The Slow Documentation Process

Cars these days in Calcutta are sold without the number plates fitted in their rightful place. You are given (by the showroom) two A4 sized sheets with the numbers written by a computer. You stick that up on the front and rear windshield. After a couple of weeks or months a notice comes from the Motor Vehicles Department and you have to go to the government office at the given time to get the high-tech number plate fitted to your car.

These are supposed to be tamper proof number plates and are given for security reasons, apparently to stop theft and resale of cars.

I thought my notice would come to our house by post. No such luck. Yesterday Monisha got a call from the showroom saying the notice is ready with them. Today when I collected it, I found the date was 23rd of April !!! The notice was computer generated on 21st April and I was supposed to go on 23rd and today is 30th when I got it. So I am already a week late. I have been given the number of an MVD tout who said come over on Friday with the car and talk to me. I will tell you what to do after that. Probably spend a couple of hundred bucks.

Meanwhile, the road tax token was promptly handed over to us by the showroom within a couple of days of delivery. The ownership document, popularly known as blue book but in reality it is just a smart card with a chip, will come much later.

Keeping my fingers crossed. 

The Duster Comes Home

After planning for it for more than two years, we finally brought home the Duster on 15th April, 2014. Bengali New Year's Day it was. This blog is for writing the various experiences we gather together - the car and us. 

The initial experience of buying the car was not quite good. The boys at the dealership are thoroughly unprofessional. I wonder how they survive in this cut throat market. Customer satisfaction is the last thing on their mind. They seem to be entirely focused on sell, sell and sell. Taking care of the customer's needs, once the sale is confirmed, is a criminal waste of time. 

I bought the car from the New Alipore showroom where they gave us a very good price. But we were pretty dissatisfied with various other things that we had to suffer in the hands of the sales guys. For example, on a Sunday afternoon we were called to attend some festival where Monisha was made to turn a wheel of fortune. They said we have won gift vouchers worth Rs 4000. It is yet to be given to us !!!

At the time of delivery, we were made to wait for about two hours doing nothing - just waiting for the car to arrive. Mampu started reading her book. I started pacing up and down the road in front. As a result by the time we reached home, it was dark. That holiday was wasted due to their lackadaisical approach. 

During delivery we found there was no mud flap fitted. It was supposed to be free. I asked about it and pat came the reply that the workshop has run out of stock. They would let me know the moment the mud fllaps arrived. That call never came. I called them several times and realised they were trying to dodge me on this. I was finally told that the mud flaps would be fitted when I went to their workshop for the first servicing, which is after 2000 kms. So they expect me to drive the car around for 2000 kms without mud flaps.

I called up the workshop person. Debasish Sengupta. A very nice guy. He said, as I expected, he had it in ready stock. I knew that this "out of stock" is a blatant lie and an effort to manage a goof up. He had probably forgot to tell the workshop before they sent the car. 

I went to the workshop, without informing the showroom, and got it fitted. Of course Debasish had to get an okay from the showroom. I had to waste about 3 hours in all (going and coming itself takes more than an hour and a half). 

There are many other such small issues that I don't want to recount now. But let me just say that the total buying experience was quite pathetic. I didn't go out of the showroom smiling. I went out with a grumpy face. And believe me, I am not a difficult customer to please. All I want is honesty and upfront admission of a goof up. For example, if instead of saying, sir we have run out of mud flaps at the workshop, he told me, sir I forgot about it. I would have been happy. He not only lied to me, kept on giving me lies every time I called him about it. I don't know why he did such a thing. Because ultimately he wrote an email to the workshop asking them to fit it free of cost. 

It is possible that he himself needed some approval, which he didn't get. These small time traders who own these showrooms operate like small time grocery shops where no individual employee is empowered even to offer a glass of water.