Car Service-Bad Game

It’s been more than 8 years since I have been driving my car and honestly have not faced any major fault. Apart from small hiccups due to minor accidents, my car has not given me troubles. However, now after 7 years some parts have grown very old and need replacement. As I am moving towards changing my old parts I realize that there is no option but to buy genuine car parts from the service centre. Yes, there are few options outside the system, but they are not 100% genuine. It solves the purpose for a while but again very few want to compromise on quality. 

So what options do consumers have? After doing some research these are  my findings. 

There must be more than 50 dealers of Maruti (an example) in Delhi/NCR and all of them want to make huge profits. Please be aware that profit margins are limited because of huge competitions among dealers and the only option they have is to sell more cars with discounts and festivals offers. This does not mean that they don’t earn profit, but their greed makes them do wrong.

So how will they make profit?The answer is false SERVICE charges. As soon you step in the service station, the goal of the service manager is to charge as much as possible. They do it by two ways- Labor charges and overpriced spare parts.

There are two kinds of charges; one is the normal service charge which the customers have to pay no matter what. This is often in the range of Rs.1500 to Rs.2000 which includes washing and cleaning, spark plug cleaning and engine tuning. 

The second are the charges for wear and tear of different parts and the separate labour charge. Almost 90% of the customers do not understand the bill and the terms in it, giving a golden opportunity for the service manager to increase the bill amount. You will be surprised to see that the labour charges are sky high! My dealer charged me Rs. 95 just to fix a small door handle! The only work was to fix a screw. That’s it!

Our little knowledge about our car proves to be the biggest opportunity for these car dealers. Very often I have seen very huge charges on the final bill without any reason. 

-The best way to avoid is to start asking questions and ask for the old part if they have changed it. Try to sit with them at the time they are making the job card initially and give them strict instructions not to change any part without your consent. 

-Also, always carry your user manual to understand which part needs to be changed and when is the right time.

-In the final inspection ask the service manager to show you the new parts; yes some might not be visible.

The problem is the customer can’t buy parts of his own from the service station and they can charge any amount in the name of labour charge.There is no guarantee that the parts they have changed are genuine because almost all the work been done in the service bay and entry of customer is restricted.

Be alert and save your hard earned money on your car service.