Sunday, December 7, 2008

Incompetant HMSI !

Not really the usual thing to do at 6am on a Sunday morning. My fear of procrastinating and thereby not doing justice to the respect I have on Honda and to condemn the poor service its dealers offer, especially after the foolish mistake of Planet Honda, which was The Topic of last evening's laugh, eventually made me compose "It", while I still had the fire inside:

"
To,
The dealer development manager,
Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India limited,
Manesar

I had a leaky left front fork and I took my Unicorn to the authorised Silicon Honda in lalbagh road, Bangalore. They replaced the oil seal, charged me Rs 410 (190+150+70). Within the next 3 days, oil started leaking from teh top brdge bolt. With this complaint I visited Planet Honda service centre in Chandra layout, Bangalore. The mechanic said it was an oil seal issue and needs to be replaced. Agreeing, I handed over the fork, which I had removed.
Instead of using the T-shaped special tool, with a 10mm square tip and a 6mm Allen key to remove the fork pipe, the mechanic mauled a circlip plier into the oil seal and plucked it out. This inturn hit the chrome tube, cutting a 5mm long, 1 mm wide, 0.22mm deep cut on the tube. He handed over the defective seal to me and I could see NO single damage on the seal except for the circlip cut he had just made. The actual issue was a defective O-ring at the top cup bolt which was leaking oil from the top.
He then bought a new oil-seal from the planet honda stores, which bears the numbers 31-43-10.3 BR2139F ID 22. The worst part is yet to come. He assembles the tube and gave it to me and I put it on my bike with the recommended quantity and grade of fork oil only to see fountains of oil spilling out profusely. I used to lose nearly 3ml of oil in 10km of city riding. Fed up with planet honda, I took the bike back to silicon honda. The 'HMSI trained' technicians, without even removing the dust cover carelessly said, the tube is gone, and I need to replace a tube for Rs. 600. Losing faith on their workmanship, because of their careless attitude, I decided to fix the problem myself. I opened up the fork with the special tool, to find that that "Honda Trained" technician of planet honda had mounted the oil seal in reverse direction. This is The Most Careless kind of mistake any lay-man could afford to do while installing an oil seal, not mentioning of 'Honda technicians' in India. I later bought another new set for Rs. 190 (a third set of oil seal for the left fork) and installed it myself and I'm happy about my 'workmanship'.
This is not all. One year ago, Silicon Honda digs a 4mm deep dent on my fuel tank, when I had given my bike for wheel truing. When complained, they say it existed much before, which was an obvious, but not so good reply to someone who can tell the dimension and location of every single scratch on his bike, blindfold. Every evening I see people shouting at Planet Honda Chandra layout, their Blood pressure soaring high, their veins in their forehead swollen with blood, complaining of poor workmanship.
This is Not the quality of work we customers expect from you, atleast for the money we pay if not for the Honda brand name. This will spoil the name of Honda in our country I tell you. Honda CBF-150 is a global launched vehicle with excellent performing record as a street commuter bike in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Please dont spoil its name giving it in the hands of such irresponsible and incapable service personnel.
I'm expecting a reply to this query from you, and a promise to improve their quality systems and technical capabilities, failing which, I shall be highlighting this issue in the media, atleast to let out my frustration.

Yours Truly,
Subramanyam N
"