In a shocking incident, a frustrated BMW X1 customer from Ranchi, Jharkhand expressed his anger by using his BMW car to collect garbage from the society. After being frustrated with frequent technical problems and the company’s poor service, he took this embarrassing step.
The 29-year-old Prince Raj Shrivastava from Ranchi had purchased a BMW X1 model car for Rs 4.1million last year. But the car turned out to be the biggest headache for him. Due to which, he decided to convert one of the most expensive cars into a “garbage van”.
“The first tyre burst on the 10th day of its purchase while the second one burst on the 20th day. Very soon, the car’s axle got bent too,” Shrivastava said.
The problem had gone from bad to worse when car’s air conditioner stopped functioning, power break failed and it encountered starting problems.
“We usually needed 8-10 persons push the car from behind to start, which was a major embarrassment to us. The local service centre hardly cooperated, instead it handed me out an inflated bill of Rs 200,000 as service charge yet it didn’t work anymore,” Shrivastava fumed.
“For close to a year, the car remained parked at the service centre in urgent need of servicing”, he narrated his woes.
Upset at the car’s frequent technical troubles and non-cooperative attitude of the local dealer, the man is now using his expensive car to pick-up waste and then carry it to landfills or other places where waste materials are managed and treated.
On any day, Shrivastava can be seen halting his car near the garbage heaps and dumping them in his car’s dickey with the help of shovel.
“I am doing all this in protest,” says Shrivastava who happens to the managing director of Ekta Contech Pvt Ltd.
“I am not the only person facing this problem. In fact, 20-22 persons who bought BMW cars from the local dealers have been facing the same problems,” he says.
