Letter to my local nissan dealership

[rtbiscuit]

Ok so this might be the wrong thing to do, but i have recieved 2 letters from my local nissan branch. it seems that after i bought my car elsewhere they seem to think that i might still be happy with their service. i got bored so i wrote them this email and used their customer service page like they asked

 

i'll be interested to see if i hear anything from it. in their last letter they told me if they could find me a suitable deal they would valet my car for free or give me a full tank of fuel.

 

well if i get a tank of fuel that makes the letter worth £60, not bad for 20 minutes work.

[rtbiscuit]

here is the letter, its a little long winded, but gives you an idea of the crap service and the current pricing problems with 350Z's

 

Dear sir/madam,

 

I have now received 2 letters from glyn hopkin ipswich regarding my time spent at ipswich nissan, telling me how good it must be and how great a deal you should be able to offer me. Well sadly i would have to disagree; i have been looking for a new 350z, i have been a big fan of the car for a long time and had now been in a position to buy, sadly the service i received was not to the standard i would expect or have recieved at other dealerships.

 

My first visit was about 6 months ago, i expressed an interest in the vehicle and managed to organise a test drive with the female sales person. i got a 20 min drive including a stop at the fuel station and one junction on the a12 at rush hour. this was by no means a true test of the vehicle, in fact it was so disappointing it actually put me off the car, something i was extremely suprised at. This car is a true sports car and this drive did not allow me to experience this and the help i received from the sales women was lacking a full knowledge of the car. After this experience i decided to look else where for my new car. i went and looked at BMW, audi, and honda all of which offered longer test drives and a more friendly service. BMW and honda (both in ipswich) offered me a test drive where i was given 30 minutes with the salesperson in the car and then told i could have it for the day, this allowed me and my wife to experience the car properly on what we use the car for and to find out if it really suited our needs.

 

recently i decided to give the nissan another go, as many friends had reccommended to car and told me it was an excellent vehicle. so 3 weeks ago i went back to Glyn hopkins. this time i dealt with a young lad called daniel, who was very helpful, was knowledgable and organised a test drive with him present for an hour. this was an acceptable drive and did give me a chance to get a feel for the vehicle, so much so that i decided to buy one. sadly it was at this point i found glyn hopkins lacking.

 

they found me a silver 06 gt pack 350z with 12500 miles on the clock, sales price £18500

 

i had 2 cars to part exchange and glyn hopkin offered me £13500 for both

 

I would like to think of myself as a knowledgable person, especially when it comes to cars, and when it comes to spending this kind of money i'm not stupid enough to just hand over cash without doing my research.

 

Glyn hopkins told me that at most there was only a couple of £100's in movement. yet when walking round their showroom there were multiple cars advertising between £3000- £5000 off.

 

when shown evidence of cheaper vehicles else where the dealership still refused to renegotiate on price, which at the end of the day i understand is their perogative. what i did not like was the fact that the young salesperson was unable to offer any kind of price without constantly checking everything with the manager. i understand that the manager holds the purse strings, but what seemed to be his refusal to leave his glass box and actually talk to me was disappointing. i would rather speak to the organ grinder than the monkey. when we bought my wifes new golf from stowmarket VW the manager was personally involved with the transaction even when we were dealing with the young sales person, he did every thing in his power to make the sale to us. where as at glyn hopkins it seemed that the manager had no interest in securing our money, something i find intriguing considering the current economic climate.

 

and as evidence of the current climate i have since bought a 350z

 

it is an 06 silver GT pack 13,000 miles ... an almost identical car to the one glyn hopkins are selling

 

the only difference was the price which i bought it for

 

the dealership david fox in harrogate sold me the car for £14,990 and gave me £14,750 px on the same 2 cars. Not only that their manager personally brought down the 350z and collected my 2 cars in a round trip that must have taken him 800 miles and cost more than the £50 they charged me for delivery. they may have been a citreon dealership, but they gave a far better service than the one i have currently experienced through nissan. not only that their car was originally advertised at £18,000.

 

the saving i have made is more than a few hundred pounds in fact it is about £4000.

 

the sales man at glyn hopkin nissan parting comment of "you may not buy this car but some one will pay that price" surprised me.

 

the current market shows that these cars have taken a large depreciation as people are not willing to pay that much money. i have shown that there are cars out there, and dealerships which are obviously more experienced who have altered their price. i am certainly not that stupid to pay £4000 over the value of the car and i'm sure others would agree.

 

good luck with the pricing and selling of your vehicles, i hope that with the business sense that some of your managers are showing that you survive this current market down turn. I am sure that as a company your intentions are honest and that maybe at other dealerships the service you offer is second to none, but i have not experienced it, and as such i will not be revisiting or spending my money on servicing my new 350Z at your ipswich branch, and will be looking at other dealerships or garages for this service. It may only be servicing at £400-£500 a year in business, but spending my money else where is the only way i feel i can show my dis-satisfaction.

 

If you wish to contact me you are more than welcome, and i am happy to discuss this with you, but i feel my email has said it all.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Richard Thompson

[martinmac]

If they dont want the answer, they shouldnt ask the question. Hopefully they will use the feedback to improve their service. Thats what its all about.

[MrLizard]

id certainly say that the service is completely random from one dealership to the next.

 

I live in cov and work in warwick, i would never go back to the cov dealership, the service imo is rubbish, and to be fair coming from quite a few audi's i was used to good service, the nissan garage in warwick felt like i was back at audi, exactly what you want.

 

It is a shame that you almost didnt end up in a zed! Made the right choice in the end though!

[wanta350]

nice one...although you must have too much time on ur hands.......

 

saying that, when did u buy ur motor??

 

Just recently, as I want to buy an 06 but I don't want to spend 15k...

[rtbiscuit]

i bought it 2 weeks ago, got it on the 3rd of november.

 

not sure you'll get on 06 for much less or with such low milage.

 

although in hind sight i would go for an 05 wit hthe same milage, only because i am over the higher tax bracket by 10 days.

 

is it worth setting up a tread that reccommends good dealerships or ones to avoid. as my new task is to find somewhere to do the servicing

 

in fact if someoene reccommended an independent garage that would be even better.

 

i know there is ESR, but thats a bit of a hyke for a service.

 

also am off ill today, hence the time to write. sat in front of the telly with the lap top

[Ekona]

I'd leave out the name and details of where and whom you bought your car off Rich, as it kills the tone of the letter completely and comes across as more 'ner ner ner' than an attempt to complain. In all honesty mate I'd leave out any details about the money side of it at all as every dealer in the world has different ideas of what stuff should sell as, and if you want to complain do it about the rubbish service on the first visit and the attitude of the manager on the second one.

 

As for servicing, I go to Glyn Hopkin in Bishop's Stortford. Really friendly staff, and if you remove the useless bits of the service then they do charge you less but you still get the stamp in the book.

[martinmac]

A few pointers in here bud.

 

http://www.350z-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6668

[rtbiscuit]

i put names etc in the letter as i was tryting to give evidence, proof if you like. instead of me just sending a letter and making it look like i'm fishing for something.

 

and i suppose yes it is a little bit of ner, ner, ner at them, because they were such a bunch of cocky gits its my way of sticking my finger up at them without lowering my self and the tone by driving in and shouting "haha you bunch of losers!!!" (polite version)

 

at the end of the day, they lost my sale and someone else got my £15,000 and in this current climate i wouldn't be turning my nose up at either £15,000 or their returning service.

[martinmac]

Not trying to do any free marketing but try it wearing a forum shirt or jacket. It can be interesting

[rtbiscuit]

i contemplated mentioning the site and that i would not be recommending them, but thought it not the place.

 

i remember a situation on an old forum where someone had against the knowledge of the admin printed off headed forum paper and wrote a cross letter threatening the club would withdraw their support etc etc.

 

as it was a personal disagreement, and other members of the forum may have had good service i didn't want to include the club.

 

for me it was the manager sat in his glass tower, obviously too important to mix with the customer. his loss not mine. that and hearing about what others have been offered in px for 350z's i'm fairly certain that even if they had come down to £15,000 it would still have left a healthy profit margin. they were just being greedy.

[martinmac]

Yes I can see that as very annoying, makes you wonder what or who justifies him coming out and talking to a customer.

 

The way I see it is that forums provide information and knowledge as well as personal, balanced views. Any defects and warranty problems can be discussed and owners/buyers learn a lot about the cars.

 

A dealer can provide service which can and should get mentioned on here, this can be good or bad. There will be issues that arise and its then down to how they are dealt with.

 

I am still going through a long drawn out issue with Nissan. My dealer, in the middle of this, has always been more than helpful.

 

If dealers wish to improve they need to act on feedback, if they dont choose to listen or change then thats their shout.

[Stew]

I think it will be interesting to see what response you get.

 

The power of a forum can be interesting actually.

[rtbiscuit]

his actions basically said i wasn't important enough to talk to.

 

i'm not new to dealerships and have been in many and dealt with lots of sales people.

 

i got bored of dealing with their boy, he was only 19-20, especially as he didn't seem to have any decision making rights.

 

if they aren't confident in the boys ability, then stick him on the phones and not behind a sales desk

[Ekona]

But what if he'd only been there a few weeks, and the manager was just seeing how he'd do? He may not have had any real power and had been told to go and check with the manager every time, so you'd be criticising him for something that's not his fault. Confidence and trust is earned, and we all had to start somewhere.

[neodc]

sounds better than my nissan dealer, they wouldnt let me drive a 350z, the test drive didnt go more than 30mph and lasted 5 mins ( he drove ) , and wasnt intrested in talking to me, got a call on the way out anway, he answered it using the bluetooth in the car and talked to someone else through the demo. he said i wasnt old enough to test drive it, i told him i had the money ready to buy but said no.

 

2 days later i roll up in my new higher spec one, park it right out the front, go in and ask him for a nismo brouchure so i could get a spoiler, he laughed and said dont you need one first son.

 

lets just say he got OWNED when his manager was next to him and i explained i went and got one the afternoon from somewhere else cause he wouldnt let me drive.

[rtbiscuit]

i had no problem with the young sales person, he did ok, have seen far worse. and i'm used to sales staff going and speaking to the boss... what got me was the managers almost point balank refusal to come out of his office. by then i'd had enough with the 10th trip to see the all powerful one. i would have thought he would have at least come out for a chat, maybe even reassure me i was in good hands or something.

 

as for the post above that made me chuckle, some places seem like they don't wat to actually sell cars

[rtbiscuit]

just had a phone call from glyn hopkin head office.

 

no offers to entice me back in for servicing, but apparently they are following up the lack of manager involvement.

[Stew]

Well it's certainly interesting, they seem to be taking it seriously.

 

I keep getting offered jobs at car dealerships.....

[martinmac]

Nice to see they follow up on feedback. I think its fine to allow you trainees to get experience but not with something as complicated as a zed.

[Lexx]

Seems like ages since I had a similar rant at a dealer.

 

My experiance of buying the RX8 from Jennings was so terrible, that I wrote a 3 page letter of complaint to them.

I got a phone call off Mr Jennings himself! Begging my forgiveness, and to please go back. Got offered 3 yrs free servicing and £500 of extras.

I took the extras and told them to stuff the servicing.

[sl114]

Seems like ages since I had a similar rant at a dealer.

 

My experiance of buying the RX8 from Jennings was so terrible, that I wrote a 3 page letter of complaint to them.

I got a phone call off Mr Jennings himself! Begging my forgiveness, and to please go back. Got offered 3 yrs free servicing and £500 of extras.

I took the extras and told them to stuff the servicing.

Why stuff the servicing?

[Lexx]

Seems like ages since I had a similar rant at a dealer.

 

My experiance of buying the RX8 from Jennings was so terrible, that I wrote a 3 page letter of complaint to them.

I got a phone call off Mr Jennings himself! Begging my forgiveness, and to please go back. Got offered 3 yrs free servicing and £500 of extras.

I took the extras and told them to stuff the servicing.

Why stuff the servicing?

 

They were a multisite dealer, and after speaking to some of the staff at the Ford bit (where the servicing was done) I realised that not a single one of them knew a thing about Rotary engines.

[Chris`I]

Seems like ages since I had a similar rant at a dealer.

 

My experiance of buying the RX8 from Jennings was so terrible, that I wrote a 3 page letter of complaint to them.

I got a phone call off Mr Jennings himself! Begging my forgiveness, and to please go back. Got offered 3 yrs free servicing and £500 of extras.

I took the extras and told them to stuff the servicing.

Why stuff the servicing?

 

They were a multisite dealer, and after speaking to some of the staff at the Ford bit (where the servicing was done) I realised that not a single one of them knew a thing about Rotary engines.

Sounds like you made the right decision! Its bad enought they dont know enough about normal engines, let along a rotary!

 

I had a terrible time at Basingstoke Nissan because of one of their salesman. I think I was unlucky as I spoke to a couple of the others and one was well into his cars, and if I had him, my purchase would have gone much better. To be fair to them, I complained, and they sorted my out my next service free (P3) so couldnt complain too much.