AutoNation Nissan Jacksonville

I had a couple of issues with the car I bought from them but the general manager made It right. In the end, because he did take care of it, I'm happy and would do business with this dealer again but the general manager made It right. In the end, because he did take care of it, I'm happy and would do business with this dealer again More

My Mike Shad Starter Nightmare On April 3, 2012, I went My Mike Shad Starter Nightmare On April 3, 2012, I went out to my 2004 Nissan Frontier XE (Color: Sonoma Sunset; Name: Doris) and I turned the key an My Mike Shad Starter Nightmare On April 3, 2012, I went out to my 2004 Nissan Frontier XE (Color: Sonoma Sunset; Name: Doris) and I turned the key and she struggled to start. After a couple attempts, I got her started and immediately drove to the Discount Auto Parts store for them to do one of their free alternator/battery/starter tests. The gentleman hooked up his gear, said everything with the alternator checked out and that the battery probably needed to be replaced, but maybe the starter too. I bought a new battery and was on my way. 2 days later, I experienced the same issue and, this time, could not get the car started at all. Knowing in my non-car-guy mind that this was going to be a bigger job than Discount Auto Parts and I could team up to fix, I called USAA, my insurance company, and they gladly towed Doris to the place where we first met that fateful Independence Day (literally - I bought her on 7/4/04): Mike Shad Nissan on Cassat Ave. As I had my girlfriends’ vehicle at my disposal, I was not terribly put out by the fact that Doris was having issues. And, to be honest, I had been putting off some timing belt/water pump work, so it was a good time to just go ahead and let her get checked out so that I could fix as much as my wallet would let me. She was, after all, approaching 150,000 miles and had not given me any problems. If I had to drop 1500 bucks, I was willing to do so. A couple hours later, I was contacted by someone at Mike Shad who gave me a rundown of everything that they suggested needed to be done. This included the following: - Replacing the timing belt - Seal-oil camsha (?) - Seal-oil cranks (?) - Replacing the water pump - Replacing the fan/alternator belt - Replacing the compressor belt - Replacing the power steering belt - Adding coolant - Replacing the water pump gasket - More coolant (I just noticed that I was charged twice for coolant as I type this) - Limited Slip Con./Gear Guard (?) - Oil/filter change - Tire rotation - A $12.50 “Shop Charge for repair order” (?) This and a couple other things were mentioned to me. I don’t remember what those were, but when I asked the person “what would you absolutely recommend me do?,” these are the things we agreed on. Then I asked “and this also includes fixing the issue with it starting?” “Of course, sir,” was the kind, customer-friendly response. My final bill came out to $1783.88, which is a lot of money, but I was OK with spending it because I was getting Doris back in better shape than before, and she had been a fantastic vehicle during our many miles together. I picked Doris up and went home. That Sunday, Doris, my friend Angie and I went fishing. Well, Doris didn’t go fishing, but she towed my boat (Color: Aluminum Grey; Name: HRM Dink) to Doctors Lake. After a good day of fishing (I can’t remember how many we caught but it’s probably irrelevant to the point of this story), I pulled HRM Dink up to the dock and went to get Doris to back down the boat ramp to head home. I turned the key and nothing happened. After a couple failed attempts to get her started, I called Mike Shad Nissan and was greeted by a friendly voice telling me there was nothing they could do. I explained to them that my boat was in the water, my vehicle was in a parking lot and I needed help. I pleaded with the person to send a Nissan Frontier with a hitch and at least help me get my boat home and we could worry about getting the truck back to them on Monday if necessary. “Sorry sir, we don’t have trucks here we can do that with.” How silly of me to expect a Nissan dealership to have a truck sitting around. I asked for the number of the service departments’ manager and she said she couldn’t give it to me, but that she would call him and he would call me. I agreed to this and a short while later, Rich, a person integral to the story, gave me a call. I explained what the situation was and he made arrangements for a young man who works at Mike Shad to borrow one of their used vehicles with a trailer hitch to come and get me. I thanked him for his time and he assured me that he and Mike Shad Nissan would “make it right” and apologized profusely for the whole situation. When the young man arrived, he initially tried to jump Doris (with jumper cables, as opposed to intending to steal the change in the center console). I explained that it was a brand new battery. He went under Doris and asked for a hammer or “something hard.” After a couple loud hits on something, he asked me to try to start her up. I did, and she did. He got out from under the vehicle and said “I thought you said they fixed the starter.” “I thought they did,” I responded with a touch of disappointment. After a few brief moments of confusion as to what they actually did to fix the issue I took her in for, we agreed that I would take the boat home, put it away and then take Doris back to Mike Shad for them to “make it right” all while leaving her running, because there was no guarantee that another few whacks under the hood would do any good (that’d be a good lyric in a country song). After dropping her off and putting the key in the night drop box, I went home frustrated, but sure that the next day I would be able to get my truck back in good condition. The next day was a holiday if I remember correctly, but on Tuesday, “Make It Right” Rich called me with the prognosis. “It appears the starter needs to be replaced,” he said. “The starter was replaced, wasn’t it?,” I replied. “No.” At this point, I am a little confused, but since he’s going to “make it right” I’m not worried. Then, he explains that this will cost $350. Now, I’m beyond confused and I feel like I’m about to feel that old sting I felt in my early 20’s every time I went to a mechanic that made me want to buy a new car with a warranty years before - to avoid that “taken advantage of” feeling. “350 bucks?!,” I say. I explain that this is unacceptable. “I have just spent 1800 dollars fixing things that weren’t necessarily NEEDING to be fixed, and if I knew another 350 bucks was going to be needed – to fix the issue I brought the car in for - I wouldn’t have selected certain things that I could have done at a later date.” I explained that I had already spent more than I really wanted to and he needed to go to his boss, explain the situation and actually “make it right.” An hour or so later, Rich calls me back with his newest “make it right” offer. $350 bucks. I’m furious, but I calmly explain to him that if this is what they consider to be fair, then that’s fine. “I have a truck with 150,000 miles on it. I’m probably going to be in the market for a new car soon. Either way, you’re losing my future business with this nonsense and I feel you should probably consider that.” He asks me what I think is fair. “I think ‘fair’ would be for you guys to fix the problem you were initially asked to fix. There should be no additional charge to me. I was told the issue was fixed, and it wasn’t.” His response would, for the rest of this debacle, be the definition of my frustration. “There was no way we could know that the starter was bad.” I was baffled. I explained that I am in the computer business – I fix computers for a living. I say that if someone came to me with a computer that was not starting, and I knew there to be a part called the “starter” on a computer, that would be one of the first things I would check. He had neither a logical retort nor documentation that the starter was even looked at. In the interest in moving on with my life, I tell him that I was willing to spend $150 bucks and that was it. If they couldn’t get it down to $150, then they would never see me as a customer again. He agreed, told me they would replace the starter and it would be ready by the end of the day. I picked up Doris, signed some paperwork showing that they “REPL STARTER” for $140 in labor, (woohoo! They gave me a 10 dollar discount!) and left. I was agitated, but I felt like at least I was done dealing with this for the foreseeable future. Wrong again. On November 19, 2012, I go to head to work and Doris doesn’t make a peep when I turn the key. I know exactly what the issue was, because 7 months earlier, I went through it twice. The starter is busted. I borrow my girlfriends’ car to get to work, call my old “make it right” pal Rich and explain the situation. “We can’t be sure it’s the starter, so you’ll have to arrange for the tow truck and we’ll pay you back for it if it is.” Here we go again. Again, I arrange for USAA to tow the truck to Mike Shad Nissan. The truck gets there around noon or so. Around 2pm, I give them a call to see if they know what’s wrong. “The truck is not here,” I’m told by a gentleman named Jason. I call USAA, they say the truck was delivered. I wait on hold for 20 minutes while they verify with the tow company it was there. They get back on the line and tell me they just talked to Jason who confirmed the truck is there. I call Jason back and he tells me it’s up on the lift right now and they’ll get back to me. Around 6pm that evening, I get a call from Mike Shad that I have to ignore as I have a life. I retrieve the voicemail shortly afterward and it’s Jessica, the person who is managing my issue. “Hello, Mr. Customer,” she says, “this is Jessica from Mike Shad calling. We’ve determined that the issue with your vehicle is that the starter has gone out. It’s still within the year warranty so we will replace it with another Car Quest starter, which will retain the same warranty, or you can pay $175 to upgrade to a Nissan starter, which will give you another 12 months on the warranty.” Right here is where the record scratch noise would play if this were a TV show. Car Quest starter? Upgrade? $175? I’m beyond livid, but they’re closed at this time of night and I’ll take care of it in the morning. I get home, where my girlfriend sees my frustration and says “I got a call from Mike Shad.” Wait. What?! It seems that before Jessica called me, she called my girlfriend (who is not a decision-maker for my vehicle, should not have contact information attached to my vehicle and, even if she did, should not be contacted regarding my vehicle under any conceivable circumstance other than maybe Doris was sent to the principal’s office for smoking in the restroom) to explain that it will cost $175 to replace the starter. My girlfriend, knowing the situation that had occurred in April, tells Jessica that she is mistaken. She explains that the starter was replaced with a brand new starter and that it should still be fully covered by warranty. This information, apparently new to Jessica, appears to have made her change her tune by the time she called me with completely different information, which is more to my liking, but still bothersome as I was never told that they were going to use an inferior part in my vehicle and was under the impression that they replaced the starter at a discounted rate because of their initial mess-up, not because they didn’t want to lose a few bucks. The next day I call Mike Shad and request that my original documentation be sent to me. I want to verify that at no point do they claim that this was a Car Quest part in the documentation, because I know I was never verbally told this was the case. After I get the documentation and see that tidbit of information has not been included I call “Make It Right” Rich and we start our dance over again. Rich tells me that the Car Quest part is not an inferior part and that all starters can go bad. “C’mon Rich,” I say, “if it’s not an inferior part, why does it cost less and not come with a new warranty?” No response. I tell him that I am of the opinion that they should have put the Nissan starter in there in April, like they led me to believe they did, and so now, the “make it right” scenario would be to put the Nissan starter in now at no charge and we can all walk away feeling like it had been made right. Rich tells me he’ll call me back. 15 minutes later, Rich and the GM of Mike Shad Nissan, whose name I didn’t catch, call me back. “Progress is being made,” I think to myself. Sometimes I can be quite stupid. The GM asks me to recap the whole scenario, which I do fairly similarly to the above information (I don’t think I told him Doris’ name). He then says that the Car Quest part is not an inferior part. I ask him the same logical question I asked Rich and got the same “no response.” Finally, in sheer frustration and clear-sighted understanding that I’m being treated by the dealership how I had been treated by other mechanics in my life, I realize that I’m not going to make any progress. I tell them both, “you do what you think is right. If it’s putting a new Car Quest starter in the vehicle, then do it. If you think it’s giving me the part you led me to believe was being put in the vehicle, then do it. Just let me know when my truck is ready and I’ll pick it up and we’ll end our business relationship.” They agree to put the Car Quest starter in. I roll my eyes, thank them for their time and go back to work to get my mind off of the whole mess. At 5pm, after getting a call that Doris was ready for pickup, I have my girlfriend drop me off at Mike Shad Nissan and am prepared for a bit of a back and forth. I blame myself for not being diligent in getting all the information I should have in April. Not verifying, line by line through cryptic mechanic code, that I had been given everything I had asked for. So, I’m going to make sure that I’m am 100% aware of everything that has been done to my vehicle, down to the serial number of the new starter. To my surprise, “Make it right” Rich is there to help me through the final paperwork. The very first thing I say, after saying it’s nice to finally meet him in person, is “I spoke to Car Quest and they told me that all I need is a serial number to transfer the warranty on the starter, which is for one year according to you, to me where it will be for the lifetime of the vehicle (Seriously, this is true. The starter has a lifetime warranty, but Mike Shad doesn’t tell you that. That way, after 366 days, when your starter goes out again, they can swap it out at no cost to them, but still charge you the money for the part anyway.)” He’s a bit taken aback and says he doesn’t think starters have serial numbers. He makes a few phone calls to his sales folks who say the same thing, but that all I’ll need is the invoice number and I can swing by any Car Quest to get the warranty transferred to me. I find this acceptable and ask Rich for that information. After about 20 minutes, he reluctantly gets the information for me. Moving on, we start looking at the paperwork for the most recent repair. The first thing that catches my eye is the word “reman” next to “starter.” “You put a remanufactured starter in my car?” “Yes,” he says. I asked if the other starter was remanufactured and he says it was. I point out that this was not on the paperwork from April, and point out how they’ve obviously fudged their paperwork to make me believe I was getting a new part. He denies this and goes on the attack. He tells me how they’ve done me a huge favor by not charging me for this. How I’m being unreasonable and accusatory of malicious actions on their part. He tells me they’ve gone above and beyond. He tells me they’ve informed me that all of this would happen. I fall back on my trusty “show me the documentation” mantra, and he can’t. He fumbles through paperwork that does not back up any of his claims. That’s not entirely true. The paperwork from that days service, backs up everything he’s saying. All of this omitted information is now on the most recent service report. And now, he’s trying to get me to sign it. I tell him absolutely not. He must show me where the information was on older paperwork, and then I’ll agree to sign it. He tells me “you need to leave.” So I do. I’ve got the information I need to contact Car Quest and ensure my starter will be warrantied as sold. I’ve got the information I need to ensure I’ll never again do business with Mike Shad Nissan on Cassat, or probably any AutoNation-owned business again. I’ve got my baby, Doris, back. And I’ve got the name of a trustworthy mechanic. Hopefully, this recap of the drama, frustration and blatant lying on the part of “Make It Right” Rich and his cohorts at Mike Shad Nissan on Cassat, will make it to some more-powerful-than-I persons desk that will save others from a similar experience. Or at the very least, it serves as a release of my own frustrations. More