I agree that a car being a complex machine is fallible and likely to fail and this was the exact thought I had when I was stuck at the road.
BHPian Straight_curv recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I bought a Tata Safari XZA+ Dark two months back and driving it was nothing but a dream come true. I took it all around the city (Kochi), on a short trip to Ooty after which I got it serviced and followed by a long drive all the way to Mumbai. Everything was was fine and the car was all that I could ask for.
Until 22 Aug 23 when on my way from office at around 1745 hrs in Mumbai(dist 2.5km) the car suddenly stopped responding to accelerator and got stuck at 8kmph. I immediately dialed for Tata RSA who suggested me to drive the car in this condition till the nearest safe point and park it on the road side for towing. By the time I did the car showed all the warning lights possible(image attached).
I agree that car being a complex machine is fallible and likely to fail and this was the exact thought I had when I was stuck at the road. And then starts my worst service experience, first was the whole towing fiasco which as told by the RSA team should have been a simple task of 80-90 mins after which I hand over the car to towing agents and relax and wait for the service centre to contact me. In reality the agents took 3 hrs to reach my location and they reached around 2130 hrs (PS: the location in talks here is a prime one in south Mumbai) and too only two of them who asked my help in terms of sitting on the steering to steer the car while embarking it on the truck. I did so as I didn’t want any harm to my car and seeing their level of professionalism I decided to join them to the trip to service centre at Worli (on my bike) to ensure safety of my car. On reaching the service centre I was told by the watchmen that the towing guys are utterly unprofessional and have a history of damaging car while unloading, so here again I stepped up to unload my car and handed it over to the centre at 2315 hrs.
Still I had hopes that it might be a small glitch and I will get to drive my car in a day or two, but these were shattered the very next day. I got a call from the service centre asking for the issue in the morning and after explaining them the whole thing when I called in the noon to confirm what the issue is and when to expect the car back, I was shocked to find that they were clueless and were exploring the options of battery being drained out and what not. Regarding the delivery of the vehicle I was told that it will take at least 08-10 days for me to get back my car.
Frustrated from all this I decided to escalate the matter and wrote a mail with all the details to Tata Motors Ltd to only get calls again going around the loop of what the problem is and how can they help me. I also suggested as the vehicle is brand new within warranty and being my only mode of conveyance a standby vehicle maybe provided to me for the duration for which no action was taken.
I would like to ask this forum for help with ways to get back my car at the earliest and get compensated for the harrasment I am undergoing.
Update as of today I was told that the service centre is working in close coordination with TML and has been told to replace three major parts in engine and see if it solves the problem and if it does chances of which are 90% I can expect my vehicle by next week mid or end and if it doesn’t then no timelines
Keyword: Issues faced on my Safari & frustrating experience with Tata service