[smiles]

Let me preface this by saying, Infiniti has just put BMW to shame with crappy service......which I didn't think was possible.

I dropped my FX off today for a tow hitch install to a Infiniti dealer in Northern VA. I had already paid for the parts, as part of the deal with my salesman when I purchased the car - he got them for me at cost. They were tagged with my name on them.

I explained all this along with two other complaints - my dead pedal is loose and my DVD player stopped working at 1500 miles (both of which they have to order). Keep in mind - the car has 2k miles on it now.

Service guy calls me up and says the car is ready - with the exception of the parts on order.

I get to the dealer and after waiting for what seemed like a long time for them to correct my bill (they tried to charge me again for the tow hitch I already paid for). After I showed them my previous receipt for the parts, what should have been, "yes sir we'll take care of it right away" turned into, "well, no one here can remove the parts from the ticket...blah blah blah." After my look of shock turned to anger, they figured something out.

I get home and park it in the garage. I get out, and notice 3 deep (and I mean DEEP) scratches in the hood - so deep in the clearcoat I am not sure they can be removed without getting to the pigment. These were aboslutely positively 100% not there when I dropped it off. I spend about 30 minutes trying to buff them out - with little improvement. Now, I am white hot with fury over the crappy treatment I received and the fact that these dudes scratched my new car.

Now I know most of this out of my service guys control, but ****! How can I not rip them into shreds on the survey??

Does anyone know of a reputable dealer in NoVA that won't f$#k your car up when they service it??

Scott

 

[Sweet Fx]

Im so sorry for you.

But I live NM

 

[smiles]

Thank you for the sympathy - a "buck up little camper" never hurts.

I am as pissed as I am disappointed in the whole thing. I am not even sure I should bother calling and complaining. They'll probably give me a "yeah, suuuure we scratched your car"

Scott

 

[Sweet Fx]

I need to send mine in for the recalls and some minor stuff, but I just cant pick up the phone and make an appointment without becoming over-run with fear.

I was thinking if I do take her in, I am going to take pics infront of them in the service dept. :evil:

 

[PetrucciFX]

I was thinking if I do take her in, I am going to take pics infront of them in the service dept. :evil:

As crazy as that sounds...
it might not be so crazy after all.

They friggen DENTED one of my back doors... then said "it was already there!" But it all worked out as I never gave up and they fixed it free of charge.

Seriously.. pics arent such a bad idea.

 

[finsfx]

I feel your pain. Went through that here in Mississippi. I got a call from customer service person asking about my service experience. I calmly explained the bad experience. She apologized and promised she would have my sales rep and service call me to 'make good' on the poor service. Said a survey is forthcoming in a couple of weeks and anything 'less than an excellent score is bad for the dealership'. Guess what? No call, no survey.

 

[smiles]

finsfx - you should have sent in the survey with a realistic and brutally honest assessment of your experience. Not all low scores, but some low and some mid. My service guy told me their jobs and compensation are dependant on this thing. If he doesn't call you back, clearly he is not doing his due dilligence on your issues.

I am not sure what I will do for my situation. A call is in order. I am going to have to hold my tongue but I cannot believe this company with its A$$ out service expects to touch the likes of BMW let alone Lexus.

Its like, hey, I got news for you, just because you ask for "Excellents" doesn't mean you get them. You have to not f*&k my car up - that's like a minimum. What a show....

Hopefully tomorrow I will get this taken care of and be able to turn my rant mode off!

Scott

 

[FromHereToInfiniti]

Smiles...I'm hoping that you're going to tell me that this wasn't Rosenthal??? My personal experience with them has been generally good, however I've had to REALLY press them on occasion for things. For example, I had a paint blemish (very small that you wouldn't notice until you waxed it...a series of small dots), it took several months, and calls to Infiniti Customer Care, and even then the person that they had (an outside contractor) claimed that it was a touched up stone chip...I went through the roof. Eventually, I got them to cover it, but when I got my FX back, I discovered a huge door ding in my back quarterpanel. I've also had to wait until just recently to get them to fix my rocking seat...so, now after 14 months and 16k miles, I've finally got my FX the way it should have been the day it was delivered. I've got some friends who deal with Passport (think they're in Springfield), and are happy with them, and I've personally called about to ask about the cost of some services (Sirius install), and they were definately less expensive, but it's another half hour drive for me, so for now I'm staying with Rosenthal.

 

[smiles]

Well,
I spoke to my service rep - he of course gave me, "I have never had this happen. We are so careful we don't scratch cars". And into a 5 min explaination about how well they treat customer cars.

As I tried to contain my laughter from his response, I explained to him that indeed this did happen while the car was in their possesion. Anyone who knows me, knows I can draw every nick, chip and scratch out on a piece of paper for every vehicle I own. And I am not like other, less scrupulous customers who use these opportunities as an excuse to have the dealer pay for errors they made themselves.

I explained that I was not looking for them to repaint my hood over some 1" long scratches (mind you they are almost through the clearcoat), or make the problem worse by buffing it down to the primer. But what I wanted was to make sure when I bring my car in for the rest of the work, I get back in the EXACT same condition.

He agreed and said that I could drive by to have their detail guy look at the scratches and see if they can be buffed out. I intend to screen him before he touches my car with any rubbing compound.

BTW - from FHTI, I won't mention names, but...you are getting warmer. Your story is so much worse than mine, it terrifies me.

 

[FX'd]

FWIW, my first service experience with Passport wasn't that great (tech left socket wrench in engine bay after a tranny swap at 320miles). From the explanation that the service manager gave me, they don't have "consistent" techs. In other words, some times you'll get a great job done, and other times you'll get a crap shot. The supposedly have a "Quality" procedure to prevent this stuff from happening, but I'm not sure it worked in my case.

Doesn't mean I won't go back to them. I just had a bad experience with a bad tech on a bad day. But they did make an honest effort to remedy things.

I did call Infiniti Customer Care as well to make a record of my experience. The next time I go in, and the experience is superb, I'll call the customer care line again to give praise.

FYI, there's a new Infinti dealership opening in the Dulles Auto Park off route 50 in Chantilly. I'll likely take my FX there for any service when it opens just because it's closer to me.

 

[FromHereToInfiniti]

FYI, there's a new Infinti dealership opening in the Dulles Auto Park off route 50 in Chantilly. I'll likely take my FX there for any service when it opens just because it's closer to me.

THANK YOU! That will make life so much easier! Can you provide more details on the location?...They still don't show up if you punch in your zip code on infiniti.com.

 

[smiles]

Well, that's good news. It should be a little to me as well. Nice to know!

As far as my story goes, my salesman backed me up, saying the car was 1.5 weeks old, he saw it that day, and it was in perfect condition. Gave some credibility to my story. I have managed to work much of the scratch out with rubbing compound myself (12 years exp. waxing and detailing randoms cars I have owned or for friends came in handy). Its much better - It could probably be completely removed with an orbital buffer, but I am worried about paint thickness. I might just leave well enough alone.

Scott

 

[MrHemiHead]

smiles I'm from Leesburg and have my FX45 serviced by Jim Coleman in Bethesda MD.There was a gash (3/8"X1.5") in the front bumper when I purchased it new,so they had a mobile service make the repairs. The service manager was not happy with the results and had it redone by a more expensive service. The FX is Golden Sand,the repair is undetectable.

 

[finsfx]

finsfx - you should have sent in the survey with a realistic and brutally honest assessment of your experience.

smiles,
i'd send the survey had i received it. you think the dealer flagged my service record from receiving the survey? can they do that? it's been at least 3 weeks since the incident.
fins

 

[FromHereToInfiniti]

finsfx - you should have sent in the survey with a realistic and brutally honest assessment of your experience.

smiles,
i'd send the survey had i received it. you think the dealer flagged my service record from receiving the survey? can they do that? it's been at least 3 weeks since the incident.
fins

I doubt that they do that. I've received surveys even after getting a door ding at the dealership, being refused repair on a hood blemish, and being told I'd have to wait for a TSB to get my rocking seat fixed. I let them know how I felt, and all three items were eventually fixed.

 

[finsfx]

so what's a reasonable amount of time for the survey to reach my mailbox?

 

[skitzo]

I haven't had a dealer service experience with my Infiniti yet, but I'm hoping it was better than what I used to receive from our incompetent Lexus dealer (Lexus of Palm Beach). That dealership, over my period of ownership of two Lexus GS300's, caused what probably totalled to be several thousand dollars in damage to my cars, which they ended up having to compensate me for in the long run. Either way, I am always so "in love" with my cars I would nearly get SICK knowing I would have to take my car into the dealership for anything. I avoided WARRANTY service out of fear other items would be damaged.

Basically - You aren't alone, and it could be MUCH worse. Maybe some day when I have time, and if people want to hear the sheer incompetence and bad treatment some dealers hand out, I'll type up my Lexus story!

Also - for what it's worth, I made it a policy with the dealership that WHENEVER I dropped off my car I did a FULL walkaround with my service rep (and possibly another one if nearby), pointing out ANY existing scratches, nicks, etc (which there were virtually none). At some point I actually took digital camera pics of every inch of the car as well.. it all sounds pretty insane, but the level of service was so abhorrable that it was required in order to get them to take any responsibility for what they had done.

 

[infx35]

I haven't had a dealer service experience with my Infiniti yet, but I'm hoping it was better than what I used to receive from our incompetent Lexus dealer (Lexus of Palm Beach). That dealership, over my period of ownership of two Lexus GS300's, caused what probably totalled to be several thousand dollars in damage to my cars, which they ended up having to compensate me for in the long run. Either way, I am always so "in love" with my cars I would nearly get SICK knowing I would have to take my car into the dealership for anything. I avoided WARRANTY service out of fear other items would be damaged.

Basically - You aren't alone, and it could be MUCH worse. Maybe some day when I have time, and if people want to hear the sheer incompetence and bad treatment some dealers hand out, I'll type up my Lexus story!

Also - for what it's worth, I made it a policy with the dealership that WHENEVER I dropped off my car I did a FULL walkaround with my service rep (and possibly another one if nearby), pointing out ANY existing scratches, nicks, etc (which there were virtually none). At some point I actually took digital camera pics of every inch of the car as well.. it all sounds pretty insane, but the level of service was so abhorrable that it was required in order to get them to take any responsibility for what they had done.

This is strange, because my experience with Lexus is the exact opposite. My Lexus service was far and beyond better than Infiniti's!

This is the post of my current rant with Infiniti:

http://www.infinitifx.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1038