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Ensuring quality service at service centre

Whenever I give my car for servicing, the company’s service centre gives me a long list of work to be undertaken and accordingly hands over a huge bill.

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Pushpa Girimaji

Whenever I give my car for servicing, the company’s service centre gives me a long list of work to be undertaken and accordingly hands over a huge bill. My car is just three years old and is sparingly used; it has done just 25,000 km in the last three years and I drive it myself and look after it well. After the completion of the first year of free service, I have found the service centre billing me for a number of items, which it claims are absolutely essential to keep the car in good condition. I am not so sure though. My question is how does one know whether the car requires all these services and that the service centre is not just taking me for a ride?

You have asked a very relevant question. Manufacturers insist on car owners servicing their vehicles only at their authorised service centres. This is meant to ensure that the service is done as per schedule and as per the requirements specified by the company, while at the same time ensuring that only genuine spare parts are used. The manufacturer is also supposed to certify these service centres and ensure that their service matches the specified quality. The manufacturer is also expected to exercise adequate control over the authorised centres through regular inspections to ensure that these centres are not misleading consumers or charging them for services not required or for spare parts not used.

But the question is: do manufacturers really exercise that kind of strict control over them and ensure strict scrutiny of their work? In the absence of such monitoring, one cannot overrule the possibility of these authorised service centres carrying out more work than required or recommended by the manufacturer, just to earn more. It’s like going to a private hospital that may suggest unnecessary tests just to make an extra buck and also recover the investment on new machines that may have been bought. For example, the service centre may do wheel balancing even though it is not recommended by the manufacturer. And like branded and generic drugs, the rates for various services fixed by an authorised centre might be much more than non-authorised centres for the same service and quality.

So, before giving your car for servicing, check the manufacturer’s list of what is required to be done. Fortunately today, most manufacturers have an application or an app that consumers can download and get this information as well as the approximate cost. I would suggest that you keep yourself well-informed and if the service centre asks for more than what is mandated, question them and confront them with the manual. If they do not follow the manual, complain to the manufacturer. This will ensure that your service centre does not take you for a ride by billing you for tasks or services not required to be done on your car.

How does one know that the service centre is providing all the services it is charging for?

I admit that today it is very difficult for a consumer to know whether the service centre is providing all the services for which they are charging. However, in this age of digital communication, introducing transparency is not at all difficult. In fact, it should become mandatory for every service centre to put CCTV cameras so that one can watch the work being undertaken on the car even sitting at home. If those who are executing the work can also give an explanation about the work, it would fully serve the purpose.

Consumers should demand such a facility. After all, the service charge is not cheap and this is one way of bringing transparency in the servicing of these vehicles. As consumers, we also need to break the monopoly of the manufacturers’ authorised service centres. What we need is an agency certifying all service centres on the basis of certain quality parameters drawn up for the purpose. This will usher in competition in the vehicle services sector and bring down the cost of servicing, which is considerably high at the moment. Similarly, rating of these service centres would also help consumers choose the best in terms of both quality and pricing.

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