Car buyer duped as dealer tinkers & sells Skoda Rapid regular edition in place of booked special edition

There has been no resolution yet in an alleged case of fraud where a Bengaluru-based Skoda India dealer duped a customer by swapping the promised model of car — a special edition to another model — a regular edition and delivering it.

The dealer reportedly could not be present personally in the district forum for the latest session of mediation on Wednesday. The mediator appointed by court reassigned a date later this month.

The case pertains to a purchase made in October 2016. Suhas Manjunath, an engineering student, booked a Skoda Rapid style plus 1.6MPI MT Black Package (Limited Edition) in his mother’s name from Vinayak Skoda, at an agreed ex-showroom price of Rs 9.72 lakh. In total, along with costs for accessories, handling charges, road taxes, etc., the amount was settled at Rs 11.3 lakh.

Within a couple of weeks, Manjunath locked the car by paying a total of Rs 50,000 advance payment. By the end of the month, the car was delivered to his doorstep. At that point “the car looked genuine but there were problems with documents issued for the purchase of the car,” Manjunath told Moneycontrol in a conversation on phone and via emails.

One of them was the tax invoice issued of Rs 9.24 lakh, Rs 47,877 less than the ex-showroom price both parties had agreed on. Furthermore, the temporary registration paper, as well as the tax-invoice of the car, mentioned the model as Skoda Rapid Style Plus 1.6 MPI Automatic (AT), documents reviewed by Moneycontrol show.

Though he raised the matter with the dealer, he says, he did not suspect at that point the car was swapped. On protesting, the dealer allegedly said that “the issued tax invoice could not be changed.”

The invoices issued by the dealer. Vinayak Skoda allegedly issued another invoice (just editing the model of the car) so that the customer could use it at service centre, Manjunath says

That implied that the road tax amount which he paid also reduced by Rs 7,438 (as this is calculated on the basis of ex-showroom price). Manjunath said that he also realised that the dealer had not issued any invoice for handling charges worth Rs 10,000 and the essential accessories worth Rs 1,750.

The dealer allegedly said that what they could do is “raise a non-refundable debit note” instead of returning the money or issuing invoices. This followed an argument after which Manjunath left the showroom and contacted the company which gave an "unprofessional" reply to contact the senior general manager of the showroom, Manjunath who lives in Kempapura area of the city said.

Manjunath finally had to accept the debit notes of Rs 67,605 later as the bank which processed the loan for the car asked for submission of documents. As the invoice he received had a different price of the car, his other choice would have been to pay the difference upfront to the bank, Manjunath informed.

Two debit notes issued in Manjunath's mother's name. Manjunath family, however, never received the money which was 'debit'ed in their account, as the debit notes say. 

“I again visited the showroom several times for close to three weeks after the delivery to request them to rectify my documents to which they replied to me in very rude and unprofessional manner…but still, since it was causing me financial trouble, I still requested them and after a few arguments the dealer obliged to talk to the bank and sort out the matter,” he added.

The debit note issued was on a letterhead and did not bear any tax-related details like TIN, the bank accepted them with a clause that if during audits, any problem arises with it, Manjunath would have to pay the difference.

Manjunath says he realised that the car was a swap when the headlamp of the vehicle malfunctioned within a month of delivery. He says, when he reached the service centre, the manager there told him that car was not manufactured as a limited edition/black package Skoda Rapid but was a regular Skoda rapid. “So, I realized that the dealer has completely modified the car from the exterior to make it look like a limited edition/black package before he had delivered it to me,” Manjunath said.

Manjunath says, when he confronted the dealer, they accepted to “had swapped a few parts to make regular Skoda Rapid style plus 1.6MPI MT in Candy White colour to look like a Skoda Rapid style plus 1.6MPI MT Black Package (Limited Edition).” However, the dealer asked for few days to fix his mistake, he said.

After a few days, the senior general manager of Vinayak Skoda told him that they had found a solution and asked to visit the service centre, the 22-year-old told Moneycontrol. The service centre manager told him that they had specially requested Skoda to manufacture a 'special pair of headlamps' which look like limited edition/black package headlamps but will function on a regular Skoda Rapid. However, Manjunath says, Skoda India did not contact him ever in this regard.

“Later when I investigated the specially manufactured headlamps I realised that they were fake or black package headlamps which had twitched internal wiring to work on a regular Skoda rapid,” Manjunath adds.

He also used car’s VIN (vehicle identification number) to obtain details about the make via MySkoda mobile app. “It clearly showed me that the car I owned or which was delivered to me was a regular Skoda Rapid and not the limited edition Skoda Rapid,” Manjunath said.

After that, in the beginning of January, he contacted a lawyer and filed a case against the dealer as well as the company. He informed Moneycontrol that the dealer failed to represent or contest in the court as late as November last year. Later when the dealer made a representation, the judge referred the case to a mediation.

Manjunath said that he has been to every session of mediation and hearing and seeks the promised model of the car, a “reasonable” compensation for trauma caused and has urged Skoda India to cancel the dealership of Vinayak Skoda.

“Vinayak Skoda is just prolonging the case by not appearing,” he accused adding that, January 22, which is the next date for mediation will be the last time he would represent himself. If the dealer is not present even then he would prefer for a hearing in a court.

Vinayak Skoda did not respond to the queries sent by Moneycontrol.