Honda - Even we screw!!

I am right now sitting in customer lounge of Honda Service Station, (Sainikpuri, RK Puram, Secunderabad AP, India), been here for almost an hour, in spite of calling them before I started to the service station. I had very clearly asked them if the bike is ready and specifically if the bike is washed. They said it will be ready in 10mins and I can come down to collect it. It takes good 30mins for me to reach the service station and to my surprise the bike is not washed. So, they made me wait for another 30mins to wash it and 15mins more to dry it. That’s 45mins gone…

So, I take the invoice generated to check what was done and for what I have been charged. They had charged me 12.5% of sales tax for few new parts and 10.3% of service tax. I wanted to see the cover of the original parts as mostly these parts come with MRP which means the sales tax is included – which I was not sure of… so, I did not stress much on that. All of this takes another 15mins.

I go to the cash counter to make a payment, I give them my debit card and was told that I will be charged 1.5% extra if it is a debit or credit card… So, I asked the cashier to provide me a bill mentioning the 1.5% extra charge, and again to my surprise she said she cannot give any bill for that 1.5%. I was pissed the very second she told me that and went to the manager to get this issue cleared. But neither could he do anything about it, I am writing this as the store manager is calling up the zonal sales manager.

This happens in most of the stores in my country but did not expect this from Honda. I did little bit of research and found that it is actually illegal for any store to charge extra fee for using a debit or credit card. I think that’s the reason Honda is not ready to give me a bill mentioning that 1.5%.

Finally, the sales manager is on phone and tells me that it is the bank which charges 1.5% for every transaction and they pass that charge over to the customer… I explained him that it is illegal to do that, again to my surprise he knows that it is illegal but tries explaining to me that if every customer uses the debit or credit card facility then they will have a 1.5% loss on their total profit. Anyways, I told him that I really don’t care about that and either I need a bill for that 1.5% or stop charging, not just for me but for everyone from now on.

Anyways, they did not charge me 1.5% but I am sure they will continue charging others who don’t ask about it.

All I want to say is… like all other companies Honda screws too.