Lakshmi Tata - Car broke down due to negligent service provided by Lakshmi Tata dealership

We had serviced our **+ years old Tata Manza car at the Lakshmi Tata dealership at OMR, Chennai on **st Oct ****. Our vehicle number is TN** BF****.

The car broke down in the middle of the road on *th Feb ****, I had got it towed to the Lakshmi Tata service center on the same day. We had been told that both our drive shafts were damaged due to breakage of the engine bed and bolts. Cost of spare parts - * shafts alone worked out to **, *** (without labor) and total service quoted on *th Feb **** was **, *** where the cost of engine bed alone was only **** including labor.

Our car was only sparingly used that too within the City limits post the service on **st Oct **** having driven less than ****KMS before which the breakdown happened.

We had raised a complaint with the Tata Motors Customer Care (# *-************) on *th Feb **** asking for ownership & accountability from the dealership for the service they had carried out prior to this breakdown. If this engine bed and bolts were replaced during our service on **st Oct **** proactively, it would have costed us only **** as mentioned above and not resulted in damage to the * drive shafts whose spare parts cost alone is **, ***. Also this would have prevented the car breaking down in the middle of the road when we were travelling along with our kid putting our life at great risk.

After having multiple conversations with the Lakshmi Tata dealership and their GM, Mr. Kirubakaran we didn't get a positive response for the ownership from them. Next we reached the Tata Customer Care Senior Manager - Mr.Prabu who also colluded with the dealership team and repeated the same stance the dealership team took. We next reached to the Tata Motors Regional Customer Care Head South Zone* - Mr. Thirumal Marugan. We had a long conversation with him on **th Feb **** post which also the case is still open for more than *+ months. During that conversation he did not provide explicit answers to our direct questions on the life of this engine bed, whether this would be replaced only after break down in all instances and not during the service. Till date we have sent multiple emails to both the dealership as well as Tata Motors Customer Care team asking them to respond explicitly by providing a direct answer to these queries but they are not clarified and remain unanswered.

During this time we had to undergo lot of hardship without our car for our house shifting and other needs. Due to non-availability of our car we were forced to use other means of transport for our daily and occasional needs which resulted in our entire family including kid being infected with Covid in Apr'****.

We have been trying to get this resolved within Lakshmi Tata dealership and hence tried to reach out to the Head Office (Dealership) and Tata Motors Head office. We were not able to locate the Dealership Head Office contact details and there was no answer from the Tata Motors Head Office Landline numbers.

In July'** post our covid recovery, we again re-initiated this conversation as our car was left with Lakshmi Tata service center for all these days. There was no follow-up from the dealership team post **th Mar **** till **th July ****. Considering the aging of the issue & since we were unable to reach a common ground on this issue with the Dealership as well as Tata Motors Customer Care team, we had requested the Dealership GM, Mr. Kirubakaran for the MD contact details of Lakshmi Tata to seek his help in resolving this issue amicably. But he had rudely declined this request to me over call. We had sent him multiple emails requesting for the same, however he has ignored this request and not shared the contact details of the Dealership MD nor declined explicitly in email.

We were offered ****/- discount on labor and ****/- discount on spare parts by the dealership GM. Same was forwarded by the Tata Motors Senior Customer Care Manager Mr. Prabu, Regional Customer Care Head Mr. Thirumal Marugan and Mr. Nilesh Gupte who handles national level position. We had also reached out to Mr. Dimple Mehta, Customer Care Head India (PVBU) in Linkedin but his stance also remains the same. We had even forwarded our request over email to Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Board, Tata Motors.

Being a loyal Tata Motors Customer for ** long years and doing all our services only with the Authorized Tata Dealerships, we expected ownership and accountability from the dealer for the negligent service provided due to which the car broke down. We had always gone with Tata Dealership service recommendations to ensure smooth running of the car in all our prior services.

If the weak engine bed were changed during the service (on **st Oct ****) this issue would have never occurred. Service is a preventive measure and should focus on checking the quality of all spare parts and replacing when necessary.

The dealership stand remains that they will not take accountability for this issue and have already provided the best discounts possible from their side as a goodwill gesture. The Tata Motors Customer Car team is also repeating the same stance of the dealer and forcing us to give approval for doing the repairs or asking us to pay ***/- parking charges per day for our vehicle being kept in the dealership premises from the date of receipt. The dealership GM, Mr.Kirubakaran on his email has given us a deadline of Aug *th to approve their service quote failing which they would move our car to the stockyard wherein they would not be responsible for any damage due to natural calamities. To this email, Mr.Thirumal, Regional Customer Care Head, South*, Tata Motors had asked us to visit the dealership in person for any clarifications as he has not answered our direct questions explicitly over email.

We had visited the dealership service center today as requested both by Dealership GM and Mr. Thirumal. But post visit it has only strengthened our understanding that the * drive shafts damage due to the breakdown of engine beds B and C (on *th Feb ****) could have been prevented if due diligence was carried out by the dealership service team ensuring the customer safety aspects during our prior service with them on **st Oct ****. Also this incident could have caused a greater damage or risk to our lives if we had taken this car out of city.

We have already undergone a lot of hardship during this period without our car, and the effort spent on calls & multiple email exchanges with the dealership, Tata Customer care, Tata Head Office, Tata Customer care follow up team has only added to our agony and frustration. It has taken a heavy toll on my mental health leading to depression as well as affecting my family peace of mind. My kid who is also at home due to the pandemic situation is also getting into a depression by observing our pain, suffering due to the lackluster attitude of the dealership & Tata Motors Customer care team who are only beating around the bush in all their conversations and emails and trying to pass on the buck to the customer rather than bring this issue to a closure.

Looking forward to your assistance to get this issue resolved at the earliest since our car is lying unused with the dealership for * months now. We require the dealership to take ownership and accountability for replacing the * drive shafts which got damaged only due to their negligence during service.