City businessman says he paid Rs 87 lakh for two new cars but as the company cancelled dealership of authorised seller, he didn't receive the vehicles

'Mercedes Benz cheated me'

City businessman says he paid Rs 87 lakh for two new cars but as the company cancelled dealership of authorised seller, he didn't receive the vehiclesu00a0

Mercedes Benz may have been selling the dreamride across the globe but in India not all seems to be well with the German automobile giant.u00a0u00a0

Jolted: Sixty-two year old Sudhir Mehra owns a fleet of 12 Mercedes
cars. He bought his first Merc C-class in 2001. Since then he has
bought 11 more including C, E and M class models
u00a0
After a Delhi consumer court recently ticked off the automobile manufacturer for delivering a "defective" car to a buyer, a city-based businessman, who owns 12 Mercedes models, is alleging the company has cheated him.

The case
Sixty-two-year-old Sudhir Mehra, a city businessman, is alleging he invested Rs 87 lakh to buy two new Mercedes cars but has not yet received the vehicles. Mehra says he is in severe financial crunch as he is paying a monthly installment of Rs 1.60 lakh to HDFC Bank against his car loan.

Mehra, who owns a fleet of 12 Mercedes, bought his first Merc C-class in 2001. Since then he has bought 11 more including C, E and M-class models. He had ordered for S and C-class cars.

"My companyu00a0Alchem International Limited booked one Mercedes S-class and one C-class car with Taipan Traders in Chandigarh, a automobile dealer authorised to deal in Mercedes vehicles by Mercedes Benz India. We raised a loan of Rs 50 lakh from HDFC Bank in May 2009 to pay for the cars.

The money was paid by HDFC Bank to Taipan Traders. Since then I have been paying equated monthly instalments of Rs 1.60 lakh per month to the bank. Also, just before booking the new vehicles, I sold two old Mercedes models, one M-class and one C-class, to the same dealer. After evaluating the cost of the cars the dealer was supposed to pay my company Rs 37 lakh.

But one day Mercedes Benz India cancelled the dealership of Taipan Traders without any intimation to customers. Now, my money is stuck. We did not receive the vehicles and HDFC is debiting our account for the instalments. This arbitary decision taken by Mercedes is very customer unfriendly," said Mehra.

'Disappointed with Merc'
A harried Mehra said he has written several letters to senior Mercedes officials complaining about the issue but has not received any reply from them.

"I am extremely disappointed with the service of a reputed company like Mercedes. We expected better administration and customer-handling from the brand. What's the use of paying such a high premium to the company when it can't provide quality and timely service to its customers?" said Mehra.