fiat or you pick street mechanics just to fill in the blank.

What next?

I will never ever (Trust me) pick the vehicle from the service center until either my issue with the suspension is resolved or my parts replaced as promised.
I am happy if you can restore my vehicle to the previous condition before service. I can still live with the minor rattling noise in slow speeds.
I want fiat to provide feedback to the service advisors and your mechanics.

After paying almost 10 lakhs now i had to commute using private cabs. I seriously didn’t understand your customer policy unsure of the maniac who designed? Would he know what is customer service is all about? If not please feel free to let me know, i will for sure take a training / coaching session on what is a true customer service is all about, please learn something from your competitors (The reason being in the past i had owned a suzuki swift & there was a very tiny problem around the wheel alignment, it was actually my mistake that i had reached the service station around 7:00 pm, the service engineer said it would least take 4-5 hours for the general service as well as few minor glitches that i had complaint about, i said i don’t think i would be able to spend such time as i’m on my way to my work, you know what would be the response from him? Which i didn’t even dream of, he said please leave the car here, we will provide you a spare vehicle which you can use to commute to work & we will have the vehicle ready the next day around 11am, i was astonished by his response & greatly impressed with the customer service.

After i have gone through all these hell hard times, if my financial situation would’ve been right i would for sure throw this vehicle & move on with a different competitor but unfortunately, i’m not in a position to shell out anything at the moment. So i would like to hear what would be the response from fiat for this chaotic experience…

Thanks,
Vinothkumar t