Tag Archives: Gurgaon

My Experience dealing with Carnation Auto in Gurgaon

Update: Another example of terrible service by Carnation.

My Experience dealing with Carnation Auto in Gurgaon

This is not the first time I am facing problem with rats in my car. It happened last year as well but stopped when I changed my parking location.

Apparently, my new parking is also not helping now. Noticing rat shit in my car for the last couple of days.

I decided to check out Carnation Auto here in Gurgaon as I had heard a lot about them. The multi-brand car solutions venture from the famous Jagdish Khattar!

So, I went to their center here in Gurgaon. Nice big place they have got. I entered the place. Told my problem to the service engineer.

I was sort of expecting his reaction. Rat? In a car? Is it alive? Or dead? I told him that I have no idea but it is probably alive. And it might not be in the car right now. I just want them to check the bottom of the car for any possible openings and close it. Just looking for a solution to my problem.

He looked around the car. Made some random comments like… it must be entering from the engine bay and stuff like that. I told him, that I am looking for a solution here. He said that they would need to keep the car with them for 2 days to check the problem thoroughly and only then they would be able to say anything about it. I said fine.

He took me inside their workshop to discuss it with the workers. I was sort of expecting their reaction as well. They laughed and they joked about it. One of them even joked with me that I must be feeding it good food and that’s why it is not leaving my car.

Not funny.

Tried explaining that it is a big nuisance for me and I want a resolution. Was asked to wait in the lobby while they discuss about it. Fine.

So, now I was sitting in the lobby waiting for some more details. I decided to check out their Facebook page for user comments. Did not took me long to realize that I was getting myself into trouble. Out of the latest 10 comments, two were from people in Gurgaon ranting about bad experience at this very center. One guy had stuff stolen from his car. Another one was delivered a car with faulty power windows. On both of the statements, the response was the same… Send us a mail to this email id and we would look into it. I know how social media teams work so I know that it is not going to change anything for the customers that were affected. Examples: 1 2 3 4 5

Thought for a second. Decided it was not worth it. I had been waiting for around 15 minutes anyways. Went to the parking area. Picked my car. And left the area. The same service engineer stopped me on the way out asking me what happened. Apparently, he was now dealing with new customers. Told him that I was leaving because no one seemed to be concerned about my problem. Also told him that online reviews about their facility were rather negative in nature and I really have no patience to deal with them right now.

Went to the Tata Service Center. Dropped my car there. Hopefully they would sort out the problem this time around.

Final Thoughts…

Jagdish Khattar promises a lot but fails to deliver. It is just another glorified third party service center. They cannot change the mentality of people working there. Most of them are hired from competing service centers anyways. I was not expecting anything magical. But my overall experience was worse compared to Car Plus. Folks at Car Plus actually tried to help me out when I went there last year. Carnation? I guess people like me are just not profitable enough to be taken seriously.

Radio Tuk Tuk Fail

So, I just called up Radio Tuk Tuk to book an auto. It’s 6AM in the morning. I was told that I cannot get one till 10AM.

I do not get it. If a person cannot book an auto 2 hours in advance at 6AM in the morning, why are they not expanding their fleet?

I would call up Autocall next. They are supposed to be open after 6:30AM.

Airtel EDGE went down again today

I thought it was a coverage problem at my place but looking at Twitter and other places, I can safely say that airtel EDGE went down in some parts of Delhi NCR region.

I am not sure if it is back now because my phone is currently connected to the web through Wi-Fi. But this is the second time in the last couple of months that I have noticed airtel network disappearing on me.

Mobile number portability is an option with me. Vodafone might be an option worth considering once I have spent 6 months on my current connection.

My first voting experience!

I would be 30 later this year. And today was the first time I made the effort to vote.

The elections are related to the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon which has largely been a dysfunctional body.

People are hoping that these elections would change the entire scene and we would see some improvements in the infrastructure of the city.

Anyways… here is how it went. I reached the voting booth at around 8PM. There was a small queue. Women’s queue was of course smaller.

People in the queue were talking about the same problems I have faced in the recent past. It is literally impossible to get the mistakes in your Voter ID card corrected. One of the guys standing in the line said that he applied for corrections 4 times and even that did not help him out.

The process of voting was rather simple. Showed the required documentation (they accepted PAN card as a proof). Got the famed ink on my finger.

My first voting experience!

Pressed the button to register my vote and that was it.

The shameful part of the elections in the city has been the annoyance it has caused to people living in the city. For the last couple of days, there were loud noises coming from speakers in cars promoting different candidates. The entire colony areas are defaced with posters representing the different candidates. They have not spared the walls of houses. They have not even spared cars. There are strict rules against such defacements but apparently nothing was done to stop the mess.

I have been a non-believer in my right to vote. I exercised it for the first time today. It was exciting. I am not expecting anything in return. Nothing is going to change. Gurgaon would remain the mess it has been for a decade now. The candidates who were visiting door to door would no longer be accessible.

But I guess I would continue to vote in the future. That’s the best I can do in current circumstances.

Buddy’s Broaster seems to be much better than McDonalds

I recently discovered this new burger chain in India… Buddy’s Broaster is also American based I believe and they already have a couple of outlets in Gurgaon.

Their veggie burger is pretty darn awesome. Much better than the comparable veggie burger from McDonalds.

And they have a pretty solid non-vegetarian offering in Masala Chicken Burger. Do check them out if you have an outlet in your locality.

Their home delivery is also pretty nice. They give you a 10% discount. McDonalds charges for home delivery I believe (they charge money for packaging material!).

airtel has got a new mobile customer!

I have to admit that airtel was the first mobile service I used. That was long time ago in Chandigarh.

Since then I have tried a lot other options including Hutch, Tata Indicom and even Aircel.

Now, I am back to airtel. And it took a lot of effort on my part. I have waited for Mobile Number Portability forever… it still has not arrived. airtel stores in my regions turned out to be awful. They are out of prepaid sim cards pretty much all the time. I had to get airtel customer to do something about it.

And when I went to the airtel store to get the sim card recharged, they were incidentally out of prepaid recharge (amazing! Huh?). Anyways… I am now using an airtel prepaid number with their pretty nice data package that costs 100 bucks for 2GB. And it works on roaming!

Data on roaming was the primary reason for my switch to airtel this time around. Of course, they are one of the four options I have here in Gurgaon for 3G services whenever they are launched. But I am not very optimistic about that. I can only hope that their existing 2G plan would remain available and the company would not temper with its speeds in the future.

Tata DOCOMO is being accused by a lot of folks that they have made their 2G speeds so slow now that they have launched 3G.