The car shortage is artificially created by the dealerships to increase the waiting period for the car and to get out of giving any discounts to customers.
BHPian NorthernStar recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
My dear fellow BHP’ians, buckle in and sit tight. This one is going to be long.
I’m a proud owner of Tata Nexon XZ+ Petrol. The car is excellent and running like a dream for almost an year but I understand that in order to buy a car from Tata you need to awaken your 6th sense and your 3rd eye at times!
The Story
I booked the Tata Nexon XZ+ Petrol on 01 April 2022 (April fool’s day of all days). I live in Noida and only a single dealership operates here. The dealership has two showrooms in Noida, one in Sector – 5 and one in Sector – 63 (this will be important later). I was well aware of Tata motors’ abysmal service reputation thanks to online reviews, so I made booking at both of these showrooms. In Noida, they were asking for five thousand rupees as booking amount as opposed to eleven thousand rupees that the dealerships in Delhi were demanding. The bullet dodging started during the booking itself. I made sure to not allow them to add any extra cost. I made careful note of the ex showroom price of the car and only allowed them to add 10% of the tax, 500 rupees for the fastag and 300 rupees for RTO fees. They tried a sleight of hand here and try to add some money for accessories and even miscalculated (I think deliberately), the tax to inflate the final figure that I was able to catch. I literally sat there with my phone with calculator app open and did all the calculations myself. I asked them not to add any insurance as I’d be purchasing the insurance myself. Also no accessories but since they were not offering any discount, I negotiated a free basic accessory kit which included mats, mudflaps, perfume and an idol. I paid the booking amount and was given 16 weeks of waiting time. I did the same for both Sector-5 and Sector-63 branch.
Now the fun began. I waited for 3 weeks and started pestering the dealership about the car. I also made them abundantly clear that I had made 4 bookings (in reality there were just 2) from different dealerships and will cancel my booking immediately if I receive the car from somewhere else. On 18th May (6 weeks after booking), I received a call from sector-63 that my car has arrived and I can make payment for the same. I was elated as during the time, waiting times were really high and people were being jerked around by the dealerships, even surpassing the promised delivery time with no sign of their cars. Not to mention there were price hikes every 3 months and semiconductor shortage was being used as an excuse to further aggravate customers. Anyways, they asked me to pay 1 Lac rupees and tried to manipulate me by stating that since the car is in high demand, and they have to meet their quarterly targets, they cannot hold the car for me without a partial payment being made to them. I called out their bluff by calmly stating that the first quarter has already ended on 31st March and this is May and secondly I don’t believe in partial payments. I’ll do a through PDI on Saturday, since I’m only available on weekends and if the car is satisfactory, I’ll make the full payment on the spot. If this arrangement is unacceptable to them, I can cancel the booking and get my booking amount back since I had made 4 bookings with different dealers. Lo and Behold, they were able to hold the car for me until the weekend.
I asked the car to be parked outside in the sun and me and two other family members started the PDI. I took a picture of the VIN number of the car and proceeded to check every single control, lights, AC, everything, while my cousin checked the exterior. I had a prepared a PDI checklist beforehand so that I do not forget anything. This took us close to 2.5 hours under the sun. It is then I realized that Tata’s Quality Control is an absolute failure. I rejected the car since:
- There were several paint chips, shoddy workmanship particularly in the doors and paint application
- The fuel tank lid wouldn’t open. After cranking the lever from the inside 5-6 times, it MIGHT open some times, other times, it wouldn’t open.
- The speaker and tweeters on the door behind the driver’s wouldn’t work.
I’ve attached a few pictures for your reference. In short, this car shouldn’t have been rolled out from the factory had someone from QC actually did their jobs.
I was relieved that I didn’t pay the dealership the 1 Lac rupees they were asking, otherwise I’d have been stuck. I called the manager outside in the sun, where the car was parked and asked him to explain himself as to why he made us waste our time and what sort of PDI his team has conducted on the car upon receiving it. Obviously he had no straight answer. He still tried to be smart, saying that if I refuse this car, I’d have to wait for the next batch to arrive, which could be months away. He offered to get the issues in the car fixed if I decide to go with the car. I laughed at his face and told him that I’ll not be paying for a repaired car since I’ve made a booking for a new car also I wouldn’t have to wait for the next batch since I’ve made 4 bookings for the same car and I’m fairly certain that I’d be getting another one any day now. His tone changed and he promised to arrange another car for me ASAP. I asked him to hurry up, I had already wasted my time with his car and if I get a car from elsewhere, I’ll be cancelling the booking. I left.
On my way back, I received a call from Sector-5 stating that my car has arrived and I could do a PDI. I told the sales executive that I’ll be there next Friday. He asked me to have a look at the car at the stockyard itself which is at Sector-37, Botanical gardens which is 14 Kms away from the Sector-5 showroom. I asked the sales executive to share the VIN number which he did.
The next day, I reached the stockyard. There I saw scores of new cars, gathering dust and came to the terrible realization that:
- The car shortage is artificially created by the dealerships to increase the waiting period for the car and to get out of giving any discounts to customers.
- At least in Noida, the dealership will not share the VIN number and tracking details of the car allocated to you after you’ve made the booking. They’ll only let you know once the car is there. You’ll have no way of knowing which car is allocated to you and where is it exactly.
- Suppose the waiting period is 16 weeks, the stockyard will receive your car in 4-5 weeks. The dealership will keep holding your car. They’ll prioritize customers who have agreed to pay more price to get the car early or agreed to buy overpriced accessories. Also VIP customers are prioritized.
- After your car is delivered to some VIP customer, they’ll wait for some other customer to make the exact same booking as you and give their car to you. If nobody makes the same booking, the dealership makes a booking from their end.
- If they really want to mess with you, they’ll increase the waiting period from 16 weeks to 19 weeks to 21 weeks, citing high demand, semiconductor shortage and other nonsense, while selling the car that was originally allocate to you to someone else.
Anyways, when I arrived at the stockyard, I provided the VIN number I received from the sales executive to the person at the stockyard. He informed me that this car has already been sent to the showroom as it was supposed to be delivered to the customer that day. I was pissed. I called the sales executive and he apologized profusely. He said that he made a mistake in sending me the VIN number and he’s sending me the correct VIN number and I can PDI the car then and there at the stockyard. When I received the new VIN number, I was angry beyond words as that VIN number was the same as the one on the Sector-63 car that I had already rejected in PDI. I yelled at the sales executive, informing him of the same and he completely refused to believe that someone else has already shown that car to a customer. In hindsight, I should’ve known that since both the branches belong to the same dealership , they share the same stockyard and have access to the same cars. I informed the sales executive that I’m on my way to see him and I want to see my other car since there were two bookings. Sensing anger in my voice, he said that he’s not at the showroom at that moment as he’s outside for some personal work.
At this point I was beyond angry. Tata was the first choice for my family given how they stepped up during COVID pandemic and donated a large sum of money for relief effort but they had managed to spoil an otherwise enjoyable car buying experience.
Fuming in anger under the scorching May sun, I decided to ditch Tata and go for another car. On my way, I was contemplating the different car brands I could go for. I eventually went to MG to checkout MG Astor. The professionalism and customer service at MG was phenomenal, night and day difference with Tata. I was sold on MG Astor but they had stopped accepting bookings for the lower two variants of Astor (Style and Smart). The sales person tried to convince us to go with Super variant but it was outside my budget. Defeated, I left.
Tata’s Sector 5 showroom was close to MG showroom. I had already wasted half of my day and I was drenched with sweat and boiling with anger. So I barged into the Tata showroom and Lo and Behold, found my sales executive there (the one who was supposed to be away for personal reasons). He immediately switched to damage control mode and asked for soft drinks for us. I refused to talk to him and went straight to his manager and explained the situation to him, telling him about my two bookings and the way cars are gathering dust at the stockyard. The sales executive received an immediate tongue lashing from the manager since I had taken several pictures at the stockyard of the sheer number of cars collecting dust and was on the verge of posting it online. The manager sensed the situation and dismissed the sales executive. He then asked me if I would be interested in getting a higher variant for Nexon, when I told him that it is outside my budget, he said that he can offer a discount. This was again a shocker as I was made to believe that you can’t even dream of getting a discount on Tata cars due to high demand. Anyways, I refused and asked him to give me my other car. Turned out the VIN number that the sales executive had originally shared with me, was actually my other car that was delivered to some other customer that very day. I was mad and raised hell, told them that since they have wasted close to 7 weeks of my time, they better give me a car, same model, same color. The manager had seen the pictures I had on my phone, so he called all his sales executives to his cabin and checked his system for a white Nexon XZ+ white petrol. They found two cars in their inventory which were allocated to other people but they agreed that they can probably make one of them wait around for a few more weeks and his car can be given to me. The manager asked me when I would like to pay. I told him that I’d pay in full after doing the PDI and I intend to do the PDI then and there. The manager requested us to wait for an hour. The car arrived from the stockyard in 2 hours and we again spent 2.5 hours doing PDI under the sun. There were a few minor issues – One of the roof rail not sitting perfectly in place which was correctly and one very small paint chip which was touched up. I took a picture of the VIN number again and green lighted the car.
Now came the payment part, I was paying the money in cash and not taking out a loan but they refused to accept cheques, even though I told them that I could wait for the cheques to clear. I relented this time and promised to transfer the amount next day. Then they dropped another bombshell on me – I would only get one key for my car, due to semiconductor shortage the other key will be given to me in 6 months. I asked them that I want this in writing. They agreed. So after a very long day, I went home. This was 27 May 2022.
On 28 May (Saturday), I transferred the amount through RTGS. I had to chase my sales exec to verify the payment receipt but it went smoothly. The sales exec tried to pull a fast one again and said that some money still remains to be transferred, it turned out that he was not adding the 5000rs booking amount to the total, hoping that I’d forget about it. After another swift tongue lashing, he backed off. By the time, we had decided to take the delivery of the car on 02 June, so I asked the sales exec to get the documents ready by then.
On the D-day (Thursday, 02 June 2022), I called the sales exec from home that I’d be reaching the showroom by 09:30 AM and I expect both the car and documents to be ready as I have to leave for work after taking the delivery (actually I was on leave that day). He promised me that he’ll deliver the car in an hour and for me to not worry. I reached the showroom and went ahead to check my car and if everything is in order. I found my car extremely dirty and not at all ready for delivery. The sales exec was nowhere to be found. I was exhausted and exasperated by the level of unprofessionalism at display. Finally at 10 PM, the sales exec arrived at the showroom. He once again received a piece of my mind but the man proved to be very thick skinned. He promised to sort out the mess in half an hour and requested us to have some tea. Oh and did I mention that the formalities with the RTO were not completed by this point? No, I didn’t.
The delivery process took 5 hours to complete, I had to remind the sales exec to get me the mudflaps, mats and other stuff that was promised.
Continue reading BHPian NorthernStar’s ordeal about his Tata Nexon delivery experience for more insights and information.
Keyword: Tata Nexon: My horrifying pre-delivery experience & learnings