Sunday, December 11, 2011

Mody Ford Service, Hyderabad - Can't get any worse.

Mody Ford Service, Hyderabad - Can't get any worse.

I've owned my diesel Figo for over 6 months now. It had been to the workshop 4 times (2 free services and 2 accidents). On the last service I pretty much had enough of Mody Ford Service. Here's the email I wrote to the DCRC Manager, Ford India (after they tried reaching me, after I filed feedback with Ford Customer Care):

Quote:


Dear Ms. Saritha Reddy,

I am currently out of Hyderabad and will not be available on my cellphone for the next few days. You can email me for further communication. With respect to my concerns, I will list them out for you here, in this email:

Firstly, here are some non-car related service issues/ suggestions:

1) Lack of proper communication from workshop
I give my car for repair on say Monday, I don't receive a call back till Thursday! So, I call you guys up on Thursday (I don't seem to understand why I have to follow up when you guys have my vehicle). I am told that the vehicle is almost ready! It seems the insurance approval process has already finished, the surveyor had visited my car and finished the formalities. I was kind of surprised to understand that so much happens and I am not even told a thing unless I call back. (For instance, I could have asked for a bumper replacement through insurance at my out of pocket expense - when you guys don't call back and tell me what is happening, that is nto a good thing).
On Friday, I am told that my car is ready. I am told that a drop would be arranged depending on driver availability. Till Friday evening, nobody from the workshop calls me up. I call them on Friday evening and I am told that no driver is available and they can send me my car on Saturday (the next day). On Saturday again, no call back! I have to call up the service personnel on Saturday evening, and no drivers again! Repeat show on Sunday. I don't get it - if you cannot drop my car (even though I stay 25kms away from your workshop and I am willing to pay for it), please don't tell me that you will try. You waste 2 days of time and I don't have my car. On Sunday, I take an auto from Gachibowli at 1PM, get to your work shop at 2PM and then I am handed over my car at 5PM. I could have probably done this on Friday itself had you guys categorically mentioned that you don't do drops post service. I don't expect you to drop my car - I expect you to be clear with your communication.
2) Ridiculous wait times
For my last repair, I was at your workshop on a Sunday afternoon at 2PM. First, the service person Mr.X (I don't want to take his name - coz I don't blame him for his lack of training), tells me that he is having lunch and it would take him 5 minutes, so I should wait in the customer lounge in the mean time - for a genuine reason, I didn't mind waiting 5 minutes which turned out to be 20minutes. So, Mr.X is at his customer station after 20 minutes at 2:20P and I am in the lounge - I can see him out there, and I give him another 5 minutes - neither does he come in and talk to me nor does he call me. He pretty much forgets the fact that I am waiting for my car. I get out of the lounge and I ask him about my car - he gives me no ETA, he says, "Please wait in the lounge sir, I'll get it done". Please note that for the next 2 hours Mr.X made no voluntary attempt to update me on what is happening, I had to approach him at least 5 times and spend rest of the time in the ! lounge reading a 200 page novel, which thanks to you guys, I finished in those 2 hours+.
  • 2:50PM : Sir, I am attending this other customer, next is your turn.
  • 3:20PM : Sir, I am done with this customer, I am getting your car.
  • 3:30PM : Mr.X leads me to the payment desk and I pay the outstanding amount post service.
  • 3:40PM : I get to see my car and it is all dusty.
  • 4:10PM : I can see my car being sent to wash.
  • 4:30PM : My car is delivered finally and without a vacuum clean.
Saritha, I find this behavior completely unacceptable - It only makes me feel that you guys don't care about my time. I would probably tolerate this from a street-side mechanic, but not a Ford workshop. Why do I have to go and beg Mr.X for updates? Why can't you guys have some sort of time-line for delivering a car to a customer? Why can't your service people walk in to the customer lounge and tell a customer that it will take a little longer and precisely how longer? What kind of attitude is this where you tell me that it will take me 5 minutes or 10 minutes and you take an hour for no apparent reason! Why don't you have a queue system?
Little things like these matter to me a lot - I believe these things set apart a great car company from a mediocre one - I am sorry to say that Mody Ford service has been dismal just because of this one reason.
It takes only a little focus on training in customer service for service people like Mr.X for you guys to service customers better. I don't blame Mr.X for this, I blame mody ford management and Ford India for not teaching them a thing or two about giving priority to customer's time. I am sure, I am not being very nit picky here, because I own a Hyundai and I have seen 10 times faster and better service - It's only natural that I compare - and in my opinion, you guys are not even close to the customer satisfaction that a Hyundai workshop offers.

3) Your escalation system
  • Somebody from Mody Ford calls me up a week later about service feedback, I tell them that I am completely disappointed with the service and that I have some feedback for them to escalate.
  • 5 minutes later, Mr.X calls me up! I don't get this. What is the point of Mr.X calling me? The idea was to escalate my feedback, which meant I'd expect a call from a service manager. If I were the kind of person who would argue or confront people, I would have done it right at the workshop with Mr.X. I did not want any sort of argument with him, so I did not take his call.
  • Few days go by, and I don't hear from anybody at Ford - it only seemed like my feedback went down the drain and no body care about it.
  • A few days later, I write a post on FordFigo wall on facebook about how I am dissatisfied with the whole experience, I am asked to write to custmail@ford.com and I write an email - now, this is when Ford Chennai calls me up after which you have tried to reach me. Why is it that my feedback which was shared with Mody Ford 2 weeks ago never reached you? Do you expect me to write to custmail@ford or go write rants on facebook everytime? Why do I have to take a longer route to get to you? Why don't you guys have a service complaint book at your workshop? Simple things that matter - you don't have them, it only makes me think you don't care.
I could go on about more things other than the above 3, but I chose not to at this point. Again, these are not things that you could correct right away or compensate by asking me to send my car back - these are non-car issues in my opinion. These issues are good enough for me stay away from Mody Ford service for the next time. Now, the car-related issues:
  • No vacuum clean : My car interiors were not cleaned - Mr.X tells me that there are too many cars for cleaning and it would delay things further and he promises a free vacuum wash the next time or anytime in the future on a weekend or something. This was 4:00P - I figured that I have had waited enough by then, so I chose not to wait any further. Firstly, I cannot understand why you guys can't pre-wash my car before I get there and secondly I don't see how Mr.X could think that I'd travel 25kms on a weekend and waste more time at the workshop, in the future, for a free vaccum clean of the interiors!
  • No rear lid screws: A new boot lid was installed on my car, but it had no factory fitted screws installed for number plate. The number plate guy had to do a make shift arrangement and my number plate makes a lot of noise now.

That is it for car-related issues. Please don't ask me to give you my car again for fixing these issues - I've decided not to go back to Mody Ford service again. My first time experience was no different and the last one was your second chance.

Thank you for writing in. I hope my email will help you correct a few things, which in my opinion are not helping your reputation, thereby, serve other Mody Ford customers, better.
After that detailed email - I got nothing - no acknowledgement, no call back and no reply! Way to go Ford! :deadhorse

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