In a freak incident, a car owner in Bengaluru said the service center handed him a bill of Rs. 22 lakh to repair the Volkswagen Polo hatchback that he had originally bought for Rs. 11 lakh. Yes, you heard that right.
Bengaluru recently experienced heavy rainfall which resulted in the city being submerged in knee-deep water. For days, roads were flooded, flights were diverted, rainwater entered homes, public transport broke down and people had to travel by boats and tractors. In the wake of this, a video has gone viral showing flooding in the basements and garages of many buildings. As a result, several cars remained submerged, resulting in excessive water damage.
In light of this, a car owner, Anirudh Ganesh, took to his LinkedIn profile to share a copy of an invoice given to him by the service center. In his post, he said that his VW Polo got damaged in the recent flood in Bengaluru. It was completely submerged in the floods. After the loss, he sent the car to Volkswagen Apple Auto in Whitefield.
“I had to push my car onto a tow truck in waist-deep water at 11 p.m. There is no one to help, but we middle class people are tough. Karlete hai kisi tarah,” he wrote in his LinkedIn post.
Check out his post:
Anirudh’s car insurance told him that the car would be written off as a total loss and they would collect it. However, the service center asked him to pay Rs 44,840 to collect his vehicle from them. This fee was required to issue documents for the damage caused to the car.
He further wrote in his post, “I go to the showroom to collect what is legitimately my non-functioning car and was told to pay an amount of Rs.44,840 as estimated charges (industry standard practice is Rs.5000) and I can’t take mine out of the car.”
“Rs 44,840 to document a car that now costs only Rs 600,000. Wow, said Anirudh.
“I called Volkswagen India, emailed them as well and was told I would get a response in 48 hours. alas No answer there either. I’m asking for the community’s help to get this wider reach so I can get my car and insurance money back and correct these vulture-like practices,” he added.
The post went viral in no time and people started criticizing Volkswagen for exploiting customers.
A few days later, Anirudh posted an update on the case and said that the charges had been revised from the earlier Rs.44,840 to Rs.5,000.
“The Volkswagen India team (Mr. Sumanth and Ms. Poonam) spoke and said that the prices in such a scenario would be capped at Rs 5,000 for valuation/storage for car owners in total loss cases. I hope this information helps everyone,” added Anirudh.