It is with great reluctance that I am taking the "seemingly drastic" step of writing an official complaint due to various problems I have faced in dealing with one of Maruti Suzuki's leading dealerships, Vitesse Ltd in Mumbai. I am requesting you to please take a few minutes to consider my issues.

I had booked a maruti swift in the month of February and was promised a vehicle before the end of financial year FY 07/08. Even though I paid my dues promptly, due to various reasons and delays I did not receive the vehicle in a timely manner.

In mid-march, the sales executive at Vitesse (Vitesse worli branch) mentioned about the launch of Swift Dzire. I sent a written request to the management at the dealership if I could upgrade to DZire. After much (needless) haggling and negotiating, I was allowed to upgrade and was told that since most of the amount owed by me has already been paid, I am on top of the allotment list and will receive the new vehicle within a week or 2. I have even paid the money towards the price differential.

After repeatedly following up with the sales exec, I kept getting promises and reassurances... 5 days, 10 days and so on. Finally, the sales executive called me 2 days ago and back-tracked on his word, and everything that he had committed to me. He put the whole blame squarely on Maruti and said that Vitesse cannot commit to any delivery schedule anymore even though I am 1st on the allotment list!! He even went to the extent of asking me to CANCEL the booking !?!

I am really at loss of words. In this day and age of consumerism and competitiveness; should a service provider actually do this? Should they treat the customer like this?? I tried reasoning with him and he kept passing the the blame to Maruti Suzuki. I tried escalating the matter at Vitesse but to no avail.

Lastly, in the last 20 years I have had a positive experience with Maruti cars and I am totally convinced that Maruti is still a "customer focused and customer driven" organization. I refused to cancel my vehicle booking and I refuse to let Vitesse get off the hook for their unprofessionalism and uncaring attitude.

Please help me in resolving these issues, and having Vitesse do what they're supposed to be doing