I own a Maruti SX4 purchased six months back. I had gone for the second free service of the vehicle to the local Maruti dealer's workshop at Roorkee (Uttaranchal). The service adviser gave me an estimate of Rs.1200/- for a so-called free service!!! On enquiry, he told me that since tyre rotation will be done, it will required wheel balancing and alignment of the vehicle and I shall have to pay for it. When I asked him that why should wheel balancing and alignment be done just after 5000 kms, since the vehicle is not showing any running problem and abonormal tyre wear, they told me that if you don't want this work to be done we shall not do it. However, in such a case, we shall not be responsible if the vehicle does not perform satisfactorily. They then reduced the estimate to a mere Rs. 70/-!!! I returned without getting the car serviced, since I was put off by their behaviour.
I have gone through the owner's manual given by the company carefully but did not find any mention of the requirement of wheel balancing and alignment with tyre rotation. I then visited the company website and submitted a query asking what was the company position/recommendation on the requirement of balancing/alignment with wheel rotation. Despite repeated requests, the company refused to provide me a clear reply. Instead, they wrote back that I should contact with one of their dealers/workshops for this clarification. It appears that the company is in collusion with its dealers/authorized workshops to fleece the customers.
I have tried to search their website for the name or address of a suitable official to whom complaint can be made, but could not find one except the same "Contact Us" link which does not want to commit anything. Despite a lot of hullabulloo about their service network, they have not provided any greivance-redressal mechanism. They should have appointed some senior executive to look into the complaints and provided his contact details on their website.
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