Navi Mumbai: Dealer takes full payment, but fails to deliver bikes

A year after itrsquos launch Mumbairsquos first ever Kawasaki showroom is taking its customers for a ride For the last three months the SNK dealership at Palm Beach has failed to deliver bikes to 11 customers despite taking full payment in advance mdash each bike costing anywhere between Rs 7 lakh to Rs 18 lakh After waiting for months some customers demanded refunds only to receive cheques that bouncedNeil Shah did not receive his bike or a refund even after three monthsKawasaki India confirmed to midday that when they found out about the pileup of pending orders in May they expressly told the dealership to not take any new bookings until all bikes had been delivered Despite this the showroom continued to take more orders Each time the showroom promised to deliver the bikes within 25 days but failed to do so even after 90 daysNeil Shah booked his Kawasaki Z800 on May 9 from SNK dealers When the bike wasnrsquot delivered within 25 days he started calling the showroom but no one answered the phone He also tried calling the proprietor of the dealership Satyen Karandikar ldquoHe kept saying the bike would arrive in 12 days but it never didrdquo said ShahOn June 7 the bikes became even more expensive as the RTO tax was increased to 13 but Satyen promised he would bear the extra cost ldquoBut after a few days he changed his stance and was asking me to pay 65 of itrdquoRefund woesBorivli resident Navin Bharti had ordered his bike and made the full payment on May 19 ldquoI sold my old Kawasaki Ninja and took out an additional loan as well so that I could buy the new Z800 Till date neither have I received delivery of the bike nor has my money been refunded SNK keeps saying that it will be delivered within 12 days They donrsquot even pick up calls at the showroom anymorerdquo he saidWhen Navin went to pick up the refund cheque promised to him by the dealer he found the cheque had no signatureMandheer Singh another customer said ldquoThe refund cheque given to me by SNK bounced when I deposited it on July 4rdquo Singh an Oshiwara resident had paid for the bike as far back as April 28More bookingsWhatrsquos more even after defaulting on so many orders since April SNK Palm Beach was still taking bookings in June ldquoI made the full payment for my Kawasaki Ninja 1000 Rs 155 lakh on June 21rdquo said 35yearold Pranit Lunavat a resident of Lonavla ldquoThe main problem is that Kawasaki India has not put out any word to not place bookings with this dealer How are people supposed to know that there is an issue with the dealershiprdquo he addedHowever it turns out that Kawasaki India asked the SNK dealership to stop taking orders towards the end of May ldquoWe havenrsquot received any money from SNK for the delivery of motorcycles We had sent out a notice to SNK a couple of months back towards the end of May asking them not to take any new orders From what I know SNK has not taken any orders since Junerdquo said Tarun Khanna head of services and marketing at Indian Kawasaki Motors IKMPranit alleged that his order was accepted after the deadline set by Kawasaki but the showroom changed the date on the receiptHe claimed that it was only last week that he took a closer look at his payment receipt and realised it had been backdated to April 10 even though he had made the money transfer in JuneAccording to Pranit Satyen was using the money from the new bookings to clear the old debtsldquoHe has refunded the money of 4 people who had booked bikes from him as they were putting pressure on him How is this fair businessrdquo