The corruption within

How we are all part of the 'system'.

Way back in 1995, I bought my first vehicle, a Maruti Omni, called a breadbox on wheels.

The reason for choosing this vehicle was that I was transporting a lot of computer hardware and this vehicle had the largest boot.

It was a brand new vehicle that I purchased via a leasing company’s loan, from Vitesse, a Maruti Dealer located in Bombay.

The vehicle comes with certain number of free services.

So, I sent the vehicle for its first free service.

When the vehicle came back, it worked properly for two-three days and then on the fourth day, would not even start.

As I was new to owning and using a vehicle, I did not realize that I need to call the service center, I thought there must be something minor wrong with it and called a local mechanic to have a look and get it started.

When he lifted the seat, the engine for the Omni is located under the front seat, he realized that the vehicle, otherwise new, had an old carburetor. He asked me whether I had sent the vehicle for service anywhere and I told him that it had gone for the first free service.

He told me that the carburetor has been replaced in the first service.

I had no option but to get a new carburetor fixed.

When we went to the service center, they denied doing anything (I was a fool to have expected that they will accept their sleight of hand).

Then we went to the company’s showroom / head office at Santacruz and raised hell but to no avail.

That time I was not so much into activism.

Later I was told that this is something routine. When vehicles go for service, the mechanics replace parts. They put the new parts in old vehicles that have come for service / repair on the request of the old vehicle owner and for a payment. You are not allowed to go with the vehicle inside their service area, so you can not see what they are doing to their vehicle.

This post was triggered by a conversation I heard yesterday. A recent acquaintance had gone on a tour outside India. He accidentally dropped his cell phone there and the screen has cracked at the bottom. So, he was calling up someone to help. He himself is a second hand mobile phone dealer. The phone is out of warranty and anyway physical damage is not covered under warranty. He was asking the person on the other end, can something / setting be done at the service center? As in, can the service center people replace his screen by manipulating their own stock and taking some money in return?

We are the one’s who create this corruption. We want to game the system, we are not bothered that someone else will suffer because of our corruption, as I suffered by the change of carburetor in my Omni.

So, much so, that my second vehicle, a Hyundai i10 has not been sent by me for any free service. I got the vehicle serviced outside by paying good money.

The thing is that when you send the vehicle / mobile phone or anything else to the company, there are many other similar vehicles / instruments that are lying with them and there are many customers who have asked the lowly paid mechanics to do a part swap. Such customers are not interested in what happens to the person whose working vehicle / phone or other instrument suffers due to this corruption of the servicing personnel. They want to get away cheap.

The problem lies within us.