How Arya Honda Cheats Unsuspecting Customers

This happened to us today morning while Hubby and I were on our way to work. We had just stopped at a signal when the car right behind us rammed into us from behind. We got out and saw that the boot has bent and the rear bumper is in a bad shape. The tail lights were peering out from the sockets and we were not able to shut the boot. The guy driving the car was apologetic and asked us to accompany us to his known garage that was about 15km away. Not wanting to go that far to an unknown mechanic, we asked him to accompany us to the nearest Honda service centre. This happened to be Arya Honda. We were happy this was the closest since we have been using this authorised Honda service chain for servicing our vehicle for over two years now. This particular outlet was however new to us. After two hours, three different people had surveyed the car, we had shared all the relevant papers and made the driver of the other car wait with us.

Arya Honda gave us an estimate of 58 thousand rupees!!!

We were shocked and so was the other guy who had promised to compensate us. He however, agreed to let us get the repairs done at Arya Honda. We filed for an insurance claim and were told that the surveyer would come tomorrow morning. Everyone agreed to meet the next morning at 11 am and we went back to work.

At 8.10 pm, after a day of aching backs and making up for lost time, we left for home back in an auto. Barely a km from my office and a few 100 mts from hubby’s a traffic policeman stopped us at a signal to open up another lane of traffic. Tired and eager to get home to a nice warm bath, we cursed that guy for not letting us thru. Suddenly, hubby points at another Honda car parked on the side of the road. It had a bent boot and bumper as well as a broken number plate. His remarks about many Honda cars being damaged today died on his lips as recognition dawned…

It was our car! Parked on the road in the area that is well known as auto chor bazaar and notorious was spare parts replacement and reselling was our car that had been handed over in the “safe” custody of the service executive at Arya Honda the same morning.

There was another Honda car parked nearby and the bonnet of both cars were open. A man in Honda uniform stood between the two vehicles. Hubby jumped out of the auto and asked him what he was doing there. When he told the uniformed man that this was his car, the man’s expression changed. He got on the phone immediately and started talking to someone as I took the keys from him to open our car and hubby talked to the car ahead. When we got into our car, we found a spare battery on the front seat. The other car vanished while we were talking to the uniformed guy. We asked him to drive to the Arya Honda centre which was about a km away from that spot. On the way, he fed us a half baked story about taking to car to another workshop because ours was a major accident and it had to be sent to a larger workshop to be repaired. The repairs could not be done where we had dropped it. We asked him for a work order or papers supporting this and he had none. When we reached the centre, we checked the registers with the security.

There was no entry in the OUT register. The records only showed that the car was checked IN during the morning hours. There were no records of it having gone out.

When asked to speak to the Senior most member, we were kept waiting for 15 minutes. In this time, I overheard the service executive coaching the technician who was found with our car that this is what you should have said and this is how you should have said it. They moved away once they realised that I was right behind them. When we asked about the work orders, the cashier hurriedly prepared a handwritten receipt to show the OUT entry. This receipt was time at 8.45 pm, the time we had entered the Arya Honda showroom. The car was spotted by us on the road around 8.15 pm which meant it would have left the centre at least by 8pm. Best part is that the guy was in such a tearing hurry that he added the wrong vehicle number and switched the last two digits of the car number on the slip shown to us. The receipt was numbered 1076. The previous receipt 1075 had been issued at 5.30 pm and the next one, 1077 was blank. When we asked this, the staff told us that there internal process did not need any paper work when a car was shifted from one work shop to another. The security guard was verbally informed and he “knew” that the vehicle had gone out.

They had no answer to our queries about lack of records on our car moving out, about not informing us that they were moving the car and also about making a fake receipt when we asked for it.

When questioned further, those guys tone became rude, they said that we were lying and not willing to understand the truth. They said that

“We always move cars from one workshop to another and this does not need any paperwork. Our service executive would have informed you tomorrow morning that the car was moved”

As our frustration mounted, the man in charge told us to take our car back if we were not convinced. Sure we were not, but we were absolutely shocked at their attitude toward us. They were dismissive of our concerns and absolutely refused to give us access to higher authorities. The Service Manager, Santosh Chandan was absolutely rude with us. First they said that the car was being sent because it could not be repaired at that location. Then they cited lack of space as the reason for dropping it. They were inconsistent. The things that ticked me off were  –

  1. This was an accident case pending insurance survey. Why was it put out on the road again?
  2. The repairs could only start once the insurance issue was settled and we gave a go ahead to Arya Honda. Why then was the car moved to a different workshop where the large repair work happens?
  3. If the car had to be moved due to a genuine reason, why were we not informed before moving the car?
  4. The second car that was parked next to ours on the road was supposedly another customer’s car that had a battery failure and our car carried a battery for it to help the driver. When asked to speak to that customer, they skirted the issue. They could not give us details of the second car, the name or details of that customer.
  5. There was no explanation why the car was found parked in the opposite direction to it’s destination in the middle of chor bazaar
  6. There were no records showing the car had gone out of the centre
  7. The man who was found with the car had no company id with him
  8. There were no work orders showing this car had to be taken to another location
  9. The service centre shuts in the evening around 6 pm. Why were a few service executives, the service manager and 2-3 technicians hanging around till 8 pm? Why was the car being delivered after the closing hours?

They had no logical explanations and kept talking as if we were fools who did not understand processes. All of the points above lead me to believe that the bunch of people were out to cheat us by replacing the original spare parts with fakes and selling the originals in chor bazaar. They are a bunch of arrogant guys who have no idea of customer service.

We got our car back and am thankful we spotted it on time. However, I urge all of you to share this post on social media so others are aware of the rackets pulled by the employees of such so called authorised service centres.

[Tweet “#AryaHonda employees are out to cheat @HondaCarIndia owners. Beware!”]


Read the update to this incident here

41 thoughts on “How Arya Honda Cheats Unsuspecting Customers”

  1. Pingback: Arya Honda Issue: Update

  2. I suggest you file a police complaint. Also tweet on all these handles to get their attention

    @HondaCustSvc

    @Honda

    @Hondaindia

    1. Hi Ankita,

      http://www.team-bhp.com got back to me saying they need some kind of proof in the form of pics of the car/ scanned copies of the bills etc for the post to be shared on the forum as it helps with credibility. Would appreciate it if you could update this blog with the same.

      Regards,
      Aditya Seshadri

  3. Any response from Honda?
    If you have not yet filed an official complaint on email …do it…also speak to Honda Directly ..website or google my help you get some escalation levels…..not Arya ( this is just another dealer) .
    The longer u wait…the weaker your case.

  4. Please join Honda Jazz Users India group on Facebook. We are concerned. I just picked up my car from Kalina SC today.

  5. These dealerships always want to rip you off. Get on to their case. File a criminal complaint. Settle for nothing less than a brand new car. I would have done that

  6. Hi Madam,

    You should have call police and lodge a 420 case against this service centre people.
    We should not leave the others cheat us.

    Regards,
    Chenna

  7. Quite disgusting. They were probably trying to get extra items added since your car was covered by insurance. They would probably have included damaged battery and other items in the insurance claim. I guess something the insurance company should get livid about as well

  8. This is criminal activity and you guys should called the cops immediately. The reason these guys continue to do such things is because we don’t report such things immediately.

  9. It’s been many years since we’ve owned a Honda. But, this is an incredible story (in a bad way). I hope the power of social media works for this situation and you get justice.

  10. This is utterly disgusting, I suggest you mention names of the people at the service centre, that will help in nailing the culprits and also mention verbatim what they said. Also you should try and find out the Honda Country Head’s contacts and send this to him.

  11. Oh my god! This is scary. Thank god you spotted your car before they had an opportunity to swindle you.. I’ll happily spread the word..it baffles me to what extent people go to cheat..we can’t trust anyone

  12. Dont leave them ankita.. better report them to honda guys.. they must b theives only.. its a miracle that u got ur car back intact..

  13. This is bad. Could you share the location of the service center in question? Have you escalated this to Honda customer care? Any response from Honda? I have shared this in Team BHP forum.

    1. Thanks for sharing it in the Forum Akshay. We are yet to escalate it to them and are looking for the right way to do it. So far, there is no response from the social handles of Honda. This happened at the Kalina centre. The complete address is –

      Arya Honda
      Shaman Cars (I) Pvt. Ltd.
      Metro Estate,178 C.S.T Road ,
      Kalina, Mumbai – 98.

  14. Hi.. I understand how you feel.. I too have very bad experience with Honda and it’s dealers. Starting from booking to service and I am still regretting every day that I bought a Honda. For me it started from booking from dealer in calicut , kerala ie APCO Honda. They were the most arrogant people I have ever met in my life. Till the booking amount is paid they are very sweet after that they treat you like garbage. They delay the delivery and play usual tactics which I witnessed while waiting in the showroom (tactic that car you ordered is not available but another model and another color is available if I want today itself etc etc). After lot of arguments I managed to get my honda city from APCO. Then started my second trial with Honda. Service was so disappointing. After my issues with APCO I took to another dealer named VISION Honda in kottayam in kerala which turned out to be a pain. They don’t do the usual service itself properly. My car had dent in the front bumper for which repair cost me 8k ad they did such a bad job that within hours of delivery the bumper came out of the socket again. Ratting sound on left front door and wipers I have shown them three times but still they have not repaired it.
    There is no use of writing to honda which I had done at time of delivery of this car, for which they give a very poor response.
    After this one thing I am sure is no more Honda cars for me. Anyways even if I don’t buy a car won’t make difference to them but it will be huge difference for me if I buy some other company with better dealers

  15. Thank God you spotted ur car!! Imagine otherwise! This experience should seriously go viral….Its shut down time for that so called service centre. The whole bunch of them r involved along with outsiders for sure if they cud do such work so easily.

Hope you enjoyed reading this post. Let me know your thoughts :)