"Claimed" being the operative word. I wouldn't believe a word out of anyone at that dealership.

I know car salesmen are, by nature, a pretty dishonest breed, but my sales experience at South Point Nissan was extremely displeasant.

I do all my servicing and warranty trips (well one of each so far) at Maxwell Town North. Good, professional service.

 

Really? I like the sales people at South Point. The lady I talked to at Maxwell was a jack*ss. She acted like I was joking or couldn't actually purchase the car. She was really snobby and wouldn't even let me order in November, she said "We already placed all of our orders 9 months ago". I went to South Point and the salesman was great, no pressure and didn't hesitate on letting me order exactly what I want.

 

Heh, OK I was going to save this story until the meet next Thursday but here's my experience.

I ordered my Z in September at South Point Nissan. The initial salesman (Art Ponce) was great, as you said, no pressure, let me order exactly what I wanted. I was in and out within 30 minutes.

I was given an approximate delivery date of January 13th.

Somewhere in between Art leaves South Point Nissan for the Maxwell Town North dealership, and a guy called Eon Thomas takes over the process.

Eon calls me in mid-December saying that my Z is on a truck and will be at the dealership later that day, he will call me when it's in.

I list my current car for sale in the paper, shelling out $$$ for a week long ad.

I call back the next day, and was told the car's been delayed, but it's still on the truck and will be delivered. He will call me.

Two days later, no call from Eon Thomas.

I call back the next day, and was told the car's been delayed, but it's still on the truck and will be delivered. He will call me (notice a pattern here?).

Three days later, no call from Eon Thomas.

I call back and am told that there was a big mix-up and that my car never was on a truck, and won't be delivered again until January. I had to cancel selling my current car as a result.

A few days before the January 13th projected delivery date, I get a call from Eon Thomas. My car is at the dock, and is being loaded onto a truck and will be at the dealership in a couple of days. He will call me when it gets here.

January 13th, Eon Thomas calls me to tell me my car is here. Excitedly I check on the South Point Nissan inventory page, and the VIN number I've been given indeed matches a Z they have in stock.

Unfortunately "my" Z, that I ordered 4 months before, is not the same as the one that is in stock. The one that is apparently the one I ordered is a different color (Chrome Silver instead of Silverstone) and has totally different options to the ones I specifically ordered.

I call Eon Thomas. I am not happy. I am not happy at all. He tries to get me to come down to the dealership. He tries pathetic "Car Sales for Dummies" lines like "What would it take for me to get you into this car today?", to which I answer "It would take you getting me the car I specifically ordered 4 (FOUR) months before.

Eon Thomas also says he's not happy, and he's not sure what's happened. But he will pull some strings, and make things happen.

24 hours later (after waiting 4 months for the wrong car) he calls me to say he's gone to hell and back for me to get the car I ordered. It's at the dealership and it's "EXACTLY" what I ordered.

I check on the South Point Nissan website to see the spec of this car. It's everything that I ordered, except it has a $600 side and curtain airbag option that I didn't order.

I go to the dealership to complete the paperwork. I specifically ask Eon "Is the car exactly as I ordered?", to which he replies in the affirmative. I play the innocent.

He tells me to go and check out the car while he does some stuff, and oh by the way, make sure you check the sticker.

When I come back I confront him about the airbags option. He denies telling me that the car was exactly as I had ordered (you know, the question I had asked about 5 minutes previously). He said he told me to look at the sticker when I checked out the car, and how much more honest did he need to be than that?

By the way, the whole time I had my girlfriend with me, who happens to be an attorney.

All the while Eon is going to great lengths telling me how much trouble it took to get this car within 24 hours. I pointed out to him that I had ordered this car 4 months previously, and why couldn't he have got me this car within 24 hours back in September. He either wasn't very impressed with me pointing out the obvious, or he didn't have an answer.

Next, the airbags option. My position was that I didn't see why I had to pay for something that I did not order, that would stop me from putting aftermarket leather in the car, and after I had already agreed a price with the initial salesman.

Eon then undertakes a charade of sales tactics to get me to pay for the car, presumably also from "Car Sales for Dummies".

This included going to the "Manager" two or three times, because all of a sudden he "had no authority". He wasn't amused when I pointed out that he'd made this Z appear from no-where within 24 hours, but wasn't able to negotiate a price.

He also used the hard-sale "take-away" tactic on me. Either I paid the full price for this car, or they wouldn't sell me a Z at all. This was a mistake on his part, as I then proceeded to chew him out very audibly within the dealership (on purpose).

We finally came to a happy medium of paying half-price on the airbags, and I figured that of all the options that would be worth having, these would probably be the ones. So I ended up paying a few hundred under sticker.

From that point onwards everything went pretty smooth. Except for they did not have the spare key, or spare remote for the car when I took possession of it.

They wrote me an IOU for it, and said that the dealership in Dallas had already Fedexed it. It would be at the dealership tomorrow, and Eon would call me.

Of course, he never called. He never calls back... ever.

One final insult as I was leaving the dealership, was when Eon "apologized" for all the hassle I'd had with the sales process. He then proceeded to tell me that had he been the initial salesman, then none of this would have happened, and I would have got my car a lot sooner.

Basically, my interpretation of that comment was that since he got no commission, then nothing was his responsibility, and that he only provides professional sales service on that basis.

I pointed out to him, that I didn't care who the initial salesman was. As far as I was concerned he was my salesman.

Four months later I still do not have my spare key or remote. I guess Fedex never delivered. I've called every couple of weeks during that time. Every time I've called Eon Thomas has said he will call me right back when he's looked into the matter. He has never once called me back.

The last time I called (about a week ago) I called him on his lack of service. He relented and said that he would sacrifice and "bite the bullet" by providing a remote and key at no charge.

On my list of things to do this Saturday is go to the dealership and pick up the remote and key which I suppose they will take hours to code and cut.

At that point I will finally fill out my NNA Customer Satisfaction Survery, which should be quite amusing.

 

z_brit,

That's quite an experience. Sounds like great fun

If you just had your tranny replaced a couple of weeks ago, you are definitely not the first as they claimed, and not the last either Sad to hear that a newer car had this issue.

JD

 

It was probably about as much fun as having hemorrhoids removed with a rusty razor blade.

Fortunately, I haven't had my transmission replaced. So far the only real problems that I've had with the car have been a rattle and a cricket sounding squeak. Both happily fixed by Maxwell Town North.

 

Well, it's funny, because 90% of the people I talk to can't stand Town North, including myself. Everyone at South Point has been really nice, and my salesman was great.

What it all comes down to is no dealership is good, they all have bad sales people. I have dealt with several terrible salesman at Town North. I have dealt with several good salesman at South Point, and their service seems great so far. I do not trust Town North service mainly because of some things I've heard, and because of my experience with the Mitsubishi dealerships service department next store. I know they are owned by the same people, and the two dealers are closely tied. If you call their main number the front desk directs you to Nissan or Mitsubishi, that tells you they are pretty much the same place as far as I am concerned.

Like I said, find a good salesman and any dealer can be "good".

Ruben Moreno has sold quite a few Z's to board owners. Mark, myself, and a few others have all got their Z's from him, and we have all been more than happy.

 

The reason I went with South Point was that initially the sales process was really cool. Town North claimed that they were no longer allowed to place orders as mandated by NNA. South Point had no such problems placing an order.

I think the problem that I had was that my salesman, the one who got the commission, left half way through the sales process. The salesman who I then started dealing with didn't subsequently treat me as one of his sales. His quote "If you'd have bought from me none of this would have happened and you'd have got your car sooner" was particularly telling.

The initial salesman was very cool though. He's been recommended to me from a mutual friend who'd bought a Red Track model and two Pathfinders from him before. The salesman went to Town North incidentally.

Couldn't agree with you more.

My only experience with South Point service department came yesterday when I went down there to get the spare key and remote that I've been waiting for since January.

They had the remotes in stock. But apparently, no keys. Apparently the keys for the 350z are different from the Nissan keys used in all their other models.

I find it highly odd that Nissan would use the same engine in a lot of their product line, yet wouldn't use a common part as basic as
a car key?

Not to mention that Eon Thomas claimed their service department was closed after midday on Saturdays. After then stating that he made no mention of this the last time I called him after he failed to call me back, he then "suddenly remembered" that the service guy was still there. When I drove my car around to the side so that they could examine my car (presumably just in case they ordered the wrong key for a 350z) the service department looked remarkably open. Two guys were behind the desk, and several technicians were wandering around.

It's this kind of abject dishonesty that concerns me the most.

I can only go on my experience there, which has so far been exemplary. I'm the sort of person who will use a service of any kind, until they **** me off.

So far I've only had one oil change, and warranty fix. The warranty fix was for a squeak and rattle coming from the rear tailgate, and for the wheel well "clunking noise" problem. Both were done really well and my car hasn't rattled or squeaked since. I love it!

Again, I couldn't agree with you more. When I was in for my oil change, a salesman came into the waiting room and noticed my 350z service book, and we got to talking about mods. He turned out to be South African and we share a love for F1 racing. He knew I had a new car, and knew I wasn't in the market for one, but he ended up showing me the new Maxima, and then we went out for a test drive in the Murano. If I buy another Nissan, which I probably will, then I will definintely look up this guy.

Sounds like a similar type of guy. I like car salesmen to be as "uncarsalesmanlike" as it's possible to be to make a living from car sales.

I find the use of crass and transparent sales tactics to be insulting. Several times I've dealt with a salesman and then asked to be given someone else when they've tried this on me. It's quite amusing to get a totally different subsequent experience after doing this.

 

Yeah, my father was (closing his business of 32 years in Houston, Marine Sports for you Houston folks) in the boat business and I've helped out at boat shows before. Boat salesman are even worse than car salesman when it comes to bad mouthing other brands. I hated it and told him anytime I heard his salesman doing it. You don't have to badmouth other brands to sell your own product, it just tells the educated customer you're selling sh** if that's what you have to do to sell it.

 

Saw another one, and this time it may be one of you on the list!

Today (Wednesday 5/21) going North on Parmar as I was going South.

I waved but you probably didn't see me since I had my window up!