I am so Fn done with dealer service Dept.
 

Let me just start with this Santa Monica Nissan in CA, has the biggest scam artist and con men working there.

Saturday 7:30 am I get up and take the front and rear brake pads to a local shop I was referred to by my friend. He said he would install the new brake pads for $150. Cool I thought better than the $500 the dealer wanted. lol.

I drop the car off. I'm walking around trying to kill time. I get a phone call 45 min later. "Can you come back to the shop we need to show you something"
I get there. And the guys says who ever worked on my car before them busted my lug nut with the tire lock. I'm like Fuuuuuuuuu this happened last year to the opposite side of the car so I knew it was faulty crap nuts.

I get back to the garage, and I see that half the lock ripped off, while half remained. They said that they didn't want to mess with it, and that they could not get the tire off without damaging the rim. ( I knew deep down inside that they were the ones who broke it).

I called the dealer, and said I am on my way over there to get the broken nut off, I told them this is the second time this has happened to me. The service rep said come on down. I get there and a scene from out of a movie ensues. He goes in the back and grabs a service tech. They speak, and both nod. The service rep says "well we are going to need to keep your car for half a day, and you are looking at 3 hours of labor. We will need to remove the entire axle etc......."

I looked at the service rep and said it's fine I just want it off. If I get a flat right now I can event put a spare on. He said ok it will run about $375.00.
This is when I lost my ****. I looked at him and said are you fn kidding me, its a small strip of a broken lug nut?:mad: "why is it when ever I bring my car in for anything the first word you guys blurt out is $375.00, broken mirror $375.00, broken lug nut $375.00. I know you guys work on commission, but what about my look made you think I was a stupid idiot and would fall for that **** you just fed me?"

At this point he walks away. I was so mad I got in my car and drove off. I went to pep boys I asked the service dude to take a look at it and give me advice. He said if I find a real tire shop, they would be able to remove it. So I cruise on down to nearby Culver City which has a tire shop on every corner. I stop at the first one I see, a little mom and pop shop. The guy comes out, I show the problem to him, and in the span of 2.5 min he pops it off. Then he walks away. I told him how thankful I was, and that no one wanted to help me in this god forsaken city. I asked how much he wanted, and he said nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!

So from $375 and three hours, and the complete removal of the axle to 2.5 min and nothing. God I was raging inside. I handed the guy $20.00 said thank you and made a return apt. next week to finally have my pads installed. $125.00 by the way.

I took the busted nut back to SM Nissan so I can confront the con mam. My luck, he had already left for the day. I grabbed his co worker, showed him the nut, and told him to pass along a message that I know he was full of it, and I had it removed in a matter of 2 min, for no charge.

What happened to taking care of your customers? What happened to doing whats right in hopes of earning a customers repeat business? I am so turned off by this ****, that #1 I will never set foot inside a dealership service dept again, and #2 this will be my last Nissan ever (although Infiniti treated me miles better)

Sorry for the rant, I know some will post some kind of ridicule or sympathy for me but I just wanted to share with you what I got accomplished in a matter of 6 hours last Saturday which was nothing!!!!!!!!!!!

Service depts in dealerships in Los Angeles are a complete ripoff (other than Fontana Nissan)

In the future you should try Amplified Motorsports, Corner 3, or Precision Z.

So you found the worse and best help in one day? People are losing all morals these days. What ever happen for looking out foe the next man?

Sorry about your frustration and glad things worked out in the end. This is just an example that you should get a second opinion in many cases....especially when things 'don't smell right'.

Just for reference, all Nissan dealers are independently owned and operated. Nissan has very little control over the dealers. You shouldn't hate Nissan for this. Just find another dealer.

Lesson for the day: Support small businesses.

Lol... ouch. :D

:iagree:

This, in a nutshell is Nissan's biggest problem. Every service department that I've gone to in this area pulls some of the same crap that you describe. If I was mechanically inept, I could spend thousands without blinking.
Glad you got it fixed by someone who still understands what real business is about. Providing a product or service that is needed without raping your customer.

Wow. Quite the day.

You have the wrong dealer installed locks and there was a tsb for the early Z's. I had the same problem and bought replacement locks only have them break because the dealer was still using the wrong locks. I went to the dealer and asked them to replace them and they said well we have to prove that we installed them? WTF?? What we're these guys smoking!! They thought I bought them on my own and broke them and just wanted free locks!! I left pissed and went to another dealer (Cerritos Nissan) and they were nice to just give me lugs since the correct locks were not available. I feel your frustration. :mad:

http://www.the370z.com/370z-technica...heel-nuts.html


Downey Nissan Service
Sucks Monkey Balls

Its weird, my one experience with the service department of the dealership I bought mine from was totally cool. My air dam had come loose (wife nudged a curb) and the guys popped it up on a lift, reattached it, no charge. Took all of 5 mins. I'm dreading having to go in for any kind of significant work though

The lightbulb(taillight) on my previous DD(toyota) went out, so i went to the dealership and bought a new one from the Parts department for like $2.

Then I went outside and asked the service manager if he could help me replace the bulb. He said he could ask the service tech guy to help me but he would have to charge me $75.

F*ck that.

I think nowadays the profit margin for selling a new car is very minimal so dealership find more creative ways ripping you off by charging you more for service.

Don't kid yourself, the margins are still pretty good.

I had a dealership quote me $90 to reset the TPMS and the service tech did it for free without telling anyone. He was a car guy too (even though he drove an S2000 :icon17: ).

Something very similar happened with me at Toyota. I took my highlander in to see if they can fix the hood from not open and they told me it will take 250 dollars + 2 hours and the removal of body panels to fix it. I got so piss that I told them that I did not want them to service me anymore.

Once I took the car back home I went ahead and examined the situation. I find that the wire came loose from the lever which was the cause for the hood not opening. I ended up fixing it within 5 minutes...

When I bought my 370z the salesmen gave me 5 free oil changes which I will never use because I know how bad the service/techs are with dealerships.

Tough times
 

In this economy some dealers aren't making a lot of money so they stoop to this.

These kinds of stories make me so mad! Once I had the check engine light in my old G35c come on and when I took it to the dealer they told me that my throttle body would need to be replaced and that it would cost me $700. I said no thanks and drove the car another 20K miles with no issues

:icon17:

:tup:

Sorry to hear. I have had bad experiences and good ones.

I've had some mixed experiences as well with dealerships in the past, there are some truly great dealers out there though and finding them is a bit easier with resources like forums where you can tap into other peoples experiences.

The problem with dealerships is that they normally put the most inexperienced techs as the ones who do the oil changes/ routine stuff.

After West Covina put oil all over my engine bay I vowed to never set foot in a service bay unless it was for something covered under warranty. That sh't is not cool with me. :shakes head:

I hear you on that one man, I too support indies such as SpecialtyZ since not only are prices so much better and you talk to fellow enthusiasts, you don't have to put up with the bull crap either.

The problem is that ignorant car owners go in and actually pay up for these fraudulent work orders certain dealers convince them they need.

:iagree:

Yeah you hit the nail on the head right there for sure!

My GF took her car for it's first oli change on a brand new car. She was Alone and they tried to tell her that there's a recall part for he car. Get this they said it's not covered under warranty, and they would have to charge her $750.

She called me and asked what she should do. I told her to ask for her car back and the F out of there.

Con artists and scammers.

Sorry to hear that OP. When I had my fuel sender malfunction, Nissan wanted to charge me $500 b/c they aren't sure if warranty covered it. So I had to rant and call Nissan directly and have it taken care of. After hours of screaming to manager that I dont take my car to a race track, Nissan (head office) called them and told them that its covered by warranty.

That and a few months later (didn't learned my lesson) asked them to swap my TPMS w/ hdskull. They wanted $475 to unmount, uninstall, then reinstall and then remount. Good thing hdskull knew Scott from Scott RA. They did it for an awesome price! And I agree on supporting small business!

Get the rest of those locks off before they break on you (because they will). Bring the TSB in to them and demand they correct locks.

What he said ^. But stay cool and firm.

How do I know if I have the faulty locks?

What does driving on a race track have to do with a malfunctioning fuel level sensor?

You could have saved yourself a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of headaches by doing your own maintenance work. This is what I do. Fluid changes, brake jobs, maintenance, and simple mods are all done in my driveway with a basic set of tools and a service manual.

Read the TSB (that Trip already posted). If they look like the picture on the right, you have the wrong ones and they will eventually break - and more than likely get stuck on the wheel requiring a time consuming and potentially expensive removal.

Here it is again.
http://www.the370z.com/370z-technica...heel-nuts.html

Also it is not that they are faulty, they just aren't designed for this car. Dealers are just assuming that the 370Z and the 350Z will share just about all the same parts but that is not the case on many of the finer details.

After my experience this past weekend, I agree 100%. It's going to be hard for me to trust dealerships anymore.

Brought car in for simple alignment. Tech drove it 20 miles for test drive, put rock chips on hood and car was making funny noise when engaging clutch for about 30 mins after I got car back.

From now on I will have to watch the entire process I guess.

I took my car to the car wash yesterday and it sounded like the guy was launnching the car to move it 10 feet. He must've had the clutch burning at 4000 rpms. It was a little Hispanic guy working for tips so I felt bad and didn't say anything, but in all honesty if you want something done right, you need to do it yourself.

I will, however, say that as bad as some dealerships are, I have seen ones that are just that good.

Colonial Nissan in PA is so good it's scary. Fred Beans Nissan in PA is also good too. Had some install issues with aftermarket parts, they took me back in the next day, no appt, and fixed it free of charge.

1. Why would you ever take your car to a car wash -- just asking for trouble.

2. True, there are good dealerships. Like in any industry there is a range of good to bad service providers. My local dealership (Maita Nissan) is good and their staff are smart. I only use them for inspections while under warranty, though.

3. Why do people feel that they need to point out peoples' race when they make comments? Seriously, in this racial hodge-podge of our society, who cares? Also, who knows what race people are by looking? It does not matter, does it?

Easy there Sensitive Sally. I spoke Spanish to him as I have previously. He is from Guatemala. I am from NJ. I'm a gringo but who doesn't speak spanish nowadays. I came in just before it closed and he rode away on his bicycle. So I didn't see the need to make a big deal of him burning up my clutch. I didn't want to get him into trouble. And since it's a free country (until Obama gives more of it away), I will use whatever identifiers I please. I realize you are in Cali and things are very different there in terms of social norms and people being "laid back". But where I come from we are a little more in your face and don't take nicely to people telling us how to speak :-). PS Caucasians have officially been a minority in California since 2008, so enough with the bleeding heart stuff.

And I've been to this car wash before. They do a fine job cleaning the car. I don't have the kind of time to waste washing my car in my driveway during the week. I had pollen all over the rear windshield and a bird apparently had explosive diarrhea on my rear fender. It had to be done. I wish I had time to kill in my driveway washing my car. I work too much. I wish it was different. I do it when I can when the weather is nice. I'm not going to spite myself by driving around with bird **** on my car just because I dont have the time to wash it myself.

Just FYI - Fontana is not in Los Angeles.

To the OP: You might want to file a complaint with Nissan...

This thread has a ton of info. And this one.

These are the correct locks.

FYI it's 45 mins from Los Angeles, but so is everything else. :stirthepot:

dealers usually suck....

i wanted to install my ARK at the nissan dealer i bought the car from.

They quoted my for 3 hours of labor to "do it right"

$315 to install an exhaust lol with a lift hah...

haha under the great name of "Greater Los Angeles" area.