The Japanese bike maker brought the Mumbai based customers to Pune for a special event to deliver the bikes. The motorcycles in question are priced in the vicinity of Rs. 8-16 lakh and include the likes of the Z800, Ninja ZX-10R, ZX-14R, Versys 1000 among others. The incident was first brought to light earlier this year when customers complained of Kawasaki's SNK Palm Beach dealership located in Navi Mumbai of not delivering the bikes on the promised date. In fact, customers who opted to pay via loans also had EMIs being deducted, but without the bike being handed over yet.
A notice was also sent by Kawasaki to the dealer in hopes of settling the matter, to either deliver the 13 bikes, or return the money with interest, by August 31 this year. However, the dealership failed comply with the same.
Kawasaki Superbike Deliveries
Matters were complicated further when Kawasaki, in a public notice, announced on September 2, 2016, that it had terminated the SNK Palm Beach dealership owing to financial irregularities and failure to serve customers in general, and specifically asked customers to not deal with the said dealer. Naturally, customers felt stranded with no direction received and chose to take legal action against the dealer as well as the company.
Meanwhile, Kawasaki was working on delivering the motorcycles to customers and did so finally today, after the delay extending to months now. However, one needs to also factor in that the company had legal hurdles of its own before issuing the deliveries. While the entire incident did leave owners with a sour experience, the move has shown that the bike maker values its customers and went an extra length to win back the same.
2016 Kawasaki ZX-10R
The complete incident also affected Kawasaki's sales in the Mumbai and Navi Mumbai region as the SNK Palm Beach dealership served as the only source for premium bikes from the company. With the dealership closed, the company has temporarily diverted Mumbai based customers to outlets in Surat and Pune.
While customers have now withdrawn cases against India Kawasaki Motor over the matter, the complaints against the SNK Palm Beach dealer are still held. The manufacturer too will be proceeding to take legal action against the dealership. The company though is yet to announce a new outlet for Mumbai, but did say that it is in the process of finalising one and will announce the same very soon.
