Pathetic customer service by Carnation

This is a customer spasing story about how poor customer service is in our country.

Culprit: Carnation

Verdict: The most pathetic customer service i have ever experienced in my life.

The Story:

Day 1: Friday, June 10th 2011- My car met with an accident and bonnet, headlights and bumper were totalled, called the insurance folks and was put on to Carnation body repair, this is were the trouble started. I should have gone to my regular servicing centre, it would have been much easier to sort out this mess.

So Carnation didn't have any one to pick up my car on the same day, this apparently after having 24X7 road service assistance as claimed on thier website. So i had to leave my car in the office for the weekend, the car wouldn't lock. (Btw if a company claims 24X7 assistance should this also extend to servicing the vehicle, i mean how pathetic can you get???)

Day 4: Monday, June 13th 2011- The folks from carnation arrived and took the details from me regarding my vehicle, i told them about a small dent which was present in my car on the front end and asked them to remove that as well. I was promised that this would happen- copious notes were taken down and promises were made saying "we will fix this, yes we will do it", the car was driven from my office in silk board to marathahalli on the same day.

Day 5: Tuesday, June 14th 2011- i didnt follow up on this day too much- i was told that the bajaj allianz people will go and visit carnation to do a spot inspection and recommend the repairs that could be done- i assumed that all would be fine- i didnt call to check.

Apparently both bajaj allianz and carnation are under the impression that the customer will do everything and follow up for things that need to be done by these companies??? I blame Bajaj allianz more than carnation because they pointed me to these jokers.

Day 6: Wednesday, June 15th 2011- i call carnation and ask any idea as to when i will get my car and the reply is we dont know sir? bajaj allianz has still not given us the go ahead to start repair of the vehicle!!! I am shocked, i ask " What do you mean by that?" they say well we sent Bajaj Allianz a bill of some 36 K and they are saying it will only be 22 K, i steamed at this point because i was travelling to work using my friends transport and nothing seemed to be going right with this service folks.

So here I am almost a week later relentlessly calling up with the Bajaj allianz trash trying to get them to approve the bill so that my pathetic service station can proceed with the repair???? I finally manage to get through in the evening- and the person says we will give them the notification tomorrow!!!!!- since i am a program manager i already know that this is going to end badly.

Day 7: Thursday, June 16th 2011- the repair has finally started, i keep asking the manager from carnation if i can get the car the next day? and the answer is yes sir, we are doing our best- we will deliver the car as soon as we finish repairs-

its been a whole week since the incident and there is no end in sight for this nightmare called carnation services. Like every show room/ service centre the entire excersise is a pathetic excuse for customer service and lack of responsibility and lack of customer focus. never use carnation, its the worst service i can think of.

Day 8: Friday, June 17th 2011- Well the repairs are being done and i am constantly in touch with the managers at carnation and inexplicable delays are starting to occur- I am losing my cool and these guys are doing me any good by giving me wrong information from when it will be delivered to how things are shaping up,

No one calls the customer to give him/her the update- it is our responsibility to follow up for something for which we are paying for???? A paan wala gives better customer service than these repair/service centres, luckily all customers in India have accepted this as reality and dont expect any better from any of them.

I am told towards the evening that the bonnet is not finished and they can deliver the car only on the next day, i am left with no transport and am spending extra money to move around the city.

Day 9: Saturday, June 18th, 2011- I call the carnation people in the morning to find out that repairs are still being carried out on the car- fed up i shout @ the manager and whoever else is on the phone- they say painting of the car bonnet is still pending and it will take till afternoon.

I call repeatedly and in the afternoon i am told that it will take till evening, i keep calling whosever number i can find and finally I am told the problem in the afternoon- "Sir actually there was a problem, we had kept your bonnet down for drying and someone drove over it", i looked @ the phone and said are you freaking serious??? what kind of clowns run this place??????

Mr Jagdish Khattar,

What would you do if you were in my place? wouldnt you want to sue this company for sheer negligence and lying to customers?

I shout and shout and shout finally getting a promise that everything will be fixed by evening- its been 9 days since my car went into your service centre- if it were up to me, i would have repaired this car myself had i known what a bunch of joker run your service centre.

Day 9: The car is finally delivered in the evening @ 8 o clock back to my office premises- the loss to me one whole week of peace thanks to amazing customer service standards in your centre.

I inspected my car and found that some other spare parts were used for the headlights... it doesnt look like the headlights replaced were original!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!- can you believe this !@#$???

So after shaking my head @ the pathetic excuse of service i pay the guy who came the money and take the car home.

If you have come this far, you can guess how customer service is provided by companies like bajajallianz and carnation, its so bad that i cant believe how these jokers are still in business.

Overall i blame bajajallianz more than carnation as insurance company should have known better than to trust such third rate service centres.

thanking you,

yet another disgusted customer...