Okay, I finally got the courage to have the window grease problem fixed. So I made an appointment for the grease problem, to get the oil changed, have the alignment checked, and to have a rear rattle fixed.

When I come back to pick up the car: the oil is changed and the grease problem is fixed (so far). They said they looked at the tires and they didn't appear to have excessive wear, so they didn't put it on the hoist, and, of course, they couldn't hear the rattle. Okay, so fine, I'll admit the rattle is quite intermittant, a fact I admitted up front with the service manager. But this is what gripes me, and I'm wondering if anyone else experienced this: the dealership wanted to charge me $15.00 because they couldn't find the rattle! They said Nissan only covers problems, and since they couldn't find one, they where going to charge me for their time! Is this right!? Do other dealerships do this!? At the point of explaining what I wanted done and that the rattle was intermittant, they NEVER said that if they don't find a rattle they'd have to charge me.

Do I have a right to be upset, or should I pay the money and keep my mouth shut?

Also, on the alignment issue. Shouldn't they have put the car on the hoist and actually checked the alignment rather than going on tire appearance?

What are your thoughts?

 

I think you're right, they shouldn't charge you for that. That is such BS.

You should have told them, either you can pay them 15 dollars and tell the friend you were thinking of sending their way to go to a different dealership. Or, they can forget about it, and appriciate your business.

I am so sick of bad business ethics the last few years. It really started when the economy was really going well. Now, that it's gone south a bit, they are keeping it up. It is going to bite them in the a$$ soon if they don't get better customer service.

 

Change dealers. Problems with your car are under a warranty that was included in the purchase price of your car - those 3 years are not complimentary. The dealer should not charge you because of their lack of persistence, especially when there are rattle TSBs out. Nissan pays the dealer for warranty work. Give someone else your business if you do not feel happy even in the least with who you do business with. 30 Grand is not pocket change and you deserve to be treated better. Change dealers.

 

No, dealers can not charge you for warranty check issues.

Call NNA is the dealer makes it an issue.

Period.

 

I appreciate the responses. Not only am I changing dealers, I will no longer be sending business their way. And I do plan to speak with both the ownership and NNA. Please continue the responses. I plan to print a copy of this thread for the dealership to read and respond to. If I don't get a satisfactory explanation from the owner, the dealer's name and city/state of operation will happily be posted on this website.

I was able to get the service person to cancel the $15.00 charge. But the fact that they tried to get away with such a terrible business practice is appaling. I feel like I was trying to be scammed.

Has any, I mean ANY other dealership in the nation tried this with anyone else?

 

"How about I give you $30 and punch you in the face".

 

How is it "YOUR" fault that "THEY" could not properly diagnose the problem. Seems like maybe they should have contacted you and asked for for guidance in trying to find the problem. That is what Lexus & MB do.

 

Combining the two issues (rattle and alignment) two things occur to me:

1) I think they've got too much business, at least on the day you showed up. They didn't do the alignment, where they could have charged $60-$80, but instead said it's not needed since the tires seemed okay. (They probably think you'll be grateful that you didn't have to pay for that "diagnosis" or the alignment.) And they most likely just dismissed the rattle without even a test drive. Or certainly nothing more than a ride around the block -- what's $15? Maybe 10 minutes of a mechanic's time? (They probably think you'll be grateful they didn't spend two hours looking for the noise, then have to charge you the full labor rate!)

2) I don't think money was the issue but most likely the time was more important to them on that day. If they had wanted to make money, after all, they could have done the alignment and they could have "heard" the rattle and then billed out 2 or 3 hours of labor to Nissan as a warranty issue.

The real issue that I'd be angry about -- if I were in your place (and I'm not) -- is that they're suggesting that the problems you took the time to go in for are not significant and not worth the effort to do a thorough job on. Their failure to even check the alignment, let alone do one, says "Let's not be so picky, hunh?" Their failure to do the analysis of the rattle thoroughly (okay, so maybe they wouldn't have been successful -- who knows?) says "Yeah, yeah, who cares?"

So I'd do the same as you're doing .... go somewhere else. Not because of the money, but because of the "who give a s**t attitude."

Good luck. J

 

In "general" Nissan dealers are subpar in the customer service area and needs lot of help/training. What gets me is these surveys that they expect you to lie on everytime you get some work done,without excellents its useless they always tell me,yeah right!

 

Ha... you should try owning a VW...... You wanna talk about bad sevice.... I quite going to the dealership for service. the only time I go there is when I absoulty have to. ie broke the key to my wheel lock set and had to buy a new one. I found a ASE certifed master mechanic with over 17 yrs working on old and new VW's.

 

Man that is so true. I hate VW and will never recommend one to anyone because they build cars that are crappy and then they don't have a service that is worth a cent. Nissan is like a dream come true in comparison. Remember what Nissan's most expensive N. American car costs and then what MB or Lexus cheapest car costs. You can't compare the service, they are in different leagues.

 

You'd be surprised but charging for not finding anything happens for often then you think and its legal. I had a ford explorer sport, yeah yeah enough with the jokes, under warranty, had a problem with it refusing to start, once at work and once at the gas station. Brought it in the first time and it started just fine, same thing the send time. Both times got charged $100 for them to have a mechanic take a look at everything. Third time I was pissed like hell, they ended up finding a bad fuel pump and put the $200 towards other services since the fuel pump was under warranty. They do have the right to charge you for checking out a problem you say you're having, they still have to pay the mechanic for the time they spent looking. It sucks but its true. I do agree though they shoulda said something ahead of time but how often does that happen. If you think you have an issue with something have them check it during a routine service, they are less likely to charge to look at the engine while they are changing the oil and air filter.

 

8 year old thread. wow