Just imagine that one fine day you send your car for servicing, and a couple of hours later get a call that your car has been turned into ashes! Well, this nightmare is Venkatesh’s reality.It was a usual day for Mr. Venkatesh from Bangalore before he got a call at night from Lakshmi Hyundai service station that his car (Hyundai I20 magna petrol, 2009 model) had met an accident at the service centre.
He never imagined what was awaiting him, as it was a simple bumper replacement job, what could possibly have gone wrong?
But when Mr. Venkatesh reached the spot, he was shocked to see his car completely burnt.
When enquired, Mr. Venkatesh was told that the car caught fire because of the fog light that was not installed by the manufacturer. However Mr. Venkatesh believes that, ‘the car's ignition must have been left on, because of which it caught fire, had it been switched off how could it catch fire?"
The CCTV footage is also available and has been shown to Mr. Venkatesh, but the service station has refused to hand it over to him.
According to Mr. Venkatesh, the service station has been reckless on its part, as they did not even bother to call the fire brigade at the time of the incident to douse the fire or call the police to register the incident. It was Venkatesh who registered the Fire Accident report with the police.
Not just that, see the brazenness of the service station, they did nothing to stop the fire, instead had leisure time for some graffiti art later on. The heart shaped symbol made on Mr. Venkatesh’s burnt down car speaks about the casual attitude with which the situation was dealt.
But this was not it, the problems had just begun. When Mr. Venkatesh contacted his Insurance company on that matter, he was told that since the accident took place at the service station, it is not covered. Then Mr. Venkatesh asked the service station to pay for the loss, they simply refused stating that their insurance too does not cover such accidents.
Not only that, when he asked the service station to simply repair the car, they asked him to pay Rs. 2.5 lakh for the job.
However, after rounds of arguments and counter arguments, the final offer was that the service station will pay Rs. 1.75 lakh as compensation to buy a car of the same make and model, but anything above that amount will have to be paid by Mr. Venkatesh.
After losing all hopes of justice, Mr. Venkatesh simply asked them to give it in writing, to which the Director agreed to initially, but later on kept procrastinating before denying giving anything in writing.
Now Mr. Venkatesh is left high and dry, also he suspects that the political clout of the service station owner, who is a TDP MP, could be in play.
'I got to know that the service station belongs to a TDP leader Kambhampati Ram Mohan Rao. When I warned that if you don't give my car or don't do justice I will go to a Social platform to teach you a lesson, they said go ahead. They also threatened me and said do you want me to call the Chief Minister, he has my number do you want to speak with him?'
When Dailybhaskar.com got in touch with the service In-charge, he was reluctant to make any comment and asked us to call the admin. We then spoke to the Branch Director, who also chose to keep silent and asked us to call their lawyer, but did not respond when we asked for their lawyer’s contact number.
But here are some questions that need to be answered:
a) If the car had such fitment that violates its safety in some way, then why did the service station even accept to repair such a car in the first place.
B) In case the car gets stolen from the service station, can the management blame the customer since the car didn't have anti-theft device
c) Also to be noted that it was not the first time that Mr. Venkatesh got his car serviced from this service station. So why is the service station now using 'external fog lamps fitment' as the line of Defence?
Mr. Venkatesh has nowhere to go now, other than to fight a legal battle for his beloved possession that was turned to ashes in the premises of a Hyundai authorised service station.
So what do you think of this episode?
- Do you think Hyundai Motors should intervene in this matter and take stock of the situation.
- Is it the customer's fault or is the service centre playing foul?
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