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Another Honda City customer with clutch problems

Yesterday, I received a call from Mr. Rajiv Gupta who also had a problem with Honda City clutch. His clutch failed at 31,000 kms. He was told by Honda that its because of normal wear and tear. Honda can’t seem to get its story right because they had told me that my cltch faled because I was “riding the clutch.” Now rajeev had the same reasoning as I had for his unhappiness, that is, when one buys Honda, one is assuming that one is buying quality and one does not expect the clutch and flywheel to fail at 30,000 kms.

Now he wanted to talk to senior Honda executives. I think Rajeev really believes that Honda customer care brand “HondaOne2One” is the philosphy at Honda. He doesn’t know that senior executives at Honda Car only know how to take customer’s money. They don’t like talking to irate customers.

Anyway, I decided to again pursue Honda to at least resolve Rajiv’s problem even though they have not resolved mine. So, as before, I am sending customer dissatisfaction cards to Honda executives hoping that better sense will prevail and they will hopefully realize that “Customer is truly the King.”

(a) Mr. Takedagawa, President, Honda Siel Cars India Ltd.
I am sending him “Don’t turn me into a Customer Iceberg” customer complaint card with the following handwritten message _ “It seems that you do have a problem with your clutch system. Dr. Rajiv Gupta (9891349999) also had his clutch system fail at 31,000 km. He was told it was because of normal wear and tear. I was told that I was riding the clutch. If you want to find others with clutch problems, just type “clutch problems honda city.” You are turning a lot of your customers into customer icebergs who will in due course cause damage to your business.”

(b) Mr. P Chakravarty, General Manager – Service, Honda Siel Cars India Ltd.
I am sending him “Losing me will make achieving your sales and profit targets difficult” Customer Math customer complaint card with the following handwritten message – “You may want to call Dr. Rajiv Gupta (9891349999). He has a clutch problem too. Also, its a sad day that your dissatisfied customers are calling me to find out how to make you guys start thinking about the customer. Also, type “clutch problems honda city” on Google and see what you get.

Isn’t it surprising that Mr. Chakravarty has not bothered to call me. After all, it is his responsibility that Honda car customers are satisfied. If talking to dissatisfied customers is a waste of time for him then I don’t know what his primary responsibility is. You know the Japanese say that if any person or any activity is not adding value to the customer, you should eliminate that person and stop that activity. It is possible that the junior engineer who is handling this issue is thinking of the trees rather than the forest. When you find a customer is making so much effort as I have made, if I was in Mr. Chakravarty’s position, I would have not called but visited the customer and resolved the complaint. He should start thinking of a complaint as a blessing in disguise. Mr. Chakravarty should know that he cannot do his job properly till customers complaint.

I would also suggest that the primary responsibility of the president / CEO of the company is to ensure that its customers are satisfied. Everything else comes later. Now I can understand that Honda guys do not want to visit me because I am a problem customer and maybe I am trying to cheat Honda. But what about Dr. Gupta. At least, Honda executives should resolve his complaint and if necessary meet him. Just denying there is a problem will not make the probl;em go away.

Now taking my past experience into consideration, Honda executives are going to ignore thinking “what kind of customers we get.” I hope they realize that whatever kind of customers we may be, we are paying the food on their table.

Avinash Narula

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