Part 2: Ownership experience of Royal Enfield Bullet classic chrome 500

Please read the previouse post. This is a continutation of that one. A week passed without any information from the dealer. I then called the dealer regarding the status of my order. He told me that I have to come and pay the cash. The countdown to me getting my bike would start from the day I made the complete payment. The next sunday we went to the showroom for making payment. I also bought up the exchange of my old bike. Last week we had given the complete details of my old bike, but, the sales rep starts asking information from scratch. They dont remember anything. In the digital age all information is still on paper. You tell your order Number(Here there are two order numbers. One for internal usage with the dealer and one from Royal enfield. The dealer is not concerned with teh RE order number.). You want to know something, keep the dealer's order number ready and ofcourse, the date also. Otherwise they will make you wait on your phone for infinity. This applies for physical visits also. He asked when will be ready to exchange the bike. We told now. Then again a flurry of calls and couldnt tell the information about my old bike which he had noted down and handed over the phone to me. I asked the buyer when can he come? He told he will be at the showroom in 1/2 hour. I told I will be waiting for him here, at the showroom. Now the buyer changed his timing to two hours from now. The sale did take place on that very day. Please ask when will the actual transfer take place and take all the information regarding the buyer. He confirmed that the transfer of ownership will happen within 15 days. But, anyhow, you should be following him regarding the transfer of ownership.

As this was happening, I couldnt help myself but observe lot of comments on my order copy. I requested the sales person to let me have a look. He handed it over to me with a lot of regret. The previous week, i told the sales rep to take it cool and dont do it in a hurried manner. He didnt understand my intent and scribbled on the order "Customer wants to buy the vehicle slowly". That clears why I did not get any call in the previous week. Once the old bike was sold, I left the showroom and walked to my home. But, I left my helmet in the showroom. I found it out the next day and I was surprised that nobody from the showroom called to inform me regarding my helmet. Totally cheap. Wifey called the showroom the next day and luckily, they agreed that they indeed have a unclaimed helmet.

Another week, nothing happens. Then I start getting enormous number of calls while at work. The second day, the person calls me in the evening and I pickup the call. It is a verfication call from  a third party regarding the details provided for bike insurance. While he was explaining me the terms and conditions, I came to know that the insurance offered to me by the showroom chap is not the comprehensive one(Bumper to bumper). He told that he would call the dealer and the deaeler would in turn call me within 10 minutes. Nothing happened. The third party called me to ask whether I recieved any call from the dealer. That full day I did not recieve any call. Then, worried that I would be the owner of the bike, I went to the showroom for clarification. I did not see any repentance from any of the staff for not informing me regarding the type of insurance being given to me. Paid the little extra money to get comprehensive coverage and as instructed by wifey got my helmet. I saw my bike standing in the showroom being used as an exhibit and the sales person is not telling me that this is my bike. He told me that my bike would be of the same color and that it will take another 3 days for the delivery of my bike. Next day again a plethora of calls from the insurance third party during working hours.

Part 1: Ownership experience of Royal Enfield Bullet classic chrome 500

It has always been a dream to own a Bullet. Since the first time I rode a bullet while I was around 20 years of age, the feel stuck with me. It has been with me ever since. I always turned around on hearing the thump. For various people it is just awe or a longing. For me it has been a long wait to own my very own bullet. And then there came an opportunity to to buy one at my work place itself. One of the colleagues wanted to sell his classic 500 black. Was given a test drive at the end of the day. Looked at the bike and was very clear that it was not maintained well. Lots of loose wires taped all along and I did not like the look on my colleague's face while he was showing it to me. I just saw it in his eyes. It is like snatching away a kid's favorite toy by wringing it out of his hands. Immediately gave up the idea of buying it. But the other people around were forcing me to buy it. Then I understood that he owed money and he was in urgent need of it. I just told every body of them that the bike would definitely be sold and truly, within that week, the bike was sold.

Discussion was going on in the home with wifey and my son about owning one. I already owned a Bajaj pulsar 150 Dtsi and I definitely loved it. My son, as is obvious is a KTM kinda bike fanboy. But, everybody agreed on one thing, that is a new bike is to be bought. After a lot of discussion and convincing it was decided unanimously to go for a bullet. But the biggest question was which style.

Next day visited HSR enterprises on Dr. Rajkumar road. For bike enthusiasts, This road plays host to all the bike manufacturers in India. If you start from one end of the road and reach the end of it, you would have visited the showrooms of all the manufacturers of bikes in India. This road also has all the service centers of their respective brands. So, now you know.

After entering into the showroom, there was not a single smiling face. It was as though royal enfield motors had gone bankrupt and all the people working in the showroom will be relieved of their duties that very day. There was one color of every variant on display. Wifey initially liked the Thunderbird, but seeing the amount of time I spent at the classic version, she also changed her mind. Now, we asked whether we could see the other color variants. And, you know what we were shown, Lo and Behold, the website of Royal enfield on a 15" Laptop. We wanted bike that big and we are being shown the variants on a puny laptop. Maybe this worked out before the present Internet generation, but at this time, this strategy, is totally lacklustre.

Wifey insisted that we have to see how the classic chrome looks in other color variants. So we went to the jayanagar showroom. Here the staff were a lot better. The sales rep took us to a cellar where plenty of bullets were stocked and explained the pros and cons of all the variants and the properties of various paints being used. Here we decided that the graphite variant was less flashy and was subdued though there was a generous amount of chrome.

Decided on the Bullet classic 500 chrome edition, the graphite variant. Was asked to pay an advance of INR 5,000/- which was done immediately. Now, the sales tech asked me when would i like to buy the bike and what would be the mode of payment I clearly told him I would pay by cash/cheque. Then immediately he started to make a flurry of phone calls to various people regarding the availability of the bike in that color. I interrupted him after about 3 calls and told him that I am not having the time to listen to all this enquiry thingy and requested him to call me once he found out that a bike is available. I told him to take his own time and not continue the flurry of calls. Here, I would like to make a note. There is no concept of checking up the inventory at various showrooms. They don't have a centralized inventory. Bikes are hand made, that doesn't mean that sales also have to be done the old fashioned way, that too, after royal enfield gave profit among all the endeavours of Eicher. The more interesting thing would be what the sales rep wrote on his copy of my advance receipt. This will be revealed, if you still have the time and patience. All this happened on 23/10


And I am not alone. See a post on Team BHP regarding the same.