Battery of my Honda Civic used to go down if the car was not driven for a day. I faced this problem from December 2009 - December 2010 with Ring Road Honda Gurgaon and subsequently Honda Motors repeatedly telling me that battery needed repalcement. In the end after umpteen checks they figured out that there was a problem with the car!

Given below is the copy of interaction (starting from bottom-abridged due to 10000 charaters limit) that I had with Honda explaning the harassment that I went through:

•Kind Attn : Mr.Rahul Pasrija‏
To see messages related to this one, group messages by conversation.

21-12-2010

rahul pasrija
12/20/2010 04:51 PM To honda motors ,
cc
Subject RE: Kind Attn : Mr.Rahul Pasrija

Dear Nikita

Thanks for a prompt response this time. Just so you know, the first complaint on this topic was made to Honda One to One in August 2010 and the one in October 2010 was a follow up of that. Trust you have gone through my initial mail in this mail trail.

This car was taken to Ring Road Honda Gurgaon (And not Delhi) for the same issue in January 2010.

And now the car has been rectified (as of now) without change of the battery. Though we would come to know only in next few months if it has been actually rectified.

As a customer of yours I would be very keen to know the actions that you would take so as to avoid this kind of inconvenience to the customers. Hence please let me know.

Regards

Rahul Pasrija
________________________________________
To: rpasrija@hotmail.com
CC: customercareservice@automaxhonda.com; crm@rrhonda.com
Subject: Kind Attn : Mr.Rahul Pasrija
From: customer_relations@hondacarindia.com
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:40:14 +0530


Dear Sir,

This is in reference to your mail dated December 20,2010.

Your concern pertaining to frequent discharge of battery was received on October 30,2010, and battery replacement was advised on November 1,2010 by M/s Ring Road Honda,Delhi. Your car reported at M/s Automax Honda, Delhi for same concern and post rectification,car has been delivered on December 14,2010.

We thank you for appreciating efforts of our team M/s Automax Honda, Mr.Rakesh Kumar,Area Manager-Service and Mr.Amit Chhabra,Area Manager-Sales.

We are taking up the matter with M/s Ring Road Honda,Delhi.We thank you for your valuable feedback which will enable us improvise our services.

For any further query/concern,kindly revert.

With Regards,

Nikita Saluja
Customer Relationship Management
Honda Siel Cars India Ltd. ,Greater Noida

rahul pasrija 12/20/2010 01:32 PM To honda motors
cc
Subject Improtant - Please Read & Act : Disappointment with Honda, Honda Civic and Dealer Response

Dear Head - Customer Relations

I do not know if you received my earlier mails because I never got any reply from you. Least I expect from you is to read this mail and send a reply.

I got in touch with Amit Chhabra and Rakesh Kumar (Service guys in Honda in Delhi) and through them sent my car to Automax in Delhi. I got the same reaction first time that battery was not ok though the dealer guy was at least honest enough to mention that he was not able to prove this technically! And Exide gave another report in the month of November that battery was ok.

After that Rakesh's (Honda Service) stepped in and got the Honda folks to talk to dealer and it was identified that some wire related to lock was not in good shape and there was a leakage through that/actuator was not working. Rakesh told me that he had introduced/communicated this step/procedure to all the dealers.

I am using the car now and will monitor this.

I hope Honda is humble enough to learn a lesson from this also take appropriate actions to improve upon responses from Dealers and Honda One to One team. I suffered from this problem for more than a year due to negiligence on part of Ring Road Honda and HMSI.

And I also want to take this opportunity to put on record my appreciation of Rakesh Kumar and Amit Chhabra for the way they handled this whole thing.

Thanks & Regards

Rahul Pasrija


________________________________________
From: rpasrija@hotmail.com
To: customer_relations@hondacarindia.com
Subject: Disappointment with Honda Civic and Dealer Response
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 08:11:11 +0000

Hello

Here are details of the car that I have:
Honda Civic, Registeration Date - 16.03.2007, Registeration No. - DL4CAH1813, Issue No. - 101001274 with Honda One to One.

I got the original battery replaced in around December 2008. This is an Exide Battery. Around November/December 2009 I started facing issues i.e. the battery would go down if there car was not driven for a day. I got the car started a few timed with help from Exide 24 hrs helpline.

Then in January 2010 when the problem persisted, I took my car to Ring Road Honda. Ring Road folks did not show any major interest in checking it out may be since they did not see any revenue coming from this. But the car was parked there for 1.5 days and it did not start. I was given a report that gravity was low and hence I needed to replace my battery.

I showed the report to the Battery Dealer in Gurgaon and the battery was sent to Exide. I got a report from Exide that battery was fine in February/March 2010. In the meanwhile I was using the service battery given by the battery dealer for 2 months or so. While I did not face issues with service battery for first 5 weeks or so, after that I founf out that even with service battery when the car was not driven for 2 days the battery went down in 6th week. That is when I thought there could be an issue with the car.

Anyways I got the fully charged battery in March/April from Exide (as they said that battery was ok) and started using it. Again I faced this problem (car not starting after being not driven for a day) from May onwards and kept getting the car started with help from Exide Mobile. Since I was travelling a lot I could not contact Honda or the Dealer.

In August I decided to contact since I did not have a pleasant experience with this issue with Ring Road. Honda one to one connected me with the same dealer. I went to them and this time they actually had a battery tester (which was never used earlier). This was the same battery ( given back to fully charged by the battery dealer) when it was tested with the battery tester at Ring Road Honda. And the report was that the battery was fine!!! Again the car was there with the dealer for 2 days or so and they claimed to have tested thoroughly and found no issues. I think the dealer reported to Honda that I was told to change my battery. Please check and confirm your reacords and let me know as how can the dealer tell me to change the battery if the battery tested report was ok for Battery. And also please note that same battery which was not found ok by Ring Road Honda in January 2010 was founf to be ok by the same dealer in August 2010.

After a month around September 20th or so I started facing same issue again i.e. car not starting if it was not driven for a day. Ring Road Honda took the car away and charged me for all that and did not find any problem with the car. They said battery needed to be charged and they charged it. Colonel Sehgal and Santosh Prasad from the dealership assured me that I would not face any problems henceforth. Since the battery was getting charged it also meant the battery did not seem to have any issue. And the assured me that they did not find any leakage in the car too. I had observed a trend of the battery going down if the car was not driven after a day cropping up after a month or two once the battery was fully charged. I told the same to the Dealer guys but they assured me that this would not recur and guaranteed that they would take care if this were to recur.

I started facing the same issue last week. The car was not driven on 28th and 29th October and on 30th morning the battery was down. I approached the dealer folks and they said both colonel sehgal and Santosh were now working in different locations other than Gurgaon service centre. And they said they would look into this but clearly this was another routine check for them and not continuation of an old issue!

I was disappointed to put it mildly. I contacted Honda one to one on 30th October morning after all this and they were able to pull off my old complaint. Surpirsingly in Honda books the matter was closed by Dealer mentioing that I was advised to change my battery! How can that be when the battery was found to be ok by their battery tester! I have the report with me. In last 3-4 days various people from Dealers and Honda One to one have called me. While the dealer is telling me to change the battery, I have told both Honda One to One and Dealer that inspite of all the hassels that I have faced with this car and dealer I am willing to get the batter changed. But I want a wrriten assurnace and action plan from Dealer/Honda that what would be the actiosn taken if I were to face a simialr problem in next 6 months! No one has come back to me. I am told by Hond One to One that this is escalated upwards at Honda but no further details are forthcoming.

I have no option but to write such a long mail because I have been harassed over this issue for last 10-11 months now and feel disillusioned after buying a Honda car. I have a 7-8 year old Santro which runs well and has never given me such trouble.
I would appreciate a clear answer to my problem and an action plan. I hope it is not too much to ask in return for buying a " premium" car.

Thanks

Rahul Pasrija