Anant sent a message to Akio Toyoda President and CEO, Toyota Motor Corporation – email address that said:
This communication is to bring to your notice the horrible after sales service that is being provided by your dealer Lanson Toyota in Pondicherry. I have a Toyota Corolla car I had sent the vehicle to your dealer Lanson Toyota in Pondicherry for service and a thorough check up. The car was being handled by the representative Mr. Perumal. He was in touch with me over the telephone on a regular basis. The quotation was submitted to me and I had sent a mail dated 28th December asking them to go ahead with the work immediately. I had been informed by Mr. Perumal that the parts required for the repairs would take a week to arrive and then it would take another 5 – 6 days for them to prepare the car. I was all right with it and asked him to place the order immediately for the necessary spares.
I again called him up on the 10th of January to check on the progress of the car thinking that I would be getting my car delivered some time soon. However, he was not being able to respond to the simple questions being put across to him. I asked him the following:
• How long the car would take to get ready?
His response was the following: I do not know will have to check and get back by tomorrow.
• Is there any delay in the progress?
There were New Year holidays in the middle and he also said that few parts have arrived and few are yet to come.
• What parts are yet to come?
I have no idea, I will have to check up and will be able to revert only by tomorrow.
• Why is it that you are not being able to respond to any of my questions and its only 2 in the afternoon, why can you not get back to me by today?
“Sir, I will have to check up the status. It takes time to find out the reason. Also you have taken so much time to give us the go ahead for the work to be started, now I will take time to get back to you.”
I was stunned by the last reply that he gave me. I had got the quotation on the 17th of December by email after calling him up personally several times asking for the quote. Since the quote was a bit high, we took a few days to decide and finally gave him the go ahead on the 28th of December. I even asked him to check up certain extra things regarding the issue that I had with the upholstery which was not mentioned in the quotation that was submitted.
Mr. Perumal being the service advisor should have the basic decency and courtesy how to deal with customers. Firstly, he had no clue as to what is the status of the vehicle and secondly, however long I have taken to decide on the quotation, does that give him the right to take 24 hours to just call up the part manager and get back to me as to why is the parts taking so long and what parts are yet to arrive?
Further to the conversation that I had with Mr. Perumal, I got a call from Mr. Sadanand . He introduced himself as the Manager of the facility.
I was even more shocked on speaking to him. He conveyed to me that till date none of the parts had been ordered. On asking the reason as to why it was the case even after I had written a mail asking them to go ahead with the work? I was even more surprised with the reply from his end.
He told me that the value of the car if we go to sell in the market would be Rs 1,50,000/- to Rs 2,00,000/- maximum. The quotation for repairs exceeded that amount. He said that Mr. Perumal was wary of the fact whether I would take the delivery of the car once the work has been completed.
I am fully aware of the current value of my vehicle and I have also gone thru the quotation that has been sent to me by mail. In our group, we have several cars ranging from Honda, Mercedes and Audi. Till date, I have not got such a surprising and shocking response from any of the representatives of the respective dealers. I am quite surprised with the attitude of the representatives at Lanson Toyota. Seeing the attitude of the staff, I feel that I have made the biggest mistake in purchasing a vehicle from Toyota an in future, I would never purchase nor recommend anyone to purchase a Toyota vehicle.
Warm Regards,
Anant
