It wasn't just a bad experience but one of the worst I've ever had with respect to a dealership.
My car broke down and needed towing. I thought it may be the fuel pump and even though I knew it would be more costly (out of warranty) to go to a dealership, I wanted to make sure I got a quality pump replacement and that the guys there had done this repair many times. So I had them tow it to Clay Cooley Nissan -- and I've had them do work for me in the past, which went fine. A little high, but I go to other places for regular service.
The tow fiasco was another story. I don't even want to relive that.
Once the car got to the dealership, the first issue is that the service writer lady (she was more like a kid) was nice but it was clearly obvious she had no automotive knowledge or experience. I've never encountered such a service writer. I've had ones that were more sales people than technical people, but they all knew the basic things about car repair and maintenance. At the very least, they knew as much or more than I did about the cars they work on. This young lady didn't. She couldn't answer basic questions. But since I dropped it off late on a Friday, I knew it would stay overnight and get done the next day. I also figured I'd deal with someone else the next day -- perhaps the young lady was just a service center rep and not a writer. No big problem so far.
Well, she calls me the next day (she was a writer) and tells me the issue. It isn't a fuel pump. Its another part that I had a hard time believing would cause the vehicle to totally shut down and not run when it went out. I've replaced the part before on another vehicle. Anyway, she says go online and select any other service items I might want or need. I tell her to go ahead with the repair on the part. She gave me a very high price which I found hard to believe but figured I'd talk to them later about it.
Online, it said I needed a lot of stuff. In fact, I had done most of the stuff listed within the last few months. Even though it said my vehicle was "inspected," it wasn't. Had it been, they wouldn't have recommended these maintenance items. I angrily sent her a text asking why they recommended brake fluid flush when I had it done 4 months ago? Not at THAT place but any reasonable inspection of the brake fluid would indicate it was new and did not need work. She responded that they did that based on the fact that they had no record of it being serviced and due to the mileage, it needed it. But that's not what the site said: they said INSPECTED. The irony is that it didn't mention something I DO need -- at least in 10-15K miles! Even if they had inspected these things, either they were lying about what was needed or they don't know the difference between brake (and other) fluid that needs to be changed and that which is new. Or, maybe they just thought if I was dumb enough to bring the car to the dealership for repair, I would dumb enough to believe I needed 2 brake flushes within 4 months of each other.
She calls me a few hours later and says the repair I brought it for is done. When I go in, I want to know how they arrived at the cost. She couldn't explain it so she sent me to this service manager type (he didn't introduce himself but was in an office.) I'm not sure he knows the first thing about cars, either. He said I was charged for an hour of diagnosis and another hour for the repair. I told him I've never been charged for diagnosis when they did the actual work and the hour for repair was ridiculous. I've changed that part out in less than half an hour. In fact, I took it off, cleaned it, and then replaced it. All in 20-25 minutes. How in the hell could it take a trained technician an hour? He said they had to let it reset computer codes. This was a lie. There were no CEL codes being thrown. Plus, even if it had to run for a few minutes (which was reasonable), I shouldn't have been charged for the "let it idle" time. Seeing that I couldn't win an argument with an arrogant jerk that was lying through his teeth and thinks everyone else is stupid, I paid and left. I told the young lady that was going to be the most expensive repair they'd ever done.
The problem with the repair hour time was that they already knew what they were going to charge BEFORE they did the repair. How did they find out that it took an hour to repair AND run the computer to reset the codes? That should have been an unknown BEFORE the repair had they been honest. Obviously, they weren't.
I sent Nissan an email asking if they cared about dealership complaints. They responded by not answering my question but asking me what happened and opening up a complaint issue. After 3 or 4 phone tag attempts, I finally got ahold of a Nissan rep. Long story short, she stated that the technical repair issues are left to the dealership. OK, thanks for nothing. No, you don't care about dealer complaints.
A buddy of mine who's worked for Cooley directly in management told me he really doesn't care about customer complaints either. Please: stay the hell away from these people. If they're dishonest in service, no telling what they'd do to get you to actually buy one of their vehicles.
While the vehicle does run, I want to sell it ASAP. I want nothing to do with ANYTHING Nissan related. Even if I didn't get the shaft at the dealership, the part in question should not have either shut the vehicle down entirely or did so without CEL codes.
My car broke down and needed towing. I thought it may be the fuel pump and even though I knew it would be more costly (out of warranty) to go to a dealership, I wanted to make sure I got a quality pump replacement and that the guys there had done this repair many times. So I had them tow it to Clay Cooley Nissan -- and I've had them do work for me in the past, which went fine. A little high, but I go to other places for regular service.
The tow fiasco was another story. I don't even want to relive that.
Once the car got to the dealership, the first issue is that the service writer lady (she was more like a kid) was nice but it was clearly obvious she had no automotive knowledge or experience. I've never encountered such a service writer. I've had ones that were more sales people than technical people, but they all knew the basic things about car repair and maintenance. At the very least, they knew as much or more than I did about the cars they work on. This young lady didn't. She couldn't answer basic questions. But since I dropped it off late on a Friday, I knew it would stay overnight and get done the next day. I also figured I'd deal with someone else the next day -- perhaps the young lady was just a service center rep and not a writer. No big problem so far.
Well, she calls me the next day (she was a writer) and tells me the issue. It isn't a fuel pump. Its another part that I had a hard time believing would cause the vehicle to totally shut down and not run when it went out. I've replaced the part before on another vehicle. Anyway, she says go online and select any other service items I might want or need. I tell her to go ahead with the repair on the part. She gave me a very high price which I found hard to believe but figured I'd talk to them later about it.
Online, it said I needed a lot of stuff. In fact, I had done most of the stuff listed within the last few months. Even though it said my vehicle was "inspected," it wasn't. Had it been, they wouldn't have recommended these maintenance items. I angrily sent her a text asking why they recommended brake fluid flush when I had it done 4 months ago? Not at THAT place but any reasonable inspection of the brake fluid would indicate it was new and did not need work. She responded that they did that based on the fact that they had no record of it being serviced and due to the mileage, it needed it. But that's not what the site said: they said INSPECTED. The irony is that it didn't mention something I DO need -- at least in 10-15K miles! Even if they had inspected these things, either they were lying about what was needed or they don't know the difference between brake (and other) fluid that needs to be changed and that which is new. Or, maybe they just thought if I was dumb enough to bring the car to the dealership for repair, I would dumb enough to believe I needed 2 brake flushes within 4 months of each other.
She calls me a few hours later and says the repair I brought it for is done. When I go in, I want to know how they arrived at the cost. She couldn't explain it so she sent me to this service manager type (he didn't introduce himself but was in an office.) I'm not sure he knows the first thing about cars, either. He said I was charged for an hour of diagnosis and another hour for the repair. I told him I've never been charged for diagnosis when they did the actual work and the hour for repair was ridiculous. I've changed that part out in less than half an hour. In fact, I took it off, cleaned it, and then replaced it. All in 20-25 minutes. How in the hell could it take a trained technician an hour? He said they had to let it reset computer codes. This was a lie. There were no CEL codes being thrown. Plus, even if it had to run for a few minutes (which was reasonable), I shouldn't have been charged for the "let it idle" time. Seeing that I couldn't win an argument with an arrogant jerk that was lying through his teeth and thinks everyone else is stupid, I paid and left. I told the young lady that was going to be the most expensive repair they'd ever done.
The problem with the repair hour time was that they already knew what they were going to charge BEFORE they did the repair. How did they find out that it took an hour to repair AND run the computer to reset the codes? That should have been an unknown BEFORE the repair had they been honest. Obviously, they weren't.
I sent Nissan an email asking if they cared about dealership complaints. They responded by not answering my question but asking me what happened and opening up a complaint issue. After 3 or 4 phone tag attempts, I finally got ahold of a Nissan rep. Long story short, she stated that the technical repair issues are left to the dealership. OK, thanks for nothing. No, you don't care about dealer complaints.
A buddy of mine who's worked for Cooley directly in management told me he really doesn't care about customer complaints either. Please: stay the hell away from these people. If they're dishonest in service, no telling what they'd do to get you to actually buy one of their vehicles.
While the vehicle does run, I want to sell it ASAP. I want nothing to do with ANYTHING Nissan related. Even if I didn't get the shaft at the dealership, the part in question should not have either shut the vehicle down entirely or did so without CEL codes.