@ Akash - Sorry for this delayed post as I was out of action due to many reasons which I explained in this post.
Guys sorry for longest post in my life.
Hello Everyone,
It was action packed couple of months for me. Firstly I was down with my left shoulder injury which forced me out of ACTION for few weeks. Secondly the car had first servicing done, then some action packed post service interactions with Skoda and Service Center to sort out the morning knocking issue and then back to normal life.
First Service Experience :
Firstly, the first service review was long pending as promised to Amit and TAIns. I wil try to update it briefly.
This time I booked service with Europa auto with my fingers crossed as I was not happy with overall problem solving abilities of Asset Auto. But this turned out to be good decision for me. When I reached the service center on the appointment date, my job card was ready (I can say pre-ready). The SA came with job card with my details and the details for which I booked the service. I was impressed. This small step saves a lot of time for SA and customer. Keep it up!
The overall customer onboarding was nice and I could get out of service center within 30 mins as I reached early and my job card was ready in advance.
Car was ready on the same day evening as per my request but I could not make it to service center as my meetings got extended. So requested the delivery of the car the next day.
Next Day Morning @ Service Center -
Before finalizing the bill, the SA started explaining the bill and job done. I asked him to hand over the job card and other details for me to go through it.
Following are my observations.
Job Card Detailing - I was surprised to see many supplementary print outs attached to my job card.
Following were the attachments that I saw with the Job card.
1. The service task list generated from skoda central system for my VIN no. I have never seen something like this before so went in details for my satisfaction. What I observed, they really worked on this checklist as I could see the tyre tread readings also updated in there.
2. Service History - All the service history/job card details. This also had the details of my past visits to Asset Auto. I was happy to see that slowly Skoda is trying on service experience and Service center is working as per the process.
3. VAS scan report print out of my car. All tests passed.
Since I personally went thru these print outs, SA had little to explain it to me. He said, I am the first one who is going though so many details but he never complained. Tea was served while I was going through the print outs. Again, good courtesy to customer.
Billing - I was presented with Proforma Invoice for review. During review, I observed that they added the filter replacement labor charges (3 diff. filters @ 100 each). I objected on this and showed them one of the bills from Banglore where it was not charged. The front office incharge was quick to remove those charges and final bill was made. Total bill was 9443.
Before payment of the bill, Front office incharge asked me to take the test ride of the car. We had a quick test ride of around 5 KMS and all seemed OK. As experienced earlier, the payment was also very fast with no credit card surcharge. The bill was presented in a very nice folder. This was the last thing that I imagined. I really think Skoda is improving and now it needs a good support from service centers for follow standard process.
So with all good experiences I drove back home. The ride was very smooth and I was smiling on my way back home.
Few days post servicing - The cold start knocking ghost appeared again. This time, I decided "Yaa to main rahunga yaa to phir ye knocking". You know, there is a hero in everyone of us :).
Called up service center and they asked me to bring the car to service center. Now the new episode begins.
For first couple of days, they could not reproduce the issue as morning temperature was high. This issue always came when the temp. is low. By luck, next day temp. dropped and in morning the SA called me that he could reprodure the issue. Then the hunt for root cause started. Firstly they suspected EGR. But it was ruled out post few tests and explaination from my side. They wanted to check for oil consumption by putting in new oil and running the car for 333 kms (strange test)
. I explained them that the engine oil is just couple of hundred kms and they agreed to this test. Post this all of sudden white smoke issue cropped up. I think they messed up while testing the EGR. They rectified the same, then a big surprise came. They inspected the fuel lines and fuel pump. The fuel pump was not working properly. Replaced the pump in warranty. During the test post fuel pump change there were few vibrations observed by Europa Auto team so they checked for injectors. Cleaned the injectors. Till this point, I was constantly in touch with SA and they kept me updated on each step they are doing. They also offered me reimbursement of 1200 INR per day for my taxi travel as car was in service center for more than 3 days.
After couple of days, I got the call from SA and he asked me to visit the service center urgently and meet the GM of service for some issue with my car. I was surprised and went there with my fingers crossed. What I observed there was that they opened my fuel tank, there was fuel in one big barrel and they are again checking the injectors. There was Skoda technical person was also present. The General Manager greeted me and updated me that Skoda technical guy is claiming the issue is with fuel. I was surprised with this claim from technical person. The GM @ Europa supported my stand and shared with me the customer care mail id and phone no. I had few heated discussions / mail communications with little success. What I observed here is Europa is supporting customers but Skoda is not listening that much
. After few mail interactions, (This is new topic in itself I will update this in separate thread) I asked them to share with me the diesel testing report for the diesel which is taken out from my car infront of me. Not behind me. Afterwards no further comuunications. Meanwhile, Europa gave me a car for my daily commute and the car was ready to roll after 4 days from this incident. In total, the car was in service center for 13 days. The work done was cleaning of fuel lines and injectors with change of fuel pump.
I took the test ride of the car and man what a feeling. It looked like a new car with butter smooth performance. I checked all the details again on the job card and I could see they worked everyday on my car. One of the observation I had is that they updated the ECU software one day before the delivery of the car. Not sure if this is related to what Asset Auto did earlier with my ECu by setting it to adapt mode. But to my satisfaction things are good now.
Total bill was for the diesel replacement and fuel filter change - Total 2200 INR.
From this incident, I decided to observe the pattern for diesel quality and following are my observations and they are indeed very shocking and interesting.
I consumed most of the diesel filled by Europa Auto and then filled the diesel for 1000 Rs from COCO Pump at RTO. After few kms, the car started giving some vibrations and engine noise was also increased. After few days, I filled at Petrol pump at Wanawadi (Kedari Pump). To my surprise, the car again back to it's butter smooth experience. I decided that I will stick to this pump for few days. Till now, I filled there 3 times, (2 times 1000 Rs and last time it is tank full). Till today no vibrations, no engine noise.
I certainly doubt there is something wrong with RTO COCO Pump Diesel quality. When I checked my fuel logs, I observed that I was very regular to RTO COCO pump from 11K kms and from that point only the vibration and knocking issue started. I strongly recommend TAIns in Pune to avoid this pump. I know this is very strange request but due to my experience there, I dont was other members to suffer like me.
Now last my take on all these episodes. I am putting my fair views on all aspects -
1. Europa Auto is a good service center based on my experience. They have good setup as compared with Asset Auto and also competent staff. They care about the customers. Especially in all these days, GM @ Europa was all supportive to customers and this is good for customers.
2. Skoda has improved the service process. All trouble shooting is done along with Skoda technical team. Though this is time consuming, this makes sure that standard process is followed and I feel this is good in long run.
3. Skoda technical team tried to run away from issue with some vague answers. We need to be very careful about communications with them and we have to be proactive.
4. We have to be very careful about the diesel quality that we fill in the car. I think adulteration has increased a lot these days
5. After each visit to service center, I got the call from Skoda CRM team. This is good move and whatever inputs you give them, I observed that it gets documented. This is with my experience that when I gave the feedback about the knocking issue, next day I got call from Europa to enquire about it.
6. After the issue of knocking is resolved, I clocked around 1000 KMS and no issues so far.
Last but not least, after all these episodes, I took my car to temple, we offered the prayers and took the blessings from God. I think this is needed.