# What ever happened to customer satisfaction?



## redsoxfan (May 20, 2004)

I recently purchased a Nissan Titan Crew Cab LE 4x4. This truck cost me a pantload (msrp $36,500), I saved long and hard for this and did plenty of research prior to making the purchase. I have never owned a Nissan before, and I think I fit the demographic that Nissan is targeting for this vehicle, that being a longtime Chevy owner who uses a truck for both pleasure and typical household projects. So far, I love this truck, it's everything that I expected. However, my experience with Nissan service has been less than pleasant.

A week or so after purchasing the truck, 3 dashboard idiot lights came on. I brought it to my local Nissan service center in Nashua, NH, where a faulty sensor was diagnosed as the problem, the part was ordered and the repair wa successfully made. The next day another light came on, this one turned out to be the tire pressure warning. They discovered a screw in my tire causing a slow leak. Here's where the fun begins. They attempted to plug the tire (I assumed an internal patch would be applied, my mistake). The plug didn't take, 2 days later I take it to a tire shop, they look at the tire and deem it no longer repairable. They never tried to sell me a tire, they recommended I return to the Nissan service center that botched the repair and request a new tire. Not only did they refuse, but a new tire for one these babies cost me $257, which is not an insignificant amount to me. I immediately filed my complaint with 1-800-NISSAN-1. The woman who handled my complaint recommended that I try to resolve this dispute with the service center (isn't this what the complaint line is for?). I then called BF Goodrich. They were terrific, listened to my tale of woe and even though they were in no way responsible they offered to reimburse me 50% of the tire cost. Their reason for doing this: new vehicle, new tires, good customer relations. They also confirmed that the tire was repaired incorrectly (I brought it to an authorized BF Goodrich center).
I then go back to the service center and meet with a manager, requesting (in a very civil way, I might add) that they compensate me for the remainder of the bill. When he hears that I didn't purchase the truck there, he tells me that he probably won't be able to help me. Say what?? Nissan is Nissan as far as I'm concerned, one of the advantages of purchasing a new vehicle is that you can have it serviced at any dealer in the country. Half an hour later I get a call from one of the service managers who tells me that they have talked it over and that they are not going to give me anything. Actually, that's not completely accurate, he does offer me a $10 credit to cover the cost of the original faulty repair! I'm not kidding. I called the Nissan complaint line again and provided her with an update, she said that she would call them again and try to resolve this. The next day she calls me and apologizes, saying that there's nothing more she can do. She also tells me that the service manager agrees that patching the tire from the insde is the more effective method and that they make a point of telling this to customers. This is a flat (pardon the pun) out lie, I was never informed of any such thing. This whole situation reminds me of a sleazy politician who gets caught in a lie and then continues to embellish his story until he's painted himself into a corner, and I find it pathetic. 

Why couldn't the service center have just stated that they regretted the situation, value my business, and replaced the tire? Or, why can't Nissan simply reimburse me?

At this point, I'm not only angry, I'm insulted. I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau but my faith in the system is waning. 

It seems that the only way the little guy can fight back is to share his story. I work for a very large company, located right down the street from this particular dealer, and I have made all the Nissan owners there aware of my plight. Internet forums such as this are also a wonderful way to reach people. If I can influence even one person to avoid Peters Nissan of Nashua, NH, then I'm a happy guy.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.


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## Nico Flax (May 3, 2003)

Well my friend I've never bought a new car, still a kid here, but I see where your coming from, actually I have a lot of my own bad experiences with the Nissan dealer around here, most of the parts guys are assholes, but two of them are alright, and one of those two always sells me parts at the lowest price possible, the rest of them add all these charges, I remember one parts guy wanted to charge me 300 for a control arm, my buddy Vince though sold it to me for 160, anyway, I guess you just gotta make friends with some of the people there.


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## redsoxfan (May 20, 2004)

Nico Flax said:


> Well my friend I've never bought a new car, still a kid here, but I see where your coming from, actually I have a lot of my own bad experiences with the Nissan dealer around here, most of the parts guys are assholes, but two of them are alright, and one of those two always sells me parts at the lowest price possible, the rest of them add all these charges, I remember one parts guy wanted to charge me 300 for a control arm, my buddy Vince though sold it to me for 160, anyway, I guess you just gotta make friends with some of the people there.


When the time comes that you are ready to make a major purchase, be it a new car or otherwise, always remember who treated you right and who didn't.

Customer satisfaction and good business sense results in more business, this is a simple philosophy that many companies, amazingly, fail to grasp.

In my case, I plan on having this Titan for a long time and I had intended to use this dealership for all scheduled and routine maintenance. This would have resulted in far more $$ than they hosed me for the tire.

BF Goodrich, on the other hand, offered me some compensation and I never even asked for it, I called them only for advice. My 96 Camaro needs a new set of tires this summer......wanna guess what kind I'll be purchasing?


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## danifilth (May 14, 2003)

Also just because one dealer is Nissan and another is also is Nissan it only means that they can "service" your car.They cant accept items under warranty because they would have to bite that $250 bullet that they didnt mess up.Thats the reason why they couldnt for it you probably and they didnt want to piss you off so they told you nicely.Customer Satisfaction ended when customers started to get such high expectations.The greater your expectations and the harder you try to get them the worse your time getting there is going to be.Barking up trees is going to get you to people that care about situations even less and spending the company dime becomes less a possibility the higher up the ladder you go.


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## redsoxfan (May 20, 2004)

danifilth said:


> Also just because one dealer is Nissan and another is also is Nissan it only means that they can "service" your car.They cant accept items under warranty because they would have to bite that $250 bullet that they didnt mess up.Thats the reason why they couldnt for it you probably and they didnt want to piss you off so they told you nicely.Customer Satisfaction ended when customers started to get such high expectations.The greater your expectations and the harder you try to get them the worse your time getting there is going to be.Barking up trees is going to get you to people that care about situations even less and spending the company dime becomes less a possibility the higher up the ladder you go.


This was never a warranty issue, the tires aren't covered. This was a faulty repair by them that resulted in me having to purchase a new tire. Pretty shabby treatment in my opinion, and it has cost them my business. And they didn't tell me nicely, they were pretty arrogant about it.


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## danifilth (May 14, 2003)

redsoxfan said:


> This was never a warranty issue, the tires aren't covered. This was a faulty repair by them that resulted in me having to purchase a new tire. Pretty shabby treatment in my opinion, and it has cost them my business. And they didn't tell me nicely, they were pretty arrogant about it.


not the warranty covering the vehicle but the warranty covering the service they had done for the tire.


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## redsoxfan (May 20, 2004)

danifilth, I guess what I'm saying is that when the service department screws up a repair they should make it right - and at their expense, not mine. Hiding behind the tire warranty and then spinning the story to Nissan's Consumer Division just doesn't sit well with me.

I was hoping that Nissan's Consumer Division could resolve this, but having failed to do so, it would have been nice if Nissan could have met me half way on this, much in the way that BF Goodrich did. Admitedly, they are under no obligation to do so, but things like this go a long way toward building customer loyalty, hell the paint is still drying on this truck. Maybe I am expecting too much.

You're right about elevating this, it hasn't done me any good yet, and it just serves to increase my frustration level.


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## Will (Jan 2, 2004)

"Customer satisfaction ended when customers started to get such high expectations". My expectations get higher as the prices go up. When you spend as much money on a new car as I did on my first house I expect good service in return. Are my expectations to high? Probably. But what the heck am I paying these inflated prices for then? The quality goes down as the prices go up. And then to top it all off,they want me to pay for an extended warranty. Go figure!


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## Will (Jan 2, 2004)

Take advantage of the stupid,greedy,self centered American. YES SIR. It's not only the Japenese way,it's also the American way. American's taking advantage of Americans. Now let's talk gas prices. Ok! now I fell better and I'll get off of the soapbox.


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## Nico Flax (May 3, 2003)

Well they are out only to make money, I guess it can't be helped, but I would be pissed too if they were the ones that screwed up the work and didn't want to fix it, thats so stupid, you should sue or something, since they were suppose to provide a service which they didn't, and SCREW OPEC, or whatever the hell they are called, god I've gone up to 18 dollars for my tank, I know thats small to a lot of you, before I filled it up I saw 58 dollars on the machine! GOD DAMN! I felt bad for that guy...


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## Will (Jan 2, 2004)

But the problem is, that we recieve only 25% of our oil from OPEC. The rest is produced right here in the good old USA. What's with that? Americans taking advantage of Americans?


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## Token Moron (Mar 28, 2003)

^doesnt matter who takes advantage of who nowadays....its all about the money


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## redsoxfan (May 20, 2004)

Hey Will, now that you've jumped off the soapbox I'll hop back on for my last rant about this issue! 

I've pretty much accepted that I won't be getting any monetary satisfaction from Nissan, but I'm more bothered now by the treatment that I received from the dealer. It really irks me that the manager implied that I would get secondary treatment since I didn't purchase the vehicle there. BTW, to erase any doubt that this was the case, while I was presenting my complaint to him he even wrote on my copy of the bill "NOT PURCHASED HERE" and circled it before he made a copy for himself. So now I have a copy of this for my own records. What a dope. Fine, now I'll be getting my truck serviced by the dealer that I bought it from, even though it's about 15 miles away rather than approximately 1/8 mile from my workplace. This will be an inconvenience, but I'll deal with it.

That said, I read a post in another thread about the importance of service that I'd like to expand upon because it really hit home. Truthfully, once you've reached agreement on the purchase price of a new vehicle, whatever personal hell the salesman might have put you through becomes history. Handshakes and congrats all around! Now, from this point forward, the quality of the service that you receive on this vehicle is going to go a long way toward your overall satisfaction.

So this raises the following questions from me: What are the repercussions, if any, when you are mistreated by a service department? Does Nissan do anything, are these guys reprimanded in any way? Granted, they're all independent businesses, but they still hang the Nissan shingle outside their door and when they treat people badly it reflects badly on Nissan. I think this is important. I personally am left with the feeling that this particular dealer could care less about me, and the Consumer line in turn merely paid me lip service. And so it goes.

Obviously, it is all about the money, I'm not naive. But damn, there would be more where that came from if they just treated me properly! If I treated customers this way I'd be out of a job.


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## Blank (Aug 21, 2003)

try giving the general manager or presidenty of the dealership that you got service from... tell him your story, and tell him about the not purchased here note on your invoice... ask him if he really didnt want your business because trhe other dealer is only 15 min away from you, see what he has to say... 

ps president usually means owner... if its a small dealership GM may mean owner too..


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## xbrandonx (Mar 27, 2004)

yeah, all you can really do is let them know that they will no longer have your buisness and let them know that you are going to tell people about how you were treated. Also let BF Goodrich know that their good service is why you chose them, hopefully that will keep their CS up. It does give a bad image on Nissan dealerships but hey thats how things work. If you go to McD's and get sick, you'll probably wont eat McD's somewhere else? maybe so but you'll remember that instant, giving you a bad image. I hope you enjoy your new truck though.


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## Blank (Aug 21, 2003)

what you need to do is give us your name, the dealer who serviced your cars name, and another close dealer's name... then the NF.com community can call up the bad dealer and say..

just to let you know, i am a prospective nissan customer, but i have heard nothing but bad things about your after sale support, most specifically your service department involving(your name). (competing dealership) seems to offer a much more pleasent service experience; and, although it is a bit out of the way, i believe they will be getting my business, buoth in the purchase and care of my new nissan.

aftewr 10 or 20 of those calls, they will be begging you to take a tire for free.. anything o clear thier name...


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## Nico Flax (May 3, 2003)

Thats a good idea, I'm ready to call!! Lets do it!


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## myoung (Apr 15, 2002)

Did you try calling Nissan Corp? Not the local dealer. 

Unfortunatly each dealer is different, Some have better ethics than others.


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## Blank (Aug 21, 2003)

Nico Flax said:


> Thats a good idea, I'm ready to call!! Lets do it!


 its my idea so you, know i'll call. we should get a roll call going... im telling you, even if it dosent work we will piss the dealer off so much that they wished thewy haddent fuct with ya...


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## redsoxfan (May 20, 2004)

blankgazex said:


> try giving the general manager or presidenty of the dealership that you got service from... tell him your story, and tell him about the not purchased here note on your invoice... ask him if he really didnt want your business because trhe other dealer is only 15 min away from you, see what he has to say...
> 
> ps president usually means owner... if its a small dealership GM may mean owner too..


I'm definitely going to do this, I'll be sending a nice letter to the owner summarizing how I was treated along with a copy of the bill with the manager's note.

Regarding the roll call idea, the thought of them getting those phone calls has me grinning from ear to ear! I do appreciate it, guys, but I'm not done fighting this yet so I'll take a pass on this one. I'm still waiting to hear back from the Better Business Bureau and I don't want to do anything that could even remotely be considered harrassment at this stage. However, as I stated in my original post, if hearing about this ordeal results in someone avoiding this dealer, that's cool and I'm happy.

I am curious about how the whole consumer complaint process with Nissan works, though, if anyone out there has some inside knowledge I'd love to hear about it. After getting the verbal hand job over the phone, what happens to these complaints? Do they get filed into some great abyss, or does it count against the dealer's record in some way?

Thanks again.


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## Slayer2003 (Jun 4, 2003)

have all your stuff switched to Team Nissan in manchester, on Gold st. so far, from my experience with them, and from what ive heard about the nashua dealer, much better.

Sucks that you had to go through all that though.


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## redsoxfan (May 20, 2004)

Slayer2003 said:


> have all your stuff switched to Team Nissan in manchester, on Gold st. so far, from my experience with them, and from what ive heard about the nashua dealer, much better.
> 
> Sucks that you had to go through all that though.


Thanks, that's good to hear. I actually purchased the truck there and this is, in fact, where I now plan on having it serviced.


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## redsoxfan (May 20, 2004)

Well, I heard from the BBB today, the guy handling my complaint was decent and honest enough. He explained that my complaint will be sent to the dealer and they can then choose to resolve it or not (no doubt they won't). If not it goes on record as unresolved and that's it. Once that happens I'll send my letter to the owner detailing my experience, and at this point I wouldn't be surprised if he rewards his manager with a raise.

I've never pursued a consumer complaint like this before so it's been a learning experience. I'm bitter but I can deal with bitterness, after all I'm a Red Sox fan!  

It's time for me to let go of this and enjoy my truck, which I am - immensely. Whether or not I'll ever purchase another one, it's too early to say.

So congratulations Corporate America, you win, now kindly remove your fist from my ass.


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## Will (Jan 2, 2004)

I think your right about letting go and enjoying your truck. But I do admire your pluck(no pun intended). I believe it was said earlier that it's all about money and I agree. Unfortunately when this becomes' the rule, honesty and integrity go out the window and greed and 'self' become the rule and not the exception. Again, unfortunately, this is the sad state of our country. I'm not disillusioned, just excepting the way it is. This country is 'wacked'. I know there will be 'nay sayers' but, I say," look around you". Read the book America Now. It's all coming true.


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## Slayer2003 (Jun 4, 2003)

ey, red, you should check out NENOC.org , just one of the new england nissan clubs out there. they got a meet comin up soon i think too.


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## redsoxfan (May 20, 2004)

redsoxfan said:


> So congratulations Corporate America, you win, now kindly remove your fist from my ass.


UPDATE! That loud sucking sound you hear is the fist being removed from my backside. My Better Business Bureau complaint paid off, I received a letter and check from the dealer today. They grudingly refunded my money "...in the interest of customer satisfaction as a gesture of goodwill...". 

Score one for the little guy! :thumbup:


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## Nico Flax (May 3, 2003)

Way to go man! next step, get that son of a bitch fired!


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## Blank (Aug 21, 2003)

redsoxfan said:


> UPDATE! That loud sucking sound you hear is the fist being removed from my backside. My Better Business Bureau complaint paid off, I received a letter and check from the dealer today. They grudingly refunded my money "...in the interest of customer satisfaction as a gesture of goodwill...".
> 
> Score one for the little guy! :thumbup:



glad it all worked out for you... good education for everyone in the forum too about that particular dealer, and the tire reps...


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## Will (Jan 2, 2004)

Yes Yes Yes


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