Bangalore
29 August 2009
To
Bajaj Auto Limited
Serice Department
Akurdi, Pune – 35
Subject:
(i) A pathetic bike called as Bajaj XCD and worse than road side service given on three occasions.
(ii) Declaration of the end of relationship with Bajaj
Yes, it may seem silly to the reader of this letter that a customer is writing a letter of this kind. However, after a ride on Bajaj XCD these words here do make sense. In case the officials at Bajaj have forgotten what is XCD, it is natural for them to forget as they release so many models every other day, I would like to remind that you had advertised it as a DTS-Si powered vehicle with a mileage of 108 kmpl. Of course, even after a dozen failure vehicles which don’t even deliver 65 kmpl, you keep on increasing it, say 180 kmpl for your next 280 DTSSSSSSSS-Siiiiiiiiii XulsarD vehicle?
Coming to the main point about the service provided at R.V. Bajaj, Bangalore. On each occasion of the first three services, I had complained to fix the gear-box problem or what I had also reported as the false-neutral problem. After shifting the gear from first to second or second-to-third or third-to-fourth, the gear-paddle (I don’t know the technical term, but if I was a technician I won’t need your engineering team afterall) won’t become stiff and I have to press it a dozen times to effectively move to the next gear. Of course, you will say “What the hell! Why is the customer cribbing? Let him press it a dozen times”. Let me tell you the worse consequences.
Adverse Effect of Gear-Box Problem. On a three-lane highway I want to move from one lane (speed limit 30kmph) to another lane with speed limit 60 kmph. For a speed at less than 30kmph, third gear is sufficient. I assume that the gear-paddle is stiff, and press the right-indicator and move into the higher speed lane. What happens? All the vehicles are moving at 60+ kmpl, and before I put your XCD into 4th gear and move at the right speed (remember, I have to press the gear-paddle a dozen times), I am sure to be killed by another speedy vehicle. Why should Bajaj care for the customer? After all, they have insured the customer with Bajaj-Allianz. Shame be on the cribbing customer. Really.
Having said the above, I don’t blame the service people (engineers or others) at R.V. Bajaj. This is because if these people were making mistakes, Bajaj would definitely terminate the dealership. Deep inside the team at Bajaj knows it’s a manufacturing defect. Of course, knowing this your team smartly propel the sales by giving XCD a different dress called as Platina 125, and XCD 135. Yes, your team is not guilty of cheating the customer.
Now, I would return to what I said in the Subject: Declaration of the end of relationship with Bajaj.
My father had first purchased a Chetak in the year 1986. I had purchased Caliber on 18 October 2001 and Boxer AT on 28 March 2002. The experience was good and hence I purchased XCD on the good-will and trust though Caliber was very expensive to maintain and on the average I spent more than Rs.5000 per year during the period 2004-2009. The cumulative experience is over forty years with Bajaj. However, the experience with XCD is turning out to be a nightmare, and the vehicle is this bad in the first 5000 kms, I dread thinking how expensive and futile it would be to maintain it over the next three years or 50K kms. I wasted Rs.50000/- of my hard-earned money on this crap product of yours. I dread to think the lethargic attitude of your time who are more interested in propelling the sales rather than make the existing customers feel good.
Keeping the all above in mind, I hereby declare that I won’t do anything more with Bajaj except for the last free service available for this XCD on 29 August 2009.
Yours truly,
Tattar Prabhanjan
[Tragic owner of a Bajaj XCD]
P.S:
(i) I am handing over this letter to the Manager of RV Bajaj, Bangalore. Either there or the TEAM of Bajaj may ignore this letter. So this letter is also posted on blogspot. I will also post this at mouthshut.com, and other bike forums.
(ii) Please don’t ever bother me with a phone call on my mobile. Your team simply sucks in fixing the problems in the vehicle and disturbs me more by the annoying calls asking for service satisfaction without even solving the problem.
