Last month, Kawasaki India was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Their dealer in Navi Mumbai, SNK Palm Beach had taken payment for at least 11 bikes in full, but had not delivered them bikes. For some customers, it has been over six months that they have paid the amount in full and have not received their bikes.
After the story was reported across various media channels, Kawasaki India was forced to take action. The logical thing to do by Kawasaki India at this point of time is to either return the money, or deliver the bikes to those customers. Guess what they did. They went ahead and cancelled the SNK Palm Beach’s dealership contract.
Now how is this going to be helpful to those dozen buyers, half of those have already started paying emi’s for a bike they will probably never see. In the meantime, the owner of SNK Palm Beach, Satyen Karandikar, who had promised to return money of all the customers, has stopped responding to phone calls and gone missing from the scene.
It is not clear as to what will happen next. Kawasaki India has been the first one to leave the sinking ship. With their dealer absconding, there is very little hope that those buyers will see their money or bike ever again.
Luckily, there is one customer who managed to smell the rat much before the disaster shook Kawasaki India. Mohammed Mubarak from Chennai had booked a 2016 Kawasaki ZX-14R with the same SNK Navi Mumbai dealership. The reason he had booked the bike from Mumbai, as the model was not available with any other dealer in the country.
Satyen told Mohammed that if he pays the full amount in advance, he will get the bike delivered in 20 days. Thus, Mohammed paid the amount of INR 17.9 lakhs in full. However, despite full payment and continuous follow-ups the delivery never happened. It came to a point that Satyen and his dealership started ignoring Mohammed’s phone calls. Mohammed then decided to fly down to Mumbai and confront the dealer.
At the dealership, Mohammed told them that he was going to file a police complaint right away, unless they returned his money or give him the bike. Finally the dealer agreed to hand over the display bike, which Mohmmad got registered in Pune itself.
Mubarak decided to ride the bike to Chennai. On the first day of riding, he started facing problems with the clutch which was making strange noises. He immediately called the Mumbai dealer who told him to visit the Bangalore dealer, as that was the closest from where he was at that point of time.
He visited the Bangalore dealer, where he was told that there was no problem with the bike and he can continue with the journey. But that was not the case as Mohammed realized a few hours later when a bolt of his bike came off. He again called Mumbai dealer, who promised to send a technician from Delhi to attend to the issue.
Till date no one has helped Mohammed solve his problem as his new ZX-14R continues to make strange noises. But, atleast he managed to get a bike from the rogue dealer.
UPDATE – Kawasaki India delivers motorcycles to those who were conned by SNK Palm Beach dealer
