Nissan stealership trying to rip off my sister

[Mighty Subie]

So apparently the dealership in Concord, NH think that they can have free reign to rape their customers. The last time was two years ago when they said that my sister needed all 4 rotors replaced as well as all 3 wipers and one of the plate lights on her xterra. Okay so if it needs to be done, fine. The problem came when they said it was going to cost damn near $2500 to do all of that. Half of the cost would be the rear plate light because they swear that you need to remove the entire bumper to get at it, and that destroys the bumper taking it off. So she would need a whole new one. The prices are normally exorbitant like at a dealership for rotors (and pads of course) and wipers, but that only accounted for half. The plate light part was going to cost about $1,000!!!! So they didn't have the cash to do it anyway, and it definitely seemed too high so she brought it up here, and my old man and I did everything, as well as topping off the fluids for about $300. The rotors weren't horrible and could have been turned, but we just slapped new ones on anyway.

Needless to say, the light costs about $1 for the bulb and takes about 20 seconds to change by pulling the socket out and replacing bulb and putting back in place...

Today, it was my brother in-law that took it to the dealership for an inspection. Apparently NH inspections are more than Maine inspections and the dealership offers free ones. So that's the only reason they go back. So he went in and the dealership told him yet again that they needed all new wipers and one of the plate lights. Well, all of the wipers work perfectly so that's BS and one of the lights was out. But yet again they insist that it would have been over $1000 for the plate light, not to mention the wipers. So thankfully my bother in-law knows better so he immediately left. He took it to sears and despite being super busy, they got it in, replaced the bulb (without taking off the bumper) and had it done for less than the cash he had in his pocket!

Nissan still insists that the bumper needs to be removed for the light and would be totally destroyed because the SUV is 5-6 years old. So we are all betting that they are just trying to make her think that he car is old and needs to be traded in for something new. It's totally worth it because they will give her about (honestly) $100 for it. They are awesome there. I told them to call the coorperate office and yell at them. My brother in-law is calling the better business bureau tomorrow and informing them of their horrible attempts to rip them off.

Anyone else ever been told that it's over $1000 for a plate light when nothing is damaged or broken and just needs to be replaced in their car?

So cranky. This is crazy.

 

[MAINIAC XV]

They should be hung by their balls

 

[Pedro]

call the manufacturer's customer service line. It should clear up any problems as well as possibly a service credit for the future. The one problem I had with the Lexus dealer here (they wouldn't do a service I wanted because the service writer misunderstood the procedure, so basically they wouldn't take my money) was cleared up and the service was free plus a service credit on top.

To play devil's advocate: This actually could be a case of one tech got the Xterra training back in the day and is misreading/illiterate/misremembering the procedure for something that is completely simple.

 

[HR radness]

For future reference Xterras go through rotors easy. Its a heavy truck with little brake rotors. The ones on mine were always warped

 

[Matt]

Yea but it's a plate light. They change them all the time. Typically it's the tech that sets the time on certain jobs. This could just be a greedy tech and not the dealers fault.

 

[Mighty Subie]

For future reference Xterras go through rotors easy. Its a heavy truck with little brake rotors. The ones on mine were always warped

I wasn't complaining about the rotors so much. Price more than sucked on them but I could see that they weren't perfect. Could have used a turning, but we just swapped them out. They did last 4 years down in urban NH though before needing to be looked at so that's actually pretty darn good for the way my sister drives. When you take your vehicle in and they tell you that it's going to cost you over $1000 for a f'n plate light though, that's beyond insane. Note: when I replaced the light for her, I just removed the plug and bulb from the socket and and slapped a new bulb in. It turned on fine. They have no excuse for not doing that.

Yea but it's a plate light. They change them all the time. Typically it's the tech that sets the time on certain jobs. This could just be a greedy tech and not the dealers fault.

They should be changing them all the time. If some f'n idiot honestly thinks that you need to remove the whole bumper before pulling the plug, then they need to be fired. Period. You can not even get it off without removing the plug from the socket. There's only about 6-8 inches of free play in the wire. That's part of the process to get the bumper off for crying out loud! It's like saying you need to remove the hub on a subaru to change the brake pads. All you need to do is kneel down and take a peek, or stick your hand under there, to see that they are wrong. Plus this is the second time in two years that they have said this. It's on the dealership. This idiot has to honestly know that removal of the bumper isn't needed by now either way. It's not like it's someone brand new who is an idiot. It's the dealership, or someone who honestly knows better and is just being a prick. Trying to wring money out of poor people. It's okay. The better business bureau is getting a call tomorrow. I hope that my sister kept both slips from the dealership.

 

[HR radness]

I wasn't complaining about the rotors so much. Price more than sucked on them but I could see that they weren't perfect. Could have used a turning, but we just swapped them out. They did last 4 years down in urban NH though before needing to be looked at so that's actually pretty darn good for the way my sister drives. When you take your vehicle in and they tell you that it's going to cost you over $1000 for a f'n plate light though, that's beyond insane. Note: when I replaced the light for her, I just removed the plug and bulb from the socket and and slapped a new bulb in. It turned on fine. They have no excuse for not doing that.

They should be changing them all the time. If some f'n idiot honestly thinks that you need to remove the whole bumper before pulling the plug, then they need to be fired. Period. You can not even get it off without removing the plug from the socket. There's only about 6-8 inches of free play in the wire. That's part of the process to get the bumper off for crying out loud! It's like saying you need to remove the hub on a subaru to change the brake pads. All you need to do is kneel down and take a peek, or stick your hand under there, to see that they are wrong. Plus this is the second time in two years that they have said this. It's on the dealership. This idiot has to honestly know that removal of the bumper isn't needed by now either way. It's not like it's someone brand new who is an idiot. It's the dealership, or someone who honestly knows better and is just being a prick. Trying to wring money out of poor people. It's okay. The better business bureau is getting a call tomorrow. I hope that my sister kept both slips from the dealership.

totally get you, completely agree. Only talking about the rotors which you should (and did) change out yourself

Play some Call of duty, It helps ease the anger

 

[Mighty Subie]

haha well unfortunately, I only rented it for a night because I'm too poor to buy it. On another note though, I did find out why they are saying to change the bumper. There is apparently a service bulletin out that states that the current bulb socket is junk so if it becomes non-functional and they need to replace it, they need to use a new style one. The original style is not available any longer. The new style one does not mate up to the original bumper. So the bumper would need to be changed. The problem is that their techs are complete idiots and didn't even take the 30 seconds to look at the socket and try a new bulb. It lasted for 2 years and costs about $2. I would have to say that is a lot more cost effective than hacking the whole damn thing up and replacing everything. It's not needed. The ultimate best thing is that NAPA (and probably other stores) sells a replacement socket that fits the original bumper for cheap. I'm willing to bet that it's about 1/50th the cost of what they are suggesting. Then again, even if the bulb has to be replaced every year, or even every 2 months, it's still more cost effective than replacing everything. They just are too stupid to do anything other than read bulletins and write up a piece of paper. They aren't REAL mechanics. Lets just say that they aren't Inski. Not slighting anyone else, he's just the first mechanic at a dealership that came to mind.

 

[jaKe]

Maybe its the shops policy to update the bumper. shops policy on certain repairs may dictate how a tech handles things. Maybe shop got burned by replacing a bulb once then having to replace a bumper for someone for free cause it went out again. idk just offering some guesses based on past things I have experienced.

 

[Mighty Subie]

well it's not a shop. It's a dealership. Not sure if you missed that part........ And no, it's not their policy. If you read the last post I wrote, I explained about the service bulletin. Plus, you can't get 'burned' by replacing a $2 bulb. If it goes out again, you're just back where you started and the customer is only out the bulb so far. If they destroy the plug, then that's a totally different story. The fact here is that they only saw that a f'n bulb was not working. They suggested based solely on not seeing it illuminate, that the whole bumper needs to be replaced. They didn't even think, ''hey, maybe we should try replacing the bulb because bulbs have a nasty habit of not lasting indefinitely,'' they just said ''well, I know that IF there is any issues with the wiring (without actually looking at the wiring, purely guessing) that we would need to replace it with an updated harness, which doesn't mate up to the existing bumper, so we will need to put on a new bumper too. So ma'am, it's going to be $1,000 to replace your plate light.'' Generally when my blinker goes out, I don't order an entirely new headlight assembly.... I tend to check the bulb first. I don't automatically assume that because my light is out, that I need to replace my wiring harness. It's ludicrous.

Then again, what do I know? I don't bill $80-100 an hour to work on cars. I would have been rich as a teenager for all the hours I spent working on my friends stuff.

 

[jaKe]

easy yo. just meant "Shop" as a loose term to describe any such dealership area as designated to perform service. we have strange policies as tech to follow sometimes whether we like them or not. (I work at A dealer)(not all of us techs are bad.). playin what if guy, not trying to justify "their" diagnosis or that I agree at all.