I was originally really impressed with Nissan when they - adam.m
I was originally really impressed with Nissan when they sold me my car a year and a half ago. My enthusiasm has greatly decreased in the time since - mostly due to my interactions with the service department. At the time of the sale, they gave me a checklist saying that the windshield was great. I noticed and pointed out to the salesperson that it had a rock chip before I left the parking lot and was told that they'd take care of it. Emailed multiple times with their finance person who told me repeatedly that the service team would call me and deal with it. They never did. It was frustrating but I eventually let it go.
That was nothing though before the most recent interaction. My starter failed me twice in March. The first time I took it to a friend's auto mechanic shop. They tested everything and eventually figured the issue to be the starter. When they opened it up, it came unstuck immediately and the problem wouldn't duplicate - at least not until a couple weeks later. Since it's under warranty, I had the car towed to Nissan.
After it was there a couple days, on Friday March 15th, they sent me a video to show they were working on it at 9:58 AM. A tech (Brittany) then called me at 2:30 PM to tell me that they thought the issue was my battery. I said that my battery was working when the car was stalled - all the electronics were still functioning fine - and that it was tested multiple times two weeks before. I said that it could have run down if the car wasn't turned fully off after turning the starter, but that I was pretty sure that the battery wasn't why I stalled. They told me no worries - they were going to put it on the charger over the weekend, and that they would then be able to diagnose the car further on Monday.
On Monday, at 11:14 AM, a guy who I believe is the service manager called to tell me that I have a lithium ion battery and they don't have the right gear to charge it or do anything with it. They asked me to send a tow truck to get it towed to another dealership that would have the right equipment. He told me "don't worry, we're not going to charge you anything for the time we spent on it."
At the other dealership, they confirmed that the battery is now dead. They also said that if it was put on a non-Lithium Ion battery charger over the weekend, that that would probably have killed it. I called multiple times trying to get Brittany to tell me what they did with my car while it was in. Each time she was busy and I did not get a call back. Today, finally, I had a conversation with the service manager again. He disclaimed any responsibility and said that the battery was dead before they did anything. He said that he doubted my friend's auto shop even has the right equipment to test the battery (I've confirmed again that they do) and that they only said that they were GOING to put it on the charger over the weekend, but then realized just at closing time on that Friday that they could not - so didn't, and then waited until the following Monday to call me to tell me the car needed to be towed away.
When pressed on why, if they couldn't do anything with the car, they still kept it all weekend. He said that they only realized just at closing that they couldn't charge the battery - and he didn't have enough people around to push it back out of the bay and that he only has a skeleton crew on on Saturdays so again they really couldn't do anything with it or let me know until the Monday. Am I really to believe that they even though they couldn't do anything with the car and that they just sat in their bay from Friday morning until almost noon on Monday?
It stretches all credulity. I'm sitting with a significant bill for the new battery and the labour related to it. Nissan most likely fried the battery, but takes no responsibility.
Terrible service. I don't recommend Go North Nissan's service center to anyone.
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