Dealership issues / the Nissan survey you get after a visit

[wantonsoup]

So I had a pretty crappy experience last week bringing the car in for 2 recalls, having them reprogram the door locks, and tire rotation. The work wasn't done properly on the locks so I had to make another appt and go back in again. But I had a multitude of complaints, which is a first for me, I've never complained about a dealer experience in my life.

The dealership called within 2-3 days to see how it went (normal, I get these calls from Lexus and every other car I've had in the last 10 years) and I was honest with her about it. She flat out told me to either not fill out the official Nissan survey I had gotten in my email, or that I should consider giving the service writer a break. And that anything but a 10 was a fail for them so only give tens.

Well, the return visit wasn't great either. I pulled into the service bay, and waited by my car for literally 3-5 minutes before anyone even made eye contact with me, then I had to wait another five waiting for the same service writer. Thank god for smartphones, huh?

Anyway, I got home and filled out the survey. Left detailed notes where requested. And the survey actually says, "Did they try to coerce you about what to put in this survey?" I thought that was awesome of Nissan to try and learn about that. So I replied honestly.

Well, Nissan can @#$ my @#$ because all they do is send the complete results directly to the dealership. I got a call from the same lady within an hour telling me she was sorry I felt coerced into blah blah blah and then I got a call from the service writer.

Seriously, this is incredibly unprofessional of Nissan. This wasn't the dealership's survey, it was from Nissan corporate. Really made me uncomfortable. I think I can say with certainty I will not be back at that dealership, and likely will never purchase a Nissan again. I've owned all manner of brands in the last 20 years (Honda, Dodge, Isuzu, Ford, Acura, Hyundai, Infiniti, Audi, Lexus, and now Nissan) and I have never been made to feel uncomfortable like this before. How do they expect you to be honest in the survey, knowing it is going WITH ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION ATTACHED directly to the people you're reviewing?! Sigh. Good luck folks. I'm out the moment my lease is up.

 

[donald]

If the survey said that it was to be anonymised, data-protection, etc., then that should warrant some form of pecuniary claim, I guess it could even be a criminal abuse of information depending on the laws of your jurisdiction.

If it didn't, then should you have checked before sending your data away? :?

I'd agree it is poor-to-disgusting, whichever way that swings. Seems to me that few of the current vendors of EVs really want to sell the things.

Unless a thing is a necessary and immediate safety recall, I don't bother with the 'technical service bulletin' type recalls. They usually screw up the way a good car works anyway... they can do that sort of work at a service.

 

[Moof]

Dealers are slime, all of them. They are good at putting up the appearance of friendliness and polish to hide this basic fact. Their service bay is a cash cow where they fleece you. Count yourself lucky that your prior experience was good. You probably have been taken advantage of by dealers before more than you realize. Dealers are barely anything other than middlemen who levy a hefty tax on you simply because you want to buy a car. I will welcome the day they have to compete without so many franchise laws protecting their little fiefdoms.

The survey BS is just that, BS. I have yet to have any company change their behavior visibly as the result of a survey. Don't waste your time, and don't feel bad about being brutally honest if you do. Unless you have leverage over them, dealers and corporations view you as nothing more than a source of profit to be maximized. The friendliness you receive is just a smoke screen. You get a survey to give you some sense of control to help discourage you from being vocal about gripes in a more public way. It was a major mistake for the lady to call you back tip her hand.

 

[jlsoaz]

Hi - I can't say that I blame you. It sounds like you had a negative experience as much Nissan's handling of the survey as with the dealer.

Several years ago I (for the most part) stopped filling out surveys by any company involving evaluations of customer service. My perception was that they are often (perhaps not always) administered by management as a way to spend a lot of time blaming lower level employees for poor performance by management. I didn't want to help management fire someone who was just doing their job in a way that was more or less how they were instructed. I tend to be exact and avoid grade inflation when someone asks me for a quick survey, and so even when I am pretty much very pleased with a customer service agent, the surveys can tend to interpret this as not really pleased.

I do like some surveys, (for example I liked Nissan's survey about range awhile back, it was definitely something I filled in).

When Nissan started surveying me about my dealership experience, I did like in theory that they were concerned to make sure I was good with it, and I was good with it, but I avoided the surveys because I didn't want to change my policy and Nissan seemed maybe to have a bit too much emphasis on monitoring the dealer relationship and not enough on what I really need.

Overall, I like Nissan and I like my dealer, and haven't had negative experiences in dealing with my dealer, and I don't want to get them in trouble with my penchant for criticizing this or that little thing. None of this is to discount the original poster's complaint about his customer service, and how his survey feedback was handled, only to write out my own point with the survey process.

What I do want is what Nissan hasn't asked me that much about except on the one range survey that had nothing to do with the dealer, and which I was very glad to have the chance to fill out. I do think they probably have asked me to participate in one or two other surveys I was glad to fill out, but it's been awhile so I don't recall exactly.

In any event, to say what feedback is a priority for me on a survey or elsewhere, I would like:

1. please encourage DCQCs in my community and along my driving routes, not at the dealer behind a fence. 20 months after Nissan announced getting more into the DCQC business here in the US, the closest one to me is still 65 miles away and the closest Nissan DCQC is 75 miles away behind the dealer fence - not useful to me.
2. offer a competitive PHEV or longer-range (at least 90-100 miles at 70 mph on level ground in temperate conditions) affordable BEV that I could consider trading my Leaf for, since my Leaf simply does not have the range I need. I would have been happy to pay a bit more per month for this, and I did say so clearly on the range-related survey.
3. Maybe help more with networking for steeper discounts on insurance, particularly since it is high since I have to maintain a second car (which wouldn't be needed if I could just get some good DCQCs near where I live).
4. If DCQC is too expensive, then how about accelerated L2 and a vehicle that can accept it.
5. It is probably an issue that may not seem as important to Nissan, but when I travel, or when my gasoline car is not available to me for long trips, I always prioritize renting a PHEV, and I have (to this day) never once been able to get one to drive (I am less inclined toward a BEV for some rental situations, but would consider one). I guess I'm asking Nissan if they could help us re-examine the rental car company experience up to and including not only NIssan BEV rental and Nissan HEV and FFV rental, but PHEV rental (though I guess I don't expect Nissan to help me to rent a Volt)
6. etc.

When you fill out the dealer response form, is there an opportunity to write out extended text at the end? I have thought about maybe trying to fill out the dealer survey and write out the issues that matter more to me rather than the dealer issues that Nissan is focused on, but I have my doubts about how this would work out.

 

[Bob]

This is wrong from my and your viewpoint. They are not acting on our complaint, but instead sending it to the person who did the bad work and telling them to deal with it (and deal with you). It is very possible that this poisons any possible relationship between the dealer and the customer.

But it is right from Nissan's viewpoint. They don't own the dealers. They need the dealers to do good work. They can't change how a dealer acts. All they can do is get feedback, send it to the dealer, and tell them to clean up their act.

For now, let's put all of that aside. What does it really mean and what will occur?

1) If the dealer does not have a good relationship with you, it hurts them, not you. They want your money. So they SHOULD be motivated to fix a bad relationship.

2) In a brutal environment like a dealership, if someone gets a bad mark on a survey, some boss will yell and threaten to have that person fired. It won't be pretty. It may get change. It may not be the change we want. But in the least, it will cause that person to jump to attention when they see you again.

3) Nothing we do or say will have enough impact to make service technicians more knowledgeable or more careful in their work. Surveys won't hurt or help in that regard. It comes down to hiring good people, training them well, keeping them motivated to performing well, and retaining the best people.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Bob

 

[wantonsoup]

Well put, Bob. I totally understand that the survey in the grand scheme of things is just a way for dealers to .. get better at taking your money. And we agree that the guilty parties shouldn't be the ones getting this, but their higher-ups so that they can be re-trained or other action taken.

The survey clearly counts for something or the dealers wouldn't be so desperate for the 10's. I'm sure it's a Nissan-granted customer service award or some such thing that they can use to advertise.

I appreciate reading all of your responses. I don't disagree. But it remains that IMHO Nissan dealers seem to me to be way behind in terms of customer service. It doesn't make ALL the difference when buying a car, but it matters. I think it's a corporate thing, I found Infiniti to be pretty 'meh' when I owned Infinitis from 2003-2009. I owned a Lexus at the same time and their dealership experiences were so much more luxurious in comparison. I think they've upgraded all the Infiniti dealers recently, I've seen lots of them torn down and reconstructed so I'll reserve judgement on Infiniti.

 

[Wufnu]

It's a shame that the dealers put their personnel in that position. Y'all should read this:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=17133" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wonky thing is, it's always the salesperson that gets whacked when you give less than 10s. Lot disorganized? Sales is punished. Finance guy a jerk? Sales is the one that loses money.

 

[jlsoaz]

It's a shame that the dealers put their personnel in that position. Y'all should read this:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=17133" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wonky thing is, it's always the salesperson that gets whacked when you give less than 10s. Lot disorganized? Sales is punished. Finance guy a jerk? Sales is the one that loses money.

Thanks for posting this. Vindicates my inclination not to fill out anything.

 

[DesertDenizen]

I had a minor accident and had my Leaf towed to Jim Click Nissan, here in Tucson. It took more than a week to get an estimate, and today they said it will take two weeks to complete the repairs. A broken rear view mirror, a blown tire, and some scratches on the fender. Geez.

 

[Nubo]

It's terrible that Nissan has set up this function in such a way that it puts the customer in the middle, receiving unwanted attention and pressure -- and at the same time Nissan is CREATING this pressure, putting their dealerships on a hair-trigger fearing anything less than 10/10 will destroy their livelihood.

The responses need to be anonymous from the dealership's point of view unless the customer opts-in to have their identity revealed. Otherwise the process becomes corrupt. And Nissan deludes themselves into thinking they've addressed that issue by adding another question to the Survey of Doom.

 

[adric22]

We've had discussions about these surveys before.. and I'll reiterate my opinion on them. If 10 is a pass and 1 through 9 are a fail, then the survey should simply have two answers: pass or fail. If they aren't interested in hearing more detail they should not ask for it. I have heard that corny line from every dealership I've dealt with over the last decade "anything less than 10 is a failing grade for us." They are simply trying to game the system. And if what they are saying is true, then again, I place blame with the manufacturer for not designing the survey with two possible answers. I refuse to feel sorry for the dealership and give them a perfect score (if they don't deserve it, which they rarely do) because it would only serve to keep the broken system going.

 

[TomT]

I have very rarely given a ten on any of these surveys unless it truly was class-leading exceptional...

 

[LeftieBiker]

I generally agree with the negative comments, but...

Well, the return visit wasn't great either. I pulled into the service bay, and waited by my car for literally 3-5 minutes before anyone even made eye contact with me, then I had to wait another five waiting for the same service writer. Thank god for smartphones, huh?

So you waited a total of 8-10 minutes? Smartphones have apparently killed patience. I'd love to only wait that long...

 

[jlsoaz]

I had a minor accident and had my Leaf towed to Jim Click Nissan, here in Tucson. It took more than a week to get an estimate, and today they said it will take two weeks to complete the repairs. A broken rear view mirror, a blown tire, and some scratches on the fender. Geez.

Hi Desert - that is my dealer also. Was there any sort of arrangement for a replacement rental vehicle while you are waiting for repairs? There is an Enterprise within walking distance from that dealer and they specifically do rent out some Leafs, last I checked (awhile back). When I talked to Enterprise about this once, I think they made the point that part of the reason for locating the Leafs at that location was to be in position to accomodate Leaf drivers who might need a rental replacement for a little while, so I am wondering if by chance things went in that direction, even though I'm skeptical, especially if it was going to be for more than a few days.

 

[wantonsoup]

I generally agree with the negative comments, but...

Well, the return visit wasn't great either. I pulled into the service bay, and waited by my car for literally 3-5 minutes before anyone even made eye contact with me, then I had to wait another five waiting for the same service writer. Thank god for smartphones, huh?

So you waited a total of 8-10 minutes? Smartphones have apparently killed patience. I'd love to only wait that long...

If you stood for 10 minutes in a service bay by your car, you'd understand how absurdly long that is. In the last 20 years I'd estimate my average wait to be 10 seconds. Someone immediately walks up and greets you.

 

[DesertDenizen]

I had a minor accident and had my Leaf towed to Jim Click Nissan, here in Tucson. It took more than a week to get an estimate, and today they said it will take two weeks to complete the repairs. A broken rear view mirror, a blown tire, and some scratches on the fender. Geez.

Hi Desert - that is my dealer also. Was there any sort of arrangement for a replacement rental vehicle while you are waiting for repairs? There is an Enterprise within walking distance from that dealer and they specifically do rent out some Leafs, last I checked (awhile back). When I talked to Enterprise about this once, I think they made the point that part of the reason for locating the Leafs at that location was to be in position to accomodate Leaf drivers who might need a rental replacement for a little while, so I am wondering if by chance things went in that direction, even though I'm skeptical, especially if it was going to be for more than a few days.

Hi Josh, Click offered nothing in terms of a loaner, but fortunately my auto insurance pays $20 a day for a rental while a car is in the shop. The dealer said they usually just accept the $20, even if the car is a bit more. I will pick that up tomorrow. But I am NW and there is an enterprise a few miles from me, so I am hoping they will honor the reservation. Probably will not be a Leaf; after 3 years I will have to remember how to drive an ICE. I am so used to slowing by regen I will be hitting the brakes pretty hard I expect.

 

[LeftieBiker]

I generally agree with the negative comments, but...

Well, the return visit wasn't great either. I pulled into the service bay, and waited by my car for literally 3-5 minutes before anyone even made eye contact with me, then I had to wait another five waiting for the same service writer. Thank god for smartphones, huh?

So you waited a total of 8-10 minutes? Smartphones have apparently killed patience. I'd love to only wait that long...

If you stood for 10 minutes in a service bay by your car, you'd understand how absurdly long that is. In the last 20 years I'd estimate my average wait to be 10 seconds. Someone immediately walks up and greets you.

You mentioned a Lexus in your past. Welcome to the world of indifferent service. I've stood in service bays for far longer than 10 minutes, BTW, for Hondas, Toyotas, Volvos...

 

[wantonsoup]

I've had Hondas, Fords, Isuzus, even a Geo. Don't make this out to be something it isn't. Again, I submit to you that if the average person waited for ten minutes they'd be screaming for a manager. It's a seriously long period of time. You are surely exaggerating how long you've waited before you were greeted at all.

 

[Moof]

Walk around and start picking stuff up. You will get attention mighty quick.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Personally, I find it more effective to just walk to the Service Desk and ask for help. It wouldn't occur to me to wait for a valet, er, service tech to come to me. ;-)