Multiple delays in receiving my Nexon EV

I booked a Nexon EV XZ+ Dark Edition at SP Cars, Nuvem Goa on 6th November 2021. I was promised delivery of the vehicle in January 2022.

BHPian pedrolourenco recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Horrible experience with SP Cars (Princely Cars), Nuvem, Goa

• I booked a Nexon EV XZ+ Dark Edition at SP Cars, Nuvem Goa on 6th November 2021. I was promised delivery of the vehicle in January 2022.

• We are a group of 4 friends who all booked the Nexon EV XZ+ Dark Edition within a short span. Yuri on 8th October 2021, Dinar on 22nd October 2021, myself on 6th November 2021 and Solomon (in his wife’s name) on 15th November 2021. We were all promised different delivery dates.

• After booking Dinar and me repeatedly asked the dealer for our booking numbers and the sequence numbers of our bookings which the dealer never gave us.

• Finally Yuri got his car delivered on 4th February 2022. Prior to his delivery Yuri, Dinar and me met wit the SA and the GM-Sales Mr. Amey and asked about the delivery our our cars. We were assured that our cars would be delivered from the next lot. We were told that we were 1st and 2nd in line for delivery after Yuri.

• Subsequently Dinar had a telephonic conversation with Mr. Ramzaan who is a Tata employee stationed at SP Motors. He was assured the both the cars (Dinar’s and Mine) would be definitely delivered from the next lot.

• On 17th February 2022, Dinar’s car reached the stockyard but mine didn’t. On asking the dealer they said they had only received 1 XZ+ Dark Edition and one Lux variant. When I asked why my car wasn’t dispatched despite being promised, the dealer said that they can’t do anything if Tata does not give them cars.

• I then contacted Mr. Ramzaan who said that they had dispatched 2 XZ+ cars, one of which was delivered to Yuri. So where did the 2nd car go? And this was from the previous lot. I would have still kept quiet if they had sent 2 cars in the 17th February lot.

• I also questioned the dealer on this issue. They were quick to cover up by saying that the 2nd car was a Lux variant despite Mr. Ramzaan confirming that 2 XZ+ Dark Editions were dispatched. Later they had some internal discussions and took a common stand that there was some misunderstanding and the 2nd car was a Lux variant.

• While this was going on we also noticed that other people were taking deliveries of Dark Editions particularly from the newly opened (December 2021) Panjim branch of SP Motors. We saw cars being delivered as well as photos on Social Media. We also came to know that some customers got their cars within 20 days of booking. The dealer responded that those were old bookings. I asked them, if they were old bookings how come you did not tell us that these people are in line before us. They said that they do not have data of bookings from the Panjim showroom. Well if that was the case then the bookings had to be made after mine as I booked in November and the Panjim showroom opened in December. To this they replied that the staff of the Panjim showroom was operating from the Nuvem showroom prior to December. Now this is really hard to believe as it is very unlikely that the dealer is unaware of bookings made at their branches as the all the orders are placed collectively.

• I spoke to the GM Sales of SP Motors Mr. Amey who denied any out of turn deliveries. He also said that there were customers before me whom he was bypassing in order to help me. These were customers who had not taken delivery due to financial issues or waiting for the subsidy to be announced.

• The dealer offered me the option of taking either a Dark Edition Lux or a White or Teal XZ+ variant. I was not interested but I said I would consider if a substantial discount was offered. Now how did they have these cars in stock when cars are ordered only against bookings and Tata only dispatches cars against orders. The dealer claims that Tata pushes them to take XM and Lux variants. Why would Tata do that? There are dealers all over India who would be having bookings for these variants. If there were no bookings Tata would have not produced them and concentrated on the variants that were in demand.

• I also gave them the option of giving me a demo car to use till the delivery of my car as this whole mess was created by them and they have not honoured their verbal commitment on delivery dates. They declined stating that they have Test Drives scheduled and cannot cancel them. However when I was asking for my 2nd Test Drive, I was told that it had to be scheduled a few days later as the car was with one of the Municipal Councils in South Goa for a few days as they wanted to Test the car prior purchasing. They are now denying this.

• I am a seafarer by profession. I am scheduled to be on standby for joining my ship from 20th February onwards. I had booked the car on the assurance that I would get delivery in January and have at least a month to drive the car. I explained to them that had they not given a false commitment, I could have explored some other options (Non EV) and had fun driving.

• I then demanded to speak to some higher ups in Tata. After a lot of pushing they finally agreed and put me on conference call with Mr. Ramzaan and Mr. Ankur Singh. I explained the situation to him. He initially took the side of the dealer stating that there are 27 booking before me. When I told him, that I have booked a Dark Edition and I was informed that I was 3rd in line he finally agreed to make sure my car was “delivered” in February. I asked for the same in writing to which he said that he would instruct the dealer to do so via e-mail.

• I didn’t receive the same. The next day after several calls to the dealer, I received the mail in the evening. However the mail stated that the car would be “billed” on or before 28th February 2022. The time between billing and delivery is usually 8-10 days. I quickly pointed out the same to the dealer who refused to change it stating that these were the instructions from Tata. I tried to contact Mr. Ramzaan several times but he refused to answer my calls. He also read my WhatApp messages but did not reply. Finally yesterday (18th February 2022), I went to the dealership and demanded to be put in touch with Mr. Ankur Singh. After a long discussion he agreed to send the mail by evening. I asked him what happens if the dealer says he can’t deliver as Tata has not dispatched the car. To that he said, “If you are looking for compensation, I will put delivery by 15th March 2022 failing which compensation will be provided”. I told him I was interested in getting the car not the compensation.

• Anyway till midnight there was no mail. I sent him a reminder. This morning I received a reply that he was travelling so could not send the mail. He sent a mail stating that “We are hopeful to deliver vehicle on or before 28th February 2022”. I sent him a reply that as per our conversation the commitment was supposed to be to “definitely” deliver the vehicle not “hopefully”. I am still waiting for his reply.

• During our last conversation he had also assured me that my vehicle is going into production on 18th February 2022. However at the time of writing this post, the vehicle has not yet been billed.

• This has been my side of the story. If Tata or SP Motors decides to share their side of the story please feel free to read it and make your judgements. The purpose of this post is just to make people aware of the problem I have faced with this particular dealer and Manufacturer. People should be aware that they could also face a similar situation with other manufacturers or dealers and should take adequate steps to prevent the same.

This whole episode has made me loose all the respect I had for the Tata group.

Please feel free to either believe what I have said or not believe it. Most of the story is based on verbal interactions with the concerned people.

Keyword: Multiple delays in receiving my Nexon EV