Nightmare with Skoda and its dealer

@Harish, sorry to hear about your traumatic experience with the Skoda dealer Nummer Eins. But I am not really clear as to why your relationship with Skoda plunged to such depths.

After all, to Skoda's credit:

1. They sent their expert to evaluate your car and to his credit he gave an honest assessment.

2. They replaced all fake parts in your car free of cost.

3. They eventually terminated the dealership of Nummer Eins.

All of these actions indicate a basic sincerity on the part of Skoda to rectify the grievous injustice done to you by their dealer Nummer Eins. Your only complaint against Skoda at this stage was that they asked you to sign an undertaking to the effect that the spurious parts 'were not ascertained to have been put in by their dealer', before letting you take delivery of your car.

To me this statement does not imply that they asked you to "accept" that their dealer did not commit the fraud. It simply asserts that they (Skoda) did not have conclusive proof that their dealer was responsible. And isn't that true? How could Skoda be certain that their dealer did this, even if circumstantial evidence points in that direction? They did terminate the dealership, but I can bet that the official reason given by Skoda would not have been the suspected involvement of the dealer (Nummer Eins) in this fraud.

Probably Skoda's lawyer might have suggested this requirement for you to sign the statement, in order to ensure that legal action is not eventually taken against Skoda at a later stage, either by you or by the dealership (Nummer Eins).  What you could have done at this stage was to consult a lawyer and then frame a statement that was mutually acceptable to you and Skoda, and then sign it. Then you could have taken possession of your car, now as good as new, and put this traumatic incident behind you.

Anyway, I wish you all the best and I do hope the judgement comes out in your favour.

[ http://in.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=sradhakr1&p=r ] & [ http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0504115 ] & [ http://www.worldscinet.com/ijqi/08/0803/S021974991000640X.html ]

Well, tomorrow evening I am going to put it up on Wikipedia - anyone who wants to know about Skoda can know about this incident - it will make them kinda shit in their pants - will affect their image adversely everywhere.

Srinivasan, Skoda had authorized Nummer Eins as a service center. they should have done their homework and ensured nothing of this sort would happen to a customer. ever. does it take the swapping of almost 400,000 bucks worth of parts and jeopardy of life to bring this thievery to light?

and after all is said and done, Nummer Eins has shut down and is ready to operate in the same line under a different name. what does Skoda do? ask Harish to sign a statement that absolves Nummer Eins of all blame. if Skoda could not be certain that Nummer Eins did indeed swap the parts - despite their engineer certifying the fact -, how can Skoda be certain of anything? do people swap parts on their own and hit dead bulls for kicks?

instead of apologizing unconditionally and rectifying damage to Harish to the best of their ability, Skoda has the cheek to countersue and keep the case running for a year. I really fail to see what they did right here.

and Jvalant, Wikipedia already carries Skoda's misdeeds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skoda_Auto#Criticism

the talk page is funny. enjoy.

This is serious! It an happen to anybody! Everyone works with ASS with a certain degree of trust - I for one, would not / cannot check whether the brake shoes in the car are genuine or duplicate, particularly when the ASS plays such mischief. There is no proof in these circumstances either that the part is replaced by the ASS or somewhere else in an unauthorized garage by a private mechanic.

How does one guard against this kind of fraud? Seems the individual car owner will be vulnerable to this and there is not safeguard possible. One usually signs the paper saying everything is to my satisfaction (else the ASS won't release the car anyways, so you sign!)

it will be impractical to check all parts for such replacements at each service, so Whattodo?

We are paying the price of the car, spares, repairs etc., as demanded by the manufactures/dealers/ASS.  Then why all this??  

It is their responsibility to conduct their businesses ethically & honestly and fulfill the trust we confer on them. 

Else, like Krishna said, it's virtually impossible for us to check/ascertain each & every part for its genuineness.  And even if we desire to, majority of us do not have the required expertise to do that.

Honesty is not a Spare Wheel that you pull out when in trouble. It's a Steering Wheel that keeps you on the right path throughout the life's journey.

@Venkat: Please take an objective look at the facts. The engineer certified that fake parts were fitted to the car. But can Harish *prove in a court of law* that the parts were swapped by Nummer Eins? Note that Harish had taken delivery of the car from Nummer Eins and only discovered at a later stage that the car had fake parts in it. If the fraud had been discovered before accepting delivery, Harish would have a stronger case. Note also that we do not know if the management of Nummer Eins was involved.

However, from the fact that Skoda had agreed to replace all parts free of cost, we may conclude that Skoda accepted that Nummer Eins was probably responsible, and later terminated their dealership. So why would Skoda want a statement from Harish that Nummer Eins was not "ascertained" to be responsible for this fraud? In my opinion, Skoda feared that Harish would take delivery of the car and then sue Skoda and/or Nummer Eins in a court of law for further compensation. It appears to me that the relationship between Harish and Skoda deteriorated to a point where mutual trust was lost and that is the source of the problem.

If Skoda believed that Harish would take further legal action after delivery, it would be better from Skoda's point of view not to accept any liability at all in the first place and fight the case strictly on its legal merits. Which is probably why Skoda refused to deliver the car unless Harish paid for the replaced parts. Now everything depends on whether the evidence produced by Harish will stand up in a court of law and prove the culpabilty of Nummer Eins in this fraud. I sincerely hope it would and Harish gets full redressal for all the losses and mental agony suffered by him.

[ http://in.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=sradhakr1&p=r ] & [ http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0504115 ] & [ http://www.worldscinet.com/ijqi/08/0803/S021974991000640X.html ]

Hi Harish!

Really very sad to know about this, I didn't ever expected this from Skoda Auto auto, really shame on it. 

Consumer courts are not that much strict to evidences unlike criminal courts. So there is good chance to prove this case.

I also agree to Srinivasan's point of view that the statement they sought was to avoid further legal suits.

But here our responsibility is to educate potential buyers of Skoda cars regarding the underlying threats in the form of cost of maintainance and unethical practices of dealers. Why should a consumer suffer such hardships after paying that much for a premium car as there are better options available in the market.

My moral support is for Harish to continue the fight against the corporate.

And this case is not an exception. We can see many a Nummer Eins around here also.

You can live in your car, but you can't drive your house.

Dear Harish,

Sad to read about the trauma. I will try my level best to bring this thread to the notice of Skoda India.

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Hi Harish,

You thread sends shiver through my spine. I can imagine the irony you are facing and would like to applaud your spirit of fighting for truth.

As far as a consumer is concerned, he has 2 options after buying a car.

1. To get it serviced and maintained by an authorised dealer and pay a bomb for an assurance that his car has been worked upon by company trained mechanics and has been fitted with genuine parts.

2. Get his car serviced by a roadside mechanic who is much lighter on the pocket but no guarantee of originality of spares which have been fitted.

There is a large gap between the 2, the first one charges a bomb and even then we see cases like Harish's where he has been cheated by the dealership. The second option obviously is never by choice. Its a compromise to save our hard earned money.

I hate to say that I am no exception. Owning 2 SUVs is a pain in the pocket. While my scorpio goes to the authorised service station, my JEEP is happy with the roadside mechanic, it never complains.

May the FOURs be with you - JEEP