Thought I'd provide an update to those interested. Long story short: everything has worked out and though I have yet to detail her to get a final judgment, the "problem areas" that I sampled looked excellent when I went to pick the car up.
All right, so when I left you guys about two and a half weeks ago, the car had what I now know as "
rail dust" on areas not protected/covered during shipping. So I booked an appointment with my dealership (Burlington Nissan) on Aug 17 and while, surprisingly, they couldn't initially see or feel what I was referring to, they brought out some of their detailers who saw/felt the rail dust and said they've dealt with it before. I was very clear up front about where the affected areas were, what my expectations were, and what I wanted to see when all was said and done. They assured me that everything would be fine and as up until this point, I've had nothing but terrific service from them, I had no reason to think otherwise.
So a few days pass and I go to pick up the car on Aug 21 and to my dismay, not only had they not fixed the problem - they've added several scratches in the process. Immediately I spoke to my sales manager and the dealership's head sales manager and voiced my disappointment in a very calm, cool and professional manner (it was everything I could do not to flip out). When the two managers came out to see the car, they were having troubles seeing/feeling the rail dust and couldn't see some of the scratches, claiming "they must be getting old".
At this point, I didn't want them touching my car again so I said this car would be going to a professional body shop and they would be handling the bill. After a little bit of chit chat, they said to go for a quote saying that "Nissan's pockets weren't bottomless" and to follow up with them on Monday. So, I did just that and took it to CARS in Burlington on Aug 24 and had a good chat with their manager and explained the situation.
Unlike the dealership, the manager from CARS knew exactly what I was referring to, saw the issue and knew exactly how to fix it. Fast forward another few days to Aug 28 and I am extremely pleased with the result. Like I said, I still have to properly detail the car to thoroughly check it over but the few spots I checked when I went to pick up the car that were particularly bad, looked almost spotless. CARS also appeared to removed most of the scratches that the dealership had put on and yes, Burlington Nissan footed the bill. CARS had used a few coats of "fallout remover", several washes, a 3M black polish, and then my Meguiars NXT wax.
So in the end, barring any surprises when I go to clean the car, everything appears to have worked out. But Burlington Nissan definitely lost a customer as while they ultimately ended up doing the right thing, the car should never have been delivered to me with the rail dust still on it and I was overall not pleased with the attitude I received when trying to explain my situation to them. So I've already logged a complaint with Nissan Canada and will be following up with them in the next few days to tell him how everything worked out.
Let's just hope that this is the worst that this car goes through. I'm wondering if I should still clar bar it though… I don't want to risk screwing something up but if there is any rail dust left, I would like to get it out before it rusts. Thoughts? I'll report back once I've had a chance to take a closer look.